Thanks for joining me!

All the photos on this blog were taken by me as part of a final year art college project (St Martins School of Art) and pre-date a theft of a large number of Martinware items that were held in the small but representative collection at Southall Library, Southall, Middlesex (now sadly closed and re-purposed as meeting place for a religious group), appropriately located due to it’s proximity to the Martinware pottery and where the Martin Brothers were based.

The photos were taken using a Pentax K-1000 camera and tripod on 35mm Kodachrome slide film (which suggests when they were taken) and I was allowed access to the collection and also kindly provided with a large number of copies of B/W photographic prints and other items held within the library’s archive.

Although the slides have remained untouched for the intervening period in plastic wallets bound into a volume, they seem to have accumulated dust and fungus spots that require removal before uploading to the blog – I was quite surprised at how much dirt, dust and mold are on some of the slides and although my Epson V-600 slide scanner has a dust removal facility, it really only works for negative film.

The collection – or what remains of it – and also some more recent acquisitions, has now moved a short distance away to a new home within the Dominion Community Centre, once the site of the Dominion cinema.

As an aside, check out www.thenakedswami.com for prints suitable for framing of this iconic building, which was demolished in the late 1980’s.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton