Hastings Photographers (Hi-Hu)

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Professional Photographers in Hastings ( Hi-Hu ) 

Richard Hill - Mr Hodges - Richard Hodson - William S. Holdstock - William Hore - Horrex & Bird - Walter Hudson - Robert Bell Hutchison

Richard HILL  (born c1855, Islington, London)

   

Mr HODGES  - active as a photographer in Hastings between 1864 and 1865

   

Richard HODSON  - active as a photographer in Hastings between 1862 and 1865

   

William Stephen HOLDSTOCK (born 1865, Southborough, Kent)

   

William HORE (born c1849, Hackney, London)

   

HORREX & BIRD

Arthur HORREX (1852-1900) & Frank BIRD (born 1857, Ipswich)

[ABOVE] A vignette portrait of an unknown woman, photographed at Horrex & Bird's studio at the White Rock Library, Hastings. Carte-de-visite  (c1881).

[ABOVE] An advertisement for Horrex & Bird's photographic studio at The White Rock Library, Hastings, from Deacon's County Blue Book for Sussex, 1881.

Walter HUDSON (born c1850, London)

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown man, photographed by Walter Hudson of 22 White Rock Place, Hastings (c1882).

 
[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown woman, photographed by Walter Hudson at his studio at 25 White Rock Place, Hastings (c1877). [ABOVE] The trade plate of Walter Hudson, Artist & Photographer of 25 White Rock Place, Hastings (c1877).  [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young woman, photographed by Walter Hudson at his studio at 22 White Rock Place, Hastings (c1882). [ABOVE] The trade plate of Walter Hudson, Artist & Photographer of 22 White Rock Place, Hastings (c1882). 
 
Robert Bell HUTCHISON (born 1850, Tunbridge Wells, Kent)
 
Robert Bell Hutchison was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent on 8th July 1850, the son of Elizabeth Reddick and William Hutchison. Robert had an older brother William Andrew Hutchison (born 1843, London, Middlesex) and a twin sister Georgina Bell Hutchison (born 1850, Tunbridge Wells, Kent).

On 4th August 1867, at St Mary's Church, Lambeth, Robert Bell Hutchison, who was then employed as a photographer, married Clara Sparke (born 1849, Westminster, London), the youngest daughter of Eliza and Washington Fox Sparke. At the time of her marriage to Robert Bell Hutchison, Clara was carrying twins. The twin boys were delivered on 7th September 1867, but sadly neither of the boys survived infancy - Henry James died within a few weeks and Robert George died a few months later.

Robert and Clara settled in the seaside town of Hastings, where their daughter Fanny Georgina Hutchison was born on 7th February 1869.  When the couple's next child was born on 24th January 1871, he was christened Robert George Hutchison, named after one of the twins who had died in Lambeth back in 1867. The 1871 census records Robert Hutchison and his young family at 66 Stonefield Road, Hastings. Robert Hutchison, described on the census return as a twenty-two year old "Photographer", is shown residing at the house in Stonefield Road with his young wife Clara, their two year old daughter Fanny, and their recently arrived baby son Robert George Hutchison, entered on the return as "George", aged "2 months".

Within a year or so, Robert Bell Hutchison had established a photographic studio at 81 St Andrews Road, Hastings. Around this time, Robert's wife Clara gave birth to their third child, a son named William. [William Henry Hutchison was born in Hastings on 18th November 1872].

