A postcard from Ham and Egg Parade in New Brighton

While on a recent day out in London we popped into one of the antique and collectibles shops on Cecil Court to shelter from the rain. Luckily there were a few old postcards to have a look through and the first one we found is a perfect addition to our collection.

The very prominent New Brighton Tower isn't there any more. After neglect during the First World War dismantling of the tower began in 1919.

The card was posted from a 'Harry' to a 'Nurse Drower' at the Woolwich Infirmary on July 19th 1906.

The message is still clear with Harry telling the Nurse that the area is "One of the most notorious places in the kingdom."

Consulting the excellent Postcardese book by Guy Atkins the stamp has been affixed with a secret message - the angle suggest the message is 'Forget me not'. The trend of secret messages via stamps reached its height in the Edwardian era

New Brighton's Ham and Egg Parade was 'famed' for serving Ham and Eggs to customers in its Tea Rooms. However, the area gained a very bad reputation for immoral 'goings-on' in these "Tea Rooms", and the situation got so bad that in 1907 the area was demolished and replaced by Victoria Gardens!

A ham and egger on Ham and Egg Parade

We visited New Brighton in March 2011. There weren't any immoral goings-on that we could see. There was an abandoned Crazy Golf course there though.

The old Crazy Golf course on King's Parade. Much like Ham and Egg Parade it no longer exists, having been replaced by a more salubrious new minigolf layout

We're looking forward to a return trip to New Brighton later this year. There's a pair of new Miniature Golf courses there that we're yet to play on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

It's brilliant how much social history and amusement you can get from an old postcard. You can find out more about Postcard Collecting in Picture Postcard Monthly magazine and the Picture Postcard Annual. Two publications which I contribute to and write for.

Related blog posts:
- Ham & Egg Parade in New Brighton!
- New Brighton
- Postcards
- The Ham & Egger Files – An Introduction

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Come Home at Once postcard book by Guy Atkins

A new book about Edwardian postcards by Guy Atkins.

Postcard collector, writer and blogger Guy Atkins has a book out and it's well worth a look.

Come Home at Once by Guy Atkins. Currently the number one read on our coffee table

Published by Bantam Press the book, 'Come Home at Once', has a lot of great Edwardian postcards (showing both the fronts and the messages on the back) from Guy's collection that he has built up over the last decade.

You can buy the very nice hardback book in the shops and online. More info on how and where to order can be found on Guy's excellent Postcardese blog.

After speaking with Guy via postcards, twitter and email over the years it was great to meet Guy in person at the recent launch event for his book

I've been corresponding with Guy for the last couple of years - mostly by Twitter and Postcard - and he recently wrote a piece in his regular column in Stamp and Coin Mart about my minigolfing and postcard hobbies and how I've combined the two.

Links:
- Postcardese
- Bantam Press
- Picture Postcard Monthly
- Stamp and Coin Mart
- Guy Atkins on Twitter

Related blog posts:
- Postcard
- Postcards