Directory of Early Photographers in Cambridgeshire, Studio Notes, Borough Studio, Wisbech

[Lilian Ream: a life in photography (Violet Fosbrook-Ream, Cambridgeshire County Council Libraries & Information Service, 1992) has been used, in conjunction with directory entries, in the compilation of these notes.]

John Kennerell occupied the studio during the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign (trade directory evidence: c1893-1901). It then passed to Lawrence Brown (first directory listing: 1904). It was briefly the home of a partnership, Brown & Ream (1908-9), before reverting to solo operation under Lawrence Brown.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, Brown experienced a decline in business and sold the premises to Colonel Ollard, a solicitor, who used the first floor as an extension of his next-door offices. Lillian Ream then leased the ground floor from Ollard, so a photographic studio continued to operate from the address.

In the late 1920s, Ream decided to consolidate her various photographic operations at the Borough Studio, withdrawing from her studios, framing works and craft shop elsewhere in the town. The studio continued in business (run in due course by Ream’s son, Roland, and her grandson, Roger) until 1971.

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