Monday 31 January 2011

Ewell, Surrey, The Horse Pond c1913

Ewell, Surrey, The Horse Pond c1913. The building is Bourne House, now demolished. Postcard published by W. H. Applebee.



View Larger Map

Sunday 30 January 2011

Farnham, Surrey, Castle Street c1913

Farnham, Surrey, Castle Street. The large building on the right has gone. Postcard published by W. H. Applebee in about 1913.



View Larger Map

Saturday 29 January 2011

Friday 28 January 2011

Walthamstow, St James Street, North East London, c1912

Walthamstow, St James Street, North East London, c1912. The modern Street View is surprisingly similar.



View Larger Map

Thursday 27 January 2011

Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, The Picture Palace c1920

Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, The Picture Palace c1920. Ecclesfield is a town to the north of Sheffield. This cinema is a classic example of an early 'fleapit' cinema. The date on the top of the building proudly proclaims 1920. When this photograph was taken the cinema was showing a film called 'Get Thee Behind Me' (1918). If we look at the Street View image for this scene we see that the building on the right, previously the Earl of Arundel pub, is now an Indian restaurant. Alas, the magnificent cinema has been reduced to a car park.



View Larger Map

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Harlington, Middlesex, Station Road c1910

Harlington, Middlesex, Station Road c1910. Harlington is very near Hayes and close to Heathrow Airport. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Wokingham, Berkshire, Broad Street c1919

Wokingham, Berkshire, Broad Street c1919. Postcard published by WHA. Although the WHA postcard business published many postcards of Berkshire, they were all of the eastern part of Berkshire. Of the 3500 or so identified WHA postcards (out of a total of over 7000 including duplicated numbers) this postcard is the furthest west Berkshire WHA postcard and the only WHA postcard of Wokingham that I have seen. It was produced after William Henry Applebee's tragic early death in 1915. Applebee's widow Lucy and his step-brother Charles Mitchell continued the WHA business up until the late 1920s.




View Larger Map

Monday 24 January 2011

Englefield Green, Surrey, Victoria Street 1907

The unusual building on the right is the former Englefield Green Methodist Church, apparently it is to be converted into the Village Centre. Postcard by Young and Co of Teddington. This example was posted in 1907, quite early for Young and Co.



View Larger Map

Sunday 23 January 2011

Sunbury, Middlesex, Thames Street, c1908

Sunbury, Middlesex, Thames Street, c1908. The pub on the left is the White Horse. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Saturday 22 January 2011

Langley, Berkshire, The Watersplash c1913

Langley, Berkshire, The Watersplash c1913. Postcard by W. H. Applebee. I'm fairly confident I've got the location right with the modern Streetview, but the area has changed so much it is difficult to be absolutely sure.



View Larger Map

Friday 21 January 2011

Addlestone, Surrey, High Street c1910

Addlestone, Surrey, High Street c1910. This postcard is taken just a little further on from yesterday's post. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington. The lettering style (though unsigned with the usual YC) is his slightly later caption style from about 1910.



View Larger Map

Thursday 20 January 2011

Addlestone, Surrey, High Street c1908

Addlestone, Surrey, High Street c1908. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Detail from the postcard (click to enlarge):

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Heston, Middlesex, Rose and Crown pub c1910

Heston, Middlesex, Rose and Crown pub before 1911. The people in the photo are probably the landlord, William Spencer Wright and his wife, Hannah Lent Wright. William died in 1911 at the age of 54, so this photograph would have been taken a little before then. The Rose and Crown is still in business. Also see this post for a nearby view.



Detail from postcard:

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Iver Village, Buckinghamshire, Post Office c1928

Iver Village, Buckinghamshire, the High Street showing the post office, circa 1928. Postcard by JWM - Joseph Warren Mortimer. Mortimer was the successor to the W. H. Applebee postcard business, though he was only in business for a few years. The message on the back of this postcard states that the sender bought this postcard in the post office pictured. The men are standing outside a Wesleyan chapel, this was later replaced by a much smaller version and is now a nursery. The building on the left is the Chequers pub.



View Larger Map

Monday 17 January 2011

Sunday 16 January 2011

Merton High Street c1910

Merton High Street c1910. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington. Note the unusual lamp oil van.



View Larger Map

Detail of lamp oil van:

Saturday 15 January 2011

Lonely Isabel 1904

I have no 'Then and Now' image to post with this postcard. However the message on the postcard lifts this postcard out of the ordinary into something quite special. Fellow postcard collectors will immediately see why this postcard is special. The writing on the front says 'I wonder if I shall ever have anybody to take me out like this' and on the back the lovelorn writer says to her friend 'It wouldant (sic) be half bad if we were in the same place would it. Isabel'. Poor lonely Isabel is clearly longing for romance and has never been taken to a restaurant by a potental husband. Shame.

Friday 14 January 2011

Hanwell Broadway, West London c1913

Hanwell Broadway in about 1913. On the left we can see the 'Depot of the Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge', on the right is Hanwell Police Station. Postcard by W. H. Applebee.



View Larger Map

Thursday 13 January 2011

Sunningdale, Berkshire c1912

The caption says 'Bagshot Road, Sunningdale', but this is now in London Road. I'm not sure if this road was originally called Bagshot Road or if the postcard publisher made a mistake, they frequently did. The building at the end is now a Rolls Royce car showroom. Obviously quite an upmarket area. Postcard published by W. H. Applebee.



