Eleven years after the Second World War, the curiosity of adventurous youth brought a boy with only a few words of English across the water. Coming from a small village in rural Westphalia, he could never quite shake off the awe of the big city. A camera was never far away, and he began to document his experience of life in the capital.

London became a backdrop to scenes that never lost their mystery as Hallmann began to explore the history, the pageants, the art, the river, the markets, the fashions and the people … He learnt that by travelling on bus or Underground you could meet the world – sandaled monks and stiletto-heeled damsels, heavies in chains and bovver boots and sneaks on platforms, preachers that would save your soul and some that would prefer your money.

Collected here are the best photographs from three decades of street photography capturing the spirit of London and Londoners. Priceless moments are recorded. From the swinging sixties to the flares and platforms of the seventies to punks in the eighties, this is the buzzing atmosphere of late twentieth‑century London.