Merseyside was a rich source of subjects for leading photographers Bedford Lemere, finds Laura Davis

The company was also employed by another Merseyside soap manufacturer – the Lady Lever Gallery’s founder William Hesketh Lever. Pictures of a soap packing room in 1897 show female workers in typical Victorian dress boxing up packets of Sunlight Soap while watched by a foreman.

The trading hall of Liverpool Cotton Exchange was also given the Bedford Lemere treatment. It was pictured in 1907, a year after it was built to the designs of architects Matear and Simon who commissioned the picture. A glass roof tops the now demolished grand hall, which is flanked with pillars and has fireplaces at each corner.

“It was purpose built and the north side of the building was constructed with cast iron so that it could have very big windows,” says Penketh.

“Those working there needed to inspect the cotton samples in the best light possible. Most cotton used in the Lancashire cotton industry was brought in through Liverpool so this was a very important building.”

More lively is a photograph of the High Explosives theatre troop, taken at Cunard’s shellworks in Bootle in 1917, where three quarters of the wartime workforce were women.

“Despite quite a bit of research we’ve not been able to identify exactly who the group might be,” says Penketh.

“The facilities at the shellworks included a purpose-built theatre so we can only assume there was a performance going on. There’s such a contrast within the picture because it shows an exciting and fun event taking place in the midst of the First World War.”

Bedford Lemere’s work was not restricted to dry land. The company received many commissions from shipping companies including Cunard and the White Star Line, both of which were based in Liverpool.

One of the photographs on display shows Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic, moored in Liverpool’s docks in 1920. Another, taken four years later, shows a child’s nursery on board SS Mont Laurier, a German warship that had been allocated to Britain in war reparations and converted into a liner by a Canadian company.

AN AGE of Confidence opens at the Lady Lever Art Gallery tomorrow and runs until June.

Click here to search for pictures in the English Heritage online archives