I was given this camera sometime around 1952 by one of my grandfathers at the same time as he gave me his half-plate camera and I took a few pictures with it at that time on glass plates. I'm not sure of the exact date of the camera. For over half a century was merely an heirloom. Encouraged by other experience with large-format I had a good look and saw at once that cut film would could be made to fit the holders with the aid of some card packing. I realised that by using orthochromatic film I could cut it to size with a print trimmer and then process the sheets in open trays under a safelight. Subsequently I found that by cutting plastic bottles into retaining loops I could roll up the sheets of film and develop them in a standard tank. So, with the aid of a changing bag, that saved me the trouble of blacking out the bathroom.

My grandfather's albums included a set of around a dozen approximately quarter plate contact prints taken in London in 1897 when the city was decorated for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. I can't be sure that he used that particular camera of course. Looking at the contact prints out of the album I can't get any clear idea of what the margins of the original glass plates might have looked like either. I thought it might be interesting to see how many of the views would still be recognizable, bearing in mind that bomb damage during WW2 and the efforts of developers over the years have brought about more than a few changes in central London.

Apart from the obvious fact that 112 year old prints in a family album were bound to show their age, various things seem to come out of the comparison, the most noticeable being how much clearer the air in London is nowadays. I imagine the original plates had 'ordinary' emulsion and, being sensitive to blue light only, the effects of smog would be very noticeable, but even allowing for the difference between emulsions the difference in clarity between distant views is striking.

A final thought, 19thC pedestrians could wander around in the road in a way that would be suicidal nowadays! I tried to get as close to the original viewpoints as I could but didn't feel inclined to press my luck too far.

I think my favourite still surviving detail is the little iron balcony on the left hand side of Ludgate Hill. I was so lucky to find a lorry parked in much the same place that a horse drawn cart had been parked in 1897.