At the end of World War 2, photographic materials were in very short supply for amateur photography. At that time, the Government possessed a huge amount of black and white printing paper, most of which was manufactured for use during the war. After the war much of it was surplus to requirements, so some enterprising photographic dealers purchased vast quantities of this paper at greatly discounted rates to sell onto amateur photographers.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s I looked forward to my Wednesday copy of Amateur Photographer magazine (priced 1s 3d = 6p in 1959, rising to 1s 6d = 7.5p between mid '61-'62). Some of my favourite pages were located at the back, where there were advertisements for low cost film, paper and equipment. In the late 1950s much of this seemed to be ex-government surplus stock, but as the years passed the adverts included commercial brands of material and equipment that had been acquired as 'end of line' or surplus / redundant / bankrupt stock from otherwise leading suppliers.

Two of the companies involved in this 'cut price' trade receive mention elsewhere on my site. Marston & 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.

Martin's Photographic Service was another of these dealers. Pages from an August 1949 Martin's price list can be viewed here. Martin's Photographic Service became Frank Martin's Photographic Supplies in the 1960s, with a new address at 526 Kingsland Road, London E8.

Other London based companies selling similar cut-price materials and equipment were Brunnings (High Holburn, London, WC1), A.W.Young Photographic and Cine Dealers (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).

Two A.W.Young price lists from 1969 (pre-decimal currency) and one from 1973 can be viewed here.

More recently (September 2019) Martin has sent me further information about the disused cinema on Hornsey Road, which Harringay used as an additional warehouse. Martin writes: "Harringay Photo had a warehouse back in the glory days of ex-government surplus photographic equipment, at 345 Hornsey Road. This was a disused cinema, previously named the 'Star', and was a bit of a curio, being a long building tucked away behind houses with an entrance at each end. It was quite a size; big enough to operate fork-lift trucks inside. Harringay used it for storing and shipping all the more bulky items, for example the enormous chest sized aerial film contact printers with banks of switchable lamps.

The 'Star' cinema originally opened as the 'Hornsey Palace' in August 1911. Its entrance and exits were converted from Victorian terraced houses at numbers 335 and 345 Hornsey Road. The auditorium was built in the rear gardens of the houses in-between. By 1922 it was re-named 'Star Cinema'. It was closed in 1937 and became a warehouse. Then EMI bought the lease for this building in 1956, intended to turn it into a purpose-built studio on Hornsey Road for 'pop' recording artists. One can imagine that EMI's thinking was to keep the new 'rock & rollers' well away from their classical recording artists at Abbey Road! However, after sitting on the lease for some time, EMI seemed to drop the idea, and by the late 1950's 'Cliff Richard & the Shadows', and later Brian Epstein with his troups, famously including The Beatles, were all being recorded at Abbey Road. So, at some point in the late 1950's, Harry Madden and Frank Knichel, the partners in Harringay Photographic, acquired the lease to this old cinema building after EMI relinquished it. The building served as a warehouse until 1976, after which the site was cleared for community flats. This did not cause a problem to Harringay Photographic, as by that time the ex-government market was vanishing quickly.

The same in 2021, as the view opposite. From Google street-view.

The above connection between the 'Star' cinema and EMI, and the story of how, if EMI had not changed their minds, Hornsey Road might have become The Beatles recording studio instead of Abbey Road, has recently (9th June 2019) been discussed in the on-line Harringay Community magazine inspired by an e-mail circular from Mark Lewisohn, who subsequently elaborated his story in the on-line version of The Guardian on 11th September 2019. To any Beatles fan, these two links make fascinating reading and show how the famous 'Abbey Road' Beatles album, which was produced in 1969 and became their last, could so easily have been entitled 'Hornsey Road'.

The Harringay Community link is especially interesting in showing the location of the 'Star' cinema / Harringay warehouse, building.

The original Harringay Photographic business closed about 1978. Harry Madden wanted to retire on health grounds so, in order to pay him off, the partnership with Frank Knichel had to be broken up. So son Roy Knichel and his father set up a new partnership, RK Photographic. Subsequently, Harringay Photographic & the Green Lanes premises were acquired by Jim Costelloe (see below), who was already successful with his Phototec venture. But the premises were too large to work economically in the reducing photo' marketplace. They tried selling Citizen Band (CB) radio as one diversification, but the premises were closed down by maybe the early 1980's.

