Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, The High Street c1920

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, The High Street circa 1920. The High Street has changed considerably since the photograph was taken. The Chandos Hotel has long since gone. Postcard by Milton. Click the postcard to enlarge.

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Hammersmith, West London, King Street c1913

Hammersmith, West London, King Street c1913. The roof-line of these shops indicate that they are very old indeed, possibly 17th century. It is remarkable that they have survived largely intact. To the left of Oliver Pryce's bakery (the shop with 'Hovis' painted on the outside) we can see the Forester's Arms beer house run by John Neville. Beer houses were only licenced to sell beer, unlike pubs which could sell wine and spirits too. Unfortunately the Forester's Arms has been replaced by an ugly modern building which is out of character with the other shops. To the right of Oliver Pryce's bakery was 'S. Lambourne, Corset Specialist'. This postcard was published by Young and Co of Teddington.  My apologies for the excessive watermarking for this post.
Click the postcard to enlarge.

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Esher, Surrey, Portsmouth Road, c1912 and c1918

Esher, Surrey, Portsmouth Road, circa 1912 and circa 1918. These two old postcards show the same location, one before the First World War, the other after. The pub we can see was called 'The Orleans Arms', it is now a branch of the Café Rouge restaurant chain. Outside the pub is a magnificent milestone erected in 1767 which is called 'The White Lady'. I have driven past this place many times in the past and I'd never noticed the milestone until I'd seen these postcards. You can also see what I think is an old weighing machine outside the pub in the postcards. The first postcard was photographed and published in about 1912 by William Henry Applebee of Ashford, the second postcard was photographed and published by Andrew Smith of Surbiton in about 1918. Click the postcards to see enlarged versions at 300dpi. Note - the darker colour of the buildings in the first photo is due to the photography or printing process, they were not actually darker than they were in the second photo.

For more old images why not visit this week's Sepia Saturday blog.

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