Recycling Leicester’s history ……

For the historian and the curious alike, those old picture postcards showing scenes of where we live are both a wonderful asset and a fascinating link to our past.

And when they are then compared with a modern image a little bit of Leicester’s history is revealed.

That said the purveyors of such cards were less interested in the historical legacy of their photographs and more in just making money.

So, a popular edition will have been reissued, and reissued over the decades and in some cases allowing you to buy a picture of a location long after it had changed.

In some cases, the originals were colourized often blurring the scene in the process. 

In other cases additions were made to ring the changes.

So here is a 1905 picture of the castle gateway which I have featured before, but with the addition of the City’s coat of arms, making it a little bit more attractive than the original which was part of a set of 12 published the year before.

More outrageous was the recycling of a card with the imprint of festive greetings for Christmas and New Year, made all the more silly when the scene displayed was taken in high summer with no effort to add snow or holly.

But then the companies were engaged in making money as were the commercial photographers who along with recording historic Leicester would go down the more refined or attractive streets taking pictures which were the offered to the residents and shop keepers.

All of which must have made New Walk and The Oval popular photographic haunts, witnessed by the number of picture postcards of the fine place reproduced first without and then with the city arms.

I suppose their commercial considerations have left us heaps of old Leicester to stare out and ponder on.

Location; Leicester

Pictures; Castle Gate Way and New Walks, 1905, from Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/  and in 2017 courtesy of Google Maps