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This well loved Camera Collectors' and Users'  Fair will soon be taking place and this year we are in a new Central London venue The Royal National Hotel near Russell Square on the 19th May 2024. Organised by The Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain there will be up to 100 sales tables selling user and collectable cameras, consumables, lenses, literature and images. It is not a trade show for new equipment.  If you fancy a table to clear that build up of photographic equipment phone 01920 821 831. Early buyers tickets can be obtained from the same phone number.

The Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0DG

Public entry is from 10am-4.00pm and admission is £8 on the door from 10am to 12 noon and £5 noon to the close, for PCCGB members the entry is free.

Any late updates, the flyer and booking form can be found at https://www.facebook.com/photographicafair

Thanks

Nigel 

If you are looking for a camera obscura you could do no better than buy The Observatory in Bristol which overlooks Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge and Avon gorge. Back on the market at a reduced price the eighteenth century building houses one of the few remaining public camera obscuras. A special covenant relating to the purchase ensures that the camera obscura must remain open to the public. The building, associated caves and grounds are yours for £1,695,000 (freehold) or offers in the region thereof. It was originally on the market for £2 million in 2013 and failed to find a buyer. 

The Observatory occupies a site of great historical interest, originally an Iron Age lookout post and a fortified Roman camp. The existing building was originally built as a windmill for corn in 1766 and later converted to the grinding of snuff. This was damaged by a fire in October 1777 when the sails were left turning during a gale and caused the equipment to catch alight. It remained derelict for some 52 years until artist William West rented the old mill as a studio in 1828. It was Mr West who installed telescopes and a Camera Obscura, used by artists of the Bristol school to draw the Avon Gorge and Leigh Woods well before the construction of Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The Camera Obscura is situated on the top floor and is still in full working order giving an impressive bird’s eye view of Avon Gorge, projected onto a 5 ft concave metal surface. Leading to the Camera Obscura, there are two circular rooms which would eminently suit visiting art exhibitions, especially with the historical connection to the artists who used this bird’s eye vantage point to capture on canvas, the dramatic Avon Gorge. 

Mr West also built a tunnel from The Observatory to St Vincent’s Cave, which opens onto a limestone cave on the cliff face of the Avon Gorge. The cave was first mentioned as being a chapel in the year AD305 and excavations, in which Romano-British pottery has been found, have revealed that it has been both a holy place and a place of refuge at various times in its history.

The building that now stands on the site has only been sold on two occasions since it was constructed in 1766 and is now designated as Grade II*. 

The Royal Photographic Society is close by in Bath and the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock.

Read the full specification here. 

Lydia Heeley has been appointed the Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and will start in post on 2 October 2024. She replaces the inaugural curator Phillip Roberts who was appointed in 2022 and left earlier this year. The post was advertised in May. 

Lydia brings curatorial experience from her most recent post as Assistant Curator, Photography, at the museums of St Andrews University a role she has held since December 2022. Prior to this she was Digitisation Officer responsible for 3D and 2D digitisation at the museum, and has been at the university in various part-time and voluntary roles, including work on the James Valentine collection and on the St Andrews Photography Festival.

Her MPhil thesis which was undertaken at St Andrews, supervised by Luke Gartlan was titled Scottish documentary photography and the archive: George M. Cowie, Franki Raffles and Document Scotland in the University of St Andrews Photographic Collection. The first major retrospective of Raffles' work was shown at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and remains on view until 16 March 2025. Lydia blogged about her work on the exhibition. 

The curatorial post at the Bodleian was first announced in 2021 with the objective of caring for, and developing, the libraries' growing photography collections. It was realised through a 'transformational' gift of £2 million from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. The endowment accompanies the Foundation's donation of the archive of renowned American portrait photographer and businessman, Bern Schwartz, and the Bodleian will be delivering an exhibition of Schwart's photography.

The Bodleian houses a significant and growing collection of photography. It has major holdings of significant photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Helen Muspratt, Bern Schwartz, Daniel Meadows, and Paddy Summerfield; photobooks from the Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey Collection; prints gifted by James and Claire Hyman; albums from the Michael and Jane Wilson Collection of Nineteenth Century Photographs; as well as huge volumes of photography present in the Libraries' wider archive and print collections, for example the extensive photographic component within the archive of Oxfam GB. The study of and research into photography is increasing in prominence at the University of Oxford, and the post will be key to bringing together different strands of the University for research collaborations with various faculties, museums within the University, other organisations in the city, and with the History of Art department under the leadership of Professor Geoffrey Batchen, whose work focuses on the history of photography.

