Regent Street, London

Photograph of Regent Street, London, with horse drawn carriages on the road and stone flagged pavements bustling with pedestrians. Many of the men wear top hats. A street lamp stands on the centre right of the foreground.

This photograph was taken during Wilson's excursion to England in the Spring of 1860 after which he made his second tour of Scotland in the Autumn. Wilson preferred these times of year to photograph owing to the clarity of the light in making instantaneous photographs that relied on faster exposure times. Eager to exploit the faster exposure times that he was perfecting, Wilson turned his attention to street views and the transient features of nature to capture subjects that early photography with its slower exposure times could not. This is a later carbon print that was originally adhered over albumen print 2320061. The carbon process was less susceptible to light damage and carbon copies were sometimes adhered over the original albumen photograph. Albumen photographs were more prone to fade over time.