The earliest photo?

Contenders for the earliest photograph featuring the Cathedral is complicated by the unknown date of many early photos. Dates must be aproximated by identifying known historic features or arrangements. Strong contenders are the handful of photos taken before Sir George Gilbert Scott’s restoration and alteration of the Cathedral in the 1870s, such as a remarkable photo of the organ prior to its reconstruction in 1878 as it largely appears today.

View of the organ from the nave in the Couchman Collection (Medway Archives, DE/402/6/36)

Albumen prints

The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. Early photos mostly feature architecture and street scenes, their static nature being the easiest to photograph with long exposure times.

Photos taken in the decades after the reconstruction of the organ but before installation of the elaborate pulpitum platform in 1888 show the previous plainer pulpitum featuring the remains of an arch, probably the remains of a niche for an altar, and a squint presumably for the Cathedral organist.

Photograph of the organ from the nave. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

The many photos of the Cathedral exterior can typically be dated by the tower with prominent pinnacles erected in the 1820s and replaced in 1904 by the present spire

Photograph of the south-west view of the Cathedral exterior from atop Rochester Castle. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

Each early photo is a valuable record of previous forms of the Cathedral fabric. This view of the West Facade shows the fabric just prior to its restoration in 1888.

Photograph of the west facade of the Cathedral. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

Another valuable view features the Great West Door before Pearson’s restoration, showing the advanced state of decay.

Photograph of the Great West Door and Portal. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

Another early view of the exterior, this time from a common angle from the High Street, shows ‘Gundulf’ Tower in a ruinous state prior to its restoration in 1920. The view also features the garden around what would become the War Memorial, known as St Mary’s Meadow.

Photograph of the North-West exterior of the Cathedral from the High Street. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

The earliest view down the nave shows the Romanesque blind arcade prior to its filling with the moasaic memorial to the Royal Engineers in 1888.

Photograph of the nave of the Cathedral, looking west. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

The arrangements of the east end of the Cathedral prior to Scott’s 1870s campaign went largely unrecorded by photography, though the earliest views show the blank plaster covering the lowest portions of the west Presybtery niches. When this plaster was removed, elaborate painted decoration was revealed, though was sadly not prserved. Marble memorials to Dean Robert Scott now fill these niches.

Photograph of the quire stalls and east end of the Cathedral, looking east. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

The earliest photo of the Chapter Library Door reveal the curious mistake in its restoration before it was rectified in a later restoration. The head of Synangoga, apparently long lost, was replaced with an unidentified bishop.

Photograph of the Chapter Library Door. Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library, albumen print.

The Couchman Collection at Medway Archives also features a collection of early photographs and prints of the Cathedral.

Jacob Scott
Heritage Officer

20th century photographs

The architecture and previous furniture arrangements are further evidenced by several collections of early twentieth-century photo collections, including a series of 1940s photos featured on the Historic England Viewfinder and a series of glass slides preserved in the Chapter Library.

Lantern slide lectures, c.1940

Canon Sydney Williams Wheatley was the Vicar of St Margaret's Church Rochester from 1915-1947. His collection of glass slides in the Chapter Library have been digitised and are available online.

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A tradition of photographing the cathedral clergy was established at the turn of the twentieth century. The proliferation of photography over the next decades has resulted in a large collection of photographic prints of officials, events and services preserved in the Chapter Library.

Events and services photographs, 20th century

The Chapter Library collection includes several 20th century photographic albums, scrapbooks and publications featuring photographs of the Cathedral and officials.

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