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Professional Photographers in Chichester (A-B)

"A. B." - George H. Allen - Dennis W. Baker - Charles Barclay - Charles H. Barden - William Barrett

 

"A. B." (1847-1848)

Proprietor of a daguerreotype studio in Chichester around 1847.

[ABOVE] An advertisement placed on the front page of The Times on 4th September 1848 by "A. B." , offering for sale a Daguerreotype Licence which covered the Sussex towns of Chichester, Bognor, Littlehampton, Arundel, Petworth and Midhurst. "A.B.", a bookseller and stationer, was previously based in Chichester, Sussex, but was residing in another county when this notice was published.

 The initials "A. B." appeared at the foot of advertisements placed in the local and national press in 1847 and 1848, offering for sale a Daguerreotype licence which covered Chichester and the surrounding district. The notice that appeared in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle on Saturday, 26th June 1847, reads as follows :

DAGUERREOTYPE

TO be SOLD, with or without a BOOKSELLING and STATIONERY BUSINESS, A LICENSE, embracing a circuit of fourteen miles, and including six towns. It has been granted for but a short time, and is parted with because the Proprietor has taken a larger business in another county.

Address, p.p. to A. B., Post Office Chichester.

A second advertisement, also asking for interested parties to reply to "A. B.", was published in The Times on 4th September 1848 and included a few more details about the scope of the licence and added that a "glass room" (the photographic studio) was included in the sale. The identity of "A. B." has not been established. The newspaper notices provide a few clues - "A. B." was also a bookseller and stationer, was based in Chichester and around 1847 had established a photography business in another county. A possible candidate is Alfred Barber (1808-1884), who was a bookseller and stationer by trade, had purchased a daguerreotype licence from Richard Beard and set up a studio in Nottingham in October 1841, was active  in the southern counties of England from 1846 and established a daguerreotype studio in Southampton early in 1847.

 

George Henry ALLEN ( born 1876 Chichester, Sussex)

Photographer active in Chichester from around 1900. Manager for Russell & Co from 1903. Proprietor of Russell's studio from 1918 to 1921.

George Henry Allen was born in Chichester in the September Quarter of 1876. The youngest son of Charles and Augusta Allen, George Henry Allen was baptised on 2nd December 1876 at the church of St Olave in Chichester. George's father, Charles Allen ( born c1833, Chichester), was a bootmaker of Southgate, Chichester. At the time of the 1881 census, five year old George was living with his parents and six brothers and sisters at their house in Southgate, Chichester. George Allen was employed as a photographer by Thomas Russell (c1841-1903) at his studio at 20 Southgate, Chichester. In the 1901 census, George Allen is  described as an "Operator in Photography", aged 25. When his employer Thomas Russell died in 1903, George Allen managed the Southgate studio for Thomas Russell's widow. After 1904, the studio was known as Russell & Co. Around 1918, George Henry Allen became the proprietor of the studio at 20 Southgate, but he retained the trading name of "Russell's". Between 1937 and 1940, George Allen was producing photographic views of Chichester under the name of G. H. Allen.

 To view  photographs by G. H. Allen in the Photographic Collection of West Sussex Record Office, Chichester - Go to WSCC Photographic Database ( http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/RO/DB/Pick.asp ) and search under under Artists : A

Denis Walter BAKER ( born c1867 Brighton, Sussex) - aka Dennis W. Baker

Denis Walter Baker was born in Brighton, Sussex around 1867. By 1898, Denis Walter Baker was living in Chichester, where he was married in the June Quarter of 1898. In the 1901 census he is shown as living in Chichester and is described as a "Photographer", aged 34. By 1905, Denis Baker was operating his own studio at 8 Cleveland Road, Chichester. Trade directories list D. W. Baker as a photographer at 8 Cleveland Road until 1914. Surviving examples of his work suggests he was primarily a photographer of buildings. The West Sussex Record Office has a few photographs by D. W. Baker in its Photographic Collection, including 1) a view of the Oliver Whitby School, a charity boarding school, which was built around 1712 in West Street, Chichester, 2) Court Barn, the family home of the Farne Family of Birdham, near Chichester, and 3) two photographs dating from 1911 which record a visit by St. John's Church Christian Band to Bracklesham Bay, a seaside resort located 7 miles south of Chichester.

 To view the photograph of the Oliver Whitby School, West Street, Chichester by Denis W. Baker in the Photographic Collection of West Sussex Record Office, Chichester - Go to WSCC Photographic Database ( http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/RO/DB/Pick.asp ) and search under under Artists : B

 

Charles BARCLAY (1798-1874)

Photographer active in Chichester between 1861 and 1867.

Charles Barclay was an early itinerant photographer who ended his career in Chichester when he was in his sixties. Charles Barclay was born in 1798 in London, Middlesex. ( Charles Barclay, son of John and Ann Barclay was baptised on 11th November 1798 in the City of London parish of St. Botolph without Aldersgate ). In the 1850s, Barclay toured England as a travelling photographer, visiting Portsea, Birmingham, Derby and Shrewsbury. In the Summer of 1853, Barclay operated a temporary photographic portrait studio at 2 St. James Street, Winchester, Hampshire. Barclay left Winchester in October 1853 and by the following February he was taking photographic portraits in Newbury, Berkshire. On 14th February, 1855, Barclay announced on the front page of the Essex Standard that he was ready to take portraits at 150 High Street, Colchester. After his short stay in Essex, Barclay gradually made his way south towards Sussex. Around 1860, Charles Barclay arrived in Chichester. At the time of the 1861 census, Charles Barclay was lodging at 39a East Street, Chichester and he gave his occupation as "Photographer". Barclay was, by this date, a sixty-two year old widower and while his earlier stints as a photographic artist in other towns lasted only a matter of days, weeks or months at the most, he remained in Chichester for the next six years. Barclay established a permanent photographic studio in Chichester's South Street and operated from these premises until 1867. Now approaching 70, Barclay retired to Portsea, Hampshire, where he died in 1874 at the age of seventy-six. [ Death registered at Portsea in the September Quarter of 1874).

