Sepia Saturday 219: Vacation Days are Kodak Days

Almost five years ago Bill Nelson shared several images with me from a large, fascinating set of nitrocellulose negatives taken during a grand tour of Europe during the summer of 1904, and very kindly offered me the use of them for future Photo-Sleuth blog posts. It's taken me a while, and I'll admit they did slip off the radar a little in the mean time, but at last I've found an opportunity to use a few of them. Hopefully I'll be able to share more of them in the next few months.

I first obtained them as a packet of nitrocellulose negatives in glassine sleeves, approximately 12 cm x 9.25 cm. Through a little sleuthing of my own, I was able to establish that they were taken beginning in May, 1904 and throughout the summer in England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and, in one instance, Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine the identity of the photographer. I'm working on it.

One thing about these images I find remarkable is that the quality is quite high - I've cleaned them up in some cases, but the images are sharp enough to enlarge to 40 cm x 50 cm. Another is that the images themselves are not typical tourist photos but rather more documentary in character.

Stephansdom from the Graben, Wien, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
None of the views were annotated, but this one was immediately recognisable to me as the Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral) in Wien (Vienna) with its characteristically patterned roof tiles. Further investigation via Google Earth indicates that, in spite the photographer presumably being an amateur - judging by the content, rather than quality, of the remaining images in the collection - he has taken the trouble to find a suitable viewpoint above street level, in fact on the first floor of a building in the Graben.

The usual horse-drawn traffic which still plies the area around the cathedral today - albeit carrying tourists rather than trade goods - is evident and the streets are mercifully free from thronging hordes. Conveniently overlooking the square in front of the cathedral are the offices of Thomas Cook & Son, and I am very sad to report that the Riedl Hotel Royal is now occupied by none other than ... you guessed it, MacDonalds.


Stephansdom, Wien, October 1989
Kodachrome colour positive film, 35mm
Image © 1988 Brett Payne
Having visited Vienna in October 1989 and again in June 1993, I was very much taken with the striking mosaic of roof tiles. Although the impressive interior of the domed roof of the Library of Congress Reading Room depicted in this week's Sepia Saturday Photochrom image is quite different architecturally, it too has a pattern to it that both pleases the eye and emphasizes its slope and expanse.


Stephansdom, Wien, October 1988
Kodachrome colour positive film, 35mm
Image © 1988 Brett Payne

Stephansdom, Wien, c. 1901
Photochrom image by Detroit Photographic Co.
Indeed, the Detroit Photographic Co. had published their own colourised photographic view of Stephansdom a few years earlier using the Photochrom process under license.


The Asparagus Seller
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
This wonderful photograph is also from Bill's series of negatives, showing two women selling asparagus and what are probably roast chestnuts wrapped in chestnut leaves from the street in front of a large building. Although it too has no title, I feel there is a distinct possibility that it may have been taken in front of Vienna's famous cathedral.


Stephansdom, Wien, c. 1905
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Another photograph of Stephansdom taken around the same time shows figures in front of the cathedral who may similarly be touting their wares to tourists and other passersby.


Two Gentlemen in London, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
As usual when I am looking at early amateur photographs, my mind turned to the camera which might have been used to produce such high quality images. Bill was thinking along similar lines when he emailed me this convivial snapshot from the same series:

I can't believe this never occurred to me in all the years I've been looking at these photos. Look at the "Two Gentlemen" photo [taken in London]. The guy in the straw boater. Do you think that might be a camera case he has slung over his shoulder? The camera was obviously on a tripod for this photo- the shutter speed was too slow for a hand-held shot. I wonder if the photographer himself stepped in front of the camera and had a companion trip the shutter?

The shape of the case looks to me more like one for binoculars than a camera, but to provide a more definitive answer I looked at the size of the negatives. Bill told me that they vary in size to a certain extent, but are generally "approximately 3.6 in. x 4.75 in. or about 92.5 x 120 mm." I presume that these are the maximum dimensions of the cut negatives, which could be expected to vary somewhat, depending on how they were cut. If so, then the actual photographic image dimensions would be a little less, and should be more regular, being defined by the size of the camera body.

