The list of lost Camera Obscuras is constantly growing.
For a fuller list of sites contact
the Foredown Tower.
Lost sites in the UK
Lost sites around the world
Brighton (Sussex)
There was a camera obscura above the Royal Chain
Pier Bazaar, c1890, opposite the entrance to the old Chain Pier. A photograph
of an engraving also exists showing a camera obscura actually on the Chain
Pier, some sources date this one to 1825. (Source: Brighton Reference
Library). There was another camera obscura at the Devil's Dyke (to the
north of Brighton) c1885
(Source: Guide to the Devil's Dyke by Ernest
Ryman - 1984).
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Brightling (Sussex)
A camera obscura was set up by Jack Fuller in
the early C19th at the Brightling Observatory.
(Source: Peter Drew / G. Hutchinson,
Battle Abbey).
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Clacton (Essex)
A photograph dated 'before 1914' shows a camera
obscura at Clacton. Instrument-maker Horace Dall (1901-1986) visited
this camera obscura at the age of sixteen "It was a bright sunny day, and
the view on the table of the camera obscura was so beautiful that he promised
himself that he would make one of his own".
(Source: see under LUTON
& Essex County Council Library)
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Douglas (Isle of Man)
A now lost camera obscura in the Victoria Tower
dates to 1890/94.
(Source: Letter from 'Ventures Consultancy',
Hants. to Manx 'Dept. of Local Government & the Environment').
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Eastbourne (Sussex)
This camera obscura, situated on the Pier, was
there in 1888. The building, still above the Pier's Show Bar, is cylindrical
in shape with a domed roof, above which is the space where the optics were
once housed. This is topped by an eight sided pointed roof. Access
to the building is restricted although it is a prominent feature in any photograph
of the Pier.
(Source: Eastbourne Pier). In 1939 it was
being run by Mr W.H. Pelly, agent for the Campbell's Steamer Company.
After the war it was renovated. The roof was revolved on ball bearings
by hand winder.
(Source: Manuscript about the Eastbourne Pier by
B. Polley, held by Eastbourne Library).
: The
domed building which used to house the camera obscura on Eastbourne Pier.
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Falmouth (Cornwall)
The camera obscura was in the old meteorological
observatory in the 1940/50s. It closed in the early 1960s. Originally
an observatory of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.
(Source: Mr Peter Gilson and The Cornwall
Studies Library).
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Folkestone (Kent)
Folkestone's camera obscura dates to c1901 (at
least until 1907) and was on the foreshore 30/40 metres east of the then Victoria
or Pleasure Pier and near the bottom of the still existing water powered Leas
Lift.
(Source: Folkestone Library).
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Great Yarmouth (Norfolk)
Opened in the early 1920s the camera obscura
was on the beach/Marine Parade but had gone by the end of that decade.
(Source: Mr D. Daintree of the Pier Society
& Great Yarmouth Library).
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Greenwich (London)
An early camera obscura was set up in the turret
of Flamsteed House, by the fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne (1732 -
1811). There is a record of a drawing being made with this camera obscura
in 1804. It was of conventional design with a lens, mirror and viewing
table. (Flamsteed had a camera obscura at Greenwich reported by Uffenbach
in 1710).
(Source: Greenwich Camera Obscura).
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Jersey Marine (Wales)
Dating from the mid 19th Century atop a tall
octagonal tower "On the top of the tower was a camera obscura the tower
was built solely as an attraction for visitors". The tower is
shown on a sketch map dated 1870. At one time the West Glamorgan County
was considering the renovation of the tower, then owned by Whitbread Wales
Ltd., the brewery promising £5,000 towards the cost of installing a new camera
obscura. Plans were even drawn up but nothing materialised. The
tower is just over 55ft tall.
(Source: SW Evening Post, 9th October
1982 & 3rd December 1982, kindly supplied by the Neath Reference Library).
Next to the tower is an old boarded up public house which still has its inn
sign showing the tower and maybe the camera obscura on top.
(Source: Mike Frost).
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Llandudno (Wales)
Llandudno's Camera Obscura was built in 1859
on the heights above 'Happy Valley', on the Great Orme with a view extending
from the pier across to Little Orme and the mountains of Penmaenmawr, Anglesey
and Liverpool Bay. It was destroyed by fire in 1966 by vandals.
(Source: 'Vision - The Popular Magazine for
Eyes', Winter 1961 ; kindly supplied by the Bristol Records Office).
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Luton (Beds.)
This was a privately owned camera obscura belonging
to optical instrument maker Horace Dall (1901 - 1986). It was installed
in the attic of a private house built particularly tall with the camera obscura
in mind, the house itself being one of the highest in the area and 200 feet
above the valley floor. The camera obscura was mounted in the roof and
was raised up (like a periscope) when in use. The lens, an achromatic
doublet, was 4 1/4"in diameter and of exceptional quality. Its focal
length was 135" with a focal ratio of F32. The viewing table was 2 foot
in diameter with a matt white surface and was 24" from the floor with an adjustment
of 15". The optically flat mirror had a minor axis of 6 1/4" and
its angle could be adjusted to view up to 40° into the sky. The
field of view of the screen was 10° and when viewed from a distance of
10" gave an apparent magnification of x13.5. The image of the sun on
the screen was 1 1/4" across. An additional small viewing telescope
could be stood on the screen and then be used to view the image in detail
at high magnification or to project a six foot solar image. It is recorded
as having been used during the war to spot exploding bombs, in 1960 to view
Mercury and it might still be in use today at another site.
