Gandolfi: pilgrimmage to the sites of the Gandolfi workshops

[arca andy]

Fascinating stuff chaps....great bit of London history....

[case-ie]

Very nice endeavour, I could be tempted in making a pelgrimmage and bring a good piece of wood to the old workshop . Nice read this and hope to see the pictures, really do.

I came across my Gandolfi two weeks ago, did some research, saw the videos on youtube and knew I had to have it.
Watching the videos is like looking into a timelapse, magical.
The Camera, a 8x10 (Precision, I think) made me speechless. And maybe people will make fun of this, but it was like a person coming into my house. You have to approach it on personnel level. And it will answer you. Somebody made some Harry Potter fun in this thread but take it from me these Guys were really wizzards and poured soul in their cameras. You only have to listen to them.

[GPX]

Great to hear you got a Gandolfi. I plan to go to the workshop and photograph it soon ... bad weather and other commitments keep getting in the way, you know how it is ...

[GPX]

I went and photographed the Gandolfi workshop today despite bad weather. This is 2 Borland Road, the workshop where Fred and Arthur Gandolfi made the cameras for decades. My 4x5" Gandolfi seen in the pictures would have been made there. There is not much to see, to be honest; it is a mundane site. But you can still match it up to the old photos. Notice little details such as the pebble-dashing along the side does not reach the top because the Gandolfi sign used to be there (in other words, it must have been pebble-dashed when the sign was still in place). I'm not clear whether their workshop was just the flat-roofed building, or also the two-storey pitched-roofed building just visible behind it. The old film of Fred and Arthur at work gives the impression of a small space, so maybe they had just the "garage" we see in these photos.

[GPX]

Here is 84 Hall Road (now 84 Cheltenham Road - it was renamed because there were too many Hall Roads in London). This was the Gandolfi workshop for quite a brief time before they moved to the main 2 Borland Road workshop. This is only a couple of hundred yards from the Borland Road workshop.
Also shown here is Fred Gandolfi's house at 21 Shelbury Road (I think it was also Arthur Gandolfi's house?). That is only about half a mile from the workshops, so I have an image in mind of them walking to work each morning.

[GPX]

Here's an old picture of the Borland Road workshop for comparison. Any other pics would be greatly appreciated.

[rahsoft]

Here's an old picture of the Borland Road workshop for comparison. Any other pics would be greatly appreciated.

Hello gpx and thanks for the nice photos
the "garage" was the workshop and the two storey building was a living area, Fred or Arthur would do the admin work at the back in what is the kitchen or the lounge( its in one of the videos).


these two photos you can find on the web

[case-ie]

I went and photographed the Gandolfi workshop today despite bad weather

, Nice, but I expected you would use your Gandolfi.

[GPX]

Yes, I'm thinking of returning in better weather to use the Gandolfi. Except it won't be in the shot then of course!

[Henry Suryo]

I think they also used the upper storey of the back house as part of the workshop as shown in these stills from Ken Griffith's film of Thomas doing the brasswork.