The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London was founded in 1875 in London, England, initially with the purpose of recording the Oxford Arms, a traditional galleried public house on Warwick Lane that was to be demolished as part of the redevelopment of the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

. Alfred & John Bool took the

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

s, and when the project was announced in a letter to The Times, the news received such a positive response that the society's work was continued, with a total of twelve issues being produced over twelve years, containing a total of 120 photographs. The photographs were commissioned to preserve an architectural record of buildings, some of which were built before the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

in 1666, and which were scheduled for demolition as part of the city's urban redevelopment measures at the end of the 19th century. It was important to choose a

photographic technique Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

that would last for generations. In 1870, the pigment printing process was invented. Society member Henry Dixon mastered the process, and the photographic images are still of excellent technical quality today. The group continued to document the old buildings of London threatened with demolition until its dissolution in 1886.

List of photograph

The 120 photographs published by the group over its lifetime were titled: # Entrance of the 'Oxford Arms' Inn # 'Oxford Arms' Inn # Entrance of the 'Oxford Arms' Inn # Upper Gallery of the 'Oxford Arms' Inn # One of the staircases at the 'Oxford Arms' Inn # General view of the galleries at the 'Oxford Arms' Inn (originally issued 1875) # Old houses in Wych Street # Old houses in Wych Street # Old houses in

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

# Old houses in Drury Lane #

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

Gate House # Lincoln's Inn: Old Square (originally issued 1876) # Churchyard of St Bartholomew,

Smithfield, London Smithfield, properly known as West Smithfield, is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Smithfield is home to a number of City institutions, such as St Barth ...

# Churchyard of St Bartholomew, Smithfield # Green Churchyard, St Bartholomew, Smithfield # Window at the east end of St Bartholomew, Smithfield # North side and 'Poors Churchyard' at St Bartholomew, Smithfield # North side and 'Poors Churchyard' at St Bartholomew, Smithfield (originally issued 1877) # Temple Bar # 102

Leadenhall Street __NOTOC__ Leadenhall Street () is a street in the City of London. It is about and links Cornhill, London, Cornhill in the west to Aldgate in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road (England), A11 road from London to Norwich, but th ...

# Old houses in Gray's Inn Road # Shop in Brewer Street, Soho # The Sir Paul Pindar,

Bishopsgate Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bishop ...

Street # Old house in Holborn / Staple Inn, Holborn front (originally issued 1878) # Canonbury Tower # Canonbury Tower # Barnard's Inn # Barnard's Inn # Barnard's Inn # Old houses in Aldergate Street # Old houses in Aldergate Street # Shaftesbury House, Aldersgate Street # Christ's Hospital # Christ's Hospital # Churchyard of St.Lawrence Pountney # Old houses in Great Queen Street (originally issued 1879) # General view from Charterhouse Square # Charterhouse: Washhouse Court # Charterhouse: Washhouse Court # Charterhouse: The Cloisters # Charterhouse: The Great Hall # Charterhouse: The Great Hall # Charterhouse: The Great Hall # Charterhouse: The Great Hall # Charterhouse: The Grand Staircase # Charterhouse: The Governor's Room # Charterhouse: Entrance to the Chapel # Charterhouse: Founder's Tomb (originally issued 1880) # King's Head Inn yard # King's Head Inn yard # White Hart Inn yard # White Hart Inn yard # George Inn yard # Queen's Head Inn yard # Queen's Head Inn yard # Old houses in Borough High Street,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

# St Mary Overy's Dock # Old houses in

Bermondsey Street Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

# Sion College, London Wall # Oxford Market (originally issued 1881) #

Little Dean's Yard Little Dean's Yard, known to Westminster School just as Yard, is a private gated yard at the heart of the school, within the precincts of the monastery of Westminster and on the original Thorney Island, now shared between Westminster Abbey and ...

# Ashburnham House: Exterior # Ashburnham House: The Staircase # Ashburnham House: The Staircase # Ashburnham House: The Ante-room # Ashburnham House: The Dining Room # Ashburnham House: The Garden # Banqueting House, Whitehall # The Water Gate of York House # Lincoln's Inn Fields # Lincoln's Inn Fields # Lincoln's Inn Fields (originally issued 1882) #

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite ...

: The Gate House # Lambeth Palace: The Great Hall # Lambeth Palace: The Lollards' Tower # Old House, Palace Yard, Lambeth # Old houses, Aldgate # Old houses, Aldgate # 'The Golden Axe',

St Mary Axe St Mary Axe was a medieval parish in the City of London whose name survives as that of the street which formerly occupied it. The Church of St Mary Axe was demolished in 1561 and its parish united with that of St Andrew Undershaft, which is ...

# No.37 Cheapside # No.73 Cheapside # Old house,

Great Ormond Street Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

# Old house, Queen Square,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

# Shop, Macclesfield Street, Soho (originally issued 1883) # Old houses,

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

# The 'Old Bell', Holborn # The 'Old Bell', Holborn # St Giles, Cripplegate # Old house, Fore Street # Old house, Great Winchester Street #

Austin Friars Austin Friars is a coeducational independent day school located in Carlisle, England. The Senior School provides secondary education for 350 boys and girls aged 11–18. There are 150 children aged 4–11 in the Junior School and the Nursery ha ...

# Staircase of Austin-Friars # Doorways, Laurence Pountney Hill # College Street # Innholders' Hall # Doorway, College Hill (issued 1884) # Inner Temple # Inner Temple # Inner Temple # Middle Temple # Middle Temple # Middle Temple # Gray's Inn # Gray's Inn #

Clement's Inn The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

: Garden House # Clifford's Inn # Staple Inn Hall # Six small subjects (originally issued 1885) # St John's Gate, Clerkenwell # Old houses in The Strand # Great St Helen's, Bishopsgate Street # Tennis Court, James Street,

Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...

# Emanuel Hospital, Westminster # Queen Anne's Gate # Chimney-piece, Sessions House, Clerkenwell # Chimney-piece, Court House, St Andrew's, Holborn # Chimney-piece, Tallow Chandler's Hall # Court room, New River Company # Three doorways # Five small subjects (missing) (issued 1886)

Gallery

Cloth Fair.jpg, Cloth Fair Fore Street, London 1884.jpg, Fore Street Old houses in Drury Lane.jpg, Drury Lane Temple Bar, London, 1878-768x967.jpg, Temple Bar The Water Gate Of York House by Henry Dixon 1880.jpg, The Water Gate of York House Saint John's Gate Clerkenwell the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem 1880.jpg, Saint John's Gate, Clerkenwell Canonbury Tower 25 by Henry Dixon 1880.jpg, Canonbury Tower Ashburnham House exterior London by Henry Dixon 1880.jpg, Ashburnham House

References

External links

Archives at Bishopsgate InstituteRoyal Academy collections: Society for Photographing Relics of Old LondonSpitalfields Life: In Search of Relics of Old London
{{Coord missing, London 1875 establishments in England 1886 disestablishments in England Organizations established in 1875 Organizations disestablished in 1886 English photography organisations Photography organizations established in the 19th century Cultural organisations based in London Defunct clubs and societies of the United Kingdom Defunct organisations based in London History of London