Comparing this to the range of roll film available at that time (i.e. 1904ish), I think it most likely that it equates to a size of 3½" x 4¼" (89 x 108). There were several film sizes produced with these dimensions, but the two most likely candidates are the 118 and 119 formats, first manufactured by Kodak in 1900.


No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak Model C3
Several cameras used this film, and the most commonly available ones at the time those photographs were taken were:
118 format: No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak, Models A to C-3 (1900-1907) & Deluxe (1901-1903), No 4 Folding Pocket Ansco
119 format: No 3 Cartridge Kodak (1900-1907)


No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak with leather case
The No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak was produced in huge numbers (over 288,000 between 1900 and 1915, when it was replaced with the No 3 Autographic Kodak), and I think is most likely what was used for the duration of the unidentified photographer's "grand tour." The images above show the camera opened up as well as folded and with its typical leather case. The shape is quite different from that carried by the man in the London street photograph. I am aware, however, that there were other roll film cameras around, as well as more sophisticated plate cameras which had been adapted with roll film backs.


The Pringle sisters in the garden, Ontario, Canada, c.1909-1912
Toned silver gelatin print, mounted on album page, 5½" x 3¼"
Image © and courtesy of Gail Perlee
Coincidentally, fellow Sepian Gail Perlee posted a family photograph on her blog Songs of a Nightingale last week of a group of young women posing in a garden. One of these women carries a leather case on a strap around her shoulders which I tentatively identified - because of its size - as being for a No 3A Autographic Kodak Special, slightly larger than the No 3. Gail confirmed the dimensions of the print:

I have the orig. prints. First 2 pix are 3 1/4 x 5 1/2. Shows how astute I am! I thought she was carrying a purse. A 2nd look, of course, shows a camera case!

The 5½" x 3¼" size equates to the 122-format film used by the No 3A.


No 3A Autographic Kodak Special, Model B, 1916-1919
Image © 2014 Brett Payne
The No 3A Autographic Kodak Special above, still in excellent condition although sadly without a case, is from my own collection. It is probably very similar to the camera used to take the group portrait in the garden, although manufactured just a few years later. Unfortunately this size film is no longer available, or I would have very much liked to try it out myself.


The Folding Pocket Kodaks, Advertisement, 1901
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0014
Actually, it wasn't a lack of astuteness which led Gail to think she was carrying a purse. As Nancy Martha West discusses in her book, Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia, the Kodak pocket folding cameras of the 1890s and early 1900s were specifically marketed towards women, and designed to look as much like a purse or pocketbook as possible.


There's more to the Vacation when you Kodak, Advertisement, 1908
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0074
In a series of advertisements appearing widely in newspapers, magazines and even in literature published by the Eastman Kodak Company, the image of the Kodak Girl became synonymous with the amateur photographer.


Bring your Vacation Home in a Kodak, Advertisement, 1905
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0521
Likewise, images of leisure activity in the country, on the beach, at fairs and travelling on holiday overseas pervaded Kodak advertising. I am struck by the similarities in content between several of the images in Bill's 1904 album and the themes commonly portrayed in the Kodak advertising of the time. Compare, for example, this 1905 advertisement of two Kodak girls on a dockside in the Netherlands, one using a Folding Pocket Kodak, the other a Box Brownie, with the photograph taken of two men and a girl wearing clogs in Marken by our anonymous visitor in 1904, reproduced below. All that's missing in the latter is a windmill. There were several similar scenes taken at Marken and Volendam, at least one including a windmill.


Men and Girl on the Docks, Marken, Netherlands, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
Since this brings us back to the 1904 album, albeit by a somewhat circuitous route, I'll leave it there for now. I'm very grateful to Bill and Gail for permission to use the images from their respective collections. The rest of the negatives from the Grand Tour set can be seen on his FlickrStream here. Once you've seen those, head over to Sepia Saturday to check out the remainder of this week's contributions.

