A collection of screeving stories from 100 years ago!

This being my first blog of 2013, I thought it would be a fun idea to look back 100 years to 1913; King George V was on the throne, war clouds were looming over Europe, the English stately home was at its zenith and aviation travel was in its infancy. It was a different world back then, not least for the humble pavement artist; that was a different kettle of fish.

I’ve pulled the following from the Urban Towers archives:

Daily Mirror press cutting: Wed 1st October 1913

Over 1000 pavement artists were said to be making a FULL TIME living on the streets of London alone. They were so popular that they became tourist attractions in their own right, as this press cutting perfectly illustrates.

Daily Mail press cutting: Tuesday 2nd December 1913

In an article published in The Manchester Courier (Friday 7^th November 1913) Artist, writer and opponent of modern art FRANK L. EMANUEL (1865–1948) compared the ‘new’ tradition of FUTURIST ART as being “Worthy of Lunatics” and “the works of children, PAVEMENT ARTISTS, and ordinary inartistic people”

Press Cutting: The Clarence and Richmond Examiner; Thursday 20th February 1913

PRESS CUTTING from The Christian Science Monitor: 21st March 1913

VOTES FOR WOMAN: London—The Woman’s Social and Political Union have held a most successful self-denial week. Artists of the pavement attracted a considerable amount of attention. Ladies who could draw well were to be seen working from morning until evening, bending over  the pavement with a handful of coloured chalks, producing most attractive pictures.

…….and to round things off, here’s a press cutting about Britain’s first recorded lady pavement artist Alice Coleman, she wasn’t a suffragette as such but she was certainly a pioneer of “Pavement Art for Woman”

PRESS CUTTING: Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser; Thursday 3rd July 1913

1913, only 100 years ago…how far have we come, only time will tell; but one thing is certain—the past is another country, they do things differently there.

Written & researched by Philip Battle

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