Postcard photo of the Tower Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent, dated 1910-1913. The photographer was Fred C. Palmer of Tower Studio, Herne Bay, Kent, who is believed to have died 1936-1939.

Points of interest

• It is unusual to see an un-posed seaside postcard from this era; several passers-by are smudged due to movement, and they are apparently unaware of being photographed.
• The buildings in the background, towards Westcliff, have been very carefully touched up (view at full-size to see detail). Westcliff is not yet all built up in 1913.
• Hampton pier, visible in the background, had been rebuilt as a concrete stub in 1903-1904, and the end of that pier was allowed to fall derelict. The work was done to prevent further erosion at Hampton-on-Sea on the west side of Hampton Pier, but this image shows the extreme build-up of shingle on the east side of the pier in 1913, while Hampton-on-Sea continued to be eroded.
• The old London Bridge balustrade, given to Herne Bay in 1831 after the bridge was demolished, had stood at the entrance of the first Herne Bay pier. This stone balustrade was moved to fit around the 1884-1928 theatre, and both theatre and balustrade can be seen at the head of the third pier in this postcard. The balustrade was removed in 1953 after a storm and its present whereabouts is unknown.

Editing

This is an unedited scan of the original postcard. It is politely requested that edited versions of this historical item are uploaded separately for the following reasons. Thank you.

Border

The remaining border of this image is important for researchers of this photographer. Some photographers trimmed their images more than others, and Palmer has a reputation for producing smaller postcards than other early 20th century UK photographers. He took his own photos, developed them in-house onto postcard-backed photographic paper and trimmed them himself. It is worth adding that during hand-developing the border is actively masked with equipment which both crops the picture and causes the white frame or border to appear on the paper. This frame is part of the design and is one of the reasons why the quality of Palmer's work is so interesting, and why there is an article and category for him on English Wiki. Researchers need to see exactly where the edge of the postcard is. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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