In the late 1950s Cohen was offered London exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery (1958) and the Obelisk Gallery (1960), both featured work mainly executed in France and were very successful. He decided to move to London in 1960.
The cultural life of the capital at the start of the 'swinging 60s' was invigorating, initiating the most productive and transformational decade of Cohen's career. Painting furiously, he reinvented his work three times over the next five years. In the first of these phases he focused on the city's river, especially its docks, which had been at the heart of London's commerce for centuries but would soon go into decline as larger container ships needing more accessible ports replaced the older vessels.
Cohen's landmark Aspects of the Thames exhibition, at the Kaplan Gallery, in Duke Street, St James, in October 1961, was well-reviewed and sold out.
