Locating Photographs of your Ancestor's Home (High Street, Watford, example)

Bryan has written asking if I could tell him where he might find any pictures of 173-175 High Street, Watford, which, unfortunately, is away from the much photographed market area of the High Street - where many post cards and other photographs exist.

Pictures of building in the main streets of are more likely to turn up in photographs that those in rural situations - but if all you have is the number it is sometimes difficult to know which frontage is which. In this case the buildings were demolished when the ring road round the town centre was built, and my answer shows how I went about trying to find a picture - and how I tackled it might give you some clues as to how you might tackle a similar problem.

The long building running back from the road is
177-179 High Street, Watford.

From the resources in my own library I found two "pictures" - A picture of the shop at 177-179 includes a couple of feet of 175 - which at least establishes that the frontage is set back a foot or so compared with its neighbour. The other was an air view where 177-179 can be clearly be seen, and the adjoining roofs, and associated rear yard, must belong to 173-5.

Having got this information the next stage would be for Bryan to visit the Watford Central Library (which has much more information that I have at my finger-tips) using the information I have collected to help know what to look for.