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Worthing
| [ABOVE] Worthing in the middle of the 19th Century, a view by the artist G. Atwick, showing South Street leading up to the Town Hall in the centre of the picture. On the left-hand side are the fields of Worthing's Pleasure Grounds, which stretched from Montague Street to Ambrose Place. Around 1858, Harvey Goble set up a wooden photographic studio on the Pleasure Grounds opposite Ann Street, just beyond the Town Hall building. |
A History of Professional Photography in Worthing : Part One 1854-1871
The First Photographic Studios (1855-1870)
Edward C. Cortis - Worthing's First Photographer
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The earliest photographer in Worthing appears to have been Edward Charles Cortis (1836-1899), the son of Charles Cortis, a chemist of South Street, Worthing. Edward Charles Cortis ( later known as Edward Charles Cortis Stanford ) placed the following advertisement in the pages of The Worthing Monthly Record of 1st May 1855 :
[ABOVE] An advertisement for Charles C. Cortis which appeared in The Worthing Monthly Record on 1st May 1855 : Edward Charles Cortis photographed several buildings in Worthing during the late 1850s and presumably took photographic portraits at his father's chemist shop at 12 South Street, Worthing. Edward Cortis excelled in chemistry and botany and at the age of twenty he had been awarded two medals by the Pharmaceutical Society. Charles Cortis was a Dispensing and Pharmaceutical Chemist and it was natural for his son to assist him in the preparation of his remedies. Edward's father, Charles Cortis, also sold photographic chemicals and apparatus for photography at his shop in South Street. Edward Charles Cortis produced some of the earliest photographic images of Worthing, but by 1861 he was a Professor of Chemistry and he abandoned photography to concentrate on scientific research. As Edward Charles Cortis Stanford he settled in Scotland in the 1860s and eventually became the owner of a large chemical works in Clydebank. [ see Cortis biography ] |
[ABOVE] A portrait of Edward Charles Cortis, Worthing's first photographer (c1858). |
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[ABOVE] A photograph of St Mary's Church, Broadwater, attributed to Edward C. Cortis. This photograph was taken in 1857 to record the restoration work carried out by Charles Hyde. |
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Early Portrait Photographers in Worthing
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Harvey Goble (c1822-1867) was the first
inhabitant of Worthing to pursue a career as a professional photographer. Around
1857, Harvey Goble erected a wooden photographic studio on the Pleasure Grounds
which bordered Chapel Road and South Street. Harvey Goble's studio was set up on
the field alongside Chapel Road, opposite Ann Street. Edward Snewin, an ancient
inhabitant of Worthing, recalled that the Commissioners of the town ordered the
removal of the wooden studio and "Mr. Goble's studio was put on wheels and
taken to Belle Vue." Harvey Goble had business premises in Chapel Road, where he worked as a carver and gilder. Goble seems to have operated a studio from his shop in Chapel Road, but in an 1858 Directory for Worthing he is listed as a photographic artist in South Street and 72 High Street. In French & Son's Handbook and directory for Worthing, published in 1859, Harvey Goble is listed as a "Photographist" in Chapel Road. At the time of the 1861 Census, Harvey Goble, Photographer, is recorded as living with his wife and five children at 72 High Street, Worthing. In the early 1860s, Goble appears to have been operating a photographic studio from his shop in Chapel Road and from his home in the High Street.
