A Street Doctor Displaying His Wares, London, ca. 1877

Photographer John Thomson (1837–1921) used the ‘Woodburytype’ process patented in 1864 for the images in Street Life in London, including this photograph. This was a type of photomechanical reproduction using pigmented gelatin, usually of a rich purple-brown color. The process was complicated but remained popular until about 1900 because of the high quality and permanence of the finished images.

(From Street Life in London, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith)

The subject of the accompanying illustration is a vendor of cough lozenges and healing ointment. He was originally a car-driver employed by a firm in the city, but had to leave his situation on account of failing sight. His story, told in his own words, is as follows:

“First of all I had to leave my place on account of bad sight. It was brought on by exposure to the cold. Inflammation set in the right eye and soon affected the left. The doctors called it ‘atrophy.’ I went to St. Thomas’s Hospital for nine months, to St. George’s Hospital, and to Moorfields Opthalmic Hospital. From St. Thomas’s Hospital I was sent to the sea-side at the expense of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. No good came of it all, and at last I was so blind that I had to be led about like a child. At that time my wife worked with her needle and her hands to keep things going. She used to do charing during the day and sewing at night, shirt-making for the friend of a woman who worked for a contractor. She got twopence-halfpenny for making a shirt, and by sitting till two or three in the morning could finish three shirts at a stretch. I stood at a street corner in the New Cut selling fish, and had to trust a good deal to the honesty of my Customers, as I could not see.

“At this time I fell in with a gentleman selling ointment, he gave me a box, which I used for my eyes. I used the ointment about a month, and found my sight gradually returning. The gentleman who makes the ointment offered to set me up in business with his goods. I had no money, but he gave me everything on trust. It was a good thing for both of us, because I was a sort of standing advertisement for him and for myself.

“I now make a comfortable living and have a good stock. When the maker of the ointment started he carried a tray; now he has three vans, and more than fifty people selling for him.

“I find the most of my customers in the street, but I am now making a private connexion at home of people from all parts of London. The prices for the Arabian Family Ointment, which can be used for chapped hands, lips, inflamed eyes, cuts, scalds, and sores, are from a penny to half-a-crown a box. Medicated cough lozenges a halfpenny and a penny a packet.”

“Hookey Alf”, of Whitechapel, London, ca. 1877

Thus in the photograph before us we have the calm undisturbed face of the skilled artisan, who has spent a life of tranquil, useful labour, and can enjoy his pipe in peace, while under him sits a woman whose painful expression seems to indicate a troubled existence, and a past which even drink cannot obliterate.

(From Street Life in London, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith)

By her side, a brawny, healthy “woman of the people,” is not to be disturbed from her enjoyment of a “drop of beer” by domestic cares; and early acclimatizes her infant to the fumes of tobacco and alcohol.

But in the fore-ground the camera has chronicled the most touching episode. A little girl, not too young, however, to ignore the fatal consequences of drink, has penetrated boldly into the group, as if about to reclaim some relation in danger, and drag him away from evil companionship.

There is no sight to be seen in the streets of London more pathetic than this oft-repeated story the little child leading home a drunken parent. Well may those little faces early bear the stamp of the anxiety that destroys their youthfulness, and saddens all who have the heart to study such scenes.

Inured to a life crowded with episodes of this description, the pot-boy stands in the back-ground with immoveable countenance, while at his side a well-to-do tradesman has an expression of sleek contentment, which renders him superior to the misery around.

Italian Street Musicians in London, ca. 1870s

Italians, sons of peasants, agricultural laborers, and others who might lead respectable lives in their own country, prefer to come over to England where they are sometimes treated as mere beggars.

(Photo by John Thomson)

They find that a beggar in England is richer than a laborer in Italy; and if he be not equally prosperous it is because he is not equally abstemious and economical.

The Italian, therefore, migrates with the knowledge that he may rely on the generosity of the English, and that, if he only receives as much as many of the English poor, he may hope to save enough to buy himself a farm in his own country.

