Arches and domes

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the centre of Milan is four storeys high, two arcades each with a glass vaulted roof.  Where the two arcades meet, they form an octagonal glass dome.  The Galleria took 12 years to build, from 1865 to 1877, but the card is more recent, probably 1915-1920.  Nowadays the shops sell luxury goods, plus some cafes and restaurants.  McDonalds had been one of the tenants for 20 years but the city of Milan refused to renew its tenancy in 2012.

While on the subject of arches and places to buy things, here is a card from Lugano in Switzerland, the Portici (arcades) di Via Pessina.  Again these date from the 19th century.  Nowadays the road is entirely pedestrianised and the shops sell mainly crafts, jewellery, and delicatessen foodstuffs.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the site.

Not in my backyard (NIMBY)

The church in whose backyard there are all those cooling towers is St Edward the Confessor's Church, Brotherton in Yorkshire.  In some accounts I've found, it's described as medieval, in others as 19th century.  According to the National Archives, it has records going back to 1562.  Whichever way you look at it, it's far older than the Ferrybridge B power station which was built in the 1950s and closed in the 1990s.

The photo, taken by Eric de Maré sometime between 1960 and 1980, reminds me of the postcard I bought at Richborough Castle in Kent.  It too shows cooling towers in the background, and they too have now been demolished, though there was a very strong campaign to preserve them.

The first picture comes from a postcard set "Postcards of our Past" issued by English Heritage, the second is also published by them and on sale at the Richborough Castle site.  Maybe someone in English Heritage has a special fondness for cooling towers.  Industrial Heritage in your backyard.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the site.

Three men - riding llamas

Three men hiking up a mountain with a telescope proved an impossible task so my offering has to be three men on llamas.

The card itself was sent to me from France three years ago with the only information on the reverse being "Hommes et lamas" from Editions du Désastre, Paris.  I spent quite some time trying to find out where in France these llamas might have been found without any success.

It wasn't until I remembered the clever Google search by image that I found an exact match, and via Getty Images I realised that the image originated in England.  Not at Ampthill House Llama Farm as suggested by Getty Images but at Wingfield Zoo, Ampthill also known as Ampthill Zoo.  There are further images of the same type at Ampthill Images website.

Apparently it was a private zoo maintained by Mr Wingfield from the late 1800s until after World War I.  He had all sorts of animals other than llamas roaming freely: camels, bison, pigs ostriches, all great attractions, especially as rides.  The animals were gradually transferred to Whipsnade Zoo (created 1926) when the estate zoo was gradually run down.

Further information about the town of Ampthill in Bedfordshire, including Ampthill House and the zoo, can be found on the Towns in Britain site.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the site.

Uniforms - three men and a woman

Not sepia, not suits and not (only) three men.

There is a story behind the postcard.  It is one from a pack sold to raise funds for the Deal Memorial Bandstand Trust which was set up to provide a memorial for the 11 bandsmen who were killed in 1989 by the explosion in the Royal Marines Barracks caused by an IRA bomb.  My neighbour who lives only a few hundred metres away remembers the explosion and resulting uproar very clearly.

There are concerts every Sunday and Wednesday throughout the summer in the bandstand in Deal, Kent, but each July a special Royal Marines concert is held in memory of those bandsmen.  The pictures on the postcards come from the 20th anniversary concert.  This year there will be another anniversary, the 25th.

The three plus one people in the picture are Chelsea Pensioners in their very distinctive uniforms.  This means they live in the Royal Army retirement home, the Royal Hospital Chelsea.  It was only in 2009 that women were first allowed so we must be looking at one of the first here, possibly Winifred Phillips.  The scarlet uniform is worn on ceremonial occasions.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday

To be fleeced in Monte Carlo

Postcards of the Casino in Monte Carlo are commonplace and many are extremely similar, with only the flower display in the garden to distinguish the years.  This one, though, stands out because of the charabanc parked in front, either picking up or letting off its passengers.  The difference between the picking up and setting down isn't as obvious as it is in my second card below.

The charabanc driver is seated on the right of the vehicle which would indicate it's a British charabanc but there are no distinguishing marks that I can see.  I had hoped the fairly distinctive curved supports for the windscreen would help but after ploughing through an internet's worth of images, I am none the wiser.

I am not very proficient at dating cards from the fashions worn but I would guess that this may date from pre- First World War.

There are quite a few postcards using an image of sheep "before" and "after" visiting the Casino but this is the only one I own.

This is a post for Sepia Saturday

Spectator sports

I focused on the sporting aspect of the theme for Sepia Saturday today and found this card showing spectators at Victoria Park, 1961.  It doesn't actually say where Victoria Park is, I imagine vast numbers of towns have a Victoria Park, but I'm making a guess at Victoria Park in London's Tower Hamlets based on the fact that many of the cards in this series are of London.  You can still see similar informal football matches there.

