Historical information

The Walton Street Fire Brigade building was constructed in 1893 (Rogers, 1973) replacing an earlier building on the site constructed for the Kew Volunteer Fire brigade. The building was demolished in 1941. In the background of the photo is a nouse on the corner of Peel and Walton Street which was also constructed in 1893 and which was to house a fireman from the brigade.

Significance

This work forms part of the collection assembled by the historian Dorothy Rogers, that was donated to the Kew Historical Society by her son John Rogers in 2015. The manuscripts, photographs, maps, and documents were sourced by her from both family and local collections or produced as references for her print publications. Many were directly used by Rogers in writing ‘Lovely Old Homes of Kew’ (1961) and 'A History of Kew' (1973), or the numerous articles on local history that she produced for suburban newspapers. Most of the photographs in the collection include detailed annotations in her hand. The Rogers Collection provides a comprehensive insight into the working habits of a historian in the 1960s and 1970s. Together it forms the largest privately-donated collection within the archives of the Kew Historical Society.

Physical description

A photographic print of the Kew Fire Brigade, presumably copied from W.D. Vaughan's 'Kew's Civic Century' (1960).

Inscriptions & markings

"2nd Fire Brigade, Walton St., taken shortly before Belford Rd., built. (Demolished). 2nd fire brigade, Walton St., Kew. No photo of 1st except on membership certificate."