Topical Press Agency

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Founded c. 1903 by Mr J.B. Helsby, a photographer and Mr Walter J. Edward, a photographic salesman, Topical Press expanded rapidly to cope with the increasing demand for press photography in the early twentieth century. By the 1930's the company had a team of photographers in London and over a thousand agents world wide. Staff at the London headquarters at 10 & 11 Red Lion Court would produce prints from glass plate negatives and write captions to accompany the images for the picture desks of newpapers in nearby Fleet Street or for the commercial clients in shipping, rail and transport industries. However Topical's fortunes later changed when changes in photography and journalism and the advent of television diminished the demand for their services, until in 1957 the company closed. The archive of prints and negatives having been acquired by the Hulton Press Library which is now part of Getty Images.