See Lydia's Linkedin profile here
The Baltic's Franki Raffles exhibition details are here

Portrait image: Lydia Heeley / Linkedin. 

Apparently, in the 1920's his descendants gave the Daguerreotypes to the University of Newcastle, where Pattinson was from. The University library kept them on a shelf in Special Collections but sometime after that, for whatever reason, they were thought to have been lost or destroyed. However in 1997 while looking through some store rooms in the library, the University came across an old dust covered carton marked “Daguerrotypes”, which lo and behold, contained the lost images!

The Albert Kahn departmental museum in France has released nearly 25,000 colour photos of early 20th-century life into the public domain and over 34,000 others that are free to use as part of a project to assure visual history is not forgotten. Called Archives of the Planet, the project was started in 1908 by French banker Albert Kahn who wanted to photograph humanity around the world. Kahn hired 12 professional photographers who visited 50 countries until the project concluded...

Read the story here: https://petapixel.com/2023/01/11/nearly-70000-color-photos-of-early-20th-century-are-now-free-to-use/

Visit the museum collection here: https://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr/

Anne M Lyden has been appointed International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, based at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The job was advertised earlier this year (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/job-international-photography-curator-national-galleries-of) and interviews were held in May. 

Lyden's last day at the Getty Museum was on Thursday and she thanked colleagues for '18 wonderful years' on her Facebook page which was quickly liked by over 60 people. An official announcement from the NGS is due after the Edinburgh Festival. BPH has known of the move since late June but had been asked to refrain from publishing by the NGS. As the news is now in the public domain and widely known BPH has taken the decision to publish.Those who know Lyden have widely welcomed the move with one person calling it 'awesome' and have commended the NGS for the appointment. 

The SNG photography collection consists of 863 images and the Photography Gallery, refurbished in 2012, is named The Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery in recognition of a $300,000 donation from the Mapplethorpe Foundation. The funding will, over the next three years, be used to support innovative displays, exhibitions, research and related publications in the new space.

Lyden is currently an Associate Curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  She is one of seven curators in the Museum's Department of Photographs, which was established in 1984 and has a collection of approximately 100,000 objects emphasizing the first 150 years of the medium. Contemporary photography has become increasingly relevant to the Museum's mission and all staff participate in portfolio reviews to inform themselves about current practices while critiquing work and offering insights into the manner in which large institutions like the Getty may spend several years following the career of an artist before committing to acquisitions or an exhibition. Lyden has been a reviewer for Atlanta Celebrates Photography; Review LA, Los Angeles; Palm Springs Photo Festival; and PhotoNOLA in New Orleans.Her final exhibition A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography will open at the Getty in 2014. 

A native of Scotland, Lyden received her Master of Arts degree in the history of art from the University of Glasgow and her Master of Arts in museum studies from the University of Leicester, England.  Since joining the Getty in 1996, she has curated numerous exhibitions drawn from the Museum's permanent collection, including the work of Hill and Adamson, P.H. Emerson, Frederick H. Evans, John Humble, and Paul Strand.  She is the author of several books including,Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel and Perception (2003), The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans (2010) and A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography (forthcoming, 2014).

Landscapes of Sri Lanka - Early Photography in Ceylon. From the mid-19th century on, Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, was an exotic destination that many a world traveller yearned to visit.

Starting in the 1860s, a number of photographic studios established themselves on the island, producing artistically ambitious photographs for an illustrious clientele. Among the most famous photographers from this era were William Louis Henry Skeen, Charles Thomas Scowen, as well as the Hamburg-born photographer Alfred William Amandus Plate, whose studio in the late 19th century expanded into a large-scale commercial enterprise that tried to satisfy the public's hunger for postcard images. The images produced by these photographers played a crucial role in spreading, to the far corners of the British Empire and beyond, the myth of Ceylon as an Arcadia-like tropical island.

Now, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and Germany, the Museum für Asiatische Kunst is showing an exquisite selection of extremely rare landscape photographs from and of Ceylon. The vintage prints presented in the exhibition not only depict Arcadian landscapes, wildly romantic waterfalls, and exotic beaches but also the encroachment of civilization in the natural landscape, be it through extensive plantations or through settlement, whereby we witness the magnitude of the changes that were wrought to the 'island of dreams' even in the 19th century.

