Worthing Photographers - G

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Professional Photographers in Worthing (G)

Walter Gardiner - James C. Gibbs - Harvey Goble - Harry F. Goodden -  G. & J. C. Green - T. O. Green - (The Green Family)

Walter James GARDINER ( born 1862, Maidstone, Kent - died 1938)

Annie GARDINER ( born 1864, Wallingford, Berkshire )

Click here to read a more detailed account of the life and career of Walter & Annie Gardiner

 

Walter James Gardiner (left) was born on 6th May 1862 in Maidstone, Kent. Walter was the second of three children born to John Job Gardiner (born 1830 Oxford) and his first wife Harriett Fuller (born 1840, Boxley, Kent). For the first five years of their marriage, the Gardiners lived in Maidstone, Kent, but around 1867, John Gardiner took his family to Oxford. Mrs Harriett Gardiner, Walter's mother, died in Oxford in 1869 at the age of 29. The following year, Walter's father, a widower with three young children, married Alice Ann Bloxham (born 1843 Wardington, Oxfordshire). At the time of the 1881 census, John J. Gardiner, was employed as the Bailiff of Oxford Market and is recorded as living at No 9 Market Street, Oxford, with his wife Alice and his ten children. On the 1881 census return, Walter J. Gardiner is described as an eighteen year old "Ironmonger's Assistant".

Walter Gardiner and Annie Elizabeth Jenkins

In 1887, at the age of twenty-five, Walter Gardiner married Annie Elizabeth Jenkins (born 1864, Wallingford, Berkshire) in Tunbridge Wells. Annie Elizabeth Jenkins was the daughter of Henry Jenkins (born 1838), a photographer and hairdresser of Wallingford, Berkshire. In 1881, Annie Jenkins, then aged only 17, was working as a "Photographer & Hairdresser's Assistant" in her father's shop. Later that year, Annie moved with her family to Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It was here that Annie met and married Walter Gardiner.

Walter and Annie Gardiner had decided to emigrate and, immediately following their marriage in 1887, they departed on the migrant passenger ship "Austral", bound for New Zealand. Walter and Annie disembarked at Melbourne, Australia later that year and eventually reached Bairnsdale, some 170 miles east of Melbourne. The Gardiners had brought with them some photographic equipment, including a half-plate camera, and were able to supplement their income by taking portraits and views of the surrounding countryside. After five years of trying to build a new life in Australia, economic circumstances finally forced the Gardiners to quit Bairnsdale and return to England around 1893.

Walter and Annie Gardiner in Worthing

In 1893, with the financial assistance of family members, Walter and Annie Gardiner purchased the studio of Edward Pattison Pett at Bath Place, Worthing. Under the studio name of "Walter Gardiner", the husband and wife team produced carte-de-visite and cabinet format portraits, photographic illustrations for town guide books and other local publications, and early picture postcards, featuring views of Worthing.

In July 1900, the Gardiners opened a new studio at The Broadway, London Road, Worthing. A year or two later, the original studio at Bath Place was closed. The Gardiners continued at the Broadway Studio well into the the twentieth century and when Walter Gardiner retired, his son William Raphael Gardiner (born 1891, Bairnsdale, Australia) took over the running of the photography business. The Walter Gardiner Photographic Studio was eventually passed on to William Gardiner's son, Derek Gardiner (born 1924, Worthing). The firm of Walter Gardiner Photography continues in Worthing to this day under the name of WGphoto.

 

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Walter Gardiner, photographer of  Bath Place, Worthing. (c1895).
 

 [ABOVE] The studio details given on a Walter Gardiner carte-de-visite produced at The Broadway Studio, Worthing (c1903)

 

 

Click here to view  photographic portraits from the Walter Gardiner studio (1893-1910)

WGphoto held many of the glass negatives produced by the studio of Walter Gardiner between 1893 and 1955. A selection of these images can be viewed in the archive section of the WGphoto website.

Up until recent times, the firm of WGphoto held many of the glass negatives produced by the studio of Walter Gardiner between 1893 and 1955. A selection of these images can be viewed in the archive section of the WGphoto website. In November 2007, Mike Hemsley, the owner of WGphoto placed around 116,000 images from the Walter Gardiner Archive into the safe hands of West Sussex County Library Services for posterity.

A selection of images from the Walter Gardiner Archive can be viewed at http://www.wgphoto.co.uk/archive.htm . There are also links to the WGphoto archive through the picture of Gardiner's Bath Place Studio, 1893 (left) and the Portrait of Walter Gardiner (top left).