 

Charles Hugh BARDEN  (born 1862, Bayswater, London)

Photographer active in Chichester between 1894 and 1905.

[ ABOVE ] An advertisement for Charles H. Barden, Photographer, of 68 East Street, Chichester, which appeared in the Chichester Guide of 1898.

 The studio at 68 East Street, Chichester was established by Walter Noah Malby around 1880. When Walter Malby died in September 1892, his thirty-three year old widow, Agnes Malby, took over the running of the East Street studio. When Agnes Malby married Henry Wakeford in 1894, the studio at 68 East Street passed to Charles Hugh Barden.

Charles Hugh Barden was born in Bayswater, London in 1862, the son of Charles and Bertha Barden. [ Birth registered in the Kensington District during the December Quarter of 1862 ]. Charles Barden senior ( born 1836, Boulogne, France ) was a  fishmonger and poulterer who had lived in London for a decade before moving with his wife and family to Kent. Charles Barden senior, his wife, and four children, settled in Tunbridge Wells, where Charles Hugh Barden found work as a photographer. In the 1881 census, Barden is shown living with his parents and four siblings at 110 Camden Road, Tunbridge Wells and is described as a "Photographer", aged 18.

In the June Quarter of 1883, Charles Hugh Barden married Emily Sophia Baker ( born 1862 Tunbridge Wells ). For the next ten years Charles and Emily lived in Tunbridge Wells, the birthplace of their first four children - Hugh (born c1884), Albert (born c1889) and twins Daisy and Violet (born 1890).

Charles H. Barden is not listed as a studio proprietor in Tunbridge Wells Trade Directories and it is likely he was employed as an operator or manager in the town before he took over Malby's photography business in Chichester in 1894.

Charles H. Barden remained in Chichester for over 10 years. Two sons were born in Chichester - Charles junior who arrived around 1896 and Harold George Barden whose birth was registered in the town in the June Quarter of 1905.

 

[RIGHT] A cabinet portrait of a young woman  by Charles H. Barden of 68 East Street, Chichester (c1895).

[ABOVE] A carte size mounted portrait of  a bearded man by Charles H. Barden of 68 East Street, Chichester (c1905).

ABOVE] A carte size mounted portrait of  a man with a striped tie by Charles H. Barden of 68 East Street, Chichester (c1900).

 Charles H. Barden described himself as a "Portrait and Landscape Photographer". Although Barden was known to employ an assistant, his advertisements clearly state that "Chas. H. Barden will personally photograph each sitter".

 

 

 

[ABOVE] A midget photograph by Charles H. Barden of 68 East Street, Chichester (c1898)

 

William BARRETT (1829-1863)

Itinerant photographer active in Chichester around 1859

[ABOVE] Detail from the death notice of William Barrett, published in the West Sussex Gazette of 5th February, 1863.

THE FULL TEXT OF THIS OBITUARY AND AN ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM BARRETT'S TIME IN BOGNOR CAN BE FOUND IN THE  PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS IN BOGNOR SECTION

William Barrett was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 1st December 1829, the son of William Barrett senior and Mary Demaine, and was baptised a month later at Bradford's Baptist Chapel on 3rd January 1830. William Barrett junior became a travelling photographer in the north of England. From April to July 1855, William Barrett was taking photographic portraits in Parliament Street, York. In July 1855, Barrett moved on to Durham where he set up another temporary studio. After three months in Durham, Barrett travelled south towards Worcestershire. He had reached the city of Worcester by the Autumn of 1857. On 18th October 1857, William Barrett married Catherine Mary Smith ( born 1835, Leamington Priors, Warwickshire) at St Peter's Church, Worcester. William Barrett continued his journey south, reaching Sussex around 1858.

William Barrett and his wife Catherine were in Chichester for the birth of their first child Kate, who arrived around 1859. A contemporary newspaper report mentions that "Mr. Wm. Barrett, the Photographist" was "well known in Chichester ". Barrett also took photographic portraits in nearby towns and in 1860 he was in Worthing with his family. William and Catherine Barrett's second child, Julia Florence Barrett, was born in Worthing on 5th September 1860. The following year, Barrett and his family settled in the nearby seaside resort of Bognor. At the time of the 1861 census, William Barrett, his wife Catherine and their two daughters, Kate and Julia, were living at a house in New Street, Bognor. William Barrett is entered on the census return as a "Photographer", aged 32. A third daughter, Edith Emily Barrett was born to William and Catherine Barrett in Bognor the following year. No longer constantly on the move, William Barrett was now able to arrange the christening of the two younger children, Julia and Edith, at the local church in South Bersted on 17th May 1862.

It appears that William Barrett had established a permanent photographic studio on the Parade at Bognor. However, Barrett was suffering from a fatal heart disease and on Monday, 2nd February 1863, he died from an "aneurism of the heart"

 

     

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