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[ABOVE] Three trade plate designs used by Harvey Goble on the backs of his carte-de-visite portraits between 1862 and 1867. |
An early Itinerant Photographer in Worthing
| William Barrett (1829-1863) was an itinerant photographer who arrived in Worthing around 1860. A native of Bradford, Yorkshire, Barrett had worked as a photographer in York, Durham and Worcester before reaching Sussex around 1858. He stayed in Chichester for a number of months before moving on to Worthing, where his daughter Julia was born on 5th May,1860. William Barrett remained in Worthing for less than a year, but when he died of an "aneurism of the heart" in February 1863, an obituary noted that he was "well-known" as a 'photographist" in Worthing. William Barrett settled in Bognor in 1861 and died there on 2nd February 1863. |
The Age of the Carte-de-visite Portrait
| Samuel Fox (1801-1867) had been born in Workington, Cumberland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In his advertisements, Samuel Fox proudly stated that he was " one of the OLDEST and MOST EXPERIENCED PHOTOGRAPHERS IN ENGLAND ". It appears that Fox was working as a daguerreotype artist in Ireland in the early years of photography, from around 1843 to 1846. Samuel Fox had married an Irish woman and his first two daughters were both born in Ireland. After a period in Ireland and possibly a spell as an itinerant photographer, Fox arrived in Sussex around 1850 and set up home in Fishbourne, a village situated a mile and a half from Chichester. By 1859, Samuel Fox had settled in Worthing. In an advertisement placed in French & Son's Directory of Worthing, published in 1859, Fox announced that "Portraits by every known process" would be taken daily at his studio, The Worthing Photographic Institute in Bath Buildings. This studio, which became known as Bath House, Bath Place, was to be the location of a photographic studio for the next fifty years. |
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[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a gentleman in a top hat by Samuel Fox of Worthing. |
[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a seated woman, taken by Samuel Fox of Worthing around 1867.
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[ABOVE] Two trade plate designs used by Samuel Fox on the backs of his cdvs between 1862 and 1867. |
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Charles Joseph Wright ( born c1823 ) began
his working career in Worthing as a tobacconist. Born in London around 1823,
Charles Joseph Wright was running a tobacconist shop at No.3 South Street,
Worthing from around 1850. Charles Wright's wife Mary was an "embroideress" by
trade and in the late 1850s a '"Berlin Wool Repository" had been added to his
business premises in South Street. By 1859, C. J. Wright had established a
photographic studio at 3, South Street. In the 1861 Census, Charles J. Wright
gives his occupation as "Photographer & Tobacconist", but as the years went on,
the production of photographic portraits became the main source of income. Forty
years later, in 1901, Charles Wright informed the census enumerator that he was
a "Retired Photographer", aged 78.
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[ABOVE] Two trade plate designs used by C. J. Wright on the backs of his carte-de-visite portraits between 1862 and 1870. |
Richard Blair ( born 1837, Worthing ) is
not recorded as a photographer in Worthing until his listing under the heading
of Photographic Artists in a Sussex trade directory of 1862. Richard Blair
operated a photographic studio in South Street, Worthing for the next eight
years. In 1870, Blair opened a new studio at 2 Montague Street, Worthing.
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[ABOVE] Two trade plate designs used by Richard Blair on the backs of his cdvs between 1862 and 1870. |
Photographic Studios in Worthing in 1871
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[ABOVE] Portrait of a seated girl holding an open book, a carte-de-visite by Josiah Russell of Worthing.
[ABOVE] The trade plate of Josiah Russell of Worthing |
In 1862, four Worthing photographers were listed
in the Trades Section of the Sussex Post Office Directory - Richard Blair
in South Street, Samuel Fox at Bath Place, Harvey Goble with one
studio in Chapel Road and another in the High Street, and Charles Joseph
Wright at No.3 South Street. Ten years later there were still only five
permanent studios in Worthing.( In 1871, Brighton had at least 32 studios and
over a hundred individuals engaged in the business of photography ). Three of
Worthing's original photographers had died during this period. William Barrett
had died in 1863 at Bognor, and both Samuel Fox and Harvey Goble had passed away
in the year of 1867. Josiah Russell (born 1840, Chichester), one of the
sons of the well known Chichester photographer
James Russell of Chichester,
took over Harvey Goble's business in the High Street. Samuel Fox's studio in
Bath Place was continued by his two eldest daughters,
Annette & Blanche Fox.
A new studio at 40 South Street was operated over the years by members of the
Green Family from Woolwich. The head of the family and the first proprietor of
the studio was the photographer
Thomas Oliver Green ( c1843-1924 ) and in
1871 he was assisted by his younger brother
Christopher Green
( born
1856, Derby )
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| [ABOVE] Portrait of a young lad holding a cricket bat, a cartes-de-visite by Thomas Oliver Green of South Street, Worthing. | [ABOVE] The trade plate of Thomas Oliver Green of South Street, Worthing. . | [ABOVE] Portrait of two women holding puppies and posing by an artificial window by Thomas Oliver Green of South Street, Worthing. |
Click here to go to A History of Professional Photography in Worthing : Part Two 1872-1881
