hardly the vivian maier motherload of images

dave clayton

dave clayton

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Walked into my local camera shop today and managed to pick up a load of processing equipment they had kept out the back for years that was donated to the shop after a house clearance. Tucked away under a print tray was a folder rammed with the guys negs so over the last few hours ive been scanning a few of the images there must be a few hundred there so ive just picked a few at random and scanned em then put them on flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62244428@N05/sets/72157640224836894/
 
Might be worth seeing if the local museum would be interested in displaying some? I love finds like this.
 
I love finding stuff like this! It's like walking into someone's life. I can't help but invent stories about the people and places. I can lose myself in old images like this.
 
well in new news i now am awaiting an email from somebody who knows some of the people in the shots
 
Great find, as said, a local museum, or bus company may be interested.
 
FWIW, the buses belonged to South Wales Transport

http://www.freewebs.com/renown40/southwalestransport.htm

- No. 479 [NCY 470] AEC Regent V with Weymann body, new to SWT in 1956.

- No 565 [5 BWN] an AEC Regent V with a Willowbrook body, new to SWT in April 1962.

Photo of it in service: http://www.philt.org.uk/Portugal/South-Wales-Transport-1/i-q8pjrFL

- No. 522 [RCY 364] an AEC Regent V with Weymann body. Delivered to SWT in 1958

No 522 is seen here in service in 1969

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midestpics/11105966464/in/set-72157637492096263

522 was renumbered as 722 in 1970. From 1971, it was used as a staff bus with SWT, and then withdrawn in 1972.

Anyhow, not that it needed a lot of confirmation, but that would place your photos between 1962 and 1970 - I'd say much closer to '62 judging by the shininess of No. 565. :)

They may be of interest to the Swansea Bus Museum, they have quite a few ex-SWT Regent Vs.

http://www.swtbusgroup.webspace.virginmedia.com/fleet.htm
 
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Good on you for posting them. Was 'motherload' in the subject line a Freudian slip for 'mother lode'?
 
What a find and a perfect set for sharing

Steve
 
Great stuff

Having lived in Swansea for a few years I enjoyed looking at them.
 
I thought the Royal Navy Frigate looked familiar. It is a Type 14, one of which was used as a harbour training ship in Portsmouth in the 70's/early 80's. I spent a week on one as a trainee early in 1980 and then a bit of time on another of the same type which was used as an accommodation ship later that same year. I must have a photographic memory! ;) According to Wiki, the ship in your pic is HMS Murrray and it featured in the 1960 Norman Wisdom film, The Bulldog Breed.
 
I had a very similar thing happen a couple of weeks back whilst trawling the charity shops (my mother visits often and is obsessed with charity shops! I tend to go along on the remote chance there's some photography stuff).

I was immediately attracted to a old camera bag which luckily had a nice Canon AE1 and a few lenses. It was sitting in a big box full of slides. I held a few up to the light - obviously a local chap as they were marked up with local place names. I felt so sad that this persons life / memories / possessions were just discarded. Obviously a house clearance job. This was decades of family pics. I wondered where the people in the slides (obviously family members) were. Are they still alive? Perhaps they were unable to deal with his possessions and didn't even know the pics had been thrown out.

I didn't get them in the end. I just bought the slr and bag. I've only just picked up a scanner and I've a ton of my own film to scan in.

Still tempted to go back and get them. Maybe scan some in and try to find out who he was. I'd hate to think of my own slides sat there one day... destined for the skip.
 
I inherited hundreds of b&w negs and colour slides from my father.
A lot taken around London in the 1960's.
Some of the locations are easy, but some obscure ones, possibly around docklands (Southwark) are probably gone for good.
I've set myself the task, when I can identify a location, to visit and try and take the same view as it is today.
 
I uploaded a few images.
Pool of London from London Bridge, 1960's and today.
View attachment 5229 View attachment 5230
Borough Market steps, 1960's and today
View attachment 5231 View attachment 5232
An unidentified location in the 1960's
View attachment 5234
I've identified it as "somewhere in Southwark" based on other images on the same film, but I guess it's one of those places that has been re-developed beyond recognition and no longer exists in a recognisable form - unless anyone can spot where it is. There's an elevated railway in the background, which probably puts it somewhere near London Bridge/Borough Market.
 
Some great shots of gods city ;) I can identify a few of them and where they were taken from. If you need any help with identification I could ask my in-laws who are still alive.
 
Brian G said:
An unidentified location in the 1960's
View attachment 5234
I've identified it as "somewhere in Southwark" based on other images on the same film, but I guess it's one of those places that has been re-developed beyond recognition and no longer exists in a recognisable form - unless anyone can spot where it is. There's an elevated railway in the background, which probably puts it somewhere near London Bridge/Borough Market.
Click to expand...

You're right. It's Winchester Square, looking toward Winchester Walk and Jubilee Market.

The same building is still there, with its leaning bollard on the corner.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Winchester Square, London&hl=en&ll=51.506619,-0.09097&spn=0.000763,0.002197&sll=51.506603,-0.090983&sspn=0.003386,0.006437&oq=winchester s&t=h&hnear=Winchester Square, London, United Kingdom&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.506603,-0.090983&panoid=gcY9I9_8FgfFZ2ZaFEI6tA&cbp=11,181.65,,0,-2.2
 
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Brian G said:
I uploaded a few images.
Pool of London from London Bridge, 1960's and today.
View attachment 5229 View attachment 5230
Borough Market steps, 1960's and today
View attachment 5231 View attachment 5232
An unidentified location in the 1960's
View attachment 5234
I've identified it as "somewhere in Southwark" based on other images on the same film, but I guess it's one of those places that has been re-developed beyond recognition and no longer exists in a recognisable form - unless anyone can spot where it is. There's an elevated railway in the background, which probably puts it somewhere near London Bridge/Borough Market.
Click to expand...

Nice fine :)
 
Musicman said:
You're right. It's Winchester Square, looking toward Winchester Walk and Jubilee Market.

The same building is still there, with its leaning bollard on the corner.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Winchester Square, London&hl=en&ll=51.506619,-0.09097&spn=0.000763,0.002197&sll=51.506603,-0.090983&sspn=0.003386,0.006437&oq=winchester s&t=h&hnear=Winchester Square, London, United Kingdom&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.506603,-0.090983&panoid=gcY9I9_8FgfFZ2ZaFEI6tA&cbp=11,181.65,,0,-2.2
Click to expand...
Thanks Musicman, well spotted and very helpful.
I'll see if I can get a similar modern shot next time I'm in that area, maybe even try a night view.
I have some other unidentified black and white images that I'll try uploading but they're not on the computer I'm using right now.
 
If I have a few minutes spare before catching a train at London Bridge, I may have a shot at it myself :)
 
Musicman said:
That first one's a corker.

I like how you got the modern tour boat in to match the 1960s original. :)
Click to expand...
Pure accident I assure you!;)
 
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Brian G said:
Thanks Musicman, well spotted and very helpful.
I'll see if I can get a similar modern shot next time I'm in that area, maybe even try a night view.
Click to expand...

Musicman said:
If I have a few minutes spare before catching a train at London Bridge, I may have a shot at it myself :)
Click to expand...

Well, here we go. I managed to cut out of the office a few minutes earlier than usual this evening and had a stab at it hand-held.


Winchester Square by cybertect, on Flickr

Pretty close with a 50mm, though I couldn't quite get back far enough to match your picture's viewpoint as there were some building works blocking the way.
 
Hey that's really cool, well done!

I think, but I can't be certain, that my fathers picture was taken with his Edixa 35mm rangefinder camera, which had a lens with the strange focal length of 43mm, which would obviously give a slightly wider angle of view.
I too, have had problems with building works, which seem to be covering half of London at any given time, otherwise it doesn't seem to have changed much.

I was considering starting a new thread about these photos, but I'll post some more here.
 
That would figure. I tried a 24mm that I had with me and came to the conclusion the original was somewhere about 45mm
 
I was sure the third of your unknowns was familiar - I am 95% certain it is also Winchester Square, looking the other way toward St Mary Overy's Wharf and the old West Kent Wharf, which is now occupied by Minerva House - where the Golden Hinde is moored today.

I think they've retained part of the wall with the stripes on it to this day (which was the thing stuck in my head) despite all the rest of it being rebuilt around about.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Clink Street, London&hl=en&ll=51.506659,-0.090895&spn=0.000346,0.001&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=12.173417,16.391602&t=h&hnear=Clink St, London, United Kingdom&z=20&layer=c&cbll=51.506659,-0.090895&panoid=QFQg0VCIYzOQ5cKJ2aDO7w&cbp=11,105.79,,0,3.31

Edit: some background reading

http://www.glias.org.uk/glias/st-mary-overys-rosings-stave.html
 
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The other one looks rather like some arches on Great Suffolk Street that are being used as a car park today, but I'm not convinced yet.
 
Musicman said:
I think they've retained part of the wall with the stripes on it to this day (which was the thing stuck in my head) despite all the rest of it being rebuilt around about.
...

Edit: some background reading

http://www.glias.org.uk/glias/st-mary-overys-rosings-stave.html
Click to expand...


I just noticed a small detail in the write up of St Mary Overy's Wharf on the Greater London Industrial Archaeology site

"A fire destroyed part of the roof in 1979. Only a small portion of the rounded southwest corner of the building will be retained."

That seems to confirm it.
 
Musicman said:
The other one looks rather like some arches on Great Suffolk Street that are being used as a car park today, but I'm not convinced yet.
Click to expand...

I'm leaning toward it being what is now Vinopolis on the corner of Clink Street and Bank End. That has lots of similar sorts of arches of about the right scale. It's in the right location given where all the others have been taken.
 
Thanks for all that Musicman.
Although I've walked around those areas many times, working there on a daily basis gives you a lot more familiarity.
Funny thing is that I saw the start of "CLINK" on the wall in that first shot, but I didn't make the connection.
Whenever I visit the area I never bring any copies of those old original pictures with me, and I just rely on my highly fallible memory.
Next time I visit I'll have to bring some prints so that I can use them for reference.
One problem I have is that some of the original negatives are in fairly poor condition and look as if they have developed some kind of fungal growth on the surface, which requires a lot of highly tedious retouching to get hem looking reasonable.

That GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY site looks quite interesting.
If I can clean them up sufficiently, I was thinking of offering these images to the Museum of London, but I guess someone like GLIAS might also be interested in them.

I'll post a few more shots later, they are not all taken around Southwark.
 
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