Spirit Photographs and a Cricklewood Photographic Company

This is the story of how a Cricklewood factory played an important role in exposing a fraudulent spiritualist medium in the 1920s.

Photographic Dry Plates
To record an image, early photographers used wet plates which had to be processed straight away.  In 1871 Richard Maddox coated a glass plate with a gelatine emulsion of silver bromide. He found these plates could be stored until needed, and after exposure in the camera, taken to a darkroom for development at leisure.

Joseph Acworth
Joseph Acworth was born in Chatham in 1853 and was interested from boyhood in the experimental sciences. He began working in the laboratories of the Royal College of Chemistry in South Kensington, (now part of Imperial College). Acworth became fascinated by the photographic dry plates which Maddox had invented, and he worked in the labs of the newly created Britannia Dry Plate Company at Ilford. He went to the University of Erlangen in Germany where he completed his PhD in 1890. 

Acworth returned home to Cricklewood and lived with his widowed mother at ‘Sheldmont’ this was later numbered as 14 Shoot-Up Hill, near Garlinge Road. 

The Imperial Dry Plate Works
Acworth built a private laboratory in Cricklewood to continue experimenting with dry plates. Seeing the commercial potential, he set up the Imperial Dry Plate Company. The factory was built by George Furness at Ashford Road in Cricklewood in 1892. Furness was the major builder and developer in Cricklewood. 

OS Map of Cricklewood, 1894

With clever advertising and by sponsoring photographic competitions around the country, Imperial dry plates began selling in huge numbers and the factory had to be enlarged several times. Each year they produced a handbook which gave advice and tips about photographic techniques.

 

In 1893 Acworth married Marion Whiteford Stevenson in Kensington. She was also a scientist and had completed the Associateship course at the Royal College of Science and was the first woman to receive the diploma in physics in 1893. She and Joseph published joint papers at a time when it was unusual to see a woman’s name in a scientific journal. 

After their marriage they moved to ‘Braeside’, later numbered 98 Shoot-Up Hill. ‘Braeside’ had been put up for sale in March 1892 and the advertisement provides details of the house; Elegantly fitted by Liberty and Co. Five bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, conservatory, large gardens, electric lift. 

About 1903 Joseph and Marion moved across the road to ‘Thornbank’ (Number 35 Shoot-Up Hill). The 1911 census shows them there with two of their four children and four servants. They visited Egypt several times and became fascinated by the early civilization. In 1939 Marion donated their collection of 600 pieces of Egyptian scarabs and bronzes to the British Museum. They are still there as the Acworth Collection. Joseph and Marion were leading figures in the founding and management of Dollis Hill House military convalescent hospital during WWI. 

Imperial flourished and bought up two smaller companies so that it became one of the largest producers of photographic dry plates. But Acworth suffered badly from asthma and in 1917 he sold out to Ilford and retired. He died on 3 January 1927. The company had proved extremely profitable, and he left £562,026, today worth an astonishing £40 million. 

Ilford took over the Cricklewood factory and continued using the famous Imperial Dry Plate name.

Spirit Photographs
William Hope was born in Crewe in 1863. He had been showing ‘spirit’ photographs since 1905 and formed a group of spiritualist followers and photographers called the Crewe Circle. Following World War I, support for the group, and demand for its services grew as the grieving relatives of those lost to the war sought a means of contacting their loved ones. Hope moved to London and set himself up as a professional medium with a photographic studio at 59 Holland Park. He was supported by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a fervent advocate of spiritualism.

William Hope (left) with the Crewe Circle

The Illustrated London News described Hope as, ‘a niggardly, coarse-mouthed man’, whose photos appeared to show ghostly apparitions with real people. He was well-respected by spiritualists, but several investigators believed he had tampered with the photos. 

To prove his case, in 1922 Hope surprisingly agreed to be tested by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Harry Price, who later became the famous paranormal investigator, was asked to conduct the experiment with the help of James Seymour who had an extensive knowledge of professional conjuring and photography.

Hope wrote to Harry Price asking him to bring a packet of dry plates – ‘Imperial or Wellington Wards are considered preferable’. Hope said he would have to use his own camera in the experiment.

On 25 January 1922 Harry Price wrote to the SPR:
‘I have spent the morning at the works of the Imperial Dry Plate Co Ltd Cricklewood, discussing and trying out various tests by which we can invisibly mark the plates which will be handed to Hope. We have decided as the best method that the plates shall be exposed to X-Rays, with a leaden figure of lion rampant (the trademark of the Imperial Co) intervening… Any plate developed will reveal a quarter of design, besides any photograph or ‘extra’ that may be on the plate. This will show us absolutely whether the plates have been substituted’.

On 28 February 1922 Price and James Seymour went to the British College of Psychic Science at 59 Holland Park where the experiment was carried out. 

Price handed Hope the secretly X-Ray marked Imperial plates. After taking the photographs, in the darkroom Price saw Hope put a plate into his breast pocket and then apparently pull it out again. When they developed the plates, one showed Harry Price with a ghostly woman looking over his shoulder.
 

After thanking Hope for the sitting, they left and later carefully examined the plates. They found these did not have the X-Ray Lion design. Hope had obviously switched the plates and had faked the spirit image with a double exposure. 

The results were published in the SPR journal in May, and in a pamphlet by Price in June. The report of the findings created a worldwide sensation and gave Harry Price his first experience of celebrity status. Billy Hope went into hiding and refused to answer the critics. Later, he continued producing spirit photos until his death in 1933. The controversy continued for years with Harry Price on one side, and Conan Doyle who published a book called ‘The Case for Spirit Photography’, on the other.

The Imperial factory in Cricklewood no longer exists today, and Ashford Court now covers the site.