KENSINGTON GARDENS BEHIND THE SCENES 1 MAY 2023 Available NOW at all good bookshops!

 

ISBN: 978-0-9556659-3-6   £14.99

128 pp

200 b/w images

ISBN: 978-0-9556659-3-6

£14.99

Publication: 1 May 2023

See Kensington Gardens in beautiful images from stylish Edwardian postcards, sent and collected by visitors a hundred years ago. This was a golden age when each postcard was a little work of art and the quickest way to send a photograph with a message to loved ones. 

Follow the elegant Broad Walk between Palace Gate and Queensway, to see the statue of Queen Victoria and famous views of Kensington Palace. An original engraving shows Kensington Palace three hundred years ago when it was newly built. See the State Apartments when they opened to the public in 1899 for Queen Victoria’s 80th birthday and discover who was living at the palace a hundred years ago. Find the Elfin Oak near the Children’s Playground where ‘Time Flies’ and hear how J. M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan joined in the fun, racing balloons across the Round Pond. Near Lancaster Gate, find the statue of the twin teddy bears, and enjoy the calm beauty of the Italian Fountains, a romantic gift from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria. 

Visit Queen Caroline’s Temple, a Georgian folly, from which to see the Long Water and Hyde Park. See the Tea Gardens which became the Serpentine Gallery and look for the ‘Big Horse Statue’ of Physical Energy, sent by Bert to Auntie as a ‘get well soon’ card. See the magnificent Albert Memorial, opposite the Royal Albert Hall. And as we take the Flower Walk in summertime back to Kensington Palace, remember a Princess who lived here, who will never be forgotten. 

Hermione Cameron has been collecting these postcards and photographs for over a decade, in order to take the reader on a visual tour of this much-loved royal park, as it was in the early years of the 20th century. Deciphering handwritten messages, and researching family histories in the census returns, local archives, directories and newspapers, she brings the reader a social history commentary to celebrate the lives behind the scenes.

By the same author:

Notting Hill Behind the Scenes

Holland Park Behind the Scenes

Shepherd’s Bush Behind the Scenes

‘A stand-out book in the genre’ Picture Postcard Monthly

‘Discover the hidden stories which lie on every corner of our streets’ Kensington and Chelsea News

‘Lovingly annotated’ Robert Elms, BBC

128 pp

200 images

ISBN: 978-0-9556659-3-6

£14.99

Publication: 1 May 2023

NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES First Edition 2007. Reprinted 2008, 2009, New Edition 2015 Reprinted 2019, 2023.

NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES
128 pp

ISBN 978-0-9556659-0-5 
Price £14.99

BehindTheScenesPublishing.Com

Available from all good bookshops.

Discover London's Notting Hill as it was a hundred years ago, presented in a unique collection of more than 200 images from 'Real Photo' and printed postcards. Take a visual tour which leads you from the unveiling of the Tube station at Notting Hill to the bustling market stalls of Portobello Road in the Edwardian era. Find out where the only Jealous man in London was a pub landlord, the Madders sisters had a dancing school, Napoleon's nephew experimented with poisons and where to find Mrs Memory and Miss Perfect. Follow in the footsteps of Notting Hill's residents all those years ago. Chapters guide you along Notting Hill High Street, Pembridge Road, Kensington Park Road, Ladbroke Grove, Lancaster Road and Westbourne Grove to Portobello Road. As a freelance journalist, Hermione Cameron has written about some of London's most creative and eccentric characters. She brings to NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES her own brand of commentary, including quirky facts and coincidences and a sheer delight in the people who don't always make it into the history books.

REVIEWS for Notting Hill Behind The Scenes:
'A stand-out book in the genre.' PICTURE POSTCARD MONTHLY

'A fascinating book collecting together old photographs and postcards of the area around Portobello Road, Labroke Grove and Notting Hill Gate. It shows how the streets have changed since 1900 but also how recognisable everything still is. Well researched with lots of information about the buildings, the shops and the people that ran them. A real treat if you live (or have lived) in the area.' PORTOBELLO READER, AMAZON.CO.UK

'A new book of historic photographs of the area' TIME OUT

'Discover the hidden stories which lie on every corner of our streets' KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA NEWS 

'Every street is charmingly, instantly, identifiable' THE HILL MAGAZINE
'If you want to know what Notting Hill was like all those years ago, this is a very good place to start. It's 'Notting Hill Behind the Scenes,' and it's been compiled and lovingly annotated by Hermione Cameron.' BBC Radio London 'THE ROBERT ELMS SHOW'

REVIEW for NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES 'A STAND-OUT BOOK IN THE GENRE' Picture Postcard Monthly DECEMBER 2007 (p.56)

REVIEW for NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES
'A STAND-OUT BOOK IN THE GENRE'
Picture Postcard Monthly DECEMBER 2007 (p.56)


"Notting Hill Behind The Scenes (Hermione Cameron) follows the familiar format of showing us what a particular place was like a century ago. The format is a well-established and simple one: the postcard illustrations have the starring role, and the introduction and captions serve as footnotes, a touch of extra detail for the observer.

Yet Hermione Cameron's production has a couple of features which make this a stand-out book in the genre. She's gone in search of the people who populated the streets all those years ago, and she makes us look at them, too, by the trick of giving us some of the pictures twice, the second time with part of the detail magnified. It's a double-take that has you flitting from the general to the particular and back again, and above all makes the characters come alive. We all love those 'animated' street scenes. The author's in your face treatment of Notting Hill's Edwardian residents is a thought-provoking master stroke.

The introduction instantly focuses on the inhabitants rather than the buildings and their history. She gives us Miss Perfect, William Jealous and the Madders sisters, people we meet later, along with many other residents. 'Seeing a familiar street all those years ago made me wonder about the past overlapping with the present: how we may walk in someone else's footsteps, turn the the same street corner, pass the same shop and cross the same road, and do all this a century apart.'

So, half a century before Marc Bolan lived at 57 Blenheim Crescent, Emily Needham was a dressmaker there. Henry Armfield, a dyer and cleaner, is brought to life outside his shop by the magnification technique and assumes a stature that he can never do in the original picture.

The captions, too, investigate the human side of Notting Hill, probing the people who ran the shops, lived in houses and worked in businesses. Even if you begin by not knowing Notting Hill, you're soon inside it, an inquisitive voyeur. Beats Albert Square any day."

HC adds: I really am thrilled that the book is getting such a great response. For a first-timer, it is an incredible feeling. Thank you to The Travel Bookshop, Notting Hill,  Waterstones, Notting Hill Gate and Daunt Books, Holland Park Avenue for showcasing 'Notting Hill Behind The Scenes.'