View Larger Map

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Wandsworth, South West London, Spencer Road 1906

Early postcard by Richard Charles Young - Young started his postcard business in Teddington in 1906 (though he had previously published a few postcards in Bexhill-On-Sea in 1905 where he had a bookshop before moving to Teddington in 1906). This postcard was posted in November 1906. Although not signed YC or RCY it is undoubtedly his, the lettering is unmistakeable on these very early cards. The scene in this typical Wandsworth street is remarkably unchanged. I don't think I've got the exact viewpoint right, but I'm posting this in a hurry tonight.



View Larger Map

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Queen Victoria Street, London c1905

Queen Victoria Street in the City of London in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The modern view is surprisingly similar considering the amount of new building projects in this area today.



View Larger Map

Monday 10 January 2011

Hurst Green, Lancashire, Eagle and Child c1907

The Eagle and Child Hotel, Hurst Green, Lancashire. I'm guessing the date of the photograph to be around 1907. This unposted postcard just has a message on the back that reads 'This is to remind you of the old place, can you recognise any of the faces? they are very dim. Sarah'. The 1901 Census shows that one Sarah Hampshire, born 1876, was a general servant to the publican James Dean and his wife Ann (aged 72 and 69 respectively). By the time of the 1911 census Sarah was listed as the innkeeper. The 1911 census return is written in the same handwriting as the writing on the back of the postcard. I think it is safe to assume that Sarah Hampshire is the writer of the message on the postcard and that she is one of the women pictured on the front. 

I bought this postcard as a 'location unknown', but a quick search for pubs called Eagle and Child in the UK and a while checking all of them with Google Street View found that it was this one in Hurst Green, Lancashire. After I'd found the location it was easy to find the census information about Sarah Hampshire. Knowing the location of a pub postcard like this can increase its value considerably. The postcard was very faded and a little creased and bashed so I've had to do a bit of editing to enhance the image. It is good to see that the Eagle and Child is still in business.



View Larger Map

The back of the postcard showing Sarah's message:

Sunday 9 January 2011

Valenciennes, France, The Station 1919

A change of location for today's post. Valenciennes is in the far north of France, close to the Belgian border. It was occupied by the German army in 1914 and was finally liberated by British and Canadian troops in 1918. The town suffered heavy bombardment. They've done a good job restoring the station. I recently bought a small collection of photographic postcards showing Valenciennes in 1919. I'll display more of them here soon if there's any interest and provided that I can match the locations to Google Streetview.



View Larger Map

Detail from the Valenciennes Station postcard, click to enlarge. I think this makes a great picture in its own right:


Saturday 8 January 2011

Wimbledon, Worple Road c1910

Almost everything in this postcard has gone except for the buildings on the right. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Friday 7 January 2011

Twickenham, Middlesex, T. S. Astill Drapery Stores c1912

This postcard shows the premises of Thomas Septimus Astill's drapery shop in York Street, Twickenham in about 1912. The 1911 Census shows that there were fifteen people living above this shop, all family or employed by Mr Astill's business. Mr Astill was born in 1872 in Leicestershire. Click on the pictures to enlarge!



View Larger Map


I took this picture in 2007:















Here is a detail from the postcard, note the amazing basket pram with its flimsy wheels. I cannot think what is being displayed in the box next to the lady, it looks like a selection of false beards to me.





















Finally here is a contemporary advertisement for T. S. Astill from about 1912 from the Richmond and Twickenham Home Journal. While the shirts may be magnificent, you can't help noticing that the artist had a very poor grasp of what women actually look like.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Hinton Charterhouse, Somerset, c1910

Hinton Charterhouse, Somerset, c1910. The pub, just called the Crown Inn at the time of this postcard, is now called the Rose and Crown. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Wednesday 5 January 2011

St. John's Hill, Battersea, South West London c1910

St. John's Hill, Battersea. The scene looks so much more lively and vibrant than it does today. On the left, the old entrance to Clapham Junction station. Curiously, Clapham Junction is in Battersea, not Clapham. The station used to claim to be the busiest in the world. It is now arguably the busiest in Europe, though only in terms of the amount of trains that pass through it, not the number of passengers that use the station (or rather 'customers' as South West Trains prefers to call us now). On the right you can see the magnificent Clapham Grand Theatre, still in use as a music venue and club. The tower in the distance is Arding and Hobbs department store (now Debenhams), rebuilt after a terrrible fire in 1909. Postcard by Sidney Smith.



View Larger Map

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Pensford, Somerset c1910

Here is a view showing the old village lock-up in Pensford. Lock-ups were used to temporarily hold local drunks or miscreants until they could be taken to a magistrate. It is nice to see that this one has survived.



View Larger Map

Here's a view of the weir nearby. The structures behind the children are supports for Pensford Viaduct which is now disused. I've also shown a detail of the children from this postcard. As always, click on the postcards to see enlargements. Both postcards were by Young & Co of Teddington.



Monday 3 January 2011

Woking, Surrey, St Johns Village c1910 part 2

Another postcard of St Johns Village taken at the same time as yesterday's postcard. Here we can see George Kingham's tailors shop where he offers suits from 30 shillings (£1.50 today or roughly US $2.30). At the end of the street you can see the shops from yesterday's blog post. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington.



View Larger Map

Detail of Mr Kingham's shop. The door handle appears to be at knee-height. As always, click to enlarge:

 

Sunday 2 January 2011

Woking, Surrey, St Johns Village c1910

Unfortunately the Google Streetview does not show the scene from exactly the same viewpoint. The two buildings shown in the Google Streetview are the two buildings in the approximate centre of the postcard. The shop on the extreme left, Thomas Hizzey, Greengrocer, and the building next to it, Renshaw's Dairy and Smith's Tobacconists have been demolished and replaced by a modern building. To get the Google Streetview to see the new building you'll have to turn the camera around to the left. Postcard by Young & Co of Teddington. There will be another St Johns postcard tomorrow.



View Larger Map

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...