Sepia Saturday 185: Ready with the Bulls-Eye, come rain or shine

A couple of weeks ago I used scans of a couple of amateur lantern slides to illustrate an article on Dovedale. This week's Sepia Saturday prompt of a rainy street scene gives me an opportunity to use a couple more from the same set, as well as featuring another recent purchase, a popular box camera which preceded the ubiquitous Brownie by almost a decade.


Unidentified couple seated on bench, c.1900-1905
Lantern slide (83 x 83mm) by unknown photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The delightful image depicts a couple enjoying what might have been a quiet glass of beer, seated on a bench outside a pub, if it hadn't started to rain. At least I think the white, nearly vertical streaks must be rain drops; after some deliberation I've decided that if they were merely scratches made during processing, they wouldn't all be roughly the same length (about 10cm). Since rain drops fall between 7 and 18 miles per hour (Source: Yahoo Answers), I estimate that this corresponds with a shutter speed of between 1/30 and 1/60 second. What has made this photograph possible is the bright, albeit slightly dappled, sunlight which accompanies the light shower of rain. The lack of self-consciousness in this candid snapshot is unusual, considering it was probably taken around 1900-1905.


Unidentified group seated on lawn, c.1900-1905
Lantern slide (83 x 83mm) by unknown photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
From what I've been able to tell, the very wide-brimmed and low-crowned straw hats in this second lantern slide were popular shortly after the turn of the century, which correlates well time-wise with the high-collared, wide-sleeved white blouses and long dark skirts. Here a group of three women and a young girl, the last facing away from the camera, are seated on and around a picnic blanket, placed in the middle of a well-clipped lawn surrounded by shrubs and trees. They are boiling a small kettle on a primus stove and a teapot waits patiently on the corner of the blanket. Presumably they're in a private garden, as two chickens can be seen making an appearance from the left hand edge of the picture.


No 2 Bulls-Eye Kodak
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The image would probably have been produced by contact printing from the original negative onto a thin glass plate, thus producing a positive transparency. Unless a portion of it was masked off - an unlikely scenario, given the composition of the shots - the original negative would therefore have been roughly the same size as the slide. The 83 x 83mm measurements of the square slides equate to the 3½" x 3½" format of 101 roll film and the short-lived 106 cartridge roll holder. The No 2 Bulls-Eye Kodak, originally manufactured by the Boston Camera Manufacturing Company in 1892, but later taken over by Kodak from 1895, was the first camera to use numbered paper-backed roll film. Both this and the No 2 Bullet Kodak, introduced in March 1895 in competition with the Bulls-Eye, used 101 format film, as did a number of other box cameras:

Camera	Film Format	Dates of Manufacture
Boston Bull's-Eye	3½" x 3½"	1892-1895
No 2 Bullet Kodak	101	Mar 1895-1902
No 2 Bulls-Eye Kodak	101	Aug 1895-1913
No 2 Eureka	106	Jun 1897-1899
No 2 Falcon Kodak	101	Sep 1897-Dec 1899
No 2 Bullet Special Kodak	101	May 1898-Apr 1904
No 2 Bulls-Eye Special Kodak	101	1898-Apr 1904
No 2 Flexo Kodak	101	Dec 1899-Apr 1913
No 2 Plico Kodak	101	Mar 1901-1913

Rotary shutter, No 2 Bulls-Eye Kodak
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Of all these models, the No 2 Bulls-Eye was the most successful, Coe (1988) estimating a total of roughly 257,000 to have been manufactured, and rivalled in sales during the 1890s only by its diminutive cousin the Pocket Kodak, which used the smaller 102 format film. Although I haven't found anything definitive about the rotary shutter used in the Bulls-Eye, other Kodak box cameras were manufactured with shutter speeds of 1/35 to 1/50 seconds, which corresponds well with my calculations of the exposure time using rain drop tracks.


