Another side to the remarkable Mr Banks, celebrated photographer and now artist

Trade card, 1885

Now somewhere I know I will find at least one of the three “life size busts , painted in oil on canvas, from photographs” of “Messrs, John Slagg, Jacob Bright and Robert Leake.”*

And in the fullness of time I will also unearth a picture of Cheetham Reform Club which was on the corner of Bignor Street and Heywood Street.

It was opened in 1882, and I suppose it was fitting that these three paintings should have been commissioned by the Club because back in 1880  John Slagg and Jacob Bright had laid the foundation stone for the building and with their fellow MP Robert Leake had spoken of the importance of the new club to Cheetham.

Along with a large local crowd there was a "special party" who had made their way from that other Reform Club in the centre of Manchester and had arrived in a hired coach.

Looking at maps of the period it was an impressive pile with a large bowling green set in open spaces on the edge of some densely packed housing.

From the Manchester Guardian, 1882

But the Reform Club was not what drew me into the story that was our old friend the photographer Robert Banks, who rose from fairly humble beginnings to be a well known Manchester photographer.

Many of his public photographs of the city and including lots of public events are still available as are the personal photographic images of people who attended his studios, but until now I had no idea that he also painted.

Selling Valentin Cards 1872

I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised given that he was at one time employed by the Oldham Chronicle as an “illustrated artist” and later when he opened his own studio at Uppermill in 1867 he advertised Valentine Cards.

But there is the first reference to something as grand as full scale paintings.

A royal event, 1911

All of which points up that simple observation that there is always more to find out about things and as I finish writing this I have in front of me a photograph by Mr Banks which I haven’t seen before.

It is of the visit of Edward VII and Alexandra for the official opening of the new Manchester Royal Infirmary on Oxford Road in 1909.

Now this is quite surprising given that he was very effective at publishing his own work much of which appeared in souvenir collections soon after the great event had occurred.

And in this I have been lucky in that my friend Sally came across one of these books, “much knocked about, missing its cover and spine but full of wonderful images of Manchester.”

So there you have it, another story on Mr Banks with a side of the man I knew nothing of and the hope that his paintings will emerge from the shadows.

Pictures; trade card advertising Robert Bank’s studios circa 1885 and advert from the Oldham Chroncile, 1872, courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/, newspaper report from the Manchester Guardian and  the Royal visit, 1909, Robert Banks, m72040, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Cheetham Reform Club, Manchester Guardian, September 20 1882