Where
59 Rodney Street in Liverpool. Edward Chambré Hardman and his wife Margaret moved to this prestigious Georgian property in 1948 to attract wealthier clients to their portrait photography business.
What
The Hardmans’ House is the only known British example of an intact 20th-century photographic studio, but it was also the couple’s home for 40 years and is a time capsule of postwar Liverpool.
Opened
The National Trust took over the property and its collections in 2002 and used original furniture to recreate how it might have looked in the 1950s when the Hardmans’ business was at its height.
Collection
As well as business records that stretch back to the 1920s, the collection includes about 140,000 of Edward Hardman’s studio and landscape photographs, along with his equipment. “We have cameras and other equipment from across the decades,” says Sarah-Jane Langley, custodian of the Hardmans’ House.
Visitors
Open from mid-March to October, the house runs guided tours five days a week. It had 4,500 visitors in 2011, most of them trust members.
Help at hand
Langley is the only full-time member of staff, supported by a seasonal visitor services assistant on the ticket desk and a house steward who comes in two days a week. A team of 65 volunteers lead tours.
Budget
The trust received a £900,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2002 to overhaul the property. The annual turnover is about £68,000, which mainly comes from ticket sales. Adult entry is £6.60 with gift aid.
Sticky moment
Apart from the health and safety nightmare of Edward Hardman’s home-mixed chemicals stored in whisky bottles around the house, the trust had to deal with a larder full of potentially dangerous food tins when they took over the house.
“The Hardmans had kept rations from the war and tins from the 1940s through to the 1960s,” says Langley. “Some of the tins had exploded, including treacle that had splattered everywhere – so literally a sticky moment.”
A food conservator was called in to decide which tins could be kept on display and which needed to be disposed of.
Survival tip
“Know your collection and how to make it appeal to as wide an audience as you can,” says Langley.
Future plans
“We want to work with groups and galleries to show the work of other photographers,” says Langley.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardmans-house/
59 Rodney Street in Liverpool. Edward Chambré Hardman and his wife Margaret moved to this prestigious Georgian property in 1948 to attract wealthier clients to their portrait photography business.
What
The Hardmans’ House is the only known British example of an intact 20th-century photographic studio, but it was also the couple’s home for 40 years and is a time capsule of postwar Liverpool.
Opened
The National Trust took over the property and its collections in 2002 and used original furniture to recreate how it might have looked in the 1950s when the Hardmans’ business was at its height.
Collection
As well as business records that stretch back to the 1920s, the collection includes about 140,000 of Edward Hardman’s studio and landscape photographs, along with his equipment. “We have cameras and other equipment from across the decades,” says Sarah-Jane Langley, custodian of the Hardmans’ House.
Visitors
Open from mid-March to October, the house runs guided tours five days a week. It had 4,500 visitors in 2011, most of them trust members.
Help at hand
Langley is the only full-time member of staff, supported by a seasonal visitor services assistant on the ticket desk and a house steward who comes in two days a week. A team of 65 volunteers lead tours.
Budget
The trust received a £900,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2002 to overhaul the property. The annual turnover is about £68,000, which mainly comes from ticket sales. Adult entry is £6.60 with gift aid.
Sticky moment
Apart from the health and safety nightmare of Edward Hardman’s home-mixed chemicals stored in whisky bottles around the house, the trust had to deal with a larder full of potentially dangerous food tins when they took over the house.
“The Hardmans had kept rations from the war and tins from the 1940s through to the 1960s,” says Langley. “Some of the tins had exploded, including treacle that had splattered everywhere – so literally a sticky moment.”
A food conservator was called in to decide which tins could be kept on display and which needed to be disposed of.
Survival tip
“Know your collection and how to make it appeal to as wide an audience as you can,” says Langley.
Future plans
“We want to work with groups and galleries to show the work of other photographers,” says Langley.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardmans-house/