Bulls-Eye held by Grand Duchesses Olga (left) and Anastasia (right)
Taken by unknown photographer, Imperial Yacht Standart, c. 1911
Images courtesy of Royal Russia & Jos Erdkamp
Jos Erdkamp has a wonderful example of a No. 2 Bull's-Eye Kodak, complete with its original carrying case, a film cartridge, an instruction booklet, and a portrait lens attachment. He has also written an account - unfortunately in Dutch, of his detective work (Erdkamp, 1995) unearthing an intriguing fact, that the Romanov family were amongst the many enthusiastic users of the Bulls-Eye camera.

References

No. 2 Bull's-Eye Kodak (1896), on Antique Kodak Cameras from the Collection of Kodaksefke.

f/Stops and Shutter Speeds, on The Brownie Camera Page.

RUSSIAN IMPERIAL YACHTS: On Board the Imperial Yacht Standart, on Royal Russia.

Coe, Brian (1978) Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, United States: Crown Publishers.

Coe, Brian (1988) Kodak Cameras: the First Hundred Years, East Sussex, United Kingdom: Hove Foto Books, 298p.

Erdkamp, Jos (1995) De Romanov Kodaks, in Photohistorisch Tijdschrift, Issue 3 of 1995.

Sepia Saturday 184: Burmese Days

The Sepia Saturday prompt this week is, rather unusually, an image of a bas relief sculpture. I'm stretching the third dimension somewhat, but I think my offering fits the bill quite well.


Unidentified man in colonial uniform, Burma, c.1920s-1930s
Loose silver gelatin print (91 x 115mm) by unknown photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
It was the 110th anniversary of George Orwell's birth last week, so what better opportunity to use this loose paper print from my collection. Sadly it has lost all provenance, and I have no idea who the colonial wallah in his solar topee and tropical khaki uniform was, but the inscription on the back clearly identifies it has having been taken in Burma. I estimate it to have been taken in the 1920s and, since Orwell (aka Eric Arthur Blair) served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from October 1922 until July 1927, they were quite possibly colleagues and may well have known each other.

I've looked at several hundred images of seated Buddhas in arched niches trying to find this particular one to no avail, so I'm hoping that a reader will one day be able to identify where this snapshot was taken.


No 3 Autographic Kodak Model G
Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection
The 3¼" x 4¼" format implies it was printed from 118, 119 or 124 format film, which in turn suggests that the photographer used a roll film camera such as the No 3 Autographic Kodak Model G (above) or the Blair No 3 Folding Hawkeye Model 3 (below).


Blair No 3 Folding Hawk-Eye Model 3
Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection

I hope you will like this Photo better than the last one it was taken by my mate
the figure by which I am standing is one of the Budhas which the Burmese worship

Eric Blair (back row, 3rd from left), 1923
Police Training School, Mandalay, Burma
In an essay written some years later, Orwell makes it clear that he spent five formative years working in a job he despised, and in a position which left him feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better ... All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty

... when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.

George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant

The British Club in Katha, Myanmar (Burma)
Image © Aung Shine Oo and courtesy of The New York Times
In 1927, during sick leave in England, Orwell finally made the decision to resign from the service to become an author and never returned to Burma. His experiences there formed the basis of his first major work, Burmese Days and, some would argue, were instrumental in developing the political beliefs which pervaded all of his subsequent work.

... it is a corrupting thing to live one's real life in secret. One should live with the stream of life, not against it.

George Orwell, Burmese Days

Most have heard of, if not read, Orwell's seminal works, Animal Farm and 1984. If you haven't already done so, I think his lesser known works, such as Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia are well worth adding to your reading list.

References

Quotes from Burmese Days by George Orwell, on Goodreads.

Orwell, George (1936) Shooting an Elephant, New Writing, 2, Autumn 1936.

Perlez, Jane (2013) In Myanmar Outpost, a Fading Orwellian Link, The New York Times, 23 May 2013.

George Orwell [The Characteristics of Burmese Days], on Ba Kaung, 17 Oct 2007.