Towards the end of 1874, Robert Bell Hutchison was given the opportunity to acquire a well equipped photographic portrait studio in Robertson Street, one of the most fashionable shopping parades in Hastings. The photographic portrait studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings had been specially designed and built around 1864 "for photographic purposes" by a Mr Plummer, under " the direction of a skilled practical photographer" named Francis Ross Wells (1834-1893). The building at number 52 was equipped with a north-facing "glass-house" studio which was pronounced " the Best Lighted one on the South Coast ". Since its construction in 1864, the studio had been occupied by three different photographers. The photographic artist Francis Ross Wells, who had helped design the studio, occupied the premises above 52 Robertson Street until 1867, when it passed to a less successful photographer John Beetham.(c1832-1877). Around 1869, the studio at 52 Robertson Street passed to the son of a local carver & gilder Thomas George Mann (born 1838, Hastings), who had practised as a professional photographer in Hastings since the age of 18. Thomas George Mann died in Hastings during the 2nd Quarter of 1874 at the relatively young age of thirty-four. The sale of the studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings following the premature death of Thomas Mann junior, allowed Robert Bell Hutchison to take possession of one of the most desirable photographic studios in Hastings. However, Robert Bell Hutchison occupied this studio for a period of less than two years. By 1876, Hutchison's studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings had passed to the firm of Thorpe & Friederich, a partnership between two young photographers William Edward Thorpe (born 1846, Smeeth, Kent) and Walter Ulrich Friederich (born 1856, St Leonards, Sussex).

During the period that Robert Bell Hutchison occupied the studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings, he fathered a fourth child, a daughter named Ida. [Ida Clara Hutchison was born on 15th January,1875]. In 1876, the Robertson Street studio was sold to Thorpe & Friederich and Robert Hutchison and his family returned to the district of Lambeth in South London, where Robert and Clara had married nine years earlier.

Robert Bell Hutchison in London

Robert and Clara's fifth child, John Bell Hutchison, was born in the Brixton area of Lambeth on 22nd January 1877. A daughter named Eliza Isabel Hutchison was born in Brixton a few years later on 13th April 1879.

When the census was taken on the evening of 3rd April 1881, Robert Bell Hutchison and his family were living at 205 Mayall Road, Lambeth, Surrey, in the Brixton area of London. The name of the Head of Household has been incorrectly transcribed as "Robt. B. Hutchinson" (instead of HUTCHISON) although the man's profession and the details of his family makes it clear that the recorded individual is Robert Bell Hutchison, the former Hastings photographer. In the transcription of the 1881 census return, Robert B. Hutchison is described as an "Artists Photographer", aged 30. The enumerator probably intended to give Hutchison's occupation as "Artist - Photographer", as this is how R. B. Hutchison had himself billed on the publicity printed on the reverse of his Hastings cartes-de-visite. Robert Hutchison's wife Clara and all six of their children are all recorded at the family home in Mayall Road, Lambeth. Another child, a daughter named Elizabeth Alice Hutchison, was born in Brixton on 14th September 1881.

By 1883, Robert and Clara were living in the East End of London. A son named Arthur Edward Hutchison was born in Bow, East London, on 21st August 1883. A further three children were born in the Mile End district of East London during the next decade - Emma Louise Hutchison (born 1886), Rose Marion Hutchison (born 1889) and Mabel Ellen Hutchison, who was born in the Mile End district on 12th June 1892.

According to the photoLondon Database of 19th Century Photographers, Robert Bell Hutchison was employed as a photographer at the time of the 1891 census. The photoLondon Database records Robert Hutchison (misspelled as "Hutchinson" on the database) as a photographer living at 2 Rashleigh Street, Heath Road, Clapham, London. Clapham's Rashleigh Street is mentioned in Charles Booth's survey of poverty in London, published in the 1890s. (Life and Labour of the People in London by Charles Booth 1892-1897). In his notebook, Charles Booth describes Rashleigh Street as "very rough and poor ... the worst street in the neighbourhood ... very dirty children in the street playing".

It appears that Robert B. Hutchison was running a photographic studio at 29 Grove Road, Mile End, Stepney between 1887 and 1888, yet circumstances had forced him into the poor and rundown area of Clapham by 1891. By the time the census was taken on 31st March 1901, Robert and Clara Hutchison were back in Mile End, living and working in London's East End. Robert B. Hutchison is recorded on the census return as a "Photographer", aged 52, living with his wife Clara at 35 Frederick Place, Mile End, Stepney, London.

