Hundreds of images by illustrator and artist Steven Spurrier spent more than three decades in the crumbling Hertfordshire barn before being re-discovered by relatives.

Most of the archive, which depicted London life from the 1920s to the 1950s, had been reduced to chewed scraps of paper by the rodents.

But 50 pictures that survived went on display on Monday night for a 17-day solo exhibition at Panter and Hall, a Mayfair fine art gallery.