Black and white photograph of an urban street scene featuring a woman in an apron using a pedestrian crossing. Three-storey buildings flank the road, most of which have ground floor shops. The upper storeys of some buildings show painted signs and advertisement boards. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Birmingham. Sherlock Street', part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts.
A woman using a pedestrian crossing on Sherlock Street, Birmingham, in the 1940s or 1950s. The street looks very different today. © Historic England Archive. Reference: PEN01/28/11/54371
A woman using a pedestrian crossing on Sherlock Street, Birmingham, in the 1940s or 1950s. The street looks very different today. © Historic England Archive. Reference: PEN01/28/11/54371

A Judge on the High Street: The Sir John Pennycuick Collection

The Sir John Pennycuick Collection connects the High Court with the high street. This nostalgic collection of views of buildings and street scenes from the 20th century records terraces of houses, cobbled streets, shops and advertisements for Woodbine cigarettes and Bisto gravy.

From bustling street markets to peaceful village lanes. From residential streets, with their corner pubs and local shops, to portraits of churches and the odd modernist insertion. This collection reveals an eclectic mix of over 60,000 views compiled by Sir John Pennycuick, a tennis-loving barrister, High Court judge and amateur photographer.

From tennis court to High Court: Who was Sir John Pennycuick?

One of the really great judges of his generation.
Christopher Heath, 1982

Sir John Pennycuick was born in Camberley, Surrey on 6 November 1899. He went to school in Sandhurst and was later educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. Following service in the Coldstream Guards, Sir John entered the legal profession, qualifying as a barrister in 1925.

Around the time Sir John began performing in the law court, he started to make a name for himself on the tennis court. Between 1925 and 1931, he competed six times in the men’s singles competition at the Wimbledon Championships. His best years were 1925 and 1926 when he made it to the third round of the competition.

At the 1930 Wimbledon Championships, Sir John partnered his future wife Lucy Johnstone in the mixed doubles competition. They didn’t get past the first round, and it was the same result for Lucy and her sister Mie in the women’s doubles.

After the Second World War, Sir John’s legal career progressed. In 1947 he became a King’s Council – a senior barrister, and in 1954 he was elected a Bencher – a member of the governing body of one of the Inns of Court in London.

In 1960, Sir John was appointed a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division and received the customary knighthood. Despite retiring from full-time court work in 1974, Sir John continued to sit in the Court of Appeal, was appointed to the Privy Council and was Treasurer of the Inner Temple from 1978 to 1979.

Following his death at the age of eighty-two on 14 January 1982, Lord Scarman wrote of Sir John in ‘The Times’ newspaper: 

Deceptively diffident in manner, he was possessed of a wit and an insight into human nature which made him not only a fine judge but a delightful and entertaining companion.

He deserves to be remembered as the very archetype of an English Judge and gentleman.
Lord Scarman, 1982

A service of thanksgiving for the life of Sir John Pennycuick was held at Temple Church on 22 March 1982.

A collector and keen amateur photographer

Sir John was an avid collector of picture postcards. He was also a keen amateur photographer. He used a German-made Rolleiflex camera, which was renowned for its simplicity and durability.

Sir John collected postcards of towns and buildings during his travels around Britain and Continental Europe. He put them into albums that were ordered according to location. His own photographs were made into postcard-sized prints that were also inserted into the albums.

The albums, or ‘vols’ as they were known by Sir John’s family, were enhanced with the addition of hand-drawn maps. These showed the counties and rural and urban districts featured in the album.

The part of the collection that includes coverage of places in England was bequeathed to the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England (a predecessor to Historic England) in 1981. The albums of places beyond England were received by the Courtauld Institute of Art.

What’s in the collection?

The Sir John Pennycuick Collection contains around 60,000 images and 387 carefully compiled albums of postcards and photographs. It is an intriguing view of English streets and buildings, recorded from the viewpoint of a passionate amateur photographer and meticulous collector.

The postcards that Sir John collected date from around 1910. His own photographs were taken in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and possibly into the early 1970s. Unfortunately, they are not specifically dated.

Each of the albums in the collection is named and numbered on the spine and title page. A hand-drawn coloured map is inserted at the beginning of the album, showing viewers the areas covered in the following pages. These reflect the pre-1974 names and boundaries of the counties and districts represented in the album.

For example, the first Wiltshire volume features postcards and photographs of some of the county’s municipal boroughs, including Salisbury, Malmesbury, Wilton, Devizes, Marlborough and Calne. Boroughs that contain distinct settlements or areas are also grouped accordingly. Salisbury, for example, includes New Sarum, Fisherton, Bemerton, West Harnham and East Harnham.

Depending on the number of postcards and photographs collated for each place, up to four are inserted into each double-page spread.

The tactile nature of the postcard albums makes viewing the collection in person a very nostalgic and tangible experience.

What can I see in the photographs?

The content and the breadth of coverage in the Sir John Pennycuick Collection make for an enjoyable and useful resource for anyone interested in social history and the built environment of the mid-20th century.

Many of the individual buildings featured in the collection are ecclesiastical, from grand cathedrals to rural parish churches. There are historic bridges, market crosses and city gates. Perhaps most interesting and nostalgic are the general views of streets, many of which appear to have been taken by Sir John standing in the middle of the road.

The images show streets, the buildings that lined them, the vehicles that drove along them and the people who lived, worked, shopped and walked on them. Some views are relatively quiet, lacking people, traffic, signage, advertisements and road markings. Others are busier, showing the bustling nature of local high streets and marketplaces.