33 Adorable Childhood Photos of John Lennon From Between the 1940s and Early 1950s

With bombs falling around the hospital, John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in the midst of World War II. His parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John “Jack” Lennon, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His father, Alfred Lennon, was a merchant marine and was absent at John’s birth, as he would be for much of John’s childhood.

Lennon’s childhood was unsettled, with an absent father and a mother who simply couldn’t handle motherhood. After the age of four, Lennon didn’t even live with his mother, instead living with his childless Uncle George and Aunt Mimi. The two were a stern, but loving influence on Lennon throughout his childhood, though Mimi did what she could to discourage Lennon’s love of music. It was she who famously told him, “The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.”

Lennon’s mother was more supportive of his musical interest, in fact, it was Julia who bought the guitar for him. Though Lennon didn’t live with his mother, he remained close to her, regularly visiting her house where the two would listen to Elvis Presley records and pluck chords on the banjo, ukelele, and guitar.

Julia was also a frequent visitor at her sister’s house, where she spent mornings drinking tea with Mimi and chatting with her son. After one of these tranquil visits, tragedy struck. As Julia crossed the street to head home one day, she was struck and killed by a passing car. John was sixteen years old when his mother died, and he carried the weight of the tragedy with him for the rest of his life.

At the time Julia died, Lennon was already having trouble in school. He was smart, no doubt about that, but his wit and attitude got him into trouble with teachers. He created comics of teachers and fellow students in a work he titled “The Daily Howl,” and detention sheets from Quarry Bank High School show that Lennon once received three detentions in one day, with offenses over the years ranging from fighting in class, to sabotage, to “just no interest whatsoever.”

In September 1980, Lennon commented about his family and his rebellious nature:

“A part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic poet/musician. But I cannot be what I am not ... I was the one who all the other boys’ parents – including Paul's father – would say, ‘Keep away from him’ ... The parents instinctively recognized I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friend’s home ... Partly out of envy that I didn’t have this so-called home ... but I did ... 

“There were five women that were my family. Five strong, intelligent, beautiful women, five sisters. One happened to be my mother. [She] just couldn’t deal with life. She was the youngest and she had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn’t cope with me, and I ended up living with her elder sister. Now those women were fantastic ... And that was my first feminist education ... I would infiltrate the other boys’ minds. I could say, ‘Parents are not gods because I don’t live with mine and, therefore, I know.’”

See more»

The Street Fruit Trade in London, ca. 1870s

The season for strawberries, the most delicious of English fruits, has ended. This delicacy was brought in numberless barrow – loads to the doors of the poorest inhabitants of London.

(From Street Life in London, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith)

The familiar cry, “Fine strawberries. All ripe! all ripe!” is silenced for a season by sounds less welcome. The fragrance of the ripe fruit wafted by the summer breeze from the coster’s cart as it passed through the alleys, is replaced by less grateful odors – by the normal atmosphere of over crowded neighborhoods, by the autumn taint of animal and vegetable decay, which invests the low-lying districts of London.

Brighton Subculture in the Mid-1990s Through Amazing Photos

Many people wished they could bring back a different kind of celebration from their time in Brighton in the 1990s where their favorite pubs and clubs have since closed down.

Brighton subculture in the mid-1990s

The Zap club and parties on the beach. The Zap, located within the King’s Road arches, is currently branded as The Arch. Acid house filled the venue for most of the 90s, making it a popular place to go for people partying in Brighton.

While many people missed things from the 1990s, others looked deeper into the Brighton’s past to find the things they wanted to see return to the city. These photos were taken by The Quaffer that show the alternative scene in Brighton in 1994.

"We're not Goths!" Ayng and Jenny, white-faced in the Prince George, Trafalgar Street, 30th July 1994

"An individual" in the beer garden of the Hobgoblin, July 1994

Alistair in Brighton Square, The Lanes, August 1994

At the Richmond, August 1994

At the Richmond, August 1994

See more»

Photograph of a Suffragette Chained to Railings in London, ca. 1910

Black and white photograph of a suffragette, standing on the corner of Downing Street, London, chained to railings by a chain that is looped around her waist, ca. 1910. She is standing with her hands behind her back, wearing a wide brimmed hat and long coat. Mounted on cream paper, with a press agency stamp and manuscript notes on the reverse.

