William Strudwick was born in London in 1834 on Edgware Road and lived in Lambeth (detached Streatham Parish) and West Dulwich.
He acted as a photographic storekeeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but also worked as a draftsman, architect, and sculptor and wrote comic poetry. Henry Cole, the founder founding director of the V&A, encouraged the purchase of Strudwick’s series of photographs titled Old London: Views by W. Strudwick. The series is around 50 in total and was purchased from the photographer in 1869. It documents the old cityscape, including the East End’s medieval coaching inns prior to their demolition to make way for the railways, and the riverside shortly before the construction of the Embankment.
His views from the river banks show the traffic of steam and sail boats, barges and working warehouses. His street scenes are populated by tradesmen paused in their activities unloading barrels from horse- drawn carts and groups of Dickensian urchins staring at the camera. Strudwick’s project echoes other similar survey initiatives at this time which recognized photography as the quintessential medium to save from oblivion what was about to disappear. In 1910, Lambeth Archives acquired a set of Strudwick’s photographs, the same year they he was admitted as a pauper to Croydon workhouse where he died.
