Photos of Edwardian England Gallery

Models of SS and RMS Britannic BL22639_002

Models of the SS Britannic and the RMS Britannic, photographed by Bedford Lemere and Company in May 1914. The smaller SS Britannic was launched by White Star Line in 1874 and scrapped in 1903. Her primary role was the carriage of immigrant passengers across the Atlantic between Liverpool and New York. The second White Star ship to bear the name Britannic was an Olympic-class ocean liner launched in February 1914 as a sister ship of RMS Titanic. Like her namesake, she too was built by Harland and Wolff as a transatlantic passenger liner, but following the outbreak of the First World War she was requisitioned as a hospital ship and became HMHS Britannic (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) and was sunk in 1916 after striking a mine

© Historic England Archive

Before Aldwych HSI01_01_026

STRAND, WESTMINSTER, GREATER LONDON. Looking north-east along the Strand, past St Mary-le-Strand Church, towards Holywell Street, with the entrance to Drury Court on the left. Photographed as part of a series recording the Holborn and Strand improvement works.
The buildings on the left of this photograph, and Holywell Street and surrounds, were demolished shortly after the photograph was taken to make way for the Aldwych development

© Historic England Archive

St Giles Fair, Oxford CC49_00539

St Giles Fair, Oxford, Oxfordshire, September 1905.
Photographed by Henry William Taunt (1842-1922) on silver gelatin glass plate negative. Despite the bustle of St Giles's Fair, the photographer Henry Taunt has inevitably attracted attention perched, presumably on a stepladder, above the fairgoers. Employees of the ornately decorated Taylor's Royal Electric Coliseum are drumming up business, and a Fried Fish and Chip Potato wagon stands beside the gas lamp. St Giles'??s Fair had evolved from a parish wake first mentioned in 1624 into a major amusement fair with special trains bringing visitors from far afield. Taunt photographed the fair from the late 1860s, hoping of course to sell many images, and also out of personal interest

© Historic England