Part 6 : The Seaside Holiday Photograph

Seafront Photographers

Marine Parade leading to the Chain Pier in the distance (c1871). In the 1840s, William Constable's Photographic Institution was situated beyond the large square building in the centre of the photograph, a short walking distance to the Chain Pier.

Seafront Photographers

It is significant that one of the first provincial photographic institutions in England was established in 1841 in Brighton - one of England's most popular seaside resorts. William Constable sited his daguerreotype portrait studio on the seafront promenade of Marine Parade, a short walking distance from the Chain Pier, which in 1841 was one of Brighton's main attractions for visitors.

The year 1853 saw the end of Constable's monopoly of daguerreotype portrait taking in Brighton and the introduction of Frederick Scott Archer's cheaper 'wet plate' process. By October 1853, portraits produced by "the new process on glass" were being taken at the Royal Chain Pier Photographic Rooms on or very near the pier itself.

 

The promenade alongside the Kings Road, Brighton, photographed by Valentine Blanchard in 1864. The promenade was popular with visitors and so the Kings Road became a prime location for photographic studios.

 

During the 1850s a number of photographic portrait studios appeared on the Kings Road, the seaside promenade that stretches eastward from the boundary with Hove all the way to East Street and the Old Steine. By 1854, the optician Lewis Dixey had opened a photographic portrait studio at his seaside shop, located at 21 Kings Road. Around the same time, Hennah & Kent established their Talbotype Portrait Gallery in William H. Mason's Arts Repository at 108 Kings Road. Edward Collier had opened a daguerreotype portrait establishment in the Old Custom House at No 58 Kings Road at the end of 1853. In 1841, William Constable had chosen to place his high class Photographic Institution on Marine Parade, the fashionable carriageway that overlooked Brighton's eastern seafront, but by 1854 the commercial and social activities of the town had shifted to the Kings Road. On 28th June 1854, William Constable of the Original Photographic Institution announced to the public that he had "removed his establishment from 57, Marine Parade, where he has carried on his business for the last thirteen years" to No 58 Kings Road, where he entered into partnership with Edward Collier. By the mid 1860s, there were half a dozen photographic portrait studios situated on Brighton's Kings Road.

 

The Kings Road and seafront promenade running from the West Pier, captured in a photograph taken in the 1880s. This part of the Kings Road was well served by photographic studios.In 1867, for example, there were five fashionable studios between numbers 90 and 113 Kings Road.The high class studio of John J E Mayall was located at 91 Kings Road , the studio of the Dickinson Brothers was at No.107, the established studio of Hennah & Kent was at No 108, Lock & Whitfield were next door at No 109 and the photographic firm of Lombardi & Co. were situated at 113, Kings Road.


 

 




CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE Photographers on the Pier

 

 

Website last updated: 28 April, 2003

 

This website is dedicated to the memory of Arthur T. Gill (1915-1987), Sussex Photohistorian

 




Home Page, Directory of Photographic Studios, A-Z Index of Photographers, History of Photography in Brighton,
Dating Old Family Photographs, Victorian and Edwardian Brighton, Location of Brighton Studios, Glossary of Terms

Photographers' Biographies


   

 

Spartacus Educational Privacy Policy