Directory of Early Photographers in Cambridgeshire, Studio Notes, Post Office Terrace, Cambridge

The photographic studio at Post Office Terrace, Cambridge, was in continuous use from the 1860s to the 1980s.

It became a studio in the 1860s, when Arthur Nicholls moved there from All Saints Passage. Later in the century it was occupied by J E Bliss, Valentine Blanchard and Colin Lunn, and the evidence of overlapping dates suggests that Blanchard and Lunn worked there in partnership for a time. J Palmer Clarke took over the premises in the 1890s and continued there well into the twentieth century. He was followed by C E Goodrich and F Sanderson, though again there is directory evidence of some overlap of tenure. In the 1930s the studio was taken over by Lettice Ramsey and Helen Muspratt, who continued to work there until the 1970s. Nicholas Lee was the next occupant, and his successor, Peter Lofts, took the business into the 1980s.

What is remarkable is that each time the studio changed hands, its archive of negatives was passed on. The bulk of these appear to represent the work of Nicholls, Clarke and Ramsey & Muspratt.

The collection is now housed at Cambridge Central Library. This link will take you to a talk on the studio by Mary Burgess, Cambridgeshire Collection. Some examples of images from the studio can be found on the Cambridge Revisited and Ramsey & Muspratt pages of Peter Lofts’ website.

See also www.fadingimages.uk

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