Victoria Embankment

This is a divided back postcard posted to Switzerland in September 1903 but the photograph was taken over ten years previously. The photograph was taken from Hungerford Bridge and shows amongst other things the Cleopatra swimming pool. The floating swimming pool was originally moored just upstream of Hungerford Bridge and opened in 1875 (see photo below), the swimming pool company went out of business in 1885 and the pool was abandoned in the Surrey docks for several years. In 1890 or thereabouts the pool was renovated by its new owners and towed to the position shown just downstream of Hungerford Bridge. This incarnation lasted for about 18 months and in September 1892 it was sold by auction and scrapped.

The sender of the postcard has written a message on the obverse, the reverse of the card could only be used for the address prior to 1903, the post office rules changed in 1903 which allowed the reverse to be divided into two spaces, one for the message and the other for the address but in this case the sender has reverted to the old way of using the postcard despite the postcard having a divided back.

Done