I've tried to put these two items of correspondence together in the following narrative.

By the mid-1970s, Marston & Heard and A.W.Young (M&H and AWY) were owned by the partnership of James John (Jim) Costelloe and Werner Schmidt. Ted (Edward) Marston (the original owner of Marston & Heard) was still around but was no longer involved, though he kept looking in on his old company. Bill Rose has commented "Werner Schmidt was previously the manager of Dixons Professional at 27 Oxford Street during the 1960s to early 1970s and later set up Old Timer Cameras in Borehamwood (where he lived). I believe he retired a couple of years ago" (around 2005 ?).

In the mid-1970s M&H and AWY 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 was a warm tone fiberbase paper.

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.

Peter Löffler tells me that in July 1975 he founded a mail order company for darkroom materials and accessories in northern Germany at Sandkrug near Oldenburg, called PHOTOTEC. While looking for business partners and mail order supplies he met Jim Costelloe and Werner Schmidt, the owners of Marston & Heard and A.W.Young.  "Mr.Costelloe and Mr.Schmidt needed a partner on the continent and offered some financial investment". In April 1976 they became partners with Mr.Löffler in the form of minority shareholders in his Phototec company and this led to Peter Löffler making the brand name PHOTOTEC available for use in the UK. The formal partnership ended about 1985 when Peter Löffler purchased back the shares he had sold.

The partnership with Mr.Löffler subsequently led to the formation of the UK organisation known as Phototec Centres, a trading name which started appearing in UK photographic magazine advertisements from around mid-1980. Prior to that time, the several companies owned by Jim Costello and Werner Schmidt continued to advertise using their individual company names.

In the late 1970s further companies joined M&H + AWY under the Phototec 'umberella'.

The Phototec Centres originally (Amateur Photographer, 11th October 1980) named its several branches as Marston & Heard Photographic Ltd (376-378 Lea Bridge Road, London E.10), A.W.Young Photographic (51 Atlantic Road, London S.W.9), Harringay Photographic Ltd (435 Green Lanes, London N.4) and B.S. Filmservices Ltd (82A Clifden Road, London, E.5). Later, A.W.Young was referred to as the Brixton SW9 branch and Martson & Heard was referred to as the Leyton E10 branch.

By 1982, Phototec (still called Phototec Centres but now emphasising the name Phototec) also had associates in Birmingham (R.Parkes Photographic Ltd; 10 Ethel St, B2 4BG) and Peterborough (Peterborough Photographics Ltd, 126 Bridge St, PE1 1DY). These associate dealers were not wholly owned parts of Phototec but were associated in order to form a larger buying group, as was the fashion at that time, in order to obtain goods at lower prices from wholesalers and so be able to undercut retail competitors by offering larger discounts on new equipment.

A Phototec advert in AP for 21st August 1982 has a 'tag' alongside the address of Harringay Photographic Ltd (referred to as the Harringay N4 branch), proclaining "AP Dealer of the Year Award Winners".

The store receipt alongside is shown couresy of David Eason Photography; see David's wedding photography website.

The receipt is clearly headed 'Phototec' but acknowledges the premises as being the previous 'Marston & Heard Photographic Ltd'. It is dated 19th November 1983.
David says "I can't recall what I bought but guess chemicals for my my old Patterson black and white kit."

The Phototec name survived in use within the UK until (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.

Rodney Bates, who has been friends with Peter Löffler for many years, tells me that neither Phototec (in the UK) nor Marston & Heard now exist (July 2009) but their spirit lives on in the company Firstcall, which celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2010. They are based at Cherry Grove Rise, West Monkton, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8LW.

My anonymous information source told 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.

The above snippet about Harrison Marks' studio being sublet from Harringay Photographic has since (July 2009) been confirmed by Werner Schmidt (thanks Werner !).

But another source disagrees. From Martin Reed, I've heard comment on this story from Roy Knichel, the son of Frank Knichel, who set up Harringay Photographic post-WW2. Roy worked at Harringay Photographic in the 1970’s. Roy categorically says that Harrison Marks did not film there, though there was a studio of sorts & the place had a reputation for risqué films, so that’s probably where the rumour arose.

An advert in PhotoGuide magazine (p262), for March 1961, suggests "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. 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.