Robert Hutchison's wife Clara died in the East End of London on 1st March 1910. When the census was taken a year later on 2nd April 1911, Robert Bell Hutchison was living with his married daughter Mrs Ida Sparham and her two children at 2 Courtenay Road, Walthamstow, Essex, within the London district of West Ham. Robert Bell Hutchison is described on the census return as a sixty year old widower, employed as a "Photographer".

 

 

[ABOVE] The trade plate of  Robert Bell Hutchison , Artist & Photographer of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings between 1874 and 1876.

[ABOVE] A photograph taken in 2006 showing 51-52 Robertson Street, Hastings. Moons Jewellers occupies No 51d Robertson Street, Palace Estates is at No.52 and the newsagents Sweet Selection is at the end of the row at No 52b Robertson Street. Robert Bell Hutchison's photographic studio was located at the top of this row of buildings in 1874. The building at 51-52 Robertson Street, Hastings was in continuous use as a photographic studio from around 1864 until the end of the First World War. [ Wells & Hodges , 52 Robertson Street, 1864-1865; Francis Ross Wells, 52 Robertson Street, 1865-1867; John Beetham, 52 Robertson Street, 1867-1868 ; Thomas Mann & Co, 52 Robertson Street, 1869-1873; Robert Bell Hutchison, 52 Robertson Street, 1874-1875 ;Thorpe & Friederich, 52 Robertson Street, 1876 ; John Wesley Thomas, 52 Robertson Street, 1878-1879; Henry Constantine Jennings, 51 Robertson Street, 1881-1886 ; George William Bradshaw: Memorial Studio  51 Robertson Street, 1887-1901 ; Sisney Shaw & Co., 51 Robertson Street, 1903-1918 ].

[ABOVE] A view of Mayall Road, Brixton, photographed in the early 1900s. The photographer Robert Bell Hutchison lived at No 205 Mayall Road after leaving Hastings in 1876.

 

[ABOVE] John Bell Hutchison (1877-1938), one of the sons of the photographer Robert Bell Hutchison.

[Photo : Courtesy of Jennifer Potter]

[ABOVE] Fanny Georgina Hutchison (1869-1938), the eldest daughter of the photographer Robert Bell Hutchison.

[Photo : Courtesy of Jennifer Potter]

       
 
Carte-de-visite Photographs taken by Robert Bell Hutchison at his studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (1874-1876)

 
[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young man standing in front of a painted backdrop, photographed by Robert Bell Hutchison of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1874). The foot of the posing stand can be glimpsed behind the subjects legs. [ABOVE] The reverse of the carte-de-visite portrait of the young man pictured on the left, showing the trade plate publicity of  Robert Bell Hutchison, Artist Photographer, of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1874). [ABOVE] A family group portrait photographed by Robert Bell Hutchison of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1874). Carte-de-visite. Negative No.19,559. When Hutchison took over Thomas Mann junior's studio in Robertson Street, he inherited Mann's negative register which had recorded around 19,000 negatives.  

 
[ABOVE] A portrait of an unknown man in an oval frame, photographed by Robert Bell Hutchison of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1874). Carte-de-visite. Negative No.19,088. [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young couple photographed by Robert Bell Hutchison at his studio at 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1875) [ABOVE] The elaborate design of Robert Bell Hutchison's trade plate as printed on the  reverse of the carte-de-visite portrait of the young couple pictured on the left. Robert Bell Hutchison, Artist Photographer, of 52 Robertson Street, Hastings (c1875).  
 
The Children of Robert Bell Hutchison and Clara Sparke :

1) Henry James Hutchison born in Lambeth, Surrey, South London, on 7th September 1867. Died in Lambeth during the 3rd Quarter of 1867.

2) Robert George Hutchison (I) born in Lambeth, Surrey, South London, on 7th September 1867. Died in Whitechapel during the 4th Quarter of 1867.

