28 Hyde Park Gate, London 2014

© Leslie Hossack

On May 8th 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a broadcast to the nation announcing Germany’s unconditional surrender. A few days later, the wartime coalition government broke up, and on May 23rd 1945 Churchill formed a caretaker government. That summer there was a general election in Great Britain and the Labour Party won a landslide victory. On July 26th, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister and became Leader of the Opposition.

It was time to leave the official residence at 10 Downing Street. Churchill purchased 28 Hyde Park Gate, shown above, where he and Clementine lived from 1945 until his death in 1965. In 1951, he became Prime Minister once again, and they lived at 10 Downing Street from 1951 to 1955, before returning to 28 Hyde Park Gate.

August 1945, the month following Churchill’s resignation as Prime Minister, saw cataclysmic events around the globe. The atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th and on Nagasaki on August 9th. Japan surrendered on August 15th, VJ Day, and World War II came to end six years after it had begun. Sir Winston Churchill will always be remembered as the resolute and inspirational individual who led Great Britain through that global conflict.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. She presents locations that chart Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website.  lesliehossack.com