Visitors to the newly relocated Photographers’ Gallery are whisked straight into bohemian Soho — into the Forties hotspots of the Second World War and into the Swinging Fifties.

The main collection is drawn from the archives of the Picture Post magazines scattered, open, in glass cabinets and offering the context of scenes isolated in the prints. Kurt Hutton’s dimly lit drinkers in the French pub in 1941 evoke the Paris bars frequented by Brassai, and Blue Heaven in the Basement documents a Fifties jazz club run by trumpeter Cy Laurie in a darkened rehearsal room. With Laurie at full tilt, jiving teenagers and twentysomethings in notably racially mixed groups are enveloped in the cigarette smoke which enabled Charles “Slim” Hewitt to capture the moodiness associated with such thrilling dives.

Vintage prints by Fifties documentary photographer Ken Russell are timepieces set in the overcrowded Cat’s Whisker coffee bar where the hand-jive was apparently invented. Russell’s approach reveals his film-making future in shots from within huddled groups and close-ups on hands spelling out the rhythms. Like Hewitt’s storyboard contact prints of the jiving couples, Russell’s giggling scenes are dense with intriguing detail — and cry out for enlargement.

An irresistible show, it makes an important statement of the Gallery’s continuing commitment to archival as well as contemporary photography. All that’s missing is the soundtrack.

Until 6 February. Information: 0845 262 1618; www.photonet.org.uk