I did in the end find a card showing a moustache...

Maintenance on the clock face of Big Ben, 1950-1960s.   In case you don't believe me about the moustache:

These postcards are from English Heritage, created from their range of images showing social history, as well as architectural and industrial heritage.

An entry for this week's Sepia Saturday on the subject of moustaches (for Movember).

Timber framed houses

In the same stash of postcards I came across last week were these three of timber framed houses.

The first is unfortunately no longer standing.  The Old Dutch House was built in the 17th century in the centre of Bristol.  It wasn't called the Old Dutch House until much later, in the 19th century.  The story goes that it was built from Dutch timber, possibly from an old ship.

It was damaged during an air raid early in World War II and demolished soon afterwards in 1940.

God's Providence House in Chester is happily still in use. Although there was a building on the site from the 14th century, the current house was built in the 17th century like the building in Bristol.  There is a shop at street level and another reached by steps forming part of Chester's unique Rows.

God Begot House in Winchester, the oldest of the three (dating from 1050) is one I know well from the years I lived in the Winchester area.  When I knew it, it housed a chocolate shop, which can't be bad, but now I believe it is an Italian Restaurant.  On my large first scan of the card, it appeared that there was a hotel and restaurant in the building.

It was once owned by Emma, wife first of Ethelred the Unready and then of Canute.  When she died she bequeathed it to the monks of St Swithun.

An entry for this week's Sepia Saturday on the subject of houses.

Unlikely looking transportation

"Wheels" is a ride that opened in 1986 in the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire, UK.  According to the back of the card this is one exhibit, entitled "Future Fantasy", on the ride which celebrates 100 years of motoring history with a glimpse into the possible future.

The card isn't postmarked or otherwise used but I'd guess that it dates from the time the ride opened.  I feel sure the cars of the future would look very different on the ride today, but I don't know for certain.

An entry in the Sepia Saturday theme of the week, contraptions.

Deal Castle through the years

Deal Castle, as I've mentioned before, was built in 1539/40 by Henry VIII as part of a chain of castles along the south coast.  When it was built it didn't have the crenellation/castellations along the battlements.  Those were a later addition in the 18th century.  At the same time they added a captain's house which you can see on the right in the lower postcard, which dates from 1911.  The house was demolished but rebuilt in 1802.

Bombing during World War II destroyed the house and fortuitously restored the castle to its original form.

The cards above are still in publication.


A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.

Café culture

The Café de Paris in Monte Carlo is an elegant scene.  You may notice that the left hand side is a little blurry and that's because it is one of 8 postcards in a booklet.  I didn't want to take the booklet apart just to scan one postcard.

The Café de France is somewhat less elegant and I can't even tell you where it can be found (apart from in France).  I imagine a number of towns throughout France will boast a café very much like this one.

Finally and unrelated to the previous two, a card from Italy that I've shown previously but it does seem to fit well here. It shows men hanging around in the street, some have even brought along chairs.  They are in fact watching a football (soccer) match on a television set in a butcher's window.  According to the text on the reverse, they are watching the semi-final of the UEFA Championship when Italy was playing the Netherlands. (Italy won.)

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.

Dover

Two views of the docks of Dover, the first one dating from 1908 and the second from 1915.  The reverse of the first card tells us:

Dover Harbour has of late years been considerably enlarged and is now of great importance.  The Admiralty Pier, at the end of which is an 80 ton gun, runs 1500 feet into the sea.  In addition to the new and old harbours there are the Granville and Wellington docks.

The Granville and Wellington docks have now been developed into a marina, the Eastern Docks are for the cross-channel traffic and the Western Docks have been developed into cruise terminals.

A post for Sepia Saturday.

International Women's Day 8 March

It isn't actually International Women's Day until 8 March but I think it fits quite well with the theme of women working, the prompt for Sepia Saturday.

The card I show you isn't an old image in that I received it only a few weeks ago from Bangladesh but in another way it's an ageless image of women working in a field.

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.

Group portrait

Although I have many photos around the house, and many of people I just don't know, this postcard is only two-thirds unknown.  The man on the far left is my father.

Another real photo postcard is a portrait of him alone.

I thought this might possibly have been taken at the same time in spite of the deckle edge on the second because I noticed a pen in my father's top right pocket in both pictures.  He may have done that habitually of course.

An inspection of the reverse showed the names of the card used.  Two different sorts so most likely developed, if not taken, at different times.

Both Ferrania and Tensi are the names of Italian firms and both these logos on photographic paper were in use before 1945.  My father was posted to Italy towards the end of the war and stayed until the end of 1946, so that ties in well.

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog where you can find links to all the other people taking part.