122 Regent St <1>
3 May 1853
Sir
I am sory you should be troubled about the ground rent on my account but it is Mr Fishers <2> fault he paid the last time and I particular requested him to pay it again when due, as I always employ him in colecting and paying my debts, and likewise to audit the books, it is therefore a neglect on his part, he certainly has been unwell lately and has not been here for two weeks, but I will speak to him about it to morrow when he is coming here--
I hope you will excuse the liberty I take on this occasion to congratulate you on your late and most important important discovery <3>, and see now plain enough why you advised me to wait another year before I erected the large manufactory <4> at Kensall Green for possitive printing, of course what I have erected there already, will answer very well for all ordinaire purposes now, and altho your discovery will injure me to a great extent, still that is very insignificant with its universell worth-
I am happy to say I am doing pretty well considering the bad weather we have had, and the oppositions lately sett up so near me, if they are succesful at the Panopticon <5> I shall get some thing out of that as they have engaged me to teach to a class wich I can do without interfering with my own business as it is only for one hour in the morning (when there is a class)
Your Obidient Servant
N. Henneman
Notes:
1. 122 Regent Street, London: base of Nicolaas Hennemans' Talbotype or Sun Picture Rooms, later the firm of Henneman & Malone, photographers to the Queen.
2. Possibly J. Fisher Conthwaite, agent at the Cumberland Union Bank Branch, [See Doc. No: 06838].
3. Probably photographic engraving. See Doc. No: 06749, Doc. No: 06754, Doc. No: 06762].
4. The earliest advertisement for this traced thus far was published in the 1 March 1853 issue of The Journal of The Photographic Society, v. 2 n. 1: "Talbotype - Photography - Messrs. Henneman and Co. Photographers to the Queen, 122 Regent Street, beg to inform their patrons and the public, that the have, in order to make their Establishment more complete, erected in the suburbs a manufactory on a large scale for Photographic printing and the preparation of the various papers now used tin Photography; and that they are now in a position to execute Contracts to any extent."
5. The Royal Panopticon of Science & Art was a fantastic Moorish-style building on Leicester Square in London. Its 97 foot (30 metre) tall central rotunda had an artesian well fed fountain that sprayed to the roof. It was designed to showcase scientific, technical and artistic feats. Financially unsuccessful, it closed in 1856. Its splendid organ, the largest in England, was purchased by St. Paul's Cathedral and the building was re-named the Alexandra Palace, becoming the base for Howe's & Cushing's American Circus. It then became a series of theatres until burning down in December 1882. The replacement building, much less exhuberant in style, became the Alexandra Theatre Hall. In 1937, the Odeon Theatre replaced it. Whether Henneman's tutorials there actually happened or not is unconfirmed.