Frank Houghton Berry (1852 - 1923)

Frank Houghton Berry was born in Brighton in 1852, the son of Mary Houghton and John Charles Berry, a printer, bookseller and stationer. Frank's father, John Charles Berry, had been born in Chertsey, Surrey, on 16th May 1820, the son of Sarah and Daniel Berry. On 15th August 1846, at Christ Church, Southwark, in South London, John Charles Berry married Mary Houghton (born c1815, St Columb Major, Cornwall). Shortly after their marriage, the couple settled in Brighton, where all four of their children were born - George Walter Houghton Berry (born 1847), Mary Houghton Berry (born 1849), Frank Houghton Berry (born 1852) and Catharine Houghton Berry (born 1854).

By 1858, John Charles Berry had established himself up as a printer, bookseller and stationer at 26 St James Street, Brighton, in the Kemp Town district of the town. John Charles Berry is recorded as a bookseller and stationer in Brighton's St James Street throughout the 1860s, but the business came to an end when Frank's father died in 1869 at the age of 48. After the death of her husband, Mrs Mary Berry set up a lodging house in Brighton's King's Road. The 1871 census records Mrs Mary Berry, a fifty-six year old widow, as a lodging house keeper at 48 King's Road Brighton. Mrs Berry's teenage son, Frank Berry, had already begun his career as a professional photographer. The 1871 census records Frank Berry as a nineteen year old "Photographic Artist" residing with his widowed mother at her Brighton lodging house.

By the end of the decade, Frank Berry and his mother had left Brighton and relocated to the London area. In 1880, Frank Houghton Berry married Esther Blanche Walker (born 1854, Westminster, London), the daughter of Martha Matilda Palmer and Charles Walker, a London police inspector. Charles Walker (born c1821 London) had married Martha Matilda Palmer (born c1822 London) at All Souls Church in the London district of Marylebone on 8th January 1844. Charles and Martha Walker produced a large number of children, ten of whom reached adulthood. Esther Blanche Walker was the second eldest of seven daughters fathered by Police Inspector Charles Walker.

When the 1881 census was taken, Frank Houghton Berry was living with his wife at 25 Essex Road, off Horn Lane, in the London suburb of Acton. On the census return, Frank H. Berry is described as a twenty-nine year old "Photographic Artist". Residing a few doors away at 21 Essex Road, Horn Lane, Acton, was Frank Berry's widowed mother, sixty-six year old Mrs Mary Berry and his younger unmarried sister twenty-six year old Catharine Houghton Berry. As Mrs Berry's eldest surviving son (her first-born son George Walter Houghton Berry had died in Chertsey, Surrey, in 1872 at the age of 24), Frank Berry was probably supporting his mother and sister financially at this time.

It appears that Esther Berry, Frank Berry's wife, gave birth to a daughter later that year, but the little girl died in 1883, when she was only 2 years of age. During the 2nd Quarter of 1883, when the Berry Family were still living in Acton, Frank's wife Esther gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Evelyn Maude Houghton Berry. A third daughter, Florence Edith Berry was born in Acton during the 4th Quarter of 1884.

By 1888, Frank Houghton Berry and his family were living in the Shepherds Bush area of West London. Frank Berry's son Vivian Houghton Berry was born in Shepherds Bush during the 3rd Quarter of 1888.

The London Studio of Berry & Sharp

In the early 1890s Frank Houghton Berry operated a photographic studio with a young London photographer named James Ledgett Sharp (born 1868, Rotherhithe, South London).

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown man photographed at the studio of Berry & Sharp at 16 & 17 Poultry, Cheapside, London, E.C. (1892). The partners in the photographic firm of Berry & Sharp were Frank Houghton Berry (1852-1923) and James Ledgett Sharp (born 1868, Rotherhithe).

Berry & Sharp

There is a suggestion that around this time Frank Berry was employed as a photographer by Henry Coppin, who owned a photographic portrait studio at 16 & 17 Poultry, City of London. In the early 1890s, Frank Houghton Berry entered into a business partnership with a young London photographer James Ledgett Sharp (born 1868, Rotherhithe, South London). By the end of 1891, the photographic studio at 16 & 17 Poultry, City of London carried the name of Berry & Sharp. However, the partnership between Frank Berry and James Sharp lasted only for a year or so. On 2nd August 1892, The London Gazette published a notice announcing the dissolution of the business partnership between Frank Houghton Berry and James Sharp, previously "carrying on the trade or business of Photographic Artists at 16 and 17 Poultry, in the city of London". The partnership of Berry and Sharp was dissolved "by mutual consent" on 21st July 1892, the business being carried on by James Sharp, who took on "all debts due to and from the said Partnership". James Sharp continued as a photographer at 16 & 17 Poultry, City of London until 1893, when the studio became the Mansion House Photographic Company under the management of William George Plowright.

