Worthing PhotoHistory
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[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 (c1822-1867) 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
The earliest photographer in Worthing appears to have been Edward Charles Cortis (1837-1899), 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 :
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. Charles Cortis, Edward's father, 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 ] |
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[ABOVE] An early photograph of Worthing Town Hall and the Town Water Pump (1854). A horse-drawn water cart is being filled by the water pump which was situated at the top of South Street on the eastern edge of the Pleasure Grounds. Taken in 1854, this photograph could be an early view taken by Edward Charles Cortis. Early advertisements mention that Edward Cortis took photographs of "public buildings". | [ABOVE] A photograph of the Worthing Dispensary in Chapel Road, Worthing, taken by Edward Charles Cortis around 1857. This photograph is one of the few images that has been identified as the work of Edward Charles Cortis, one of Worthing's earliest photographers. Other images of Worthing which date from between 1855 and 1860 have been attributed to Edward Charles Cortis. These early photographs include views of St Mary's Church, Broadwater, and Worthing Town Hall. |
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Early Portrait Photographers in Worthing
Harvey Goble (c1822-1867) was the first
inhabitant of Worthing to pursue a long-term 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 of 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 Worthing's High Street.
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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, William 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, so he might have made regular trips to the neighbouring seaside resort after he and his family had settled in Bognor in 1861. William Barrett died in Bognor on 2nd February 1863 when he was in his early thirties. |
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, Samuel 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, Samuel 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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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, Worthing. 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 his 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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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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Photographic Studios in Worthing in 1871
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Click here to go to A History of Professional Photography in Worthing : Part Two 1872-1881
Click here to go to Topographical Cartes-de-visite of Worthing
Click here to go to A Directory of Worthing Photographers 1854-1910