Many streets in England’s villages, towns and cities have changed greatly since Sir John recorded them in the decades following the Second World War. Reconstruction and redevelopment, often motivated by motor transport, have altered their appearance, changed their character and, in some cases, curtailed their very existence. The photographs in the collection offer insights into both subtle and comprehensive change in the urban environment.  

The streetscape photography in the collection offers an insight into a recent past that currently still resides in the memory of living generations. However, it will not be too long before this changes, and Sir John’s photographs will then only exist in a time beyond our collective memories.  

The Sir John Pennycuick Collection is a collection of the ordinary – the streets and buildings used and occupied by local communities throughout England, and some streets that were passed through briefly by others on their way to somewhere else. Its scope, content and its creator make the collection quite extraordinary.

A selection of photographs from the Sir John Pennycuick Collection

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

Black and white photograph of an urban street scene, looking along a straight road that terminates in the distance. The right side of the road is flanked by brick houses and commercial premises that open directly onto the pavement. Two women with a pram stand outside one premises that has a person leaning out from the doorstep. Beyond them appears to be a man in military uniform. Much of the centre-left of the photograph, on the opposite side of the road, is dominated by a light-coloured, two-storey modernist building with ground-floor shop windows shielded by awnings. Lettering above reads: 'Had Your Hovis Today?'. Several bicycles and a tricycle stand at the side of the road. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Westbury. Edward Street', part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of a rural street scene featuring empty roads, houses, outbuildings, and a parish church. In the foreground, the road narrows, probably at a junction, with one road continuing into the distance. To the left is a bank of grass, a coursed stone wall with coping and a pub sign reading: 'The Butchers Arms'. To the right of the narrow road are stone houses and outbuildings. A narrow pavement curves around the low wall to the central farmhouse and yard. Behind, and on a slight incline, is a church with a square tower set at one side of the nave. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Wroxton. Balscote'. The four corners of the photograph are obscured by photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene that looks down a long, straight road flanked by two- and three-storey brick houses and commercial buildings. In the left foreground, the street and pavement curve in front of a curved, three-storey public house. Beyond is an open patch of land with children playing on it. The exposed end of the next building carries an advertisement board. The buildings on the opposite side are interrupted by empty plots, alleys, or side roads. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Everton. Whitefield Road' and a label applied to the bottom-left reads: 'Liverpool', parts of which are obscured by corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene featuring two- and three-storey houses and commercial premises. A few people stand or walk along the pavement to the right of the near-empty street. Two women in long coats and hats stand on the corner of the street, outside a brick building that carries signs for 'Lyle's High Class Mineral Wate' [Water]. Above them, suspended from the first floor of the building is an oversized bottle. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Maidstone. King Street', part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene featuring rows of terrace houses on either side of a tarmac road that gently slopes and curves into the distance. To the left, two-storey houses with canted ground floor bays and small front gardens front onto the pavement. Opposite, a distinct, two-storey modernist building topped with a clock and flag pole stands on the corner of the road and an access road. Further along the right side of the road are terraced houses with gables facing the street. Two cars are parked on the road in the far distance and a woman in a long coat and carrying a bag crosses the access road. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'East Barnet. Brunswick Park Road, part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene featuring people walking on a road flanked by market stalls set out in front of rows of stone-fronted buildings of multiple storeys. The market stalls include displays of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. Several wooden boxes are discarded around them. In the foreground, a man in a dark three-piece suit and hat walks toward the camera carrying a bag, a woman in a dark two-piece suit and carrying a light shopping bag walks away from the camera. Four corner photograph album mounts are visible. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene. The view looks straight along a cobbled road, gently sloping into the distance. The street is empty apart from a couple of parked cars and a woman on the doorstep of a brick terrace house to the left side of the street. The two-storey buildings flanking the street are mostly houses that front directly onto the pavement. On the right side, some commercial premises can be made out, the one in the foreground having a double-door corner entrance. A label applied to the bottom-right reads: 'Heaton Norris. Belmont Street' and a label applied to the bottom-left reads: 'Stockport', although they are partly obscured by corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene. The view looks along a curving street that drops downhill. The right side of the street has two-storey buildings that front onto a narrow cobbled path. To the left foreground, the road widens in front of a two-storey building with a first-floor arched sash window. Many of the buildings on the right side are shops carrying various signs and advertisements. A lady wearing a hat and carrying a shopping bag steps from one of them. The buildings are variously clad in render and tiles. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Launceston. Northgate Street', part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts. Black and white photograph of an urban street scene. The view looks along a straight road that has a gentle incline. The road is flanked on either side by mainly two-storey houses and commercial premises that open directly onto the pavement. At the left of the photograph, a street lamp stands at the edge of the pavement. On the opposite side, two boys walk side-by-side away from the camera, approaching a woman standing on a doorstep. A label applied to the bottom-right of the photograph reads: 'Frizington', part of which is obscured by one of four corner photograph album mounts.

View the collection

You can either contact Archive Customer Services using the details given below to visit and view the Sir John Pennycuick Collection or browse selected images via our online catalogue.

Sir John Pennycuick collection

Acknowledgements

The Historic England Archive would like to thank Mr Mark McConnell for kindly sharing information about the life and career of his maternal grandfather.

Sources

Lord Scarman, 1982, ‘Sir John Pennycuick’ in The Times, 22 January 1982, Issue 61138, p10

The quote from Christopher Heath can be found in ‘In Memoriam Sir John Pennycuick’, transcript of a hearing in the High Court of Justice, 15 January 1982

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