Sepia Saturday 179: Fun on the Sands - The Pleasure Palaces of Southport

Although the temptation for me with this week's Sepia Saturday image prompt is to travel with the itinerant photographer's wagon following fairground folk around the countryside, I've decided instead to stick with the non-professional side of photography. I've covered travelling photographers a number of times here on Photo-Sleuth, so will use the opportunity to enjoy the fun of the fair through the eye and lens of an amateur.

I recently acquired a collection of 177 glass plate and roll film negatives and have spent a couple of weeks scanning them. Although they were sourced locally, the majority appear to have been taken in England, possibly by a young couple who later emigrated to New Zealand. I've selected a few which I've identified as being on the Lancashire coast. More images will no doubt make their way into my posts over the next few months, but I do hope to study the collection as a whole, ultimately with a view to identifying the family depicted although that's very much a long shot at present.


Entrance to Southport Pier and Pavilion, undated
Quarter-plate glass negative (108 x 80mm, 4¼" x 3¼")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Regular Photo-Sleuth readers might find this view of a pier entrance familiar, since two of my recent articles have dealt with seaside photographers in Blackpool, namely Charles Howell and Young Burns. This, however, is the entrance to Southport Pier, not only one of the first piers to be erected in iron but also the second longest in Great Britain.


Along the turreted frontage of the entrance are a number of signs and posters advertising the attractions for those prepared to pay the admission fee (2d. for children). One sign offers tickets for a ride on the electric tram to the head of the 1465 yard-long pier, where Professor Powsey, Champion High Diver of the World promised to entertain three times daily.


Professor Powsey's Terrible Cycle Dive, West Pier, Brighton, c.1910

Professor Powsey, The World's Greatest Diver, Southport Show Ground
Images © and courtesy of Southport.gb.com
Powsey and his daughter Gladys both operated in a number of coastal towns in the pre-Great War years, including Brighton, Yarmouth, Inverness and Southport. Historian Alan Taylor lived nearby the Southport Pier from from 1908 to 1913, and recalled seeing Bert Powsey's act:

His most sensational dive ... he tied both his hands to his sides, tied his legs togethr, then plunged in and emerged safe and sound with all his ropes loosened. The climax ... was the bicycle dive, an expedition which he conducted down a steep board into the sea with the bicycle alight and blazing around him.

(Wrigley, 2006)

At the pier head, close to the refreshment rooms, you might attend a performance of "The Aristocrats" by the Pier Company's Orchestra or, should you have tired of Southport's attractions, you might prefer to take a passage on a steam boat for the brief trip across to Blackpool.


Southpost Pier and Pavilion, c.1910
The main attraction, however, appears to have been Fred Karno's Company playing at the magnificent Pier Pavilion, built in 1902 and sadly demolished in 1968, the domed roof of which is clearly visible above the hoardings pasted with a variety of Karno's posters. In the postcard view above, a set of very similar posters is just visible to the right of the entrance to the very grand building.


Fred Karno, best known for his role in the early careers of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, had been visiting Merseyside for well over a decade. The earliest event I can find is the record of a performance at Liverpool's Prince of Wales Theatre, then managed by Captain Fred Wombwell (of Bostock & Wombwell's Menagerie fame) in March 1895. The two productions advertised on this occasion were The G.P.O. and Wakes Week.


Poster for Fred Karno's The G.P.O., Leeds Hippodrome, 6 Oct 1913
Image © and courtesy of Leeds Playbills
Karno claimed that it was in the successful sketch The G.P.O. that Walter Groves first created the famed "Tramp Walk," later passed on to Charlie Chaplin when he took on the role. The earliest records that I have been able to find for this burlesque show was when it was staged at the Sheffield Empire and Paragon theatres in October and November 1908 respectively (Clarence, 1909). An entry in the 4 June 1908 issue of The Stage newspaper confirms that "a colossal production, entitled 'G.P.O.'" was in active preparation.