A richly illustrated, bilingual catalogue (English/German) has been released to accompany to the exhibition:
Raffael Dedo Gadebusch (ed.): Landscapes of Sri Lanka - Early Photography in Ceylon / Frühe Fotografie in Ceylon, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88609-745-6.

Curator: Raffael Dedo Gadebusch
Assistant curator: Karoline Höppner

Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson constructed the first mirror camera which was patented in America in 1840 (patent number 1582). It used a large concave mirror rather than a lens to produce a bright image which was then processed using the daguerreotype process.  William Johnson (John Johnson’s father) came to England to market the camera and found that Richard Beard was the sole licensee for the daguerreotype process in England. Beard patented the Wolcott and Johnson camera in England (patent number 8546 of 1840) and opened the first Daguerreotype studio in London 1840.  The photos below showing an original example in the Saco Museum in Maine, USA... Read nore about the project here: Mirror%20Camera%20%282%29.doc

The British Library has secured the Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive which was offered to any United Kingdom institution under the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive is a significant addition to the Library’s collection and enhances and supports the 2006 donation of Talbot material by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown and other members of the Talbot Family Trust. The British Library has further enhanced its position as the leading centre for material relating to Talbot and his circle of early photographers.

The Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic archive, approx 164 early photographic prints in 5 photograph albums (including W.H. Fox Talbot, High Street Oxford), 50 glass negatives, the memoirs and journals of Thereza Story-Maskelyne in 10 volumes (the memoirs including a further 52 early photographs), photographic research papers of Nevil Story-Maskelyne in 2 portfolios, and related albums and papers.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) initiated his first photographic experiments -- prompted by news of the activities of William Henry Fox Talbot (a cousin by marriage) -- at his house at Penlle’r-gaer (usually spelled Penllergare by the family), near Swansea, in February 1839, and daguerreotypes of his family and house survive from as early as the following year. He claimed (in a letter to Fox Talbot) to have been familiar with all the known photographic processes, and in 1856 announced his own innovation, the oxymel process, ‘a mixture of honey and vinegar, whereby the collodion plates of the period could be prepared some time before use and developed when the photographer returned home’ (ODNB). He was on the first council of the London Photographic Society, and was awarded a silver medal of honour at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 for his instantaneous photographs.

The photograph albums in the archive not only provide an important, family collection of some of Dillwyn Llewelyn’s best-known images, but also demonstrate the extent to which the whole Dillwyn Llewelyn family and its wider offshoots participated in the experiments, either as subjects or as photographers: amongst the identified images are photographs by his sister, Mary Dillwyn, his son-in-law, the mineralogist Nevil Story-Maskelyne (grandson of the astronomer royal, whose photographs often depict the family house at Basset Down, Wiltshire), and at least three of his children.

Dillwyn Llewelyn’s daughter, Thereza Story-Maskelyne, was closely involved with his photographic activities, and was also an active amateur astronomer – both activities highly unusual for a woman of the period; she combined both fields in the pioneering telescopic photographs of the moon which she took with her father in the mid-1850s. Thereza’s memoirs and journals in the present archive are a rich source of information on her scientific career, and include not only an important series of photographic prints, but also her own watercolours of comets and other phenomena from the 1850s onwards.

The acquisition builds on an important earlier gift to the British Library of the work of Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823-1911), which included paper negatives, salted paper and albumen prints, collodion on mica negatives and research papers on early photography. The additional material now acquired – which includes a series of Story-Maskelyne’s wet collodion negatives, as well as prints and other papers – brings together the largest surviving archive of the work of an important- if undeservedly little-known - photographer. The journals of his wife Thereza contain many references to the photographic practises of the Llewelyn and Story-Maskelyne families and will form a rich primary resource for the study of this formative period of British photography.

Images: from top:

1. Portrait (self-portrait?) of Nevil Story-Maskelyne, late 1840s (reproduction from the original calotype negative.
   
   
2. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Thereza Llewelyn and dickies, mid-1850s (salted paper print).
   
   
3. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Gipsies – Palmistry, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print
   
   
4. John Dullwyn Llewelyn, Costume of Glamorganshire, mid-1850s (albumenised salted paper print).
   
   

Courtesy: John Falconer / British Library

Fotografiska, Stockholm's centre for contemporary photography, is to open a new building to be called Fotografiska - London Museum of Photography in 2018.

