Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 1004, Box C

Palace Yard, Lambeth

Photograph
ca. 1865 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Strudwick was born in London in 1834 on Edgware Road and lived in Lambeth and West Dulwich. He acted as a photographic storekeeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but also worked as a draftsman, architect, and sculptor and wrote comic poetry. Henry Cole, the founder founding director of the V&A, encouraged the purchase of Strudwick’s series of photographs titled Old London: Views by W. Strudwick. The series is around 50 in total and was purchased from the photographer in 1869. It documents the old cityscape, including the East End’s medieval coaching inns prior to their demolition to make way for the railways, and the riverside shortly before the construction of the Embankment. His views from the river banks show the traffic of steam and sail boats, barges and working warehouses. His street scenes are populated by tradesmen paused in their activities unloading barrels from horse- drawn carts and groups of Dickensian urchins staring at the camera. Strudwick’s project echoes other similar survey initiatives at this time which recognized photography as the quintessential medium to save from oblivion what was about to disappear. In 1910, Lambeth Archives acquired a set of Strudwick’s photographs, the same year they he was admitted as a pauper to Croydon workhouse where he died.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Palace Yard, Lambeth (assigned by artist)
  • Old London: Views by W. Strudwick (series title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
London Photographs; Lambeth Palace Yard
Physical description
Albumen print photograph
Dimensions
  • Image height: 284mm
  • Image width: 242mm
Gallery label
  • Photo London: Beneath the Surface Somerset House May 20 - August 24, 2015 William Strudwick (1834–1910) From the series Old London: Views by W. Strudwick, 1860–1868 Strudwick was photographic storekeeper at the V&A, but also worked as a draftsman, architect, sculptor and poet. This series documents areas of old London, including the riverside shortly before the construction of the Embankment and the medieval coaching inns prior to their demolition to make way for the railways. (20-05-2015 - 24-08-2015)
Object history
Purchased by Henry Cole from the photographer
Association
Summary
Strudwick was born in London in 1834 on Edgware Road and lived in Lambeth and West Dulwich. He acted as a photographic storekeeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but also worked as a draftsman, architect, and sculptor and wrote comic poetry. Henry Cole, the founder founding director of the V&A, encouraged the purchase of Strudwick’s series of photographs titled Old London: Views by W. Strudwick. The series is around 50 in total and was purchased from the photographer in 1869. It documents the old cityscape, including the East End’s medieval coaching inns prior to their demolition to make way for the railways, and the riverside shortly before the construction of the Embankment. His views from the river banks show the traffic of steam and sail boats, barges and working warehouses. His street scenes are populated by tradesmen paused in their activities unloading barrels from horse- drawn carts and groups of Dickensian urchins staring at the camera. Strudwick’s project echoes other similar survey initiatives at this time which recognized photography as the quintessential medium to save from oblivion what was about to disappear. In 1910, Lambeth Archives acquired a set of Strudwick’s photographs, the same year they he was admitted as a pauper to Croydon workhouse where he died.
Bibliographic reference
Strudwick, Willliam, “Photography in the ‘Sixties’” (1896), in: Process Yearbook, Vol. 2 1896 - 1897 pp. 78 - 82 Photo London catalogue, teNeues (2015), pp. 197-199 Martin Barnes, 'What lies Beneath', in: Financial Times Weekend Magazine, May 2015, pp.4-8
Collection
Accession number
59400

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Record createdJuly 12, 2011
Record URL
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