W. & D. Downey
Encyclopedia
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
studio photographers operating in London from the 1860s to the 1910s.
William Downey (14 July 1829 South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
– 7 July 1915 Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
), who came to be known as the Queen's Photographer, was born in King Street in South Shields, a decade before commercial photography had become a reality. William, initially, was a carpenter and boatbuilder, but in about 1855 he set up a studio in South Shields with his brother Daniel and later established branches in Blyth
Blyth, Northumberland
Blyth is a town and civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth and is approximately 21 kilometres northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne...
, Morpeth
Morpeth, Northumberland
Morpeth is the county town of Northumberland, England. It is situated on the River Wansbeck which flows east through the town. The town is from the A1, which bypasses it. Since 1981, it has been the administrative centre of the County of Northumberland. In the 2001 census the town had a population...
and Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. Their first Royal commission was to provide photographs for Queen Victoria of the Hartley Colliery Disaster
Hartley Colliery Disaster
The Hartley Colliery Disaster was a disastrous mining accident in Northumberland, England in 1862 in which 220 lives were lost. - Cause :In an age when methane or coal dust and firedamp explosions were common, the tragedy at Hartley Colliery, Northumberland, England was different because it was...
in January 1862.
In 1863 they opened a studio on Eldon Square
Eldon Square
Eldon Square is a shopping centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was officially opened in 1977. Eldon Square was also the name applied to a terrace development on the same site, designed by John Dobson in about 1824 and demolished in the 1960s....
in Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. The same year William set up a studio in the Houses of Parliament and produced portraits of every parliamentarian of the day. The resulting images' location is unknown to this day.
William moved to 57 & 61 Ebury Street
Ebury Street
Ebury Street is a street in Belgravia, City of Westminster, London. It runs from the Grosvenor Gardens junction south-westwards to Pimlico Road. The odd numbers run from 1 to 231 on the east side and even numbers 2 to 230 on the west side...
in London in 1872 and opened another studio, his brother managing the Newcastle branch. The London studio enjoyed the patronage of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, taking photos at Balmoral
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
and Frogmore
Frogmore
The Frogmore Estate or Gardens comprise of private gardens within the grounds of the Home Park, adjoining Windsor Castle, in the English county of Berkshire. The name derives from the preponderance of frogs which have always lived in this low-lying and marshy area.It is the location of Frogmore...
during the 1860s. Its first Royal image was of the Princess of Wales
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
at the York Agricultural Show in about 1865. The studio also produced the iconic carte-de-visite portrait of the Princess of Wales piggybacking Princess Louise
Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife
The Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was the third child and the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark...
. The studio received a Royal Warrant
Royal Warrant
Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier...
in 1879.
Downey used Joseph Swan
Joseph Swan
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was a British physicist and chemist, most famous for the invention of the incandescent light bulb for which he received the first patent in 1878...
's carbon process for their best work. In the 1880s Mawson, Swan & Morgan of Newcastle, was the world's largest manufacturer of photographic dry plates, the convenience of which made photography a commercial reality. George Eastman
George Eastman
George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream...
spent some time there during the eighties and afterwards invented the Box Brownie and roll film
Roll film
Rollfilm or roll film is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing, as opposed to film which is protected from exposure and wound forward in a cartridge. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film because of its...
, ending the monopoly of studios on permanent images.
William Downey's son, William Edward Downey (1855–1908), managed most of the royal sittings during the Edwardian era. Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
, a child photographic model of the time, reminisces about the Downeys in her autobiography:
William senior was married to Lucy, who had been born in Speenhamland, Berkshire
Speenhamland, Berkshire
Speenhamland is a district of Newbury, Berkshire, which gave rise to the Speenhamland system of poor relief in the early 19th century. It lies to the north of the River Kennet, between the centre of Newbury and the village of Speen to the north-west....
in 1843, and they had one son and one daughter. He joined the Photographic Society (later The Royal Photographic Society
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society is the world's oldest national photographic society. It was founded in London, United Kingdom in 1853 as The Photographic Society of London with the objective of promoting the Art and Science of Photography...
) in December 1870. The 1891 and 1901 census records show that he was living at 10 Nevern Square, Warwick Road, Earl's Court, Kensington. Downey's prized silver collection was stolen from his Earl's Court home in November 1914 – the burglary is said to have brought on his death.
William Downey senior was William Fowler Downey and he married Caroline Griffiths of Cheshire. They had two sons, William Edward and Robert Ingham (who died an infant). Caroline died in 1874 and William remarried Lucy Lyon in 1877. Their children were Arthur James Hope and Laura Evelyn.
Daniel Downey married Elizabeth Smith Beloe and had three children, another Robert Ingham Downey, Elizabeth and Victoria Christine.
Daniel died in Bethnal House, Bethnal Green on 15 July 1881.
External links
- Photographers in Victorian London - Collection of Roger F.Vaughan
- W. & D. Downey - Collection of Roger F.Vaughan
- The Royal Collection
- Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society 1870-1915
- King Edward VII and his family
- Portrait of Alexandra of Denmark; Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary of Wales