Corporation Road, Clerkenwell, December 13, 1867
Photograph
1867 (photographed)
1867 (photographed)
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Coloured photograph of destroyed buildings. The building on the left has two big holes in it leading into the building. The interior on the building on the right can still be made out. Planks of wood lean against the destroyed foreground of the left building.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Hand-coloured albumen print |
| Brief description | Photograph by Henry Bedford Lemere, 'Corporation Road, Clerkenwell, December 13, 1867', hand-coloured albumen print, 1867. Acquired as part of the Townshend Bequest |
| Physical description | Coloured photograph of destroyed buildings. The building on the left has two big holes in it leading into the building. The interior on the building on the right can still be made out. Planks of wood lean against the destroyed foreground of the left building. |
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| Gallery label | Photography Centre 2018-20:
Collection in Focus: Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798–1868)
Chauncy Hare Townshend was one of the few serious collectors of photography in the early years of its development. Apart from Prince Albert, he remains the only identifiable British private collector of early photographs on such a scale. He was an extremely wealthy art collector and connoisseur who moved in the highest social and literary circles – Charles Dickens even dedicated Great Expectations to him. Townshend bequeathed his large art collection, including paintings, furniture, gemstones, books and coins, as well as his photographs, to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1868. His impressive photography collection ranged from images of political, military and contemporary events to a particularly striking group of French fine art photographs. Practising photographers tended to collect photographs, exchanging works as examples of style and process. But Townshend, who was not a photographer, recognised both photography’s documentary value, and even more so, its exciting new artistic capabilities.
14. Henry Hering (1814–93)
Houses in Clerkenwell After the Explosion,
13 December 1867
1867
Hand-coloured albumen print
Museum no. 68044 |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Chauncey Hare Townshend |
| Object history | On 13 December 1867, Fenian (Irish Nationalist) sympathises detonated a bomb beneath the perimeter wall of Clerkenwell Goal, London, EC1, in an unsuccessful attempt to free two Fenian prisoners held inside. This view by well-known architectural photographer Bedford Lemere captures the aftermath of the explosion that injured more than 100 men, women and children and demolished many of the surrounding houses. Bedford Lemere, living only a mile and a half from the bomb site, likely documeted this dramatic event with a view to profit from the popular interest in Fenian activity at the time. The photographs were first published as eight carte-de-vistes, entitled: 'Scene of the Feninan Outrage at Clerkenwell, 13th Dec. 1867'. On the back of these photographs are the emblems of both Bedford Lemere and Henry Hering, a well-established photographer who also operated as a printseller and publisher. A note on the back of these photographs indicated that 'larger copies may be objtained'. This is one of four 10 x 12" albumen prints of these views in the V&A collection, bequethed to the Museum in October 1868 by Chauncey Hare Townshend, a major collector of early photographs in Britain. While they lack identification emblems, the close correspondence to the set of eight images suggests that Townshend's source was most probably Henry Hering, whose business was located only a few streets away from Bedford Lemere's at 137 Regent Street. This distribution relationship between Bedford Lemere and Hering also points to the probable source for many of the other photographs in the Townshend bequest, including works by Roger Fenton and seascapes by Le Gray, photographers Hering promoted, along with a range of architectural views, in his advertisements in the local press. This research is based upon the article by Anet Blackmore (1989) 'Photographs by Henry Bedford-Lemere', History of Photography, 13:4, 369-371. |
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| Bibliographic reference | Blackmore, Anet. 'Photographs by Henry Bedford-Lemere'. History of Photography, 13:4, 369-71. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 68044 |
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| Record created | July 1, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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