How to find it
The brass plaque to William Henry Fox Talbot is at ground floor level on the wall of 55 Baker Street. There is also a plaque which states this is Talbot House.
The plaque marks that W H Fox Talbot conducted his Reading Establishment from this building 1844-1845. However the establishment ran until 1847.
There is also a plaqe on 53 Baker St but more of that below.
Background
William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRSA (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paler and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries.
He was born in Melbury House in Dorset and was the only child of William Davenport Talbot, of Lacock Abbey near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Fox Strangways,
His personal lack of success at sketching led him to dream up a new machine with light sensitive paper, so he could make sketches automatically. When he went back to his home in Wiltshire, William started work on this new project. One of his earliest images is of a latticed window at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, in August 1835. A positive of this, from what may be the oldest existing camera negative, may be seen below. In 1839 he reported his art of photogenic drawings to the Royal Society. These “drawings” were a kind of early photograph, made using light sensitive paper.
In February 1841, Talbot obtained an English patent for his developed-out calotype process.
His work in the 1840s on photo-mechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium.
His publication The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading and York.
He invented a process for creating reasonably light-fast and permanent photographs that was the first made available to the public; however, his was neither the first such process invented nor the first one publicly announced.
In 1844, Talbot helped set up an establishment in Russell Terrace (now Baker Street), Reading for mass-producing salted paper prints from his calotype negatives. The Reading Establishment, as it was known, also offered services to the public, making prints from others’ negatives, copying artwork and documents, and taking portraits at its studio.
Nicholas Henneman was a very important part of the Reading establishment. The Reading establishment was losing money and Talbot had plans to move the business to London where premises were found in December 1846. By autumn 1847 the establishment in Regent Street, “Sun Picture Rooms” was fully operational and the Reading Establishment was closed.
Further information go to the book Fox Talbot and the Reading Establishment by Martin Andrews. Published by Two Rivers Press 2014
More information
After the establishment closed the building returned to being a school and in 1859 was “Terrace School”.
The 1893 Steven’s Directory identify that nos 53 & 55 are the St Mary’s Home for Friendless girls, the Chaplain was Rev. Canon Garry and the Lady Superintendent was Sister Cordelia. It is understood this opened in 1872 and had 20 “inmates” and 5 staff. This continued to 1920 when it became two separate houses.
There is a plaque on no 53 “Nettil House”. This is Litten, the name of previous owners of 53 -55 + 55A, backwards. In early 2025 work was underway to repair these three houses at the same time, perhaps the Litten family still own the 3 properties. Did they erect all three plaques? We don’t know.