Nineteenth Century East End Darlings
July 13, 2019
In sharp contrast to Horace Warner’s Spitalfields Nippers, this selection from Philip Mernick‘s collection of cartes de visite by nineteenth century East End photographers, gathered over the past twenty years, shows the offspring of the bourgeois professional classes. No doubt the doting parents delighted in these portraits of their little darlings trussed up like turkeys in their fancy outfits, but there is not a single smile among them.
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Photographs reproduced courtesy of Philip Mernick
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Portraits from Philip Mernick’s Collection
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Thank you for these lovely photos, what remarkable clothes!
Great photos and I have had fun trying to guess their names… Maud? Mabel? Violet? Dorothy? Alice? Sydney? Bertram? Ronald? Soloman? Rachel?
I have spotted one half smile amongst the poor little darlings (the boy in the white suit with the cane who could be a Nicholas – with his sad looking brother William).
I imagine they were all told to hold the pose and keep still, or else!
And I dread to think what the poor little darling with the ringlets had to go through to get that look… I can imagine a tantrum or two. And I wonder if the fearsome lady she is with (her grandmother? great aunt Bessie? hopefully not her mother!) paid for the dresses she and her sister had to wear…
I stopped short at the little blondie on a chair by W,Wright, in Bethnal Green as they are the splitting image of my dad taken in the 1930s at about the same age!
More spooky – Dad’s maternal ancestors lived in Hoxton/Bethnal Green for generations – so now I’m wondering if that particular darling is a Bristow!
Although they are very sweet they do look less at ease than the Nippers. Like Jill, I wonder how many dire warnings were handed out re moving/smiling/spoiling the precious best clothes.
The vice like grip big brother ‘Nicholas’ has on ‘Williams’ wrist makes me wonder if there had been an earlier incident involving the (possibly ill advised, in my opinion) canes and he is trying to avoid a repetition.
They needed a dog with them to make them smile!
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/09/19/the-dogs-of-old-london/225s/
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/09/19/the-dogs-of-old-london/attachment/265/
Very funny photos. All overdressed and nervous. I expect Lupin Pooter was amongst them.
What an excellent collection!
Lovely photos – thank you so much (for these, and for the consistently fantastic blog). I wonder if some of the kids could be children of publicans, many of whom were well-known for their love of glamorous bling. Many Edwardian oral histories mention families (often mothers) going to huge lengths to ensure that the children looked suitably sprauncy for celebrations, high days and holidays. So perhaps a few of these little darlings could have been from families of publicans or shop owners, as well as the bourgeois professional classes.
The one of the older man holding his little girl as she leans backwards into him and he holds each of her hands, could be a momento mori. He looks quite pensive too
I think that at this time it took a long time to take the photographs, not the quick flash we get now, about a minute I believe. This would explain why everyone is so unsmiling and of course the photographs would have cost a lot of money.