Two of the companies involved in this 'cut price' trade already receive mention elsewhere on my site. Martson & Heard (Lea Bridge Rd, London, E.10) purchased surplus KI Monobar cameras post-1965 after it ceased being manufactured. They also advertised having purchased the whole remaining stock of Ilford glossy bromide after Ilford started their new Ilfobrom range in 1967 (see my Ilford Chronology entries for the years 1958 & 1967 for mention of Marston & Heard). Harringay Photographic Supplies Ltd (Green Lanes, London, N4) were the source of a low cost enlarging lens for my Agiscope enlarger around 1962 and advertised discounted Series 1 Ilford Advocate cameras in December 1954.

Other London based companies selling similar cut-price materials and equipment were Frank Martins (Kingsland Rd, London, E8), Brunnings (High Holburn, London, WC1), A.W.Young (mail order at 159 Chatsworth Road, London, E5 and a small retail shop at 81a Lower Clapton Road London E5; also in Tottenham N15 between Seven Sisters Road and Green Lane, behind Severn Sisters tube exit on the main A10), Stratford Photographic Store (Stratford, London E15), Direct Photographic Supply (Edgeware Rd, London, W2) and Malham Photographic Equipment (Malham Rd, London SE23). Over the years, some of these names disappeared and others emerged e.g Brixton Camera Centre (Atlantic Rd, Brixton, London, SW9) and RK Photographic (Finchley, London N3).

I've had an e-mail (December 2006) giving me some background to these companies which I'd like to record here, even though the chronology and details are incomplete. The information specially relates to the period 1972 to 1982.

By the mid-1970s, Marston & Heard and AW Young (M&H + AWY) were owned by the partnership of Jim Costello and Werner Schmidt. Bill Rose has commented "Werner was the manager of Dixons Professional at 27 Oxford Street during the 1960s to early 1970s and later set up in Borehamwood (where he lived)". I believe he retired a couple of years ago. Ted (Edward) Marston was still around but was no longer involved, though he kept looking in on his old company. Around this time they purchased Ilford's remnant stock of Double and Single Weight papers (as Marston & Heard had similarly done in 1967 - see above). A Marston & Heard advertisement in AP for 24th Sept 1975 declares "Special Ilford Paper Purchase - fresh wholesalers stock of Ilfomar Bromide, D/W" (double weight). Ilfomar may have been a word combination of Ilford and Marston (ILFOrd MARston?).

In the same advert is another section saying "Special Ilford S/W Glossy Normal" (single weight). These printing papers possibly became surplus as a consequence of Ilford introducing their Ilfospeed RC Papers in 1974. It is believed that M&H + AWY paid £100,000 for this stock "a considerable amount of money at the time". There were similar end-of-line paper purchases from Agfa, including the entire remaining stock of Agfa's Brovira and Record Rapid.

In the late 1970s further companies joined M&H + AWY via the purchase of Brixton Camera Centre and Harringay Photographic. The whole then became known as the Phototec Group, with branches at Harringay N4 (being Harringay Photographic Ltd, who won the AP "Dealer of the Year Award" in 1982), Brixton SW9 (being AW Young), Leyton E10 (being Marston & Heard).

Phototec also had associates in Birmingham (R Parkes) and Peterborough (Peterborough Photographic). These dealers were not wholly owned parts of Phototec but were associated in order to form a larger buying group, as was the fashion then to compete with the likes of Tecno's buying power to cut prices and offer discounts on new equipment. (Tecno's buying power might be compared to Jessops today). There was also a Phototec in Sandkrug near Oldenberg, Germany.

A Phototec advert in AP for 21st August 1982 includes Agfa paper, b&w ("often referred to as World's Best") plus colour, both negative & reversal. Also, they show Kodak Veribrom "at incredible prices".

A brand name which appeared in M&H advertisements during the mid-1970s and later within Phototec advertisements, was 'Barfen'. This brand evolved from two gentlemen, Tony Barden and Derek Fenton, who joined the group following a chance meeting with my source at Lambeth Photographic Club. They met with Jim Costello and Werner Schmidt and presented their chemistry product lines. As a result, they formed a partnership with Jim and Werner and went on to commercially develop their product range under the trade name BARFEN. It became associated with various darkroom items but especially colour film (Barfen negative CN 100 and an E6 type transparency film Barfen CR100), E6 processing kits and slide mounts.

My information source also tells me that a little known fact about Harringay Photographic Supplies was that in their labyrinthine maze of a property (sadly now sold and used as a betting shop!) was a top floor flatlet. It was the base and studio for shooting the early Harrison Marks soft core (by today's standards) glamour films! George Harrison-Marks was born 'George Harris Marks' on August 6th, 1926 and died: 6pm. June 27th, 1997.
See this web site for further details.

This snippet about Harrison Marks' studio location is unconfirmed and doesn't accord with an advert in PhotoGuide magazine (p262), for March 1961, saying "A MUST DURING YOUR VISIT TO LONDON - an EXHIBITION featuring the unpublished works of HARRISON MARKS, Britain's leading photographer of the nude figure. 1st & 2nd Floors, Harrison Marks Studios, 4 Gerrard Street, London, W.1. This address is a long way from Harringay Photographic Supplies at Green Lanes, London, N4, so anyone with information, please get in touch. I suspect perhaps the location of the studio for shooting the glamour films may have been kept private and separate from Harrison Mark's business premises, in case of attention from the police. Hence, the studio at Gerrard Street may have been just the advertised business address.

Phototec survived into (at least) the end of 1991 as a "Darkroom Materials Suppliers" with the address of The Old Malthouse, Priory Avenue, Taunton, TA1 1QB, selling mainly their own Barfen brand films and chemicals together with some other manufacturer's products.

A possibility is that Phototec eventually became part of the Paterson Photax Group, since the Paterson Group International catalogue for Autumn 1998 uses the name Phototec as a brand name for its economy 'Scales Brand Chemistry' range (see here). But equally it may simply be that the Paterson Photax Group chose to use the name Phototec as a shortened version of the Photo Technology company name that they assimilated in the mid-1980s. The name Phototec now (2009) seems commonly used both in the UK and overseas.