New Postcard added to website

This photograph was taken at the bottom of Crown Hill looking towards the town centre, the photographer is certainly drawing some attention from the shopkeepers and bystanders.

The three-storey building on the left with several people stood outside is the Post Office. The Post Office had been housed in various buildings throughout the town over the years, however with the level of post increasing a larger property was required.

A former grocer’s shop on the High Street was bought by an Alton businessman, and later demolished, with the new Post Office built in its place, it opened on the 12th August 1901. The building is currently occupied by Subway, it has seen some changes over the years but if you stand opposite and look up you will see the year 1901 at the top of the gable end.

The gentleman stood in the doorway on the right of the image is standing outside of 20 High Street, this would have been the home and place of business of the Munday family. The 1901 Census records Mrs Annie Munday, widow of William Munday (1847-1895) living here with her 9 children. She was a Saddler & Harness Maker, when she died in 1912, her sons George & Arthur took over. Arthur passed away in 1922, leaving George to continue alone.

The postcard was produced by George Frost, a grocer turned photographer, who sold his business to William Parker Varney in late 1903, with this postcard produced earlier that year. The book Alton’s Photographers by Jane Hurst contains this information about the postcard:

‘Just before he sold, George Frost seems to have published the earliest, locally printed, standard postcard that has been found so far – it was of the bottom of Crown Hill and has a postmark of 30 November 1903. It has an undivided back and a caption ‘George Frost Series’ – so there may be other views surviving’