1a Post Office Terrace, 1972 (MoC123/72)
1a Post Office Terrace
The Cambridge Photographers at Post Office Terrace
1865
Arthur Nicholls moved his photography business here from 5 All Saints Passage.
1875 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Nicholls, A., photographic studio
In 1878 J E Bliss took over A Nicholls photography business.
1878 Spalding’s Directory (1)
Bliss, J. E. (successor to Arthur Nichol), photographic artist
1881 Spalding’s Directory (1)
Bliss, J. E., photographic studio
1887 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Blanchard, Valentine, photographic & electric-light and daylight studio
1895 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Turner, James HovellWright and Scruby, auctioneers, valuers and estate agents. Agents for the Commercial Union Fire Life and Marine Assurance Co.Clarke, J. Palmer, art and landscape photographerGoodrich, Charles E., manager
1911 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Clark, C. W., college servant and University lodging-house keeperRayner, D., appraiser and agent for the Alliance Assurance Co.Jones, C. Percy, solicitor, secretary of the Cambridge Traders’ AssociationClarke, J. Palmer, art and landscape photographer
1912 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Clark, C. W., college servant and University lodging-house keeperThe Northern Equitable Insurance Company, Ltd. 535Taylor, W. A., district secretaryJones, C. Percy, solicitor, secretary of the Cambridge Traders’ AssociationClarke, J. Palmer, art and landscape photographer
1913 Spalding’s Directory (unnumbered)
Clark, college servant and University lodging-house keeperThe Northern Equitable Insurance Company, Ltd. 535Taylor, W. A., district secretaryJones, C. Percy, solicitor, secretary of the Cambridge Traders’ AssociationClarke, J. Palmer, art and landscape photographer 1033Sanderson, F. H.Goodrich, C. E.
1927 Spalding’s Directory
Clark, C. W., college servantDriver, Walter, accountant, house and estate agent 468Clarke J. Palmer, art photographer 1033Goodrich, C. E. & Sanderson, F. H., Partners
1930, 1932 Spalding’s Directories
Driver, Walter, F.N.A.A., auctioneer, valuer, accountant, and estate agent 468Clarke J. Palmer, art photographerGoodrich, C. E., proprietor 1033
1933 Spalding’s Directory
Driver, Walter, accountant, house and estate agent 468Clarke J. Palmer, art photographer
1935
1935 Spalding’s Directory
Driver, Son & January, auctioneers, valuers, surveyors, house, land and estate agents 4168Ramsey & Muspratt, incorporatingClarke, J. Palmer, art photographer 4633
1936 Spalding’s Directory
Driver, Son & January, auctioneers, valuers, surveyors, house, land and estate agents 4168Driver, Walter 3074Ramsey & Muspratt, incorporatingClarke, J. Palmer, art photographer 4633
1939 Spalding’s Directory
Driver & Son, auctioneers, valuers, surveyors, house, land and estate agents 4168Driver, Walter, F.A.L.P.A.Driver, Denis A., A.A.L.P.A.Ramsey & Muspratt, incorporatingClarke, J. Palmer, art photographer 4638
1948 Kelly’s Directory
DRIVER & SON, auctioneers, valuers, surveyors & house, land & estate agents. Tel. 4168Ramsey & Muspratt, photographers
1953 Kelly’s Directory
DRIVER & SON, house, land & estate agents. Tel. 4168Ramsey & Muspratt, photographers
1955 Kelly’s Directory
DRIVER & SON, house, land & estate agents & management. Tel. 4168Ramsey & Muspratt Ltd, (Lettice Ramsey M.A., E.I.B.P. & P. A. L. Brunney A.I.B.P.), photographers – commercial & portrait. Photo – printing & document copying. Tel. 4633
1960 Kelly’s Directory
DRIVER & SON, house, land & estate agents. Tel. 4168Ramsey & Muspratt Ltd., photographers
1964-1968 Kelly’s Directories
Ramsey & Muspratt Ltd., photographersPost Office Engineering Dept
1971
1972
1974 Kelly’s Directory
Ramsey & Muspratt Ltd., photographers
In 2022 Mary Burgess of the Cambridgeshire Central Library gave a talk about the photographic collection from 1a Post Office Terrace that had been donated to the Cambridgeshire Collection.
In 2022 Dr Ann Kennedy Smith gave a talk to the Mill Road History Society about the life of Lettice Ramsay, one of the photographers based at 1a Post Office Terrace.
In the early 1930s Lettice Ramsey, a young widow, with her professional partner Helen Muspratt took over the studio. Ramsey & Muspratt became one of the most celebrated 20th century photographers, and their portraits of the Bloomsbury group and 1930s Cambridge spies are still widely reproduced today. In 1938 Muspratt moved to Oxford and the studio continued in both university towns. In the 1950s and 1960s Lettice Ramsey took Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes’s wedding photographs (which they hated and kept hidden away) and travelled widely, including to Cambodia. She worked as a professional photographer almost until her death in 1985 and was described as ‘Cambridge’s First Lady’. Many Cambridge people will still have memories of her, and perhaps even some of her photographs.
See also her article on the life of Lettice Ramsey – Woman with a Camera
More Info
- The slides from a talk on the studio by Mike Petty can be found on the internet Archive
- Fading Images has information on a great number of photographers who worked in Cambridgeshire. It also has a section dedicated to the Post Office terrace studio with catalogues of many o the photos taken there.
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