(LSE Library)

Suffragettes were astute and inventive, creating new forms of protest to keep their campaign in the public eye. The majority of their actions were peaceful. Despite this, they were usually described as acts of militancy by politicians and the press.

In October 1908 Muriel Matters and Helen Fox from the Women’s Freedom League chained themselves to a grille in the House of Commons Ladies’ Gallery. The grille was one that kept women out of sight. In order to remove Matters and Fox, the grille had to be cut away.

The following April a number of women from the WSPU handcuffed themselves to statues in St Stephen’s Hall in the Palace of Westminster.

These protests were aimed at drawing publicity to the suffragettes’ demands by creating a public spectacle that couldn’t be removed quickly.

Most of us still associate those images of women chained to railings with the militant suffrage campaign. In fact, incidents like this were quite rare and often carried out for very specific purposes.

In January 1908 Edith New and Olivia Smith chained themselves to the railings outside 10 Downing Street. While they distracted the police outside, their companion Flora Drummond slipped inside the building to disrupt a cabinet meeting.

Amazing Vintage Photos of London Buses Used to Take British Soldiers to the Western Front During World War I

When the First World War broke out, the era of the horse bus drew to a close. London’s largest bus operator, the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), had replaced all its horse buses with motor buses in 1911 and 1912. A few other bus operators continued to use horses until August 1914.

These new vehicles, especially the B type bus, manufactured first by the LGOC and later by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC), were of interest to the War Department because of their reliability. They were built of interchangeable parts, which made roadside repairs much easier. In the first few months of the war, the War Department requisitioned approximately 1,000 London buses, over a third of the LGOC’s fleet.
 

Some of these vehicles were used for war service in Britain. Others were shipped from large commercial ports, such as Avonmouth, and travelled mainly to France and Belgium, although some went as far as Greece.

The versatility of these motor buses meant they were put to a variety of uses. Many were converted into lorries, with others serving as ambulances, mobile workshops or even mobile pigeon lofts.  

However, their most familiar use was as troop carriers, transporting troops between the camps and the front lines. The troop carriers had their windows replaced with wooden planks for safety. Each bus could carry 25 soldiers, which was fewer than the 34 passengers they carried in London. Numbers were halved on the top deck to prevent the bus becoming too top heavy on uneven roads. 

See more»

Pictures of Female Workers at Pain’s Fireworks Factory From the 1920s

Pain’s Fireworks is one of the oldest firework companies in the UK and dates back to the 15th century in the East End of London.

There is also a claim that the barrels of gunpowder used for the plot to blow up the houses of parliament were produced by none other than John Pain who is the man that founded Pain’s Fireworks. Around 1850 James Pain and Sons Ltd began in Brixton, and by 1877 they moved to their now-famous base at Mitcham in Surrey.

The match company Bryant and May bought the company in the early 1960s and in 1965 WAECO (Wessex Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd) or Wessex Fireworks and James Pain and Sons Ltd Merged to form Pain’s Wessex and their firework productions moved to Salisbury.

Pain’s Wessex was sold in 1980 to John Deeker who now goes by the name of Pain’s Fireworks and still to this day operates from Whiteparish in Salisbury. They are one of the largest fireworks displays companies with offices all over the world, they also still sell retail fireworks.

Beautiful Vintage Color Photos of Birmingham in the 1980s

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. By the 20th century it had become the metropolitan hub of the United Kingdom's manufacturing and automotive industries, having earned itself a reputation first as a city of canals, then of cars, and most recently as a major European convention and shopping destination. The recession of the early 1980s, however, saw Birmingham's economy collapse. The city itself lost 200,000 jobs between 1971 and 1981, with the losses concentrated in the manufacturing sector; relative earnings in the West Midlands went from being the highest in Britain in 1970 to the lowest in 1983. By 1982 the city's unemployment rate approached 20%.

Navigation Street, December 1983

As one of the United Kingdom's major cities, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial, and commercial centre of the Midlands. In the years following the Second World War, the face of Birmingham was heavily changed by a major influx of immigrants from the Commonwealth of Nations, with large communities from Southern Asia and the Caribbean settling in the city. Birmingham also saw a new wave of immigration beginning in the early eighties, this time from communities which do not have Commonwealth roots, such as Kosovo and Somalia.

Take a look through these 40 beautiful vintage pictures of Birmingham in the eighties taken by David Rostance. For more fascinating photographs, check out Rostance’s Flickr site.

Bordesley, September 1981

Grand Union canal, Bordesley, September 1981

Proof House Junction, Bordesley, July 1982

Selly Oak and the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, Birmingham University, August 1982

See more»

28 Vintage Color Snapshots of London in the 1960s

Some of these photographs were taken when the photographer was just 13 years old, with a Halina PET camera and Ektachrome film. He lived in Byfleet, a village lies around 20 miles from the center of London. From 1971 to 1987, he frequently visited the capital city by train.

Most of these pictures were captured using Ektachrome film. Initially developed in the early 1940s, it allowed professionals and amateurs alike to process their own films. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that became familiar to many readers of National Geographic, which used it extensively for color photographs for decades in settings where Kodachrome was too slow.

Take a look at these gorgeous Ektachrome snapshots of London in the sixties. For more fascinating vintage pictures, check out the photographer’s Flickr site.

Piccadilly Circus, North side, 1962

Piccadilly Circus, West side, 1962

Piccadilly Circus at night, 1962

Victoria Embankment from Westminster Bridge, 1962

Big Ben across Westminster Bridge, 1962

See more»

Inside Stannington Sanatorium, the Very First Purpose-Built Children’s TB Hospital in the UK

Stannington Sanatorium was the first purpose-built children’s tuberculosis sanatorium in the UK which officially opened on October 5, 1907 near to the village of Stannington, Northumberland. The institution was established by a local charity, The Poor Children’s Holiday Association (PCHA), which developed into the modern-day charity Children North East, and also took contributions from local Poor Law Guardians for the upkeep of patients.

Tuberculosis at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the biggest killers in the UK, responsible for more deaths than any other disease. The disease had long been associated with poverty and poor living conditions and by establishing a dedicated institution the PCHA hoped to make a difference to the lives of thousands of disadvantaged children.

When the sanatorium first opened in 1907 it contained only 50 beds but high demand and generous donations soon saw it expand with many new wards and additional facilities added over the coming years. Stannington was the first TB sanatorium to open in the UK that was dedicated purely to the treatment of children. At this time, while national death rates from TB were still fairly high Stannington maintained comparatively low death rates. By 1928 the hospital had the capacity to treat 310 children and this was the maximum capacity the sanatorium was ever to reach.

The sanitorium witnessed a great number of important changes in the treatment of tuberculosis as well as significant social changes. For example, the introduction of Streptomycin in 1947 revolutionized treatment for some. The National Health Service took over the responsibility of the sanatorium in 1948 and it continued its work dedicated to the treatment of tuberculous children up until 1953 whereupon it became a general children’s hospital. With the introduction of effective antibiotic treatments in 1947 and an array of other public health measures, tuberculosis had now begun to steadily decline, however, even after this date it continued to take in tuberculosis patients. It continued its operations as an NHS children’s hospital until 1984 when it was closed completely. Many of the historic medical records were recovered when the hospital closed.

‘Senior girls - surgical cases’ at Stannington Sanatorium, the first British sanatorium for tuberculosis children in Morpeth, Northumberland.

Interior of ward for non-pulmonary boys, Stannington Sanatorium.

Outdoor terrace at Stannington enabling patients to spend maximum time in fresh air environment.

Group of children at Stannington Sanatorium.

An interior view of Stannington Sanatorium, 1926. The young patients can be seen resting in wicker chairs in a sun room. Exposure to sunlight was part of the core treatment for TB patients.

See more»

The Old Batchelor, ca. 1865

More impressive than this cat drinking half a bottle of gin, is that he managed to get that cork back in the bottle.