(Source: Anna Price / P. Moore.
R. Baum (BAA) kindly supplied copy of Dall's Obituary in BAA Journal, Vol.
97 No. 2 by E.J. Hysom ; and personal communication with E.J.
Hysom ; The Camera Obscura by H. Dall in 'Amateur Telescope Making -
Advanced Volume 2' Scientific American Inc. 1972 editor A.G. Ingalls
kindly supplied by E.J. Hysom).
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Margate (Kent)
In 1821 a camera obscura was sited between Fort
Point and Second Point (whether the optics of this camera obscura were incorporated
in the latter one on the jetty is unknown, although from contemporary illustrations
the buildings were noticeably different). In 1898 there was a camera
obscura on the landward end of The Jetty. It was known as the 'Grand
Camera Obscura' and promoted as
"beautiful effects caused by reflection".
The entrance charge was two pence. By 1937 (the last record found) it
was owned by a Mr Wheeley although by then was no longer listed as a local
attraction.
(Source: Penny Ward of Margate Library).
: Margate
Camera Obscura.
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Plymouth (Devon)
The camera obscura, built 1828 / 1830, existed
until about 1891. (There are plans to erect a new camera obscura in
an octagonal building about 100 yards from the site of the old one).
(Source: Mr W. Scutt, Plymouth Dome,
The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 2NZ).
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Ramsgate (Kent)
The Ramsgate Camera Obscura, c1871, was on the
west pier of the harbour until about 1966. It had a lens diameter of
9.5cm (3 3/4") and focal length of 2.46 metres, the lens & mirror
were separated by 7cm. The lens system was mounted in a mahogany-sided
box 10 1/4" x 61/8" x 6 1/2"and focusing was by a screw-legged table.
There are two rectangular mirrors - one probably a spare. The lens and
mirror are currently in store at the Ramsgate Maritime Museum.
(Source: Mr M. Cates, Ramsgate Maritime
Museum).
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Swansea (Wales)
Sited on the Mumbles Pier, Swansea, in the 1950s
the camera obscura was of fixed focus and possibly not very satisfactory.
(Source: Mr D. Bateman, Secretary of
the Pier Society & confirmed by Swansea Library).
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Colorado Springs (USA)
This camera obscura was built in 1951 by Floyd
Jennings (who also built the camera obscura in San Francisco) at High Point
House in the 'Garden of the Gods' in the Pikes Peak Region. It ceased
to operate in 1992 for financial reasons (the entrance fee was only 35 cents!),
the building itself was demolished in 1994 and the optics are in store.
The single bi-convex lens is 13" in diameter with a focal length of 13 feet.
The screen was a 5ft diameter table. The optics panned round 360 degrees
stopping at various points for a recorded commentary.
(Sources : Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
31st July 1955 & 18th September 1992 / 'Man in the Garden of the Gods'
R. & M.A. Gehling & 'Garden of the Gods' leaflet all kindly
supplied by the Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs).
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Sydney (Australia)
At Manly Beach, NSW, the 'Coles Royal Camera
Obscura' was built in 1890 by John Thos. Cole. It had a double
meniscus lens with a focal length of 9ft 6in. The screen, 5ft in diameter,
was a sloping table 6" from the floor at the lowest and 22" at the highest.
This angled table was rotated with the rotating optics. (From Photographic
Trader, 1989, quoting a letter dated 12th November 1888).
(Source: Toowoomba City Council and The State
Library of New South Wales).
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Phillip's Bay, Victoria (Australia)
In about 1956, Mr L.M. Lowe visited a camera
obscura at Arthur's Seat, Dromana
on the Mornington Peninsula looking out over
the sea at Phillip's Bay, in Victoria, Australia. It was out of action
then and has not survived.
(Source: Photographic Trader 1989).
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Toowoomba, Queensland (Australia)
Toowoomba City Council, PO Box 3021, Post
Office Village Fair, Toowoomba,
Queensland 4350, Australia.
The lens of the Toowoomba Camera Obscura is an
achromatic doublet of about 6" diameter with a focal length of about 13' 6"
giving a focal ratio of F13. The dished screen is 5 or 6 feet across.
It was designed and built by W.M. Lowe at Picnic Point in about 1966.
The octagonal building is made of white pine and rotated on 16 industrial
castors. It holds about 30 visitors at a time. This camera obscura
has now closed down.
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Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA)
A camera obscura was opened in 1956 at 'Lover's
Leap' on Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. At a height of 1,700
feet above the valley floor, it was sited at 'Rock City' - a ten acre area
of weird eroded rock formations and chasms.
(Source: Hamilton County
Herald; and The [Chattanooga?] Times).
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Rochester, New York (USA)
A camera obscura made by Wm. R. Crosby of Rochester, New York, USA, with
a three inch diameter lens, was seen by A.G. Ingalls, editor of 'Amateur
Telescope Making' and reported in 1972. It no longer exists.
