by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, Sport, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
We like the irony in this photograph. The location is Pontefract racecourse, one of the oldest horse racing venues in Europe. The chauffeurs have deposited their wealthy employers at the grandstand for a day of gambling, dining, drinking and networking. Meanwhile,... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
This is the City Arcade in Birmingham. Built in 1898, it was originally much larger than it is today but part of it was destroyed in a WW2 air-raid and never rebuilt. There is an elegance to Victorian arcades that eludes their modern counterparts, our mega-malls.... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, Places, Transport
The first railway under the River Mersey between Liverpool and the Wirral was operated by steam trains. The smoke and dirt from the engines could not be adequately removed from the tunnels by ventilation, so passengers preferred to use the ferries. As a result, the... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, Places, Transport
The hotel business has always been competitive and owners still look for ways to make theirs more attractive than the next. In Victorian times, temperance hotels sprang up for those wanting an alcohol-free stay then, as cycling became a huge craze, some hotels offered... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus, Transport
This bridge across the River Clyde in Glasgow has had three names at various times in its history …. Glasgow Bridge, Broomielaw Bridge and Jamaica Bridge. This photograph, taken in the late Edwardian period, shows the reliance on horse-power at the time.... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 26, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
These rock dwellings are in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Cut from sandstone, they were occupied for hundreds of years. Some had four rooms and large families lived in them. The last known occupant is thought to have left for a more conventional home in the early 1900s.... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Celebrities, Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
This interesting photograph was taken in July 1907. The gentleman on the cart with the white beard is William Booth, founder and leader of the Salvation Army and he was visiting Denby Dale in Yorkshire. For such a small and remote place, it must have been a very... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, Transport
Throughout railway history, accidents were a relatively common occurrence, usually caused by human error. This photograph shows a more unusual one, as a viaduct has collapsed and the engine can be seen on its side on the embankment. The date was 2nd February 1916,... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
Crofting has provided a subsistence living for the inhabitants of Scotland’s islands for thousands of years. It involves farming a small piece of land to raise animals and grow crops, to provide enough food to stay alive. For most, there was nothing romantic... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, Places
Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast, with its fishing boats, bustling quayside and quaint back-alleys, has attracted artists for hundreds of years. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, photographers followed in their footsteps, the most famous being Frank... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
Denby Dale, a village in Yorkshire, has a history of making huge pies (claimed by some to be the World’s largest) to celebrate national and local events. The first was in 1788 and the latest in 1988, with just five other occasions in-between. In this unusual... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
For Victorians, oysters were cheap street food, the equivalent of burgers today. At some point in time, they moved up a class or two and became a rare (and expensive) delicacy. Whitstable, on the north Kent coast, has long been famous for its oysters and, indeed, has... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 25, 2021 | Gallery, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
This photograph, taken in the early 1900s, shows a school cookery class. The societal view at the time determined that cooking and sewing were for girls, woodwork and metalwork for boys and their purpose was to enable the children to make a living, not as a hobby. The... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, Transport
There has been a ferry across the River Thames at Woolwich for centuries and there still is. Boats of all types were obvious subjects for early photographers and our archive contains many images of them, including some of the Woolwich ferry. However, we like this one,... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Celebrities, Gallery, NFT Photo-Art
The original photograph, on which this photo-art is based, was taken in the 1860/70s. Brigham Young was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a religious and political leader who, amongst many other achievements during his... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus, Transport
Madame Tussaud was born in 1761 and brought her travelling waxwork exhibition to Britain in 1802. It has been hugely popular ever since and is now a global business. You would never imagine that in a world dominated by moving and 3D imagery, static models of... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
This is a very unusual view of the Crystal Palace. It was originally built in central London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 but later moved to Sydenham, south of the the Thames. Virtually every photograph of the Palace shows it in its own grounds, thereby... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Gallery, NFT Photo-Art, Transport
The original photograph, on which this photo-art is based, was probably taken in the 1930s. Biplanes were first used by the Royal Navy during the First World War, mostly for aerial reconnaissance. Launching them from ships that didn’t have purpose-made flight... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 24, 2021 | Gallery, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus, Transport
Trafalgar Square is so busy, all of the time, that we often don’t see it for what it is, a magnificent, beautifully proportioned, people-space in a noisy, crowded, bustling city. Designed by John Nash and opened in 1844, it reflected Britain’s wealth and... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 23, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus, Transport
Today, tunnels such as those for the London Crossrail and HS2 railway line projects, are dug mechanically by huge machines but much of the London Underground system was excavated by hand, moving forward one inch at a time. This photograph from the Victorian period,... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 23, 2021 | Gallery, Places, Transport
It’s Euston Station but not as we know it. Where are the crowds, the shops, the cafes? We like the composition of this photograph with its clean lines (no litter, sorry about the pun) and roof supports sweeping away into the distance, echoing the journeys made... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 23, 2021 | Gallery, Places, Sport, The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
When this photograph was taken in the early 1900s, Castleford was an industrial town and these men’s working lives would have involved hard, physical graft. Despite that, in their spare time, they were members of the local running club and here we see them about... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 22, 2021 | Gallery, I didn’t expect that!, Places, Transport
Any large ship in dry dock for repairs is an impressive sight. RMS Aquitania was a Cunard Line ocean liner, launched in 1914 and scrapped in 1950. There are several people in this photograph but they’re so small compared to the ship, that you’ll need to... 
by Andrew Gill | Jul 22, 2021 | A Golden Age, Gallery, Places, Transport
We’re used to strolling or cycling along picturesque canal towpaths but that wasn’t their original purpose and they are called that for a reason. In this romatic study of a canal barge, taken in the early 1900s, we see the horse in the distance, pulling... 