Im really delighted that the Bristol Post Newspaper did an amazing 3 page fold out on pixpast and its bristol color photos 🙂 yippeee 🙂
Ian 🙂
https://www.pressreader.com/similar/282239486850914
Bristol WW2 in colour
Picture Past Colour
photographs from
the Second World War
The Post was recently contacted by Ian Spring, a specialist collector and
dealer in colour photographs taken in WW2 who has found a few taken in
Bristol in 1943-44. He has very kindly sent us scans to show you now. We’ve
looked at them all very carefully and have been able to identify some of the
locations, but not all. Some of them were definitely taken in London, so we’ve
not reproduced them here, but some there’s a question mark over, so
perhaps you can help out. We don’t know the identity of the photographer,
but as the pictures were found by one of Mr Spring’s contacts in the United
States, he (or possibly she) was almost certainly American. S/he was probably
an officer; in the 1940s, buying colour film and getting it developed was
expensive on the pay of a private soldier, even an American one. One of the
photos, and possibly a second, show the U.S. hospital at Frenchay, so our
photographer may have been a medic of some kind.
 In the late 1930s Kodak made its
new Kodachrome (initially designed
for home movies) available in
35mm format, while in Germany
Agfa introduced Agfacolor Neu.
Colour photography was expensive,
and it was almost impossible to take
pictures indoors, but there were
surprisingly large numbers of
colour photos taken, particularly by
Americans and Germans, and
collectors like Ian Spring are now
uncovering more and more of them
all the time.
With more than 33,000 colour
slides from the 1930s to 1945, Mr
Spring owns one of the world’s
leading collections of private
unpublished Second World War
colour photography.
For more information, and to buy
prints, see pixpast.com
 The bomb damage, tidied up for the duration, as viewed from what was left of the old Wine Street. The spire of St
Nicholas is on the left and Christ Church with St Ewen in the centre.
 Nissen huts (or are they American Quonset huts?
Can anyone tell the difference?), location unknown, but very
probably Frenchay Hospital. Frenchay Village Museum kindly showed BT some
contemporary photos which bear some resemblance to this scene. If this is the case, then
according to a map held by the Museum this was the “enlisted men’s quarters.” That is, accommodation
for men below officer rank. It might be that our anonymous photographer was one of the 298th’s staff.
 A padre in British Army battledress, location
unknown, but it looks like some sort of
services camp. Frenchay did not have
wooden huts of this design though they
were very common elsewhere. Anyone
have any ideas? (Thought not, but
no harm in asking …) Was he
the man responsible for those
fine flower beds?
 It took us ages to work
this one out. The
picture was taken on
Park Place, Clifton and
is looking towards the
premises of John E.
Pritchard, auctioneers
and valuers, on
Queens Road. This is
currently the premises
of the Skipton Building
Society. The building
to the left was a
branch of Barclays
Bank, which was later
demolished and
though Barclays still
occupies the site, the
visible part of this
photo is now a Café
Nero. Note also the
removal van of
Lalonde Brothers &
Parham, an old local
firm which (we think)
may have had its
Bristol offices at the
Pritchard premises.
 Taken from what’s now Castle Park,
not far from the ruins of St Peter’s
Church and looking down Union
Street. You can just make out the
top of the Odeon cinema on the left.
 
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