Fotografiska - London Museum of Photography will occupy the lower ground floors and a new office pavilion at The White Chapel Building, designed by Fletcher Priest Architects, at 10 Whitechapel High Street, E1, This is Fotografiska's first gallery outside Stockholm and will add another important cultural and leisure hub to the fast improving Whitechapel area. Fotografiska is also believed to be about to lease a 45,000 sq. ft space in New York on Park Avenue South.

In London, the initial rent is £2.4m per annum or £27 per sq ft. with Fotografiska occupying the whole of Phase 2 comprising 89,000 sq ft on a 15-year lease.

John Burns, Chief Executive Officer of Derwent London, said: “We are very excited to welcome Fotografiska - The London Museum of Photography to The White Chapel Building.  We believe their arrival will be a major benefit to the area and Fotografiska’s character endorses the Group’s focus on good design.  This pre-let means that we will have successfully let the entire property."

Tommy Rönngren, Founding partner and Chairman of the Board of Fotografiska London, said: “Derwent is a developer with great creative vision and we chose to work with them because of the combination of the building itself and the creative heritage of Derwent.  Fotografiska has for a long time been searching for suitable facilities in London, one of the world's most dynamic cities when it comes to photography.  Whitechapel, which is one of London's most dynamic areas, will be a perfect location.  It will be really exciting to bring the concept of Fotografiska to London.”

Fotografiska, is a privately-run 'museum' of photography on the waterfront in Stockholm and opened 2010, although, as Wikipedia pithily points out, it is not a museum having no collection, conducting no research and it is for profit. Fotografiska describes itself as an international meeting place where everything revolves around photography. In practice this means exhibitions and commercial activities which attract some 550,000 visitors annually. The founders of Fotografiska are brothers Jan and Per BromanIt and it is co-owned by venture capitalist Jan Tommy Rönngren.

See more here: https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=131230

Last night saw the launch of Ken and Jenny Jacobson's Carrying Off the Palaces: John Ruskin's Lost Daguerreotypes at the publishers, Quaritch. The long-awaited book more than lived up to everyone's expectations - it is a stunning volume, well-research and well-illustrated as one would expect. BPH will carry more on the content shortly.

You can read more about the history of the book here and how to purchase a copy. It remains at a special price of £75, until 31 March 2015. Contact: Alice Ford-Smith at Quaritch (a.ford-smith@quaritch.com) to order. The United States launch will be in New York at AIPAD in April.  

The images show Ken and Jenny with their book, with their daughter, and views of the launch.

Sean Sexton is the subject of an interview by Orla Fitzpatrick on RTE's website and a television documentary. The interview focuses on Sean's collection of photographs of Ireland, arguably the most important of such material anywhere in the world. The collection of over 20,000 images spans the history of photography covering post-famine Ireland right through to the turbulent revolutionary years. The collection will be the subject of a forthcoming RTE documentary.

As Orla notes: 'Sexton's collection includes all formats, genres and processes, from early salt-paper negatives and once-off daguerreotypes through to snapshots and spy cameras. Portraits, landscapes and even nudes are in the collection.'  He began forming the collection from 1973, later funded, in part, by his purchase in Bermondsey market of a trove of photographs by Charles Jones. 

The collection has been featured in two books and is still awaiting a permanent home in Ireland where it rightly belongs.  

Framing Irish History - The Sean Sexton Collection will be screened on RTÉ 1 on December 28th at 6.30pm and on RTÉ Player

Read the article here: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1217/1422502-sean-sexton-photos-collection-ireland-history/ 

Matt Isenburg, leading photographic collector and historian and driving force behind the Daguerreian Society, has passed away at the age of 89 on 14 November 2016.

Matt was a WW2 US Navy veteran and fascinated by history, in which he obtained a Bachelor's degree at Northwestern Universary. He started as a camera collector, with a major interest in Leicas but switched to collecting early photographica, focussing particular interest on the first 30 years of photographic history. He equally collected images, cameras and related photographic hardware and photographic literature, to tell the complete story of photography across his era of specialty using two collecting maxims, namely to collect the best of the best and to not be afraid to pay tomorrow's prices today. As a result, few private collectors have ever amassed anything like the diversity of important and rare material that Matt did.

