Sunday, 26 January 2014

Henley regatta

Started in 1839, The Henley Reggata became a major social event during the Victorian Era when this picture was taken - some time around 1890.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Beyond Living Memory

This postcard shows a younger lady, exploring and enjoying something on a walk, while her companion looks on. I have no idea who they are or even how this postcard came into my possession. It is a moment beyond living memory.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Furka Passhöhe

The Furka Passhöhe, of Furka Pass, in Switzerland, is a place where you can leave your carriage and step out to enjoy the breathtaking view of the Rhone glacier and hike to ice caves.

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

The Children's Hospital


A picture from The Children's Hospital at The Leicester Infirmary - later to become the Leicester Royal Infirmary where, at birth, I survived an attack by rhesus-positive anti-bodies - which could have been lethal back then in 1957.

I returned to the same hospital to have stitches in my lip after running into a glass door at age 3, and had a broken arm reset at age 4 after falling off my tricycle on ice. Then some time later at age 6 I became an inpatient and underwent a tonsillectomy. I have not been back since.

Monday, 20 January 2014

Croydon Borough Mental Hospital Chelsham

The clock tower is just visible - seen behind the high walls and the trees.In more recent days the hospital was renamed as Warlingham Park Hospital. Opened in 1903, the hospital finally closed in February 1999 and the site was turned into a housing development called Great Park. Something similar has happened to a lot of the old Mental Hospitals that were being run down in the 80s and 90s. Residents were dispersed in a switch from large institutions to smaller residential units and 'care in the community'.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

West Meets East with Sir Ben Kingsley

During the redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and since it re-opened, there have been posters on buses in the Oxford area with people - some well known - some not - next to a museum object and with something written on their forehead. There were also the free postcards like this one...
On the back it says...Sir Ben Kingsley (Actor) with Standing Buddha, Gandhara(Pakistan), c. AD 200.

Saturday, 18 January 2014

A Good Vintage at Charmant

In this postcard: men women and a child can be seen harvesting the grapes near Charmant in the Bordeaux region of France. It was a good vintage.

Monday, 13 January 2014

First Eastern General

J. Palmer Clarke, a Cambridge photographer, did a photographic study of the First Eastern General Hospital, set up in one of the Cambridge colleges during WW I.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Sugar Cane


On this card from Trinidad ... "The sugar cane is a conspicuous feature of the country when it produces erect spikes termed 'arrows,' very similar in appearance to Pampas grass ."

Sunday, 5 January 2014

Early Inca Feritlity Symbols


An advertising postcard for Lynx Aftershave: available in Inca, Atlantis, Africa, and Java Fragrances.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Happy New Year 1914


Posted on 27th December 1914 from Holland to England, the greeting 'Happy New Year' has been added by hand to the front. There have been 100 New Years Since.