Leonard Bentley
Westminster Bridge
This is a Rotary Company postcard in their “London Life” series and dates from about 1910. The white bearded gent is Edwin Crocker and he has been providing mostly children with “a penny a peep” look at the clock face of Big Ben since the early 1890s. He also sold sweets and guide books from his pitch although I don’t know how he got away with setting up in the middle of the pavement, later photographs show the pitch hard up against the plinth of the Boadicea statue. In December 1926 a newspaper report stated that Mr. Crocker was a former sailor and was about 73 years of age and had been providing his telescope service for thirty-three years. In July 1928 he was dubbed the unluckiest man in London after a Cormorant took up residence at the top of Big Ben and had attracted large crowds to watch it, unfortunately over the few days of the Cormorant’s residence, Mr. Crocker was ill and could not take advantage of this golden opportunity, he carried on his business well into the 1930s. I had never heard of Streimers Nougat before but apparently the confection was made in London at a factory in Stratford, East London, owned by Morris Streimer who was an Austrian immigrant.
Westminster Bridge
This is a Rotary Company postcard in their “London Life” series and dates from about 1910. The white bearded gent is Edwin Crocker and he has been providing mostly children with “a penny a peep” look at the clock face of Big Ben since the early 1890s. He also sold sweets and guide books from his pitch although I don’t know how he got away with setting up in the middle of the pavement, later photographs show the pitch hard up against the plinth of the Boadicea statue. In December 1926 a newspaper report stated that Mr. Crocker was a former sailor and was about 73 years of age and had been providing his telescope service for thirty-three years. In July 1928 he was dubbed the unluckiest man in London after a Cormorant took up residence at the top of Big Ben and had attracted large crowds to watch it, unfortunately over the few days of the Cormorant’s residence, Mr. Crocker was ill and could not take advantage of this golden opportunity, he carried on his business well into the 1930s. I had never heard of Streimers Nougat before but apparently the confection was made in London at a factory in Stratford, East London, owned by Morris Streimer who was an Austrian immigrant.