Photos of the 1920s Gallery

Boxing at Wembley Stadium 1924 EPW011412

The first ever boxing match at Wembley Stadium, London on 9th August 1924. This was a light heavyweight contest between "Basking" Jack Bloomfield and Tommy Gibbons. The undercard included a heavyweight contest between Phil Scott and Andre Anderson (won by Scott). Bloomfield, from Islington had been British Light Heavyweight champion since 1922, shortly after moving up from Middleweight. Gibbons, from Minnesota, had recently lost the World Heavyweight title to Jack Dempsey in 1923. Although he was coming towards the end of his career he was still a formidable opponent, losing only four times in over a hundred bouts. Gibbons won by a knockout in the third round and Bloomfield never fought again. Gibbons retired the following year after his fourth defeat. The promoter was bankrupted after struggling to meet Gibbons financial demands. Aerofilms Collection (see Links)

© Historic England

British Empire Exhibition 1924 EPW010737

BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION, London. Photographed in June 1924 at Wembley, Middlesex. Its official aim was "to stimulate trade, strengthen bonds that bind mother Country to her Sister States and Daughters". It was the largest exhibition ever staged anywhere in the world, attracting 27 million visitors. The main exhibition buildings surrounded and fronted onto the lakes (right of centre in this picture). The Exhibition Station (foreground) adjoining the India pavilion, palaces of Engineering (middle right), Industry, and Arts (top), with the Australia and Canada pavilions to the left of the lakes. the Palace of Engineering and the British Government Pavilion survived into the 1970s. The Empire Pool became the Wembley Arena, and the Empire Stadium was also kept until 2002, when it was demolished to be replaced by the new Wembley Stadium. Aerofilms Collection (see Links)

© Historic England

Crowsteps OP00758

Crowsteps, Tydehams, Newbury, Berkshire, c 1930. Herbert Felton (c 1887-1968), silver gelatin DOP (developing out paper) print. Designed by Thomass Tait of Sir John Burnet, Tait & Lorne, and built in 1929, Crowsteps is one of the earliest Modernist houses in England. It was clearly inspired by the German architect Peter Behrena's New Ways in Northampton which was built between 1925 and 1926, and Tait was commissioned on the strength of his workers housing for Crittalla's at Silver End in Essex built between 1927 and 1928. Herbert Felton, whose professional reputation owed much to his photography of Modernist architecture, has used a low point of view to take advantage of the reflective qualities of the garden pool to double the mass of the house and fill the portrait-orientated negative. Felton's ability as an architectural photographer was such that he became the first professional photographer to be employed by the National Buildings Record in 1941

© Historic England