Paddy Summerfield: Oxford’s Celebrated Photographer Remembered

Walk into the Old Bank, through Reception, up the stairs, or into the Gallery, and you’ll see a series of signed black and white photographs among the 700-plus works of art I’ve been privileged to collect and exhibit in the hotel over the years.

These pictures are the work of local photographer Paddy Summerfield. To me, they’re quintessential Oxford. Students asleep in college grounds, crumpled on lawns, floating down the river, solitary and reflective in cap and gown in the lanes… There’s a melancholy to them which I’ve always liked and admired. They embody an era that no longer exists to the same extent.

In April, Paddy prematurely succumbed to a long debilitating illness. One of my most vivid recent memories is him coming to the launch of Gees Secret Garden in 2022 and witnessing him in his wheelchair in deep conversation with Oxford writer Philip Pullman, who happened to be sitting at the next-door table. Our lives, however, interweaved for more than 40 years, beginning with house parties – the punk of the Seventies – and continuing with professional collaborations.

We were good for each other. As an ‘impoverished’ artist he needed a livelihood. By 1989 I’d bought the Old Parsonage, ten years later the Old Bank, and was collecting modern British art to fill the corridors and rooms. At that time, Paddy had not yet gained the recognition he deserved, but I saw something in him. I found it was a great solution for me to use his photography in the Old Bank that had a huge appetite for art. We had the space to display whole collections and present Paddy to a new audience. The hotel became the right setting for an homage to him.

I joined Paddy’s timeline in 1976 when I first came to Oxford to open Browns in the Woodstock Road. I moved to a house in St John Street, living opposite a bunch of interesting Oxford University undergraduates, one of whom was George Peck, who went on to found the hugely successful Oxford School of Drama. George won’t mind me quoting one of his anecdotes on Paddy: Back in the Seventies, Paddy oversaw the Museum of Modern Art café and apparently his opening line to the customers was ‘I hope you realise I haven’t washed my hands!’

I began to invite myself to the frequent parties across the road, and Paddy was often there. In a way, we were opposites who attracted each other. Me, the ambitious entrepreneur. He, the wandering artist, snapping his unforgettable images of Oxford life and beyond.

Our Oxford journeys became closely associated. I purchased his art, starting with ‘The Oxford Pictures’ collection, a nostalgic study of Oxford students, on display at the Old Bank and also in the Old Parsonage. Since then, we have come to house quite a few of Paddy’s well-known series of photographs.

I was intrigued by the subject matter when he told me about his ‘Handheld’ collection – objects he picked off the streets or found in the Covered Market and photographed in his hand. I said I would like to buy the photos so he developed them for the second and third floor corridors at the Old Bank. ‘The Seaside, Beside The Sea’ is also at the hotel on the first floor. It’s like an installation with snapshots from Britain’s coast, all generations sharing the magic of toes in the water and sand, ice creams, waves and piers, to which I added a soundtrack and deckchairs.

I’ve always been an avid collector of British 20th-century art (works by Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Terry Frost, Patrick Hughes, Sandra Blow, and Stephen Conroy, to name a few, are integral to The Oxford Collection’s personality). I feel proud to have been an early instigator of publicly showing Paddy’s talent.

The Museum of Modern Art Oxford exhibited a selection of his pictures in 1976 and he went on to showcase his work at the likes of the Serpentine Gallery, the Barbican and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). It was only in 2014, though, when he came to the forefront of British documentary photography with his Mother and Father book, a moving and quite beautiful journal of his parents’ love during the twilight years of their marriage. Further publications adding to his reputation as a great documentary photographer.

Paddy was Oxford’s homing pigeon, always returning to the famous Summertown house and garden of his parents, where he spent most of his life. Here, and throughout the city he loved so much, he showed his creative talent for capturing the love, friendships and spirituality of everyday life.

I’m glad he finally gained the true recognition he deserved, and that he continues to become known to a new generation. This year, the Bodleian Library bought his complete archive and has plans for a major exhibition. Photo Oxford, a biennial photography festival in the city, also very much embraces Paddy as a local hero and father figure. To me, he’ll be ever the artist, armed with his trusty 35 mm camera and black and white film, destined to paint a picture worth a thousand words.

Paddy Summerfield: 18 February 1947 – 11 April 2024