Matt enjoyed writing about his extensive collection, producing many articles, a book with Charles Klamkin "Photographica : a Guide to the Value of Historic Cameras and Images" and he gave lectures on a wide array of photographic subjects over the years. In 1978 he founded the Daguerreian Society with John Wood, serving as President for many years. With Matt's encouragement, the Daguerriean Society held its 25th anniversary symposium in Paris in 2013 but his health prevented him from attending.

Matt possessed an unsurpassed collection of daguerrotypes, including a large family collection from the Southworth family (of the Southworth and Hawes studio in Boston), images of the Capitol Building and White House, a large number of full plate daguerreotypes of the Californian gold rush, 23 daguerreian cameras including the first one in America imported by Samuel Morse, numerous choice ambrotypes, tintypes, stereoviews and cartes de visite mostly from America but also other countries; photographic albums, frames and viewing apparatus; unexposed daguerreotype plates and developing outfits; advertising material; letters, documents and manuscripts relating to early photographers and extensive runs of daguerreian and wet plate era photographic periodicals in English, French and German and well as many of the key books on photography from that period.

Hundreds visited Matt's home in Hadlyme, Connecticut over the years to view his amazing collection and were regaled with not only the history of the items, but also the many stories of the chase in obtaining them and often into the very early hours of the morning! Matt possessed an intense passion for early photography and a driving desire to share it and was always generous in providing information and offering advice and encouragement.

In 2012, Matt sold his world class collection for $15, 000000 to media magnate David Thomson to be housed in the Archive of Modern Conflict facility in Toronto 2012. With his health failing, Matt realised his legacy had to continue to be utilised and enjoyed and he was comfortable with his decision, seeing his collection remain intact even though it was leaving the country. The collection has since been gifted to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in 2015 for inclusion in a larger collection called Origins of Photography.

The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA), a registered charity with Royal Charter, with a mission 'to promote greater knowledge and understanding of Central Asia and countries from the Middle East to Japan' and the specific objective 'to conserve all of the Society’s valuable archives, photographic and written' is offering thirteen lots of rare books and early and important photographs at a Sotheby's auction later this month. The lots are expected to realise around £250,000. A number of academics, curators and librarians have mounted a campaign to protest against the sale.

Amongst the photographs being sold are important albums by J C Watson showing China c.1867-1870; John Thomson's Antiquities of Cambodia, c1867; J C White photographs of Sikhim and Tibet and others.The lots can be seen here.

The sale appears to be the result of the RSAA's spending exceeding income since at least 2009, although it does have investments of nearly £300,000. The RSAA's accounts and Charity Commission filings can be viewed here.

This is not the first time that the RSAA has tried to sell part of its historic archive. In 2014 a unique map annotated by T E Lawrence was offered at a Sotheby's auction with an estimate of £70,000-100,000. It was withdrawn soon after news of the sale broke. Read more here.

There have been a number of sales from UK museum and gallery collections as local authorities have attempted to preserve services in the face of government funding cuts. This recently prompted an unprecedented joint statement by ten of the UK's leading funding, membership and museum bodies on unethical sales of public collections. The signatories which include Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund will refuse to work with, or provide grants or funding, to museums whose governing bodies choose to sell items from their collections in contravention of long-standing de-accessioning protocols. 

At the time of writing the RSAA was unavailable for comment and it has been asked for a statement on the forthcoming sale. This will be published here when it is provided. 

Image: From lot 257. Watson, Major J.C., Dr John Dudgeon, John Thomson, (and others?). ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEKING (BEIJING), NINGPO (NINGBO), AND ENVIRONS. [CHINA, LATE 1860S]. Estimate £40,000 — 60,000

Original post: 8 April 2015 / UPDATED: 18 April

The RSAA issued a statement on 15 April acknowledging 'the deep and understandable concerns' of members and non-members. It added that the sale was essential to ensure the long-term future of the Society and that 'no further sales are envisaged'.

UPDATE 2: 4 May

The sale realised £136,250 (including buyer's premium) and it is likely that the RSAA will net less than £100,000, much less than the exoected £250,000 plus originally expected. 

A look at London stations. During the Victorian era, competing railways built several stations in London. Since then, all stations have undergone a major renovation, but many still retain some of their original architectural features, including impressive roof extensions.

London Bridge - Inaugurated in 1836, London Bridge was the first station to be built. Located on the south bank of the Thames via the London Bridge, it was immediately added and rebuilt. The trains served south London, Kent, and Sussex.

