All of the photographs in our Undercliffe
Cemetery 'time capsule' were taken by Jack Booth, noted local
photographer. The following text was written in 2000 as part of
a projected volume of local history.
JACK BOOTH
Germany at the end of World War Two and Bradford in the 1960s
and 70s may not seem to have much in common at first glance, yet
it was amongst the devastation to be found in cities such as Dresden
and Berlin that the first seeds of an idea were sewn in the mind
of a young Bradfordian. Jack Booth was serving in Germany in 1945
with the Royal Corps of Signals and witnessed at first hand the
ruins of many of the fine buildings lost forever to bombs and
subsequent firestorms. Had anyone ever thought to record, in pictures,
the architecture? If not then it was now too late. The thought
that there may be little or no detailed photographic record of
how whole city centres had once looked was to influence Jack later
in life.
John Dewhirst Booth (known to friends and family
as ‘Jack’) was born at 177 Great Horton Road on March 2nd 1917.
When Jack was just three years old, his father died as a result
of his service during the war, leaving his mother to raise four
children on her own, a situation not uncommon in the hard years
following the Great War. Jack attended Grange Infants School,
followed by Grange Boys Upper School. Unfortunately he suffered
from a bad heart (a condition possibly inherited from his father),
which prevented him from taking part in any kind of sporting activity.
He was, however, very interested in music, and as a young boy
was chief soloist in the choir at St Columba's Church, Horton
Grange Road. He was later to develop into a fine tenor, and became
a member of the Festival Choral Society and a recorder group.
Times were hard in the late Twenties and early Thirties, and like
many of his contemporaries Jack gave up any chance of further
education to take a job, at 16, with a woollen firm on Ingleby
Road. His contributions to the family coffers would surely have
been very welcome. The dust and dirt from the wool and the heavy
manual work did not suit Jack however, and he was soon working
at the well-known Busby’s Department Store, Manningham Lane.
Like most of his peers, Jack was called up to join the army during
World War 2. He served with the Royal Corps of Signals, firstly
in the Middle East then, at the end of the war, in Germany, until
he was demobbed. After the war, Jack taught for a while as an
unqualified teacher at Idle Church School and by 1948 he had completed
an Emergency Teacher Training Course at Hanley Training College,
Wakefield. He went on to teach at Tyersal and Drummond Road Schools
where he was to forge many friendships which were to last until
his death in 1981. He got on well with children, and never having
married he became the favourite uncle of his nieces.
Jack loved to travel, particularly in the Mediterranean,
where he could see first hand the remains of the great civilizations
of Crete, Greece and Rome, no doubt capturing some spectacular
sights with his trusty camera. His interest in music continued
all his life and he had an excellent collection of gramophone
records and cassettes, classical music being his great love. As
one would expect of someone with a talent for capturing such wonderful
images, he had a great appreciation of art and also collected
many books showing the pictures of great artists.
During the 1960s and 70s many development plans
were formulated for Bradford city centre, meaning that many fine
old buildings needed to be demolished. The Mechanics Institute,
Swan Arcade and many warehouses and chapels were lost forever
as the city centre was ‘modernised’. Perhaps recalling his experiences
amongst the ruins in Germany, Jack must have realised that a whole
part of Bradford’s Victorian heritage would soon disappear and
that it was important that a visual record should be made. He
set about photographing the fine architecture on display and was
soon building up quite a collection of excellent pictures. He
recorded the demolition of many sites, including the Exchange
and Adolphus Street stations, and the subsequent construction
of areas such as the Broadway precinct and Provincial House (now
itself a victim of the desire for change).
Jacks interest in photography extended merely beyond the taking
of pictures. He set up a dark-room in a spare bedroom of his house
in Wibsey where he would process and develop the films from his
trusty Olympus OM-2 or the small pocket camera which he habitually
carried about with him. Had he been inclined, Jack could probably
have pursued photography as a professional career – his pictures
are surely good enough. For whatever reasons, however, he preferred
to keep it purely as a hobby – something to occupy himself with
at weekends and holidays. The photographs themselves are striking.
They are all black and white, which Jack felt showed light and
shade far better than colour photographs did. Often taken from
unusual angles and perspectives, they give an excellent impression
of how Bradford city centre once looked. Although Jack may not
have been particularly interested in architecture for its own
sake, he clearly felt a need to preserve detail as well as take
shots of whole buildings, or streets.
Some years after Jack's death, his brother and sister-in-law kindly
donated an extensive collection of his photographs of the local
area to Bradford Central Library. Many of them have subsequently
been put into the photographic collection kept at the library
and are a valuable addition to stock. They record an eventful,
often turbulent period in the city's history, and hopefully will
help inspire others to follow suit and record the ever-changing
cityscape.