Poster for Fred Karno's Wakes Week, Leeds Hippodrome, 28 Oct 1912
Image © and courtesy of Leeds Playbills
It is not clear when Wakes Week was first produced, but the paucity of references to it on the net suggest that it was not particularly successful, and may not have been around for long when this poster was printed in late 1912 for a performance in Leeds. After war broke out in 1914, the popularity of such entertainment waned considerably. After the war, the advent of cinematography more or less ensured its demise.


View Larger Map
This is the view today - nothing remains of the old pier entrance, but there is still an old-style a merry-go-round, and the top of the 2004 Marine Way Bridge is visible above Silcock's gaudy Funland. If you use your mouse to navigate Google's Streetview above by 180 degrees (click and drag to the left or right), wou will see a view almost identical to that in the second slide chosen from the collection, pictured below.


Statue of Queen Victoria, Nevill Street, Southport, undated
Quarter-plate glass negative (80 x 108mm, 3¼" x 4¼")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The sharper-eyed readers will spot that Queen Victoria appears to have turned around some time in the last century or so. The bronze statue was unveiled in July 1904 in the Town Hall Gardens, in front of the Atkinson Art Gallery, now Stockport Library, but moved to the junction of Nevill Street and the Promenade on 20 December 1912 (Anon, n.d. & Wright, 1992). In 2005-2006, the statue was removed for restoration and, when reinstated, the decision was made that she should move a short distance to the south-east and face the town centre instead of the sea (Anon, 2004 & 2006).


The buildings to the left of the statue, which have survived largely intact, are adorned with signs and flags advertising the culinary delights available at the Victoria Baths Cafe and Restaurant. There is also a curious sign with a rather obvious "We Shall Have Rain," which I have deduced must be situated directly above a purveyor of umbrellas. I might add that, although they look a bit like rain, the pale brush strokes diagonally across the image are, I think, actually a result of a lack of care during the plate developing process.


Probably North Marine Gardens, Southport, undated
Quarter-plate glass negative (80 x 108mm, 3¼" x 4¼")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The next poorly focussed photograph shows several figures on a footpath, taken from across a pond, complete with swan, and it seems likely that it was taken in the North Marine Gardens, shown on the 1911 map below.


Southport Pier Entrance, Pavilion, Nevill St and North Marine Gardens
Portion of 1911 1:2500 Ordnance Survey Map
Image © Crown Copyright and courtesy of Landmark Information Group

Shelter/bandstand in South Marine Gardens, Southport, undated
Quarter-plate glass negative (80 x 108mm, 3¼" x 4¼")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The Marine Gardens and Promenade also extended to the south-west of the pier, and this photograph shows a bandstand which can be exactly matched with that in the two postcards below, dating from roughly 1910-1915, situated overlooking the southern arm of the Marine Lake.


The Promenade, Southport, c.1910-1915
Postcard by James Valentine (206845)

Lake and Gardens, Southport, c.1910-1915
Postcard by unidentified publisher
The second of these views gives a hint of the next destination of our photographer, on the far side of a lake adorned with row boats. Originally a cluster of amusement stalls, simple rides and side shows had formed around the pier entrance at the top of Nevill Street, but with the development of the area as the Promenade and River Gardens in 1887, what were deemed "less desirable" amenities had been forced to relocate to the southern end of the Marine Lake.


Southport Fair Ground and South Marine Gardens
Portion of 1911 1:2500 Ordnance Survey Map
Image © Crown Copyright and courtesy of Landmark Information Group
By the turn of the century, the attractions had evolved into a more extravagent enterprise, eventually known officially as the "White City," and continued to expand, with the stalls and sideshows becoming more elaborate and numerous.
1895 - Aerial Ride/Glide (closed in 1911) and Switchback Railway
1903 - Water Chute
1904 - Hiram Maxim's Flying Machine
1905 - Helter Skelter Lighthouse
1908 - Figure-of-Eight Toboggan Railway and River Caves
1911 - Lakeside Miniature Railway, connecting fair ground and pier


Water Chute and Flying Machine, Fair Ground, Southport, undated
Quarter-plate glass negative (108 x 80mm, 4¼" x 3¼")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The photographer took two views of the Water Chute in action. The first was from the eastern shoreline of the lake, immediately in front of the stalls and adjcent to the chute's Landing Stage (marked on the OS map of 1911) and captures the big splash at the moment of impact.