Euston - Opened in 1837 and extended soon after by the London and Birmingham Railway and later by the London and North Western Railway. It served Birmingham, in the northwest of England and beyond. Originally designed in the style of classical architecture, the station has undergone a major renovation and little remains of the original station. The name comes from the landowners of the day, the Fitzroy family and their country house, Euston Hall.

Paddington - A Great Western Railways London service terminal was built in 1838 on Bishop's Bridge Road, Paddington. Later, in 1854, traffic increased, saying that the old terminal was inadequate and that the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the much larger Paddington station across the road.

Fenchurch Street - The first station to be built in the city in 1841 for the London and Blackwall railways. Built in Minories, it was rebuilt in 1854 at its current location on Fenchurch Street. Served trains to Blackwall, Tilbury and Southend in Essex.

Waterloo - Opened in 1848, with several later additions, creating a jumble of platforms and buildings. Rebuilt later. Named after the nearby Waterloo bridge. Served in southwest London and in the counties.

King's Cross - Opened in 1852 for the Great Northern Railway, which serves the main east coast route to Peterborough, York and beyond. Named after a monument to George IV that was erected nearby.

Victoria - Built in 1860 and named after Queen Victoria, the station was divided into two sections and shared by four train companies serving Kent and Sussex.

Cannon Street - Built in the city in 1866 for the South Eastern Railway, which serves south-east London, Kent and East Sussex. Named after the street where it is located.

Charing Cross - Opened in 1864 at The Strand as a link to extend London Bridge services.

St Pancras (shown above right) - Built in 1866. At the time, it had the largest single span roof in the world. The jewel of Gothic architecture at the Midland Great Hotel was built next door. Named after the area in which it is located. Served trains to Midlands and East Yorkshire.

Liverpool Street - Located east of the city of London and replacing an old station in Shoreditch. Inaugurated in 1875 by the Great Eastern Railway, which served Essex and East Anglia. Named after the street where it is located.

Blackfriars - Originally called St. Paul's, it opened in 1886 to serve passengers from South London to the city. Named after the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral, and the area in which it is located.

Marylebone - Built in 1899 on Marylebone Road. One of the smallest stations in London, served Aylesbury and beyond to Manchester.

A look at London stations.

During the Victorian era, competing railways built several stations in London. Since then, all stations have undergone a major renovation, but many still retain some of their original architectural features, including impressive roof extensions.

London Bridge - Inaugurated in 1836, London Bridge was the first station to be built. Located on the south bank of the Thames via the London Bridge, it was immediately added and rebuilt. The trains served south London, Kent and Sussex.

Euston - Opened in 1837 and extended soon after by the London and Birmingham Railway and later by the London and North Western Railway. It served Birmingham, in the northwest of England and beyond. Originally designed in the style of classical architecture, the station has undergone a major renovation and little remains of the original station. The name comes from the landowners of the day, the Fitzroy family and their country house, Euston Hall.

Paddington (shown left) - A Great Western Railways London service terminal was built in 1838 on Bishop's Bridge Road, Paddington. Later, in 1854, traffic increased, saying that the old terminal was inadequate and that the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the much larger Paddington station across the road.

Fenchurch Street - The first station to be built in the city in 1841 for the London and Blackwall railways. Built in Minories, it was rebuilt in 1854 at its current location on Fenchurch Street. Served trains to Blackwall, Tilbury and Southend in Essex.

Waterloo - Opened in 1848, with several later additions, creating a jumble of platforms and buildings. Rebuilt later. Named after the nearby Waterloo bridge. Served in southwest London and in the counties.

King's Cross - Opened in 1852 for the Great Northern Railway, which serves the main east coast route to Peterborough, York and beyond. Named after a monument to George IV that was erected nearby.

Victoria - Built in 1860 and named after Queen Victoria, the station was divided into two sections and shared by four train companies serving Kent and Sussex.

Cannon Street - Built in the city in 1866 for the South Eastern Railway, which serves south-east London, Kent and East Sussex. Named after the street where it is located.

Charing Cross - Opened in 1864 at The Strand as a link to extend London Bridge services.

St Pancras - Built in 1866. At the time, it had the largest single span roof in the world. The jewel of Gothic architecture at the Midland Great Hotel was built next door. Named after the area in which it is located. Served trains to Midlands and East Yorkshire.