Towards the end of 1893, Frank Berry's wife Esther died at the age of 38. [The death of Esther Blanche Berry was registered in the South London district of Camberwell during the 4th Quarter of 1893]. Frank Houghton Berry was left a widower with three children under the age of 10 to care for and support. Assistance was provided by Frank Berry's mother-in-law Mrs Martha Walker (c1822-1901) and two of her unmarried daughters, Adelaide Alexandra Walker (born 1864, Westminster) and Louisa Alberta Walker (born 1867, Westminster).

Frank Houghton Berry returns to Sussex

Around 1897, Frank Houghton Berry returned to Sussex to pursue his photographic career. It appears that Frank Berry set himself up as a portrait photographer in Hove, but his first venture was not successful. A trade directory published in 1898, but compiled during the previous year, records Frank H. Berry as a photographer at 48 Coleridge Street, Hove. On 1st November 1897, at a County Court hearing, Frank Houghton Berry, a photographer of Hove, was recorded with debts of £20 9s 8d.

It was around the time of the County Court judgement in 1897 that Frank Berry made contact with Mrs Sarah Spink, the widow of photographer Henry Joseph Spink (1838-1892). For a quarter of a century, Henry Joseph Spink had been one of the leading photographers in Brighton and Hove, operating studios at 109 Western Road, Brighton and, since 1878, at 36 Goldstone Villas, Cliftonville( now part of Hove). From around 1890, Spink's Brighton studio in Western Road was run by his son Henry Spink junior(1865-1943), with the Goldstone Villas studio remaining under the control of Henry Joseph Spink  After Henry Joseph Spink died on 23rd May 1892, at the age of 53, Henry J. Spink's studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, West Brighton (Hove), was initially managed by his youngest son Samuel George Spink, but when Samuel and his family returned to Australia, the studio passed to Henry Spink's widow, Mrs Sarah Spink (1839-1899).

[ABOVE] A photograph of Henry Joseph Spink's house and studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, Cliftonville, taken around 1878. Mrs Sarah Spink, the photographer's wife, stands at the gate.

[PHOTO COURTESY OF DENISE DAGEN OF NEW SOUTH WALES]

In Towner's 1896 Directory of Brighton & Hove, Mrs Sarah Spink, Henry Spink's widow, is listed as a photographer at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove. It appears that from around 1897, Mrs Spink recruited Frank Houghton Berry to run her studio in Goldstone Villas. Although Mrs Sarah Spink probably retained ownership of the studio, from 1897 the studio was listed under the name of Frank H. Berry.

The Studio of Frank H. Berry at Goldstone Villas, Hove

Frank Houghton Berry is first recorded as a photographer at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove in the 1897 edition of Pike's Directory of Brighton & Hove. Interestingly, in the Street Directories published around this time, the name of Frank H. Berry appears alongside the name of Henry Joseph Spink (Mrs Sarah Spink) at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove. It appears that Frank Berry continued to reside at 48 Coleridge Street, Hove, during his time at the Goldstone Villas studio. (Frank H. Berry is listed as the occupant of 48 Coleridge Street, Hove in the 1898 editions of both Kelly's Sussex Directory and Towner's Directory of Brighton & Hove). Frank Houghton Berry is recorded as a photographer at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove for just two years, between 1897 and 1899.

Frank Houghton Berry's Second Marriage

When Frank Houghton Berry arrived in Hove in 1897, he was a forty-five year old widower with three children under the age of sixteen - Evelyn Maude (aged 14), Florence Edith (aged 13) and Vivian Frank Berry (aged 9). It seems that after the death of Mrs Esther Berry in 1893, Frank Berry had become close to his late wife's sisters, Adelaide Alexandra Walker (born 1864, Westminster) and Louisa Alberta Walker (born 1867, Westminster). Towards the end of 1898, at Hove, Frank Berry married his thirty-four year old sister-in-law Adelaide Walker. [The marriage of Frank Houghton Berry and  Adelaide Alexandra Walker was registered in the Sussex district of Steyning (which embraced Hove) during the 4th Quarter of 1898].

