Enquiry: Where in the World?

[John Mead]

Can anyone help in locating where the image below was taken? It was found in a suitcase stuffed full of 5x3 film negatives, which was transferred to the Reach Central Archive, Watford at the end of 2017 when we moved the Surrey Advertiser Archive. From other negatives found in the suitcase we believe it is somewhere on the English South Coast taken in the late 1920s possibly early 1930s. Any thoughts?

[Virginia Dodier]

Kelly’s Directory for Hampshire, 1920, shows London Joint City and Midland Bank and Timothy White chemists as neighbors at 38 and 38a Union Street, Ryde.

[Bobbie Carnegie]

On second thoughts August or September. Or, could it be a chilly day right in the middle of summer...?

[Bobbie Carnegie]

Certainly Edwardian as the women left are heavily clad in 'lengthy modesty' of the era. Time of day seems not early or late as people shadows are very short - say two-and-a-half minutes past One o'clock, and possibly in the month of October?

[Pedro Aboim Borges]

I agree concerning tle place, but I would rather antecipate the date to early 1910, according to the costumes used.

[Bobbie Carnegie]

Look at this link of photos and pics and compare...

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1101&a...

[Duncan Caratacus Clark]

[Duncan Caratacus Clark]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Whites

The origin of Timothy Whites was a ships' chandlers and general store in Portsmouth, started in 1848 by Timothy White.^[1] White himself qualified as a pharmacist in 1869.^[2] By 1890, Whites was one of four British pharmacists with over ten branches.^[3] Whites sold hardware as well as that which was normally found at a retail chemist's.^[4] In 1904 he had his company incorporated as Timothy Whites Ltd.^[5]

In 1935, Timothy Whites merged with Taylors Drug Co. Ltd. to form Timothy Whites & Taylors; the shops themselves were named either simply "Timothy Whites"^[6] or "Timothy Whites & Taylors".^[7]The company was taken over by Boots Pure Drug Co. in 1968.^[5] Immediately before the takeover, there were 614 Timothy Whites shops, which had had a combined turnover of approximately £33m in the year before the acquisition. As a result of the rationalisation that followed the takeover, Boots rebranded and absorbed the pharmaceutical side of the business, leaving Timothy Whites with just 196 shops that sold only housewares.^[8] The Timothy Whites name eventually disappeared in 1985.

1. Jump up ^ James B. Jefferys, Retail Trading in Britain 1850–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), 385. (Here — George Paaswell, Retaining Walls: Their Design and Construction — at Google Books.)
2. Jump up ^ Lesley Richmond, Julie Stevenson, Alison Turton, The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Guide to Historical Records (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 2002; ISBN 0-7546-3352-7), 383. (Here at Google Books.)
3. Jump up ^ Stuart Anderson, Making Medicines: A Brief History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals (London: Pharmaceutical Press, 2005; ISBN 0-85369-597-0), 122. (Here at Google Books.)
4. Jump up ^ Jefferys 435. (Here at Google Books.)
5. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Richmond et al. 383. (Here at Google Books.)
6. Jump up ^ Photographic evidence: here, here and here
7. Jump up ^ Photographic evidence: here, here and here; again, see Google Image for more.
8. Jump up ^ "The Boots Company Ltd" (PDF file), chap. 5 of The Boots Company Limited and Glaxo Group Limited (Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Glaxo Holdings Limited): A report on the proposed mergers (London: Competition Commission, n.d.), 25.

[bruce.anderson63]

I am sure this Ryde - Ilived nearby some 60 years ago - my immeadiate thought was Union Street, Ryde, at the bottom of the hill you can see Ryde Pier.

[Rob Tooley]

This does look like Union St. Ryde with the Jabez Hughes studio the last building on the left.

Rob

[Anna Lee]

Based on the legible info. on the storefront on the right, this might also be a street in Portsmouth. It looks like "Timothy White" "Cash Chemists" would've been the name of a single shop in Portsmouth in the early 20th c. In 1935, it became "Timothy Whites & Taylors Ltd." and spread across Great Britain. So, the name of the storefront suggests that this could be that original shop--you might want to track the address of that shop down to see if it matches. Good luck! All based on info. found here: 

https://books.google.com/books?id=CpY4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT415&lpg...