Liverpool Street - Located east of the city of London and replacing an old station in Shoreditch. Inaugurated in 1875 by the Great Eastern Railway, which served Essex and East Anglia. Named after the street where it is located.

Blackfriars - Originally called St. Paul's, it opened in 1886 to serve passengers from South London to the city (free essay writers online according to this topic). Named after the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral, and the area in which it is located.

Marylebone - Built in 1899 on Marylebone Road. One of the smallest stations in London, served Aylesbury and beyond to Manchester.

On Friday  On 12th April Lacy, Scott and Knight will be offering a collection of works by, and property belonging to, the celebrated society and theatre photographer Angus McBean. The vast majority of this sale has been consigned by David Ball, Angus McBean's partner and studio assistant of many years until his death in 1990.   It must be with a heavy heart that he bids goodbye to this stunning collection of an artistic genius' lifetime work in which he met and photographed most of the leading theatrical lights and film stars of the mid 20^th century.   It is impossible not to be awed by the beauty and sheer creative brilliance when looking through these images and we are privileged to have been instructed to conduct this sale.

Amongst the selection is a visitor book from McBeans’ studio with over 1000 signatures of his star clientele from the 1940s onwards. The autographs range from silver screen goddesses such as Marlene Dietrich and Elizabeth Taylor, to very early Beatles signatures (before they developed a signature style), revered actors John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier (who states that McBeans’ ‘rice puddings are excellent’), comedy singing duo Flanders & Swann, queen of crime literature Agatha Christie, ‘Peter Pan of Pop’ Cliff Richard, several members of the Redgrave acting dynasty, surreal comedy genius Spike Milligan (who has dated his entry 1883), Prima Ballerina Assoluta Margot Fonteyn, legendary opera diva Maria Callas and many more.This lot will carry an estimate of £5000-10,000

There are also many individual gelatin silver prints, many signed and annotated, as well as albums of and loose photographs, studio props etc 

Angus McBean Biography
Angus McBean was born in Newport, South Wales, in 1904. As a child he was a devotee of the cinema, spending hours watching the early silent films and experimenting with photography. At the age of 15 he sold a gold watch left to him by his grandfather in order to buy his first camera, a Kodak Autograph, and started taking pictures of local landscapes and architecture. McBean also had a great interest in the theatre, make-up, costumes and making masks. After a brief attempt at a career in banking he moved to London after the death of his father and began work as a restorer of antiques at Liberty’s department store, while continuing his “hobbies” of mask-making and photography.

In 1932 he left Liberty and grew his distinctive beard to symbolize the fact that he would never be a wage-slave again. He worked as a maker of theatrical props, including a commission of medieval scenery for John Gielgud's 1933 production of Richard of Bordeaux. His photographs and theatrical masks were also exhibited at a teashop in West London where they were noticed by prominent society photographer Hugh Cecil. Cecil offered McBean a job as an assistant at his Edinburgh studio where he stayed for 18 months before opening his own studio in London to specialize in theatrical photography.

In 1936 Ivor Novello asked McBean to make masks and take pictures for his play "The Happy Hypocrite." Novello was so impressed with McBeans’ photographs that he commissioned him to take a set of production photographs, including of the young actress Vivien Leigh. The results, taken on stage with McBeans’ idiosyncratic lighting, were chosen to replace the set already made by the long-established but uninspired Stage Photo Company. McBean now had both a new career and a photographic leading lady: he was to photograph Vivien Leigh on stage and in the studio for almost every performance she gave until her death in 1967.

Over the course of the next 25 years McBean photographed all the British theatre stars including John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, and Laurence Olivier. He soon became famous for his star portraits in well-known magazines of the time including Tatler, Picture Post and the Sketch. In the 1930s McBean embraced surrealism; with his flamboyance, love of theatre and the ability to create fantastic studio props he was similar to contemporary American photographer Man Ray. By the late 1940s McBean was the official photographer for a number of major British theatres including Stratford, the Royal Opera House, Sadler Well’s and the Old Vic.

As McBeans’ health deteriorated and with the decline of the popular photo magazine he closed his studios. In the early 60’s he began taking pictures for EMI and shot various record covers for Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Shirley Bassey and the Beatles album Please, Please Me. McBeans’ later works also included portrait photographs of individuals such as Agatha Christie, Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward. By the mid 60’s he had semi retired to a house in Suffolk that he was restoring, but he had already built up an enormous and important body of work. His last few pictures were taken in 1988 and include Vivian Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier. He died on the night of his 86th birthday in 1990.