Presumably, Frank Berry, his new wife Adelaide, and the three children from his first marriage, made their home at 48 Coleridge Street, Hove. During the final quarter of 1899, a year after their marriage, Frank and Adelaide Berry became the parents of a baby daughter named Violet Medeline Berry. [The birth of Violet Medeline Berry was registered in the Sussex district of Steyning during the 4th Quarter of 1898].

With the death of Mrs Sarah Spink, the owner of the Goldstone Villas studio, in 1899, the special arrangement between Mrs Spink and Frank Berry came to an end. The photographic studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove was eventually sold to John Weaver Innes (born c1862, Hackney, London) and his business partner Henry Bate (born 1863, Marylebone, London). After the dissolution of the firm of Innes & Bate, the studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove was retained by Henry Bate, who operated as a photographer from the Goldstone Villas address until the outbreak of the First World War.

The Goldstone Villas Studio in Hove

[ABOVE] A photograph of Henry Joseph Spink's house and studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, Cliftonville, taken around 1878. Mrs Sarah Spink, the photographer's wife, stands at the gate. The building, the walls of which are covered with the photographer's publicity, stands on a corner at the junction between Goldstone Villas and Shirley Street.

[ABOVE] A late Victorian map showing the location of the photographic studio at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove (marked in red), where photographer Frank Houghton Berry was based between 1897 and 1899. Frank H. Berry's home was at 48 Coleridge Street, Hove (marked in green). Hove Railway Station (top right-hand corner of the map), was within walking distance of Frank Berry's home and studio.

[ABOVE] A recent photograph of 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove (2005). This building was used continuously as a photographic portrait studio between 1878 and 1914. Originally owned by Henry Joseph Spink, the Goldstone Villa studio was taken over by Frank Houghton Berry around 1897. The studio was sold to John Weaver Innes and Henry Bate in 1900.

[ABOVE] An extract from the listing of occupants of the buildings in Goldstone Villas, Hove, which appeared in the Brighton & Hove Street Directory section of Kelly's Directory of Sussex, published in 1899. Frank H. Berry is listed as a photographer at 36 Goldstone Villas, Hove, but the name of the previous owner of the studio, Henry Joseph Spink, is still shown alongside Frank Berry at No.36.

After his studio in Hove was sold in 1900, Frank Houghton Berry secured a position as a studio manager in Walthamstow, a north-eastern suburb of London, which was then part of Essex, but now lies within the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

The 1901 census records Frank Houghton Berry and his family residing in the living quarters attached to a photographic portrait studio at 163 Hoe Street, Walthamstow. The studio that Frank Berry managed was owned by the firm of Takewhel & Pretti, which also operated a studio at 855 Romford Road, Manor Park in East London. On the census return, forty-nine year old Frank H. Berry is described as a "Photographer's Manager". Sharing the apartment at 163 Hoe Street, Walthamstow. was thirty-six year old Adelaide Berry, Frank's second wife, two children from his first marriage, his daughter Florence and twelve year old son Vivian Frank Berry, plus two year old Violet, the daughter he had fathered with his second wife. Frank Berry's sixteen year old daughter Florence Edith Berry (born 1884, Acton, Middlesex) was employed as a  "Photographer's Receptionist" at Takewhel & Pretti's Walthamstow branch studio. Frank Berry's eldest daughter Evelyn Maude Berry (born 1883, Acton, Middlesex) was living away from home in Battersea, London, where she was working as a photographer. On the 1901 census return, Evelyn M. Berry is recorded as a "Photographer", aged 17, residing at a house called "Corve Dale" in Boundaries Road, Balham, London SW.

By 1911, Frank Houghton Berry had left the employment of Takewhel & Pretti and was working as a photographer in West London. At the time of the 1911 census, Frank Houghton Berry was residing at 38 Aylmer Road, off Wendell Road, North Hammersmith, London W12 with his wife Adelaide and their twelve year old daughter Violet Madeline Berry.

Although two of Frank Berry's daughters were employed in the business of photography - Florence Berry (born 1884, Acton, Middlesex) working as a "Photographer's Receptionist" in her teenage years and Evelyn Berry (born 1883, Acton, Middlesex) earning her living as a photographer in London in 1901 - his only son Vivian Frank Berry chose a career in the Royal Navy. The 1911 census, records twenty year old Vivian Frank Houghton Berry serving overseas in the Royal Navy. Vivian Berry survived the First World War to marry Isobel F. Tingle in Hammersmith in 1922.

Frank Houghton Berry died in the London district of Wandsworth in 1923 at the age of 71. [The death of Frank Houghton Berry was registered in the district of Wandsworth during the 3rd Quarter of 1893].