Photographers L

J. S. Lambert & Company

Jarrow & North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England

J. S. LAMBERT & Co. PORTRAIT PAINTERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS STUDIOS Ellison Street, JARROW & North Shields

J. S. Lambert & Co. photographer, Ellison Street, Jarrow & North Shields

Lambert, then at Northampton House, Jarrow, produced a photograph of three steamers stranded on the sands at South Shields in December 1876. His early CDVs described him as J S Lambert, Artist, Jarrow. By the time he moved to Ellison Street, he had added “& Co” and the studio in North Shields.

Source: Shields Daily Gazette 2 January 1877 www.thessvlbhistory.co.uk

P. M. Laws

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.

P. M. LAWS PHOTOGRAPHER 38 BLACKETT ST, OPPOSITE GREY’S MONUMENT NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

Peter Maitland Laws (about 1832 to 15 October 1906) and his son Thomas Maitland Laws, photographers, 38 Blackett Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Thomas was born in Paddington on 2 July 1855 when the family were living in London where his father worked as a carpenter. By 1861, the Laws had moved back north with children Henry, Thomas, Sarah and Peter. The family lived in Grainger Street in the centre of Newcastle and Peter was now earning his living as a photographer.

Peter Laws was listed in the trade directories of 1859-60 as a ‘photographic artist’, living in Pilgrim St and operating from Northumberland Court, at a time when, although there were a number of ‘photographic artists’ practising in Newcastle, the occupation did not yet appear as a category in the classified listings.

In 1861 Laws was a member of the council of the newly-formed Newcastle and North of England Photographic Society, later becoming treasurer. At the society’s first meeting, he presented ‘two proofs of his very beautiful views of the ruins of Tynemouth Priory’.

Peter’s wife Isabella died on 3 August 1864 aged 32 years.

By 1871, Peter and Isabella’s elder son, Henry, had followed his father into the firm, while 16 year old son Thomas worked as a lithographer. Demand for their cartes-de-visite and they had relocated to a studio on Blackett Street opposite the Earl Grey Monument which Laws occupied until his death in Newcastle.

Thomas was thus exposed to photography from a very early age at a time of the development and popularisation of a still-new medium. In July 1867 when, aged 12, he was announced as the winner of the sum of five shillings, having achieved second place in the ‘Triple Kites’ category of a kite-flying contest on the Town Moor. The previous year a photograph to be taken by his father had been announced as the prize for the various winners.

On 2 August 1881 Peter was at 8 Claremont Place, Newcastle on Tyne when he registered a photograph from a painting of George Stephenson at the Stationers Company – an early form of copyright. In 1883 and 1885 he won medals in competition at exhibitions.

Thomas photographed the visit to Newcastle in August 1884 of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Thomas left the business on 16 August 1890 possibly when he lived in Heaton, during which time he owned a photography business based on Shields Road West. Peter continued to trade as P. M. Laws and Son.

Source: Heaton History Group

A. D. Lewis

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne & Tynemouth, England

The North of England School of Photography A. D. Lewis, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE & TYNEMOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER & ARTIST 111 & 113 Scotswood Road, NEWCASTLE ON TYNE AND 56 Front Street, TYNEMOUTH

Alexander Denholm Lewis, Photographer. Born in Scotland, Lewis operated as a photographer through his North of England School of Photography in Newcastle for around 20 years.

Some of Lewis’s CDVs described him as a photo artist of 5 Hinde Street East, Newcastle on Tyne (where he was living in 1871) while others gave his later addresses in Newcastle and Tynemouth or both addresses in Newcastle bearing the wording ‘Old No 5 Hinde St Studio Unchanged’, which suggests that he was working from both studios – maybe with an assistant. William Denholm, 21, another Scottish photographer was at the Hinde Street address in 1871. Denholm was a boarder at Houston Street by 1881. By 1881 Lewis was living at 111/113 Scotswood Road (Photographer’s Shop), still unmarried, having aged to 49 from the 35 he declared ten years earlier. He was at the same address in 1891.

An 1894 albumen cabinet card bore only the address 113 Scotswood Road, Newcastle. My card gives 111 to 113 Scotswood Road and 56 Front Street, Tynemouth.

A. D. LEWIS PHOTO ATELIER Is NOW OPEN for the season, under his own personal supervision. Ladies wishing their Children taken are invited to make an early call, before the commencement of the busy season. A. D. L. calls particular attention to his Chaste New Tynemouth Promenade Carte, which is a great favourite, and has been adopted by all the principal Photographers of the South, the Continent, and America.
Cartes de Visite from 5s per doz.
Malvern, Cabinet, Panel Portraits, and other styles taken direct from the Camera without enlarging.
Enlargements up to Life Size finished in Oils, Water Colours, and Monochrome.
The Shields Daily News 19 June 1882

So his Photo Atelier (workshop) in Tynemouth seems to have been seasonal. A new railway station had opened in Tynemouth bringing day trippers from across the region as well as families wanting to enjoy the delights of the new craze for seaside holidays.

Lewis’ studio at 56 Front Street was only a stone’s throw from Tynemouth sea front. His Tynemouth Promenade Cards described him as an inventor. Despite their name, they were studio portraits.

The Teignmouth Promenade Carte.— Mr. A. D. Lewis, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, sends us half-a-dozen little portraits in shape something like an elongated carte-de-visite, and which he terms promenade cartes. The portraits are excellent in themselves, and, being upon black mounts and highly finished, they have a very natty appearance. Mr. Lewis forwarded us both bust and three-quarter portraits, but the “ cut-off” appearance of the latter makes them less effective than the others.
The Photographic News 8 April 1881

The Photographic News 8 April 1881
The 1901 census records that he was a retired photographer aged 67 (another random figure) and was an inmate of the Union Workhouse in Westgate Road, Newcastle.

Sources: rootschat; Photographic News 1881; Angus and Rosemary’s Miscellany of Malvern Local History