Croydon Camera Club History: 1890-2000
Preface Introduction The Club Foundation 1809 Soiree 1899 Movies Member Prestige Council Meetings 1903 Founding President Mees Years 1904-12 The Great War Between The Wars Recorded Years Riots! Police! 1931 Edridge Road, 1932 1932 Nudes Ladies and Exhibitions Club Room eviction The Studio: 1933 Cine! Ladies! 1934 Highs and Lows, 1936 A/V, Stag Party, 1937 Freemasonry 1938 Baird Television 1938 War! 1940: Bombed ! Annual Report 1940-41 Making Do 1941 War Ends 1942-5 A War Retrospective Ladies? 1946 Ladies Admitted 1947-8 35mm Slides arrive Struggling 1949 SLF Out! 1949-50 Troubled 1950 Outings 1951 Winter Season 1951 Celebrations Mees Visits Croydon 1955 1956 Nonexistence 1957 1958-1959 1960 More Success 1961 The Darkroom 1961 Frivolity 1962 All Change 1963 1965-1967 Exhibitions 1967 Photeurop 1968 Photeurop 1969 Years 1970-1972 Terra Nova Years 1973 Years 1974-1975 19 Selsdon Road Years 1977-1979 Changes 1980 Friends Meeting House Close the Club 1983 Progress? 1984 Turnaround? 1985 Years 1987-1988 Slow Revival 1989 About Club Outings The Helpers Postscript
The AGM in May 1965 had S. G. Pickford elected as President who made a valiant attempt to get meetings started on time but with not much success. The two changes of venues and a change of meeting day caused membership to drop to 130 - a loss of 40 in four years.
On 5th July Sir G. Pollock who had been awarded his Fellowship of the RPS received the customary cake from the previous Fellow Chris Corn.
Mention must be made of an outing to London Docks on 24th October 1965 for what members then saw they little knew would disappear for ever within 20 years. Towards the end of the year a Sunday morning TV programme on photography had our own member Alan Richards ARPS giving his views on the subject.
Mrs M. Marshall was awarded her ARPS on 20th December 1965 and became the first lady member to win this distinction. The AGM on 23rd May 1966 saw a further drop in membership to 119 and a repeat attempt to get meetings to start on time. Despite over 100 members there was difficulty in getting prints to represent the Club at "away" competitions, which difficulty led to the Club giving notice of withdrawing again from the South London Federation.
By mid-June 1966 members were complaining of the noise from other activities within TocH which was interrupting the enjoyment of lectures and so it was with much pleasure that the Club was able to move back into The Studio as from 2nd January 1967 at a rent of £123 were annum with an assured tenancy for at least three years. This arrangement was negotiated by Harold Stillwell with Miss Spackman who took over the running of the Studio after her mother's death on 3rd September, when it also became apparent that the Corporation's plans for compulsory purchase had been shelved.
With a change of venue a Special General Meeting was called to decide the day to meet and Thursday was proposed but defeated and Wednesday would be the day as from 1st June 1967 when the Summer Syllabus commenced. For the Winter the programme would continue on Mondays.
The Exhibition awards were under scrutiny and members were asked if they would prefer medals to be abandoned in favour of some other form of permanent token.
As soon as we were back at The Studio, the Bar Licence was renewed in June and a tea urn purchased with plastic cups.
Harold Stillwell became President at the AGM on 22nd May 1967 at which the subscription was increased to £3 as the change of premises and the penalty of terminating the lease with TocH showed a trading loss of £32. Membership however had slightly improved to 123.