The Chambre Hardman House. 57 Rodney Street-The Truth. PART TWO

 PART TWO

By chance I picked up a newspaper to read in a coffee shop at the corner of Brunswick street.

 It was November 1999. 

I noticed an article in the middle pages of The Liverpool Daily Post. With a headline. 

Turning a Positive into a Negative.

It was about Edward Chambre Hardman.
I knew that name.

A horrid neighbor of mine in Gateacre Brow had been working for the Social Services and was involved in the clearance of the photographers house when he passed away. 

A bloke called Peter Hagerty had recognized and formed a trust and there were calls to preserve all his stuff as it was a time capsule. So here we were now in 1999.

Peter Elson of the Daily Post had the good sense to question a press release from the Edward Chambre Hardman Trust who proclaimed that it was good thing.

That was, to send the whole Edward Chambre Hardman archive, including many unexplored negatives and all his life's work, to Bradford Museum of Film and Photography!!!!

That is no longer open. 

And sell the house to pay them to take it!

What! I thought.

This was the second article. I had missed the first.

This riled my back up and looking at the picture reproduced in the paper of Hardman, with his camera, he seemed to mouth to me.

'You are not going to let them do that are you'.

I wasn't.

I contacted Peter Elson who was looking for his next angle and told him as a art dealer in Liverpool I understood the worth of this collection, not only in monetary terms but as a cultural record of Liverpool's past.

“It wasn't any old archive” I said “It was a record of Liverpool's past”.

This seemed to give him an extra confidence. He had a hook for his next article.
We had a common goal to ensure this archive does not leave Liverpool and the house is not sold off to pay for the archive's donation to....Bradford. They were going to pay them to take it!

I had seen an exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery shortly after his death.

The collection moved through at least a couple of generations.

It was also a record of Liverpool's middle classes.
 Everyone who was anyone had their portrait taken by Hardman and Burrell.

Hardman never threw anything away.

There had been big ideas at the time. What had happened?

I set to work.

I got Chambre Hardmans will from the Records Office and after a bit of exploring I found that these trustees had been in possession of a load of cash. There were lots of assets.

Where had it all gone?

Peter Elson had obtained a quote for his first article from Mike McCartney who was Paul's brother and a well known documentary photographer of Liverpool himself.

I questioned why he was saying this was a good idea.

I made an appointment with the Charity Commission to see the accounts and dragged Peter Elson over to the Kings Dock.

There was all the evidence. Evidence of squandering all the money that had been left in his will.

To make matters worse McCartney was also a secret trustee!

Elson didn't know that. They tried to stitch up the press. He didn't fall for it.

There it was in black and white for all to see. For those who took half a day off work to do so.

The figures were alarming. The wastage amounted to £350,000. Yes!

They had even received a grant of £47,000 from Liverpool City Council.

One of the ex trustees was a director of the Bradford museum!

Another, Viv Tyler was renting space in the basement of the house in Rodney street.
For a peppercorn rent.

I had written to them offering my help. I did not receive a reply. They thought it would go quietly. They had not anticipated me and Peter Elson teaming up.

Lots of valuable pieces had gone missing without any proper records kept.

I noticed a picture of Edward sitting next to what appeared to be a Tiffany lamp.
Where was it?
It had gone missing.
There was a car that had disappeared.
This was all Peter Elson needed to swing back into action and the next headline was a damning indictment of the pathetic group of ineffectual people who had networked their way into being trustees of the most amazing record of Liverpool's past and its past people. This is the City that knocked the Cavern down and called itself Beatles Town and this was the photographic equivalent of that disaster.  

Here is the next Daily Post article.

This sent shock waves all around the city and the whole sorry escapade was now becoming more than just a few photographs it was becoming a point of order. a principle of looking after our historical records.


Of Shooting The Past.