A collection of photographs from Julian Joseph Samuels Ltd showing a variety of sites in London, primarily in the City of Westminster and the City and County of the City of London, including Trafalgar Square, Mansion House, Lincoln’s Inn, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Palace of Westminster and Horse Guards Parade. There are also a variety of street scenes, including Piccadilly, Oxford Street and the Strand.
A number show London landmarks at night and a sub-set of these are thought to have been taken on V E Day in 1945. The images range in date from the 1900s until the 1950s and 1960s and were possibly taken by Julian Joseph Samuels himself, although this has not been possible to establish with certainty. Samuels had, at one time, three shops on Strand, and is recorded in the 1908 Post Office Directory of London as a ‘stationer and printer’. This ties in with earlier census records which record him as having come from a family of London postcard dealers (1901 census). However, by 1918 Samuels Ltd is operating as a ‘fancy repository’, thought to be a type of shop selling items like toys, embroidery and purses. Julian Joseph Samuels died in 1953, although some of the photographs post-date this and were obviously taken by another, unknown, photographer.
The collection records a number of significant events in London including some of the victory parades held in London following the end of the First World War, the General Strike of 1926, the Silver Jubilee of George V in 1935, his funeral the following year, the Coronation of George VI and V E Day in 1945.
A number of negatives are duplicated or produced from prints and not all have been catalogued in SAM01/02 and SAM01/03.
Received Via : Purchased via Mrs D M Urban-Smith, January 1992 Provenance : London-based professional photographic and printing firm operating between 1900s-1950s
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