(Photo by Henry Pointer, via Getty Images)

30 Vintage Photos of Mrs. Gertrude Shilling Wearing Eccentric Giant Hats for Years at Royal Ascot Racing Events

Considered now to be one of the greatest milliners and hat-makers in the world, the hats David Shilling designed for his mother Gertrude to be worn at Royal Ascot in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were anywhere from over the top, to avant-garde, to just plain insane!

For 30 years, until she was well into her 80s, Gertrude Shilling appeared at showy events in towering creations that took imagination to design and construct, and a very determined sort of cheek to wear. There was the five-foot tall giraffe design that she pioneered in the 1970s, a three-foot wide daisy hat – with a stalk embroidered down the back of her coat – and a massive concoction of an apple with a four-foot arrow pierced through it.

Gertrude Shilling was made for exaggeration. Born (March 3, 1910) and educated in St John’s Wood, London, she was one of the nine children of businessman Louis Silberston and his wife Phoebe. Her grandfather had been an alderman of the City of London, and most of the family were members of the Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, a City craft guilds.

Gertrude married Ronald Shilling, who was something in the rag trade, and with whom she had David, her only son. The family lived in London’s west end, and socialized at places like the races at Deauville.

Gertrude encouraged her son’s design sense. He was 12 when he first designed a hat for her – she wore it to Ascot in 1966, stunned the staid folk in the enclosure and made the front page of the evening papers. It was the beginning of more than 30 years of Ascot outings for the mother-and-son partnership.

“I was at St Paul’s,” said David Shilling. “And art was really not on the agenda there. My mother allowed me to indulge my creative side by designing outfits for her. The outfits I made for my mother were really theatre rather than fashion. The early ones were quite extraordinary, three and four feet high, the product of a child’s imagination.

“My mother’s outfits were outrageous, but as I got older they became more glamorous and that really sowed the seeds for this revolution. It is exciting that women have the freedom now to dress how they want.”

Gertrude Shilling was often congratulated on her slender figure but she had had to struggle hard for it. As an 18-year-old debutante, she weighed 14 stone and hated being photographed. At her coming-out dance she wore a silver and white dress and described herself as looking like “an oversized fairy queen.”

The following year, she vowed to lose weight in time for a Cote d’Azur party, with the Prince of Wales and Noel Coward among the guests. In five months she lost four and a half stone. A young man, who had not seriously noticed her before, told her she looked gorgeous. To celebrate, she treated herself to a white swim suit, with stripes of red and blue stripes, at Debenham and Freebody in Wigmore Street; a matching cap made her look a little like a French revolutionary.

Gertrude was first diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1960s, but did not let it impede her appearances at Ascot. She was later the first woman to have a breast implant in Britain. She worked for charity, entertained the elderly and kept her hats in a special warehouse near in home. When all was said and worn, she had chutzpah.

“She was great fun, incredibly energetic. A gay icon before the term was even thought of. She got cancer while I was still at school and then survived 35 years after diagnosis. Amazing. Having Royal Ascot to look forward to each year helped to prolong her life, giving her that goal of getting there.”

Gertrude Shilling died on October 13, 1999.

See more»

35 Found Photos Capture Life of a Watford Family in the 1920s

Initially a small market town, Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of London, on the River Colne.

Life of a Watford family in the 1920s

While industry has declined in Watford, its location near London and transport links has attracted several companies to site their headquarters in the town. Cassiobury Park is a public park that was once the manor estate of the Earls of Essex.

This is a series of family photos that was found by Mike. The photos were taken by a Mr.E.A. Ife, mostly in the 1920s. They lived in Cassio Road, Watford, and Mr. Ife ran the ‘Post Office Savings Club Photographic Society’ from there (according to the ‘Photograms of the Year’ books for 1920 & 1921!). He was certainly a very fine photographer, and his family seem to have led a particularly happy, and idyllic lifestyle.

All dressed up

Apple harvest time

Autumn leaves

Baby bunnies & kitten

Baby Isobel

See more»