McBeans’ works are now eagerly sought by collectors and are displayed in major collections around the world.
His fame has been somewhat overshadowed by that of Cecil Beaton (thanks to his work for Vogue and the Royal Family) and David Bailey, despite being arguably more artistically and technically gifted.

The sale will take place on Friday 12th April at 1pm in our Bury St Edmunds auction rooms. 

Live bidding available at the-saleroom

Catalogue now available here

Printable PDF here

A new home for British photography will open in London in late January 2023. The Centre for British Photography will build on the world-renowned Hyman Collection of British photography and the work of the Hyman Foundation. Three floors of exhibitions will present the diverse landscape of British photography today, as well as an historical overview. The 8000 sq. ft. Centre will be free to visit year-round and will offer exhibitions, events and talks, a shop and an archive and library. 

The Centre will feature photographs from 1900 to the present, work by photographers living and working in the UK today, and images taken by those who emigrated to the UK. It will present self-generated exhibitions and those led by independent curators and organisations, as well as monographic displays. The Centre plans to stage numerous exhibitions throughout the year and also bring together the photographic community – professional and amateur - through its talks and events programme.

The Hyman Collection includes over 3,000 significant works by more than 100 artists including Bill Brandt, Bert Hardy, Daniel Meadows, Jo Spence, Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Heather Agyepong. It is currently available as a global online resource, and it also has a history of lending to exhibitions outside London. Now, with this new home, regional museums, galleries and photography collectives will also be invited to use the central London space to present exhibitions and collaborate on talks and events. 

James Hyman, Founding Director, said: “The Centre for British Photography is for anyone with an interest in photography. Photography in Britain is some of the best in the world and we want to give it more exposure and support. With this new physical space, alive with exhibitions and events, we hope to create a hub that increases British photography’s national and international status. We hope that through this initial work to make a home for British photography we can, in the long run, develop an independent centre that is self-sustaining with a dedicated National Collection and public programme.”

Tracy Marshall-Grant, the Centre for British Photography’s newly-appointed Deputy Director, said: “The Hyman Collection is the pre-eminent British photography collection and that will be at the heart of our programming. Inclusivity and diversity have always been key to the Foundation and to the development of the Hyman Collection - for example, the collection is balanced in the numbers of works it holds by men and women. We will reflect this in the programming of the exhibition spaces and those we invite to show, talk and take part in events at the Centre. We also want to support British photographers through commissions, grants, exhibitions, acquisitions and sales.”

Opening exhibitions

The opening events will include two major, new exhibitions: a self-portrait show co-curated by the campaign group Fast Forward: Women in Photography; and The English at Home - over 150 photographs which provide an overview of British photography focused on the domestic interior drawn from some of the major bodies of work in the Hyman Collection. Taking its title from Bill Brandt’s first book, The English at Home will range from Bill Brandt, Kurt Hutton and Bert Hardy to Martin Parr, Daniel Meadows, Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Richard Billingham.

There will also be four In Focus displays that will spotlight specific bodies of work. These will include Jo Spence: Cinderella in collaboration with the Jo Spence Memorial Library at Birkbeck, University of London; and the series Fairytale for Sale by Natasha Caruana that was recently acquired by the Hyman Collection.

Also on display will be two bodies of work that were commissioned by the Hyman Collection: Spitting by Andrew Bruce and Anna Fox is a response to the original Spitting Image puppets in the Hyman Collection, and Wish You Were Here, a recent series commissioned from Heather Agyepong.

The gallery shop will also present a selling show Paul Hill. Prenonations. Large format platinum prints. 

Print sale

A print sale will go live on 17 November with funds raised going towards the Centre and the Hyman Foundation’s support of photographers in Britain, through commissions, grants, acquisitions and sales. Featuring the work of Martin Parr, Anna Fox, Julia Fullerton-Batten and David Hurn among others and priced at £70, the prints will be available to purchase from 17 November – 19 December 2022 on the Centre for British Photography website: www.britishphotography.org.    

The Centre for British Photography
49 Jermyn Street
London
SW1Y 6LX
www.britishphotography.org

Opens late January 2023

Instagram: @centre_for_british_photography