The Orkney Image Library
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A Raphael Tuck & Sons postcard showing Albert Street much the same as in picture #2781, though slightly later I would say. The globe at the hairdressers has gone, but the bracket is still there. Tucks are described as Fine Art publishers to the King and Queen and Queen Mary, so that dates it to after December 1936 and no later than February 1952. Hugh Marwick's book "Orkney", published in 1951, has a photo from almost exactly the same viewpoint, in which the poster boards at Morgan's and the lamps at the Union Bank House gate are gone. Two of the posters here advertise Canada, one using a Mountie to do so. At the bottom is an advert for Anchor Line sailing to the USA, but I can't quite make out the one on the right. Presumably these were encouraging would-be emigrants. Date estimated.
View Large VersionPicture added on 12 April 2007
Lovely!! Nice to see the original architecture and roads.
Added by Debbie. HEDDLE on 28 May 2013
Yes as Debbie says it's a good picture showing the street as it was. Note the railings at the Union Bank and between Morgans and what became the Athol Cafe, where the Orcadian Bookshop is now. Then on the left the railings are still on the wall where the street widens out. And further down the railings at Drever & Heddles which most younger people today will remember as being where Woolworths created their store. I have a feeling that this is post war as the centre of the street - certainly in Victoria Street - only got the cobbles replaced after the war. Maybe someone "older & wiser" than me on this matter can keep us right.
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Added by David Partner on 25 July 2013
Kirkwall