An enlarged image includes some nice detail of the shallow, flat-bottomed skiffs used on the chute, the Flying Machine at rest (one of the "spaceships" is just visible behind the chute), and the superstructure of what appears from the map to be the Toboggan Railway in the background.


Water Chute and Helter Skelter House, Fair Ground, Southport, undated
Roll film or sheet negative (109 x 62mm, 4¼" x 2½")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
A second view, using roll or sheet film rather than a glass plate, was taken from the western shore of the lake, directly to the north of the chute, and freezes a skiff half-way down the slide. It may be that the photographs in this collection were taken with more than one camera, and even by more than one photographer. From a consideration of the similarity of the shooting styles and the sequence of shots outlined, it seems quite possible that they are from the same camera. If so, then it would have been of a type for use with spooled 116-format (4¼" x 2½") daylight-loading film, or a removable back could be replaced with a holder for sheet film or dry plates.


Ensign Folding Klito, unidentified model, c.1900-1920
Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection
The Ensign Folding Klito, manufactured by Houghton Ltd. of London, was just such a camera, popular with many amateurs. However, there were several other makes available, such as the No 3 Sibyl, first produced in 1908.


At far right is the Helter Skelter Light House, opened in 1905 ...


... while other signs advertise the River Caves and Switchback rides.


Also visible is a crowd in front of the bowling alley.


Helter Skelter House, Water Chute and Flying Machine, Southport, PM 1907
Postcard by unidentified publisher
This colourised card, postmarked 1907, and a similar black-and-white view posted in 1912, show a fair ground area with fewer buildings, nevertheless with the Helter Skelter, Water Chute and Flying Machine already in place. A slightly earlier version of a similar view, posted in 1905, is lacking the Helter Skelter, which was only built that year.

The fair ground gradually shifted between 1922 and 1924 to the new Pleasureland site on reclaimed land to the north-west. This was after the River Gardens had been redeveloped as the King's Gardens, the latter having been opened by King George V and Queen Mary on 8 July 1913.


Marine Lanke, Southport, undated
Roll film or sheet negative (109 x 62mm, 4¼" x 2½")
by an unidentified amateur photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Finally, it appears that the photographer travelled north along the Marine Walk, which at that time separated the Marine Lake from the beach. This view is taken from due north of the Pier Pavilion, looking back towards the pier, pavilion and the town frontage along the Promenade. That's the end of the images that can be clearly identified as emanating from Southport, and a suitable point at which to take a breather. He also visited Blackpool, but those delights can wait for another time.

If you've lasted this long, thank you for persevering. It's a little premature to deduce much about the photographer at present. After all, the seven images discussed here are a tiny proprotion of the collection, and don't appear to include any of the photographer's companions. Nor can I be certain that all of these photographs were taken on the same visit to the town. However, it has been possible to deduce that at least some of the photographs were taken after December 1912, when Queen Victoria's statue arrived on Nevill Street. I also think it unlikely that they were taken after late 1914, when the war would have changed much of the atmosphere in Southport. This narrows the date range right down to a very comfortable two-year period, and forms a good anchor point around which to view the remaining photographs in the collection ... in due course.

References

Fred Karno's Company Stage Listings, 4 June 1908, on the Fred Karno Company web site.

Khaotic, The Fred Karno Story

Fred Karno and the Karsino from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

ER Promenade Appraisal, Historic Development and Movement Report, Sefton Council.

Anon (n.d.) King's Gardens Conservation Management Plan and Historic Development of Southport and its Seafront, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council Conservation Management Plan.

Anon (n.d.) Statue of Queen Victoria, Public Monuments & Sculpture Association.

Anon (1895) Amusements in Liverpool, in The Era (London, England), Saturday, March 16, 1895; Issue 2947, courtesy of Gale CENGAGE Learning.

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