Wonderful London
It is my pleasure to publish these dignified and characterful portraits of Londoners, believed to be by photographer Donald McLeish (1879-1950), selected from the three volumes of Wonderful London edited by St John Adcock and produced by The Fleetway House in the nineteen-twenties.
Telescope Man on Westminster Bridge
Old woman who inhabited the alleys off Fleet St
Breton Onion Seller
Costermonger and child
Cats’ Meat Man
Knife Grinder
Charwoman
Islington Window Cleaner
Flower Seller
Concertina Player
Hurdy-Gurdy Man
Gramophone Man
Escapologist
Wandering Harpist
Street Sweeper
Scavenger
District Messenger
Telephone Messenger
Railway Fireman
Railway Engine Driver
Carman
Railway Porter
Gold Beaters
Gas Fitters
Chimney Sweep
Telephone Cable Man
Photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You might also like to take a look at
John Thomson’s Street Life in London
William Nicholson’s London Types
Again some wonderful photos , I am just amazed by the telephone wire man . OMG no health and safety regulations then . We have it so good now .
What an astonishing collection!
So evocative.
That little costermonger looks like a right bruiser 🙂
Amazing views into a long gone period. — Note the technical progress between the Hurdy-Gurdy Man and the Gramophone Man!
PS: Trying without effect to get trousers like the Telephone Messenger have!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
This is a wonderful collection of photographs. Thank you Gentle Author.
Oh dear – I’m old enough to remember some of these. Great photos as ever. I think the escapologist went on to become Peter Cook!
These are amazing. My dad started as a messenger boy in the early 30’s working out of Post Office Headquarters in St. Martins LeGrand. I’m guessing your one is a lot earlier, but I remember my old man describing the same daft hat. The escapologist also wonderfully terrifying. As a very small kid I remember a bloke with a massive moustache who worked the crowds on the foreshore under the Tower – he escaped from a chain and then ate a length of it. Asked me to tap his stomach to ‘make it rattle’. I was frozen to the spot.
Great pictures!
I love the telephone cable man – imagine working like that, no one worried about safety equipment in those days.
Thank you for the brilliant photographs – the telephone cable man sure had some guts !
Wonderful portraits that give us some idea of what those occupations really meant, if we know what our ancestors did from the census records. I assume they are all anonymous, which is a shame, as how great would it be to have a photo like that of someone in your family tree? I love all those cart contraptions they used.
Note the ornate carving on the knifegrinder’s cart.
Those working class men had pride
Gary
These are simply amazing portraits of the everyday worker. I only wish that I had as charming a work portrait today. Many thanks always for this column/blog,
Patty
Amazing photos as usual , I saw an escapologist on Tower Hill as a kid bent a metal bar over his arm as I remember .
Lee
I look through these photos and wish I could find one of my London ancestors somewhere – I have seen many old photos of London but not these.
I love these wonderful old photos! Just what did a Costermonger do, an entertainer, or what? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that word before.
I’ve just picked up all three volumes of this amazing book from a charity shop for just a fiver 🙂
Thanks for sharing these. As someone who has recently acquired this set myself, I know how wonderful they really are, what a wealth of mages. The usual publication date given for the set is 1922, but that can’t be right as one photograph shows an aerial view of the 1923 Wembley cup final, and mentions the dismantling of the exhibition site in 1925. It seems the books were originally published in serial form over the period 1926-27, and then, presumably as books that year.
“Scavenger” too well dressed belt and hat tells me he’s a gpo messenger
Yes, some but not all of these pictures are by my father, Donald McLeish.
I have my copy of the 1935 Silver Jubilee edition of Wonderful London and in the preface, the editor, St John Adcock refers to him as ‘that master of the camera art’. The earlier three volume edition was 1926. The Donald McLeish libraryof over 2000 pictures still exists.
Thank you this was very informative ,
I have been looking at the profession’s of the people in my family tree these photos make them seem more real .
Regarding your London Types from Adcock’s Wonderful London: The old woman in an alley, the costerwoman and child, the charlady and the flower seller are by E.O. Hoppe. Hoppe shared models with William Nicholson. He also produced a book, London Types: Taken from Life, made with William Pett Ridge. The telephone cable man is by Walter Benington. I can reference further articles I’ve written on Hoppe, some for the London Journal, if you wish.Regards
Brian Stokoe
(York)
Please, can anyone tell me what is holding the cable man up in the air? I see no suspension cables or ladders.
These are great volumes. I believe they were compiled from weekly magazines around the 1920’s. Some interesting photo also show the before and after photos of developments in that period & before. In particular The Haymarket, which has 3 different periods of development. Sadly you can add a 4th to it now of bland modernist.