3)  Fanny Georgina Hutchison born in Hastings on 7th February 1869. [ Married George William Potter (born 1869, Rochford, Essex) in 1889]. Mrs Fanny Georgina Potter died on 18th April 1967 in Rochford, Essex.

4) Robert George Hutchison (II) born in Hastings on 24th January 1872.  Died 28th January 1948.

5) William Henry Hutchison born in Hastings on 18th November 1872. Died on 25th October 1902 in Southend, Essex.

6)  Ida Clara Hutchison born in Hastings on 15th January 1875. Married Joseph Hawkins Sparham (born 1872, Cubitt Town, Poplar, London) in 1889.

7)  John Bell Hutchison born in Brixton, Lambeth, on 22nd January 1877. Died 18th November 1938.

8)  Eliza Isabel Hutchison was born in Brixton, Lambeth, on 13th April 1879. Died in 1940 or 1945.

9) Elizabeth Alice Hutchison born in Brixton, Lambeth, on 14th September 1881.

10) Arthur Edward Hutchison born in Bow, London, on 21st August 1883.

11) Emma Louisa Hutchison born in Bow, London, in 1886  

12) Rose Marion Hutchison born in Mile End Old Town, London, in 1889 

13) Mabel Ellen Hutchison born in Mile End Old Town, London, on 12th June 1892.   
 

[ABOVE] A portrait of  Fanny Georgina Hutchison (1869-1967), the eldest daughter Robert Bell Hutchison, photographed with her husband George William Potter (born 1869, Rochford, Essex). In 1901, George William Potter was working as a Gas Stoker in Southend-on-Sea. This photograph was taken around 1912.

[Photo : Courtesy of Tracy Cox ]

Fanny Georgina Hutchison, Robert Bell Hutchison's first daughter, was born on 7th Feb 1869 in Hastings. On 20th April 1889, Fanny Georgina Hutchison married George William Potter (born 1869, Rochford, Essex ). Mrs Fanny Georgina Potter died on 18th April 1967 in Rochford Hospital, Rochford, Essex.
 

[ABOVE] Fanny Georgina Hutchison (1869-1967), the eldest daughter Robert Bell Hutchison, photographed with her husband and children around 1907. Fanny Hutchison married George William Potter (born 1869) in 1889. Fanny and George's daughter Florence Eva Potter (born 1898) is seated on the far right of the picture. Elsie Georgina Potter (born 1900) is standing in the middle between her parents and Charles Henry Potter (born 1903) is seated on his father's knee. [Photo : Courtesy of Jennifer Potter]
 

Acknowledgements & Sources

Thanks to David Webb, the London photo-historian, and the photoLondon Database of 19th Century Photographers for providing information relating to Robert Bell Hutchison's photographic career in London. A special thank you to Tracy Cox (nee Potter)  for providing additional information on Robert Bell Hutchison's family. Fanny Georgina Hutchison, Robert Bell Hutchison's eldest daughter, was the wife of George William Potter, the brother of Tracy's Great Grandfather James Andrew Potter. I would also like to thank Jennifer Potter for her contribution to the Hutchison/Potter Family History. Robert Hutchison Bell was Jenny Potter's great, great, great grandfather.

SOURCES : Books : A Directory of London Photographers, 1841-1908 compiled by Michael Pritchard (PhotoResearch 1986, 1994) ; Primary Sources :  Trade Directories :  Parson's Directory of Hastings and St Leonards (1871); Kelly's Post Office Directory of Sussex (1874, 1878) ; Census Returns: 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 & 1901 ; Websites :  Database of 19th Century Photographers and Allied Trades in London: 1841-1901, featured on the website photoLondon The Survey Notebooks of Charles Booth, featured on the Charles Booth Online Archive website produced by the Library of the London School of Economics & Political Science. The Charles Booth Online Archive website is devoted to the work of the social investigator Charles Booth (1840-1916), who produced the 17 volume study of poverty, entitled Life and Labour of the People in London, between 1889 and 1903.

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