Antique & Vintage Postcards

Photo postcard of Tonbridge School in Kent — the Gothic Revival school buildings seen through the iron entrance gates, the ivy-clad stone ranges and battlemented towers rising behind a large cedar tree, the whole composition calm and institutional in the English manner. Founded in 1553 under a charter from Edward VI, Tonbridge is one of England's oldest and most distinguished independent schools; its Victorian Gothic main buildings were designed by John Whichcord Jr. in the 1860s. Published under copyright by T.A. Flemons, a local Tonbridge photographer and stationer who documented the town and school in the Edwardian years, this card captures the school as generations of boys would have first seen it — imposing gates, ancient trees, the suggestion of a world apart.