London and Westwards – photographs from the Ken Nunn collection

Presenter: Jeremy Harrison

Our October Zoom meeting speaker was Jeremy Harrison who presented London and Westwards – photographs from the Ken Nunn collection.  Jeremy started with a background to the photographic collection assembled by Ken Nunn, from his and three other photographers of the time, with the oldest photo being from 1898 and containing over 8,000 glass plates.  The collection was originally bequeathed to the LCGB, but is now at the NRM in York.  The show spanned the first half of the twentieth century showing how parts of built-up London as we know it now were rural byways at that time, including Ealing and Harrow.  We also were given an insight into the life and times of Edwardian Britain through the fashion and adverts.  Considering the camera equipment of the time, it was amazing to see photographs taken at night – GWR 111 ‘The Great Bear’ at Paddington and many moving trains that appeared really sharp.  We saw pre-World War 1 steam rail motors and push-pull trains including a train at Bourne End for Great Marlow and Diesel Railmotor no: 1 at Taplow, providing us with local interest.  We were taken to Wales to see Narrow Gauge railways and workings in the Cardiff Valleys as well as ex Metropolitan Steam locomotives working on the Cambrian Railway and the Swansea and Mumbles tramway with their double deck cars.  There were also pictures of GWR locomotives on other railways, including the 1925 and 1948 locomotive exchanges and the S&D Centenary cavalcade at Darlington and the Liverpool and Manchester centenary.  This presentation showed the amazing skills of Kenn Nunn and others to be able to take photographs that have survived over a hundred years of such a superb quality, that many of us would like to attain with today’s cameras.

Steve Ollive