Leonard Bentley
Piccadilly Circus
This is a Valentine & Sons Ltd “Valchrome” postcard showing the newsvendor at his pitch on the west side of Piccadilly Circus outside “Swan & Edgar” sometime in the 1950s. In the background is Coventry Street and, on the left, the London Pavilion is showing a film. In this case I am unable to decipher the name or who appeared in it, perhaps someone will have better luck. The newsvendor is selling “The Star” which was a London evening newspaper founded in 1888, the year of the “Jack the Ripper” murders, it has been suggested that the letter written to the newspaper signed “Jack the Ripper” was actually written by one of its staff in order to boost the circulation of the fledgling newspaper. I can personally remember the cry of the newsvendor, “Star, News and Standard”, the three London evening newspapers, that is until 1960 when “The Star” was taken over by the “Evening News” in a deal which also saw the “News Chronicle” merge with “The Daily Mail”. For some years after, the Evening news was called “The Evening News and Star”.
Piccadilly Circus
This is a Valentine & Sons Ltd “Valchrome” postcard showing the newsvendor at his pitch on the west side of Piccadilly Circus outside “Swan & Edgar” sometime in the 1950s. In the background is Coventry Street and, on the left, the London Pavilion is showing a film. In this case I am unable to decipher the name or who appeared in it, perhaps someone will have better luck. The newsvendor is selling “The Star” which was a London evening newspaper founded in 1888, the year of the “Jack the Ripper” murders, it has been suggested that the letter written to the newspaper signed “Jack the Ripper” was actually written by one of its staff in order to boost the circulation of the fledgling newspaper. I can personally remember the cry of the newsvendor, “Star, News and Standard”, the three London evening newspapers, that is until 1960 when “The Star” was taken over by the “Evening News” in a deal which also saw the “News Chronicle” merge with “The Daily Mail”. For some years after, the Evening news was called “The Evening News and Star”.