J L Allday 

J L Allday was a publisher in Birmingham who produced a large amount of material on his home town. The earliest publication date found for Allday is 1887 and the latest so far is 1960. He seems to have been interested in the newest technologies and two early south Devon guides exploiting the comparatively new hobby of photography have been seen: Dawlish through a Camera, a book of 16 pages of photographs including 13 full-page photos by F P Davies of Dawlish (c.1897); and Teignmouth through a Camera, a guide by Maxwell.
The British Library has three Gossiping Guides to Birmingham by Allday (dated 1893-1906), but none of other areas. Charles Arthur Pearson (c.f.) also produced a number of Gossipy Guides at the end of the century. Perhaps with Pearson also using the title he decided not to use it when he published Allday’s Illustrated Guide books in 1890[1].
This guide book was cleverly sold under different titles depending on which town it was sold in. The Preface sets out the order of coverage: Torquay, Paignton, Newton Abbot, Teignmouth, Dawlish and Dartmouth come first, and the surrounding places from Exeter to Plymouth in alphabetical order. Presumably guides for Teignmouth, Dawlish and Dartmouth with the appropriate cover and title page were also issued.
The substantial book consisted of 56 pages of adverts followed by 87 pages of text (pp.58-144) and another 56 pages advertisements. A ten page Trade Directory for the Torquay and Paignton district completes the volume. An advert on page 147 is for Allday with Babbicombe address and the final advert before the back cover was for the Torquay Effective Advertiser. A “Third Issue about October, 1890 with 2,500 guaranteed circulation” is announced confirming publication date. Apparently Allday had premises at York Road in Babbacome[2], hence the imprints. 
The main map of South Devon used for these guides is a transfer of a map of the county executed by George Philip for Philip’s County Atlas but now only including areas south of Torrington. The title is new (the county map was simply Devonshire in Philip’s atlas) and a north star has been added above the title.[3] A second map included in all issues is a simple plan of Torquay.

Allday 1

Size: 367 x 410 mm. English Miles (10 = 58 mm).


1. 1890   SOUTH DEVON AND DARTMOOR. (Ee) with scale bar below. No imprints. Graticuled border. North star (Ed). Shows south coast from Looe Bay and Lyme Bay north to Torrington and east to Wellington. Shows railways to date but not Kingsbridge (1893).

Allday’s Paignton And South Devon. Illustrated Guide.
Babbicombe& Birmingham. J L Allday. (1890). DevA[4].

 Allday’s Newton Abbot And South Devon. Illustrated Guide.
 Babbicombe & Birmingham. J L Allday. (1890). KB.

 Allday’s Torquay And South Devon. Illustrated Guide.
 Babbicombe & Birmingham. J L Allday. (1890). DevA.

 Allday 2
 A second plan, also used in all guides, is the street map of Torquay, which was almost an identical copy to the map as used by Ward and Lock some years earlier (see Ward & Lock 1, 1886). Sources as above.
Size: 160 x 230 mm. No scale.


 TORQUAY (Ae). with north star above (Ad). Imprint: J L ALLDAY, LITH, BABBICOMBE & BIRMINGHAM (CeOS).
Fairly simplistic map of Torquay from Torre Station (Aa) to St. Marychurch (Ca) and all the coastline. Includes new pier and layout at Torquay harbour, St Marychurch and Babbacombe (Babbicombe Bay) etc., the Pleasure Grounds at Belgrave Road. Interesting note (Cc, possibly Hillesdon Rd) – Good view of Town here.

RETURN to Main Catalogue

NOTES:


[1] All guides have reference to Princess Louise’s visit in May, 1890 (page 58) as well as the advertisement mentioned above. Both guides at EWSL have accession number S/DEV/1890/ALL (see also DevA Rec No. 35770 and 560). Both illustrations by kind permission Devon Archives.
[2] Note Babbacombe is always spelt Babbicombe by Allday.
[3] The map has been enlarged lithographically and the scale bar increased from 10 miles = 48 mm to 10 = 58 mm: it is an intermediate state between B&B 141.7 and 141.8. The reverse has copious adverts including one for the Queen’s Hotel in Torquay (see Introduction).

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