Former Memorial Photographic Studios, Hastings, East Sussex

Description

757/0/10113 ROBERTSON STREET AND 7 CAMBRIDGE ROAD
18-FEB-10 52 AND 52B
Former Memorial Photographic studios

GV II

Also Known As: Former Memorial Photographic studios, 52 AND 52B,
ROBERTSON STREET AND 7 CAMBRIDGE ROAD
Photographic studios and memorial art gallery, built c1864 by Mr Plummer for photographer FR Wells, in Italianate manner.

MATERIALS: Stucco-rendered brick, embellished with heads of figures and descriptive text, hipped slate roofs, glazed north-facing upper floor studio, cast iron window guards.

PLAN: Photographic studios, set over much-altered ground floor shops, occupy the upper floors of a commercial building on a flat-iron site at the apex of Robertson Street and Cambridge Road, which radiate, as part of a planned vista, from the C19 commercial centre of the town. The main elevation faces Robertson Street, which was one of the more affluent shopping streets on the south coast in the later C19. The studios have a small entrance on Cambridge Road which is otherwise dominated by a large panel advertising the Memorial Art Gallery.

EXTERIOR: The block is of three bays arranged over three storeys and attics. Ground floor shops on Robertson Street have altered or replaced shop fronts, the fascia of the corner unit obscuring or replacing any original fabric; these modern interventions are not of special interest. Two upper floors are articulated by three shallow bow windowed bays under an enriched continuous entablature and cornice, which at first floor incorporates alternating pediments; these are set between rusticated panels or piers which terminate in small pediments rising from the parapet. The attic storey has grouped round-headed windows over the window bays and at the apex of the block, and single windows in the outer bays. The central bay has a round-arched shell head; the panel below inscribed STUDIO while the flanking piers are enriched with a cartouche, each with a relief of a head in semi-profile. Windows have single-pane horned sashes, and single first floor windows have cast iron window guards. The pediment over the first floor window on the bullnose is hidden behind a temporary panel, while the second floor window has lost its pediment.

The Cambridge Road elevation is dominated by a large blank panel with cut-back angles, and inscribed MEMORIAL ART GALLERY on a detached moulded cornice. Above it is a north-facing studio window which fills the wide central bay at upper floor level, under a single-pitched glazed roof. The adjacent bays have hipped slate roofs, hidden behind the parapet. The studio window has timber casements and fixed lights, set behind a cast iron window guard. The eastern bay echoes the Robertson Street elevation. To the west is a three storey projecting oriel bay which is also enriched in the manner of the Robertson Street elevation, with a rusticated first floor and with pedimented or round-arched sash windows. It is set over an altered or possibly inserted entrance. The studio roof is flanked by tall stacks in narrow bays which from ground to upper floors also echo the treatment of the main elevation, and have deep cornices on moulded brackets.

The building has lost the tall lantern which dominated the apex of the block, and stacks or finials on the Robertson.

INTERIOR: Ground floor altered. Internally, studios lead off a stair at the western end of the block reached from the Cambridge Street entrance. Some floors appear to be subdivided, with a small room at the apex of the block, and are used as offices.

HISTORY
The Memorial Studio was built c1864 by Mr Plummer for photographer FR Wells. It occupied premises above 51 and 52 Robertson Street, no. 52 being equipped with a north facing 'glass-house' studio which was said to be the 'Best Lighted one on the South Coast'. The building was in continuous use as a photographic studio until the end of the First World War.

Following the work of Daguerre and Fox Talbot in the 1830s, which enabled an image to be fixed on paper and printed from a negative image, commercial photography developed rapidly. The wet collodion process was developed in the 1850s, followed by the dry plate technique in the late 1870s, which both accelerated the photographic process and reduced costs.

Commercial photographers saw an opportunity in the growing seaside resorts and spas, where holiday makers with disposable income sought out new diversions, including the rapidly growing business of portrait photography. Richard Beauford had set up a studio in St Leonards in 1849, to be joined by Mr D Gates and Frederick Brookes in 1854, and by 1861 there were half a dozen photographic studios in Hastings and St Leonards. London-based photographers might expand their business by investing in a second studio; Robert Boning, for example, opening a studio in St Leonards in 1864. In terms of premises, Robert Farmer in Brighton and Albert Vidler in Eastbourne had each constructed purpose-built 'glasshouses' in the 1850s 'on scientific principles' and 'expressly for the purpose'.

From the mid-1880s The Memorial Studio was connected with a family who had a long and productive association with the photographic profession. William Stephen Bradshaw (1833-1915) began his career as a photographers' assistant in 1856 working for the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company which was one of the most successful commercial photographers of its day. In 1874 he moved to the rival firm, The London School of Photography, before setting up his own business in one of their studios, at 103 Newgate Street, in 1876. The business expanded, acquiring a second studio in Cheapside. By 1881 his elder son GW Bradshaw was registered as a photographer, working with his father in London, while his younger son, also a photographer, went on to manage the family business in South Africa. By 1885 WS Bradshaw & Sons was advertising a studio in Hastings which two years later GW Bradshaw took over, occupying first 52c and then 52d Robertson Street until he left Hastings in 1901. Although noted largely for his studio portraits, some of his views of Hastings survive. During the 1890s he experimented with the use of the platinotype, which used platinum rather than silver to produce a crisper and more durable photograph.

SOURCES
L Scrivens, C Wright, Hurrah for Hastings, A Celebration, (2009)
David Simkin, A History of Professional Photography in Hastings and St Leonards: Part one 1849-1863, and Hastings and St Leonards: Directory, http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk accessed 30 Nov 2009
David Simkin, An Outline of Professional Photography in Sussex from 1841-1855, http://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/sussexearly.htm accessed 30 Nov 2009

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Former Memorial Studios, 52 and 52b Robertson Street and 7 Cambridge Road is listed for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: Purpose-built photographic studios, with an embellished exterior which advertises its trade;
* Materials: Ornate stucco rendered Italianate facades enriched with descriptive text and figure sculpture;
* Plan: North-facing top-lit studios above shops, on a prominent flat-iron site in the centre of C19 commercial Hastings;
* Intactness: Largely unaltered upper floor exteriors and sufficient of the studio layout to demonstrate its function;
* Rarity: Unusual and early survival of a once common seaside facility, which in this case was purpose-built;
* Historical interest: Continuous well-documented use as photographic studios which illustrates the development of the profession from the mid-C19 to early C20 in the particular context of the seaside resort.

Reasons for Listing

Former Memorial Studios, 52 and 52b Robertson Street and 7 Cambridge Road should be listed for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: Purpose-built photographic studios and gallery, with an embellished exterior which advertises its trade;
* Materials: Ornate stucco rendered Italiante facades enriched with text and figure sculpture;
* Plan: North-facing top-lit studios above shops, on a prominent flat-iron site in the centre of C19 commercial Hastings;
* Intactness: Largely unaltered upper floor exteriors and sufficient of the studio layout to demonstrate its function;
* Rarity: Unusual and early survival of a once common seaside facility, which in this case was purpose-built;
* Historical interest: Continuous well-documented use as photographic studios which illustrates the development of the profession from the mid-C19 to early C20 in the particular context of the seaside resort.

External Links

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