A wonderful collection of glass plates and negatives (black and white and colour).
The Photocentre operated from 1951 to 2012 and was initially run by David Smith and then latterly by his son, Ian. It was a very well established and respected business in the town, used by anyone who wanted portraits or wedding photos or photographs taken at a social event. However, fashions in photography have changed and the rise in digital photography led to the business closing in September 2012.
The collection contains about 2 million (estimate by owner) glass plates and negatives which chronicle the social history of the Northumberland and Scottish Borders area from the 1950s to the present. Many of these pictures appeared in local newspapers but unfortunately their negatives have not survived which makes this collection even more important.
The business continued to use glass plates well into the 1960s and at one stage were was using a mixture of glass plates and negatives. The collection has great potential as a social history resource for this area and it also helps to fill a gap in Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office's collection. It is a wonderful legacy of a bygone era when photographs were a treasured possession and not so easily taken.
