Mystery Photo

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Geoff
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Mystery Photo

Postby Geoff » Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:05 pm

This card is marked as Cambridge Road Hastings 1903 but it doesn't look right to me. Any ideas where it could be? If indeed it's Hastings at all.

newspaper-boys-cambridge-road-1903.jpg

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:50 pm

It doesn't look like any part of the modern Cambridge Road. The slight incline is perhaps a clue - I think it might be the site of what was the Post Office and telephone exchange with the junction with Priory street in the distance, and the site of what is now ESK beyond that.

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Geoff
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Geoff » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:27 pm

Agreed, it can't be the lower part of Cambridge Road we see today with shops, as this is set back further off the pavement and the shops have basements.

But higher up approaching the Priory Road junction does make sense. According to my previous research the post office building was opened in 1930 so that would tie in too. I never thought to look into what was there before the PO was built.

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:31 pm

I'm trying to make out the wording on the poster that the man in the foreground is holding. It is something like, "Matches all the...". Maybe it's the 1903 equivalent of, "Ticks all the boxes" :?:

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Geoff
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Geoff » Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:00 pm

I was thinking the headline related to football. It looks like "8 Matches, all the scores" but I could be wrong.

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:23 pm

That sounds more likely, Geoff!

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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby jimbreeds » Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:57 pm

Geoff wrote:This card is marked as Cambridge Road Hastings 1903 but it doesn't look right to me...

I'm interested to see this one Geoff. I have this postcard in my collection. I posted it on my Hastings & Area Past and Present Facebook page in January 2016, asking pretty much the same question (see link below). The card is captioned "Newspaper Boys". You will see the written message uses Inland Revenue, Cambridge Road, Hastings as the address from which it is being sent. As you will see from the other side of the card (in the comments) it was postmarked Hastings and sent to West Ham. I came to the conclusion that it may or may not be Hastings, but was simply posted there by somebody working at the Inland Revenue office. My copy was posted on 13/1/1903, as you will see. In what way does your copy cite the Cambridge Road location? If we have two different copies saying the same in that respect, that makes it even more interesting. https://www.facebook.com/HAPP1066/photos/a.226665130790710.1073741878.225545327569357/330262880430934/?type=3&theater
Does your copy have the image set alongside the whitespace like mine does? Is there a message on it?
Best,
Jim
Last edited by jimbreeds on Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Geoff
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby Geoff » Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:18 pm

Very interesting... my copy of the card and is unposted. However it does have Cambridge Road Hastings 1903 scribbled on the back in pencil.

Did you come to the same conclusion that this is where the empty post office building is today?

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ColinL
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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby ColinL » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:49 pm

The slope of the street suggests Kings Road to me. If it is Cambridge Rd it might be consistent with the building of the old Ritz Cinema that was a 1930s construction at the height of film popularity and with the whole block of building shown in the picture having been demolished although a space for Priory Street would seem absent. The buildings from the old 'flea pit' up towards the old PO must have been late Victorian early Edwardian

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Re: Mystery Photo

Postby whiffler » Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:10 pm

The run of houses in 1874 and 1910 show the houses west of the Music Hall to Priory St junction (labelled as Cambridge Terrace) are set back from the pavement. Some of these remain after others were demolished to build the New new Post Office.

Not Kings Rd - each property has 2 windows per frontage, KR has 3.

Not the Old Town.

A couple of bollards suggesting a yard or alley (or steps?), beyond which the ground seems to level off. All the buildings seem to have 2 or 3 storeys ABOVE ground level - in Hastings in 1903?

Can't make out any shop names or numbers

Poster might be Watches and lower text All Treasures ? Or Matches and ALL results

Anyone got an pre-colour version ? Sometimes detail gets lost in the touching up.

That many shops (more 'commercial buildings?) and high buildings must mean a/the town centre. And only 2 windows per supports this.


Stumped of Battle.
Last edited by whiffler on Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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