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Colchester 1937 in colour - a photo thread
A walk through Colchester just after the coronation of George VI (hence the flags and bunting), each picture matched with the view today.
Original colour transparencies have been scanned and colour-corrected; otherwise unedited. 1/14
A walk through Colchester just after the coronation of George VI (hence the flags and bunting), each picture matched with the view today.
Original colour transparencies have been scanned and colour-corrected; otherwise unedited. 1/14
Starting in Crouch Street, looking West... 2/14
Crouch Street, looking East, showing the Odeon cinema. Showing is Miriam Hopkins in "Men Are Not Gods" (1936) (supported by "You Must Get Married") - UK release date was 21 May 1937, 9 days after the coronation, which dates the pictures pretty precisely! 3/14
Crouch Street, looking East. The old Odeon cinema is now a crumbling relic of a bygone age. This was where I saw all movies growing up; I think the last I saw there was Jurassic Park... 4/14
Head Street, looking North. 5/14
Head Street, looking North. Lots of flags on show here! Of note is Griffin's on the left, later of the Williams & Griffin department store (now also history, I believe). 6/14
Head Street, looking North. Of interest is Halford Cycles (later to be Halfords - but even in the 30s they had more than 200 shops across the country). 7/14
Head Street, looking North. A great candid photo of the man reading the paper. And a non-black car! 8/14
High Street, looking East. The old Corn Exchange building on the left (seen here advertising Rollerskating and Dancing) is now completely gone. 9/14
High Street, looking West. More flags, these with a distinctive royal twist... 10/14
High Street, looking West. 11/14
High Street, looking East. The Hippodrome Theatre on the left, another building which is now a shadow of its former self. And the white phone box in the middle of the road - presumably because that is the route the telegraph poles follow. 12/14
High Street, looking East. The George Inn here has changed very little; Jeffery the jeweller was still there in my memory. 13/14
And that's the lot. I hope you're all as interested by the period detail, and the early colour photography*, as I have been... 14/14
*Technical note: shot on Ilford Dufaycolor transparency film https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dufaycolor
*Technical note: shot on Ilford Dufaycolor transparency film https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dufaycolor