 

 

Photographic Portraits from the Walter Gardiner Studio

 

Click here to view  photographic portraits from the Walter Gardiner studio (1893-1910)

James C. GIBBS

   

Harvey GOBLE (c1822-1867)

Harvey Goble was born in Worthing around 1822, the son of Dinah Heather and Thomas Harvey Goble (died 1842), a coal merchant and house agent of Worthing. In 1846, Harvey Goble married Elizabeth Biggs (born c1814 Box, Wiltshire) [ marriage registered in Brighton during the March Quarter of 1846 ]. Harvey Goble began his working life as a carver & gilder and he is recorded as such in 1851. Harvey Goble appears to have been the first inhabitant of Worthing to pursue a career as a professional photographer. [ In 1855, Edward Charles Cortis had set himself up as a photographer at his father's chemist shop in Worthing's South Street, but he went on to become a manufacturing chemist]. 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."

In 1851, Harvey Goble is recorded as a "carver & gilder" in Chapel Road, Worthing. In an 1855 Post Office Directory, Harvey Goble is listed as a "Painter" and is shown residing at "The George" (later known as "The Royal George") in Market Street, Worthing. Harvey Goble is next recorded with business premises in Chapel Road, where he previously worked as a carver and gilder. Goble seems to have operated a studio from his shop in Chapel Road, but in Melville & Co.'s Directory of Sussex, issued in 1858, he is recorded as a photographic artist in Worthing at 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. The same Worthing Directory carried an advertisement for "Goble's Photographic Gallery, near the Town Hall". At the time of the 1861 Census, Harvey Goble is described as a "Photographer", aged 39, and 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 two photographic studios, one at his shop in Chapel Road and the other at his home in Worthing's High Street. The 1866 Post Office Directory records "H. Goble" as a photographer at Chapel Road, Worthing, only. There is some evidence that Goble also operated a photographic studio at 16 High Street, Worthing, but by 1867 this studio had passed to Josiah Russell (born 1839, Chichester).

Harvey Goble died in Worthing in 1867, at the age of 45 [Goble's death was registered in Worthing during the Third Quarter of 1867]. Harvey and Elizabeth Goble produced at least 5 children - Kate S. Goble (born 1848, Worthing), who was later employed as a school governess, Emma Jane Goble (born 1850, Worthing), who became the second wife of the Worthing photographer Thomas Oliver Green (1843-1924) -see below - Harvey Goble junior (born c1852, Worthing), who appears to have died young, Ellen Mary Goble (born c1854, Worthing), who married Nathaniel John Lloyd in 1880, but died at the age of 26, early in 1882, and Sarah Naylor Goble (born 1856, Worthing), who, like her eldest sister, later worked as a school governess in Worthing. At the time of the 1881 census, Mrs Elizabeth Goble, Harvey Goble's wife, is recorded at 6 Warwick Place, Worthing, with her two unmarried daughters, Kate and Sarah. Mrs Elizabeth Goble is described in the 1881 census return as a "Photographer's widow", aged 67. Both Kate and Sarah Goble give their occupation as "School Governess".

 

[ABOVE] Trade plate of Harvey Goble, Photographer, Worthing (c1862). [BELOW] Advertisement for Harvey Goble's  Photographic Gallery which appeared in French & Son's Handbook and Directory of Worthing, published in 1859.

 [ABOVE] Advertisement for Harvey Goble's  Photographic Gallery which appeared in French & Son's Handbook and Directory of Worthing, published in 1859.

Carte-de-visite Portraits by Harvey Goble of Worthing

[ABOVE] Above a portrait of a seated man by Harvey Goble of Worthing. The photograph is inscribed "D. Lewis, Esqre " (c1867)

[ABOVE] A pair of portraits from the studio of Harvey Goble of Worthing (c1862). The pair were presumably a married couple.

[ABOVE] A portrait of a clergyman by Harvey Goble of Worthing (c1866).

 

 

Harry F. GOODDEN

[ABOVE] Interior of a Worthing Cafe. A real-photograph postcard by H.F. Goodden of Park Road, Worthing (c1911)

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Geoffrey Godden]

 

THE GREEN FAMILY

Christopher GREEN (born c1856 Derby)  - George GREEN (born c1851 Woolwich, Kent) - James Christopher GREEN (born c1845 - died 1895)  -
John Charles GREEN (born c1844 Woolwich, Kent) - Thomas Oliver GREEN (born c1843 Woolwich, Kent - died 1924, Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire)
   
 

 

[ABOVE] A vignette portrait of a man, a carte-de-visite by Thomas Oliver Green of South Street, Worthing.
 

[ABOVE] The trade plate on the reverse of  a carte-de-visite  by Thomas Oliver Green of South Street, Worthing.

 

 

 

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