The Hardmans’ House is back open for tours and new photo display

The Hardmans’ House is back open every Friday and Saturday this month, offering visitors another chance to step into the 1950s’ time capsule that was once the home and studio of Liverpool photographer Edward Chambré Hardman and his wife Margaret.

Seen just as it was several decades ago during the height of their business, it shows what life was like for this talented couple in their home in Rodney Street.

The house has been owned and cared for by the National Trust since 2003 and opens on a seasonal basis for guided tours.

And this year it’s looking better than ever after the National Trust team and volunteers have been busy cleaning and restoring hundreds of photographs in the original Hardmans’ frames.

Philippa Crofts, Senior Collections and House Officer at The Hardmans’ House, says:

“Since December, our team of 10 hardworking conservation volunteers have cleaned and carried out repairs to 279 photographic prints, framed by the Hardmans and previously displayed to advertise the studio.

“The volunteers have used wet and dry-cleaning methods to clean the interior and exterior of the frames and prints and have rehoused the frames into conservation grade boxes.”

She continues:

“Our conservator has been carrying out complex repairs to the frames, whilst our archivist has catalogued the items. Everyone’s hard work means that the frames and prints are stable and able to be displayed for the first time in decades and you can see a small display of 15 at The Hardmans’ House during May.”

Philippa says altogether the new display boasts 13 framed photographs and two handwritten signs incorporating a wide variety of the type of sitters that would have come to the studio to be photographed, including pets, babies, military, and families wanting to mark a special occasion like a christening or wedding.

The terraced Georgian house at number 59 Rodney Street was the personal and professional base of Edward and Margaret between 1949 and 1988. 

All four floors of the house are still filled with cameras, studio equipment and other objects left over from their business, as well as personal items, including a kitchen stocked with decades-old food packaging and Margaret’s clothes and jewellery.

Irish-born Edward became the leading portrait photographer in Liverpool from the 1920s to the 1960s, taking portraits of celebrities of the age including Ivor Novello, Margot Fonteyn and Patricia Routledge, while Margaret, an accomplished photographer in her own right, managed the business.

But Edward wasn’t only renowned for his portraits. He was also noted for his photographs of the British landscape and Liverpool’s mid-20th century transformation. 

It was after his death in 1988 that the house and a vast archive of in excess of 100,000 photographic prints, negatives and records were acquired by the National Trust.

Tours of The Hardmans’ House last 45 minutes and take visitors to explore three floors of the property including the photographic studio, the dark room and the Hardmans’ own living quarters.

Find more information about Hardmans’s House here.

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