Collection: Paul Calvocoressi Collection

Description

A large collection of mixed formatted B/W and colour material, complied by heritage expert and former Historic England employee Paul Calvocoressi. The collection is meticulous and detailed record photography, compiled from the 1960s through to 2012. The collection has a very strong sense of being a life’s work and passion, such is its level of detail. This ensures that the breadth of the collection, both temporally and geographically is one of its main strengths.

The collection focuses predominately on industrial heritage/archaeology from across England, including bridges, train stations, pump houses, telephone exchanges, housing, docks and wharfs, factories and warehouses. There is a particular weight towards London and the south (where the photographer was based and worked), although many parts of the country are covered. The images also capture religious sites, such as churches, fonts and graveyards. The images are mostly building exteriors and detailing, with much of the collection annotated and dated by the photographer.

Across the collection there are a number of very nice, stylised images ensuring that the collection in not entirely standard record photography. A number of the images document A.I.A (Association of Industrial Archaeology), G.I.A (Greenwich Industrial History), I.H.B.C (Institute of Historic Building Conservation), A.S.H.C.B (Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings) meetings, talks and tours. The photographer was an active part of these heritage groups and associations. There is some repetition of the recorded locations (for example Bath and the Thames districts of London appear quite regularly). This is repetition both in terms of the same location being photographed more than once at different times, and the fact there is some duplication between the negatives, albums and contact prints. Also, as the collection covers such a wide date range, it can be helpful in documenting change (for example, the erection of the Shard is captured in some of the albums).

The collection also contains some interesting measured drawings and research notes alongside the imagery. The drawings relate to site visits conducted by Calvocoressi and cover the south east area of London. The drawings cover housing exteriors and details and warehouses. There is also one file of research notes and sketches from a survey of the village of Woburn. The village appears to have been of interest to Calvocoressi. An album details the demolition, in 1970, of the Co-operative Wholesale Societies grain warehouse in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The album is annotated by the photographer and details the progress of the demolition. According to an obituary of the photographer, Calvocoressi opposed the destruction of industrial heritage and to underline that this collection has a strong personal connection, the grain warehouse was the topic of his architectural degree dissertation.

The collection includes foreign locations, such as Ireland, France, Russia, Cuba, Nigeria, Scotland, Italy, Sweden and Germany. Although interesting, around 10-15% relates to foreign countries.

Archival History

Paul Calvocoressi was a former employee of the Greater London Council’s Historic Building Division before moving to work with the London region of Historic England, covering the South Eastern boroughs of the city. The final years of his career were spent with Southwark councils urban design team. He was an historic buildings enthusiast, belonging to many regional associations, and was well known and respected by colleagues. The collection was acquired by The Historic England Archive between 2012 and 2013.

Content

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive