In the 1660s, a man named Thomas Walgensten used his so-called “lantern of fear” to summon ghosts.

In the late eighteenth century several showmen used the lantern to produce horror shows. These were known as “Phantasmagoria” shows. A variety of horrific images were projected to frighten the audience, examples being ghosts projected on smoke to give a frightening appearance and images that would move around the walls. Often the projector was behind a translucent screen, out of the view of the audience. This greatly added to the mystery of the show.

Magic Lantern Projector 1880

The Magic Lantern, is it had become known in Victorian England, became a popular form of entertainment, well before the advent of the moving picture.

Over the period of a little more than 200 years the Magic Lantern developed from basic projectors such as the Sturm Lantern, capable of producing small, dimly lit images to the magnificent Triunials, manufactured by such firms as J H Steward, W Butcher and Son, or W C Hughes.

In the hands of a consummate showman these fabulous machines could produce huge, brightly coloured, wonderfully animated entertainments for hundreds of people.

London Screever Lantern Slide cir. 1888

In the 1870′s and 1880′s there was a full flowering of the lantern industry, companies such as Carpenter and Westley, Newton and Bamforth produced lanterns and slides for every occasion and location. In the 1880′s and 1890′s up to 28 firms were engaged in the production of lanterns and slides in London alone.

Screever on the Thames Embankment: Lantern Slide cir. 1885

Slides where numbered and fitted into a set show of events, and often accompanied with stories and dialog designed to bring the ‘static’ images to life!

Poor pavement artists where often used to convey moral tales, and images of London screevers where shown across the country and abroad. These images where especially popular with the temperance movement who would demonstrate the woes of alcohol on the poor working man.

The Pavement Artist by F. de Paula Cembrano 1890

Photographs of pavement artists would also be popular in places like New York, where they were seen as being “exotic.”

Even with the arrival of the moving picture (Cinema) the Magic Lantern Show would remain popular until the 1930’s

Portstewart, Northern Ireland; Lantern Slide 1932

The slides illustrated here where made of glass and measure approx. 3inch (8cm) square. They were often hand-coloured, and in the days of black and white photography, the sight of coloured, projected images would have been a real treat.

Researched by Philip Battle

Related blog: Magic lantern slide-Restored (2011)

Related blog: New acquisition–Magic lantern slide (1890)

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

Stuart Peterson poem Illustration from the WOMAN’S WEEKLY 1934

–Written by NELLIE A. EVENS

Published in The Woman’s Weekly: Saturday 22^nd December 1934

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

A cockney artist in pastels, who lives and works in the glow of the sunset—morning, noon and night. He is part of the London street scene.

You will see him any fine day on the Thames Embankment, near Charing Cross Pier, kneeling on a little pad, and rubbing the crimson and orange glow of the setting sun into the paving stone with a grubby finger. This week his pastels have won for him the title “Screever Number One, London.”

Alfred Horton cartoon as it appeared in the Christian Science Monitor 1953

The word “screever” isn’t defined in Webster’s. In a cockney slang book, however, you would find it means a pavement artist, one whose canvas is the sidewalk. London’s seven top screevers were invited to compete in the National Hobbies and Handicrafts Exhibition at the Central Hall here this week. Seven great slabs of paving stone were taken along as canvases.

Three-Hour Job

Alfred got down to work. He took nearly three hours, much longer than usual, to complete his picture, “Running Water.” What with the mike, and the lights, and the flashing bulbs, and the questions of the news-papermen, it was hard to concentrate,” he told me later. But Alfred knew his subject. And his colleagues applauded as he took off his French beret and rubbed his stubbly beard on receiving the cash prize of £5 from Jean Carson, Actress.

Alfred Horton with actress Jean Carson (Original press photo 1953)

“I joined the merchant navy when I was 14,” he said. “I’ve seen sunsets all over the world. When I pick up a piece of chalk, the pictures all come crowding back to me.” He was doing a repeat of his prize-winning picture on the pavement the next day when I visited him, just a stone’s throw (pavement stone) from Cleopatra’s Needle.

‘Bit Bright?’

A battered old felt hat had a few pennies in it. I dropped in a coin. It chinked, but Alfred didn’t look up. He selected another crayon from hundreds on a piece of sacking on the pavement. Two sprightly white lambs gambolled into the picture. Alfred took a black crayon and etched in a gate. “Bit bright, ain’t it—that sky?” a voice behind me said. Alfred dropped his chalk. “Time and time again I’ve seen it.” He said. “Where?” the critic asked. “In Scotland when I was in the Army.”

Alfred joined the Army in the last war, he told me. Maybe it was on manoeuvres among the heathered banks and braes he had seen the golden sunsets. The wooded copes, the sheep, the water dashing up from black rocks.

‘Just a Gift’

He had a precise, well-ordered way of doing his picture—starting with the sunset. “Never ‘ad a lesson in my life. It’s just a gift,” he said modestly. I could see the faint outlines of the sunsets of other days on the pavement.

“Do you have to rub them out each night?” I asked. “Well—yes,” he said, “but often the rain does it for me. It’s late when I leave.” My own feeling was he couldn’t bear to part with his sunsets. “Oil paintings—yes I do them, but not for sale. I might do a masterpiece one day. Where would I be if I sold it?” So Alfred parts only with pastels—as pictures and trays. He is sending one to Jean Carson, “so she can remember the screever she gave the prize to,” Alfred said.

Published in the Christian Science Monitor (19^th September 1953)

Here’s another take on the same story……….

No Appreciation

Seven pavement artists competed yesterday for a £5 note at Central Hall, Westminster. They were provided with paving stones and set to work at 10.30am Judging started at 1.30pm.

Alfred Horton with actress Jean Carson (Original press photo 1953)

The winner was Alfred Horton of the Oval, Kennington. Whose normal stand is outside Charing Cross Station. His picture—a lush Highland scene called “Running Water.”

Alfred Horton working on his winning piece “RUNNING WATERS” (Original press photo 1953)

Horton, 51, said: “I spent 30 years in the Merchant Navy, another six in the Army. After that I felt I wanted to do something more creative.” But like most artists he doesn’t think much of the English public. . . .“Englishmen don’t appreciate art nowadays. I have to rely on foreign visitors for a living.” His takings—30s. a day in the summer, down to 5s. a day in winter.

Published in the Daily Express (Friday 18^th September 1953)

Just on a side note; the competition judge was American Actress Jean Carson, who starred in many US film and TV productions, including The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason & The Untouchables, to name but a few. Later in life, she developed a drinking problem which limited her acting career. Her last film role was 1977′s Fun with Dick and Jane. On November 2nd, 2005, Carson died from complications of a stroke; she was 82 years old.

Related blog: FLAGSTONES FOR SALE (1953)

Written and researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

“It is definitely message art, more so than Bicentennial art of any kind,” said George R. (Randy) Hofman, 24, as he put the finishing touches on a huge chalk drawing of the Crucifixion on the sidewalk across the street from the White House.

Hofman said he spends summers in Ocean City, N.J., doing chalk drawings, acrylic paintings and sand sculptures, mostly on religious themes. He has sculpted and painted the Last Supper, Moses parting the Red Sea, and Moses with the Ten Commandments.

He has also reproduced famous art, such as “The Starry Night” by van Gogh, but he prefers religious motifs, because “more people can identify with (them) right off.”

“They love the spiritual enlightenment of it,” Hofman said. “They get inspired.”

Hofman lives with his parents at New Hampshire Ave. near Brookeville in Montgomery County. He said he converted the stable there into a studio, and he has painted a huge acrylic mural on the walls and the ceiling depicting the second coming of Christ.

The young artist works quickly; it took a little over an hour yesterday to complete most of the picture’s detail. About eight feet square, its main elements were Christ on the Cross, a centurion and a kneeling follower.

Artist Hofman puts finishing touches to drawing of crucifixion at Madison Street, NW (1976)

“You have to juxtapose the warms and the cools, the darks against the lights for the contrast,” Hofman said. He said he begins by drawing an outline with ordinary blackboard chalk and filling it in with colored chalk.

Hofman said he was concerned that the authorities might object to someone “painting” the sidewalk in front of the White House and the (guard) said if you go across the street maybe it’d be OK,” he said.

So Hofman picked up his chalk and found a concrete “canvas” in front of Lafayette Park. Several pedestrians stopped to admire his work, “although one person didn’t like it, because he didn’t think Christ should be on the ground like that.”

Others were enthusiastic. Brother Luke, of the international Order of St. Luke the Physician, said it was “super.”

“If we could get teenagers turned on to ‘defacing’ sidewalks with chalk, maybe they wouldn’t deface walls with spray paint,” he said. “This is a beautiful expression that’s not detrimental to anybody.”

Hofman said he wants to see sidewalk art in his home town. “There’s hardly any of it here,” he said, though it’s common in Europe and in Boston and San Francisco.

Published in the Washington Post USA (11^th Feb. 1976)

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

A sure sign of spring is a bunch of kids chalking a hopscotch court on a city sidewalk. The warm sunshine seems to give urban people such impulses. But few policemen would sympathize if they found adults using the pavements for drawing boards.

Sidewalk Pet Portraits: US cartoon Cir. 1967

In San Francisco, however, authorities understand. The city’s Recreation and Parks Department recently sponsored an official “chalk-in for all ages.” It staged it in an area where the “hippies” congregate—the rendezvous of the philosophic college dropouts and other young people.

The results were exciting. In almost no time, we are told, 200 eager entrants in the contest claimed the 200 packages of colored chalk which the Park Department had ready to distribute. Others brought their own. Soon the chalk artists had covered with their sketches the four-foot squares of asphalt assigned to each. Many bright, original designs appeared. Spectators crowded.

The first rain was expected to wash away the entire art exhibition. But its lesson will remain. It indicates that cities should find more outlets for the creative abilities of their youth. More than half a century ago the settlement house movement sought to meet this need. Now other organizations such as the Job Corps are taking on the task.

But the focus should not be on the needs of the poor only. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is on the right track in setting up its chalk-in for people of all ages and stations.

Published in The Christian Science Monitor (10^th April 1967)

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

Series 2 Episode 6 – Broadcast (18^th Feb 00)

Here’s a quirky little one, from the hit dark British comedy series, the League of Gentlemen.

OPENING TITLES: League of Gentlemen (2000)

OPENING TITLES – STELLA HULL WANDERS DOWN THE MAIN ROAD THAT IS A SCENE OF COMPLETE CHAOS. THE ARMY HAVE NOW BEEN CALLED IN, AND JEEPS, TRUCKS AND A SMALL TANK DRIVE ALONG. TROOPS ROUND UP PEDESTRIANS AND USHER THEM BACK INTO THEIR HOMES. HOUSES ARE CORDONED OFF, AND SOME WINDOWS HAVE BEEN COVERED WITH BOARDS MARKED WITH CROSSES. A MAN SITS ON THE PAVEMENT, OBLIVIOUS TO THE PANDEMONIUM. BY HIS FEET IS A SIGN THAT READS ‘PAVEMENT ARTIST – PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN’. NEXT TO HIM ARE PHOTOGRAPHS AND PAINTINGS OF PAVEMENTS.

OPENING TITLES: The pavement artists paintings of pavements (2000)

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

Here’s a little story for International Women’s Day:

Still more encroachments upon the masculine preserve, writes a correspondent. Hitherto the profession of the pavement artist has been the exclusive prerogative of the indigent male who has supplemented the appeals of art by the more eloquent pleas of a wooden leg or an exaggerated squint.

But we have changed all that at Hampstead. Coming down the high-street yesterday I beheld a lady neatly and prettily attired bending over the pavement, on which she had drawn a series of excellent scenes.

A Lady Pavement Artist: Cartoon from the Leeds Times. (5th August 1899)

The pavement artists, new style, struck me as a distinct improvement on the old style, and it suggests a new sphere of labour for—must we use the discourteous phrase?—superfluous woman.

Published in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette (Friday 3^rd October 1902)

Researched by Philip Battle

Related blog: Alice G. Coleman (1893)

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

The authorities have always tried to regulate pavement art by any means possible; today, the high street is in danger of dying through lack of trade, and still, the artists, and buskers who bring life and vitality to our streets are having a hard time of it.

It was no different back in 1871, as this little article proves:

The wayfarer in London has doubtless occasionally noticed on the pavement some highly-coloured work of art—a mackerel, somehow or other, usually being a stock subject with the artist; and a beautifully chalked inscription, involved in some very complicated flourishes, has informed the looker-on that the accomplished artist, who crouches down behind his chef-d’oeuvre, is out of work, and has a wife and seven children; or something of that sort.

Poor fellow, the pavement artists’ occupation is gone, or going. The Metropolitan Board of Works has no feeling for such art, or for the artist; and the former is now declared a penal offence and the latter liable to punishment.

SUSPICION: Punch cartoon from 1872

At first glance this may be regretted; but if it be true, as I have heard, that man behind the pavement drawing was seldom the real artist, and that some other mendicant “did it for the trade,” why that lessens one’s regret. As for the advertisers who are henceforth forbidden to stencil their announcements on the pavement, one has no pity for them. This is not legitimate advertising. Moreover, it must be very annoying for a tradesman to have plastered all over the pavement in front of his shop the advertisements of a rival in the same trade—very!

Published in the Alnwick Mercury (Saturday 18^th March 1871)

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

In 1908, the penalty for a woman suffragette pavement artist caught drawing in chalk on the pavement, was seven days in prison for a first offence.

How the Suffragettes Advertise

The English Suffragettes are going about the country chalking up notices on houses, walls and pavements. This photograph shows three prominent ladies in the campaign for Woman’s Suffrage—Misses Eye, Kenny, and Crocket—chalking up an advertisement on a fence.

Suffragette Wall Chalkers, LONDON: Published 25th April 1908

Published in the Brisbane Courier (Saturday 25th April 1908)

SELF-DENIAL

A Suffrage poem by “Nemo” (a Suffragette)

The supporters of the movement for female suffrage in the United Kingdom have decided on a week of self-denial—(Morning paper.)

Not for a life, or for a year,

But for a week (of seven days clear),

The suffragettes will make a trial

Of unaccustomed self-denial.

What means the term? The plainest dress.

Quite simple in its ugliness,

No milk and sugar in the tea,

The bread from trace of butter free?

There may be something of this sort,

But ’tis not found in our report.

We read of street vo-cal-isations.

Of raising funds at railway stations,

Of organ-grinding, pavement-chalking

(To catch the eye of persons walking).

So far, so very good—but let

Each self-denying suffragette

Go one step further, and deny

Herself the right to speechify.

Let not a single female raid

On patient Parliament be made.

Keep, but for one short week, the peace.

And earn the blessing of the police!

Published in the Western Mail, Perth (Saturday 22^nd Feb. 1908)

In order to raise funds, Mrs Pethick Lawrence had designated 15^th to 22^nd February 1908 as self-denial week.    During this week, WSPU members were to do without luxuries such as cocoa, coffee, and tea, perform extra work, or use other means such as pavement chalking, to raise funds for the Union.  Mrs Lawrence (President of the WSPU) stated, in reference to Self-Denial Week that “some of the members who were artists meant to add to the funds by working as pavement artists, while other intended to sing in the streets.” According to Miss Christabel Pankhurst, “the results from street singing, organ playing, and pavement drawing have been excellent!”

Activities during “SELF DENIAL WEEK” in 1908 raised over £8000 for the Suffrage movement.  £672,851 in today’s value!

‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’ THE CRY

On March 1^st 1908, the NEW YORK TIMES reported that the “Suffragettes where begging in London streets” On many street corners, all the way from the eastern part of London to the extreme west, and even in the slum districts, they are presenting their contribution boxes for substantial aid to the “cause.”

Woman Pavement Artist POSTCARD: Published by VOTES FOR WOMAN 1908

Miss Coombes, who is a well-known artist, has been making many pennies by sketching on the pavement with varied colored chalk, and unlike the pictures of Joe Elvin’s famous sidewalk artist, you do not have to “tell ‘em by the writin’ underneath.”

SHE sallied forth with chalks to make London in some measure picturesque!

Suffragettes Chalk Creed on Sidewalk

LONDON—Prime Minister Asquith’s garden party at his official residence on Downing street provided the suffragettes with a new role, that of pavement artists. Stopping suddenly, one of them, writing with a heavy piece of chalk, had got as far as “Do woman want” before a policeman rushed up and removed her. Another chalk-wielder accomplished the word “votes” before an inspector of police rushed her off. Then the police formed a cordon around the house and frustrated further efforts.

Suffragette chalkers released from the Gaols 1908

Published in the Oakland Tribune USA 20^th June 1908

Researched and written by Philip Battle

LINKED BLOG: Pavement Art and the SUFFRAGETTES! (1907-1914)

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!

AT Marylebone Police court, on Saturday, William Pacey, thirty-eight, dressed in ragged clothes was charged on remand with begging. It will be remembered that the prisoner was arrested by Detectives Noor and Pollard near Wentbourne Grove whilst sitting in the public way displaying a portrait of considerable size representing Miss Grace Hawthorne, of the Princess Theatre: also a number of smaller cards bearing various inscriptions.

POSTER: Grace Hawthorne in “Theodora” 1889

The prisoner, who was wearing two gold rings, now said he had been in India, and had suffered considerably in health. He had been employed in two or three situations in large jewellere’  in the West End extending over fifteen years, where there were many thousands of pounds worth of property. Some time ago he took a quantity of potassium, and when he recovered he was sent to an asylum.

While in there he used to sit up after the other inmates had gone to bed to practice drawing, so as to be in a position when he came out to earn his own living. He had now been exhibiting these drawings for years, and had earned a living for his wife. He did not do it for drink, but to well clothe and care for his wife and child. It was no imposition; and he had done his work so well that he had received as much as 5s. from people, but sometimes he sat down on the ground for eight or ten hours in the street and had earned as little as threehalfpence.

He never begged; people gave what they liked. He had drawn a portrait of Buffalo Bill, and that gentleman was driving past him (prisoner) one day in company with Lord Marcus Beresford and Buffalo Bill gave him 2s.

Mr Cooke said the conduct of this prisoner was really begging, and could not be allowed. As, however, he had been in custody for eight days, he (the magistrate) now discharged him.

Published in the Illustrated Police News (Saturday 26^th November 1887)

Researched by Philip Battle

Visit my Artists of The Paving Stone page on Facebook!