The Penny Salon Micro-Gallery at Ongar Station
Free admission! Gallery open whenever trains are running.
Latest Exhibition: "Off the Beaten Track"
The latest exhibition is 'Off the beaten track'.
This is a selection of railway and other transport photographs from the Penny Salon presenters Geoff Silcock and Malcolm Batten featuring unusual locations, many of which can never be repeated. Expect 'one-off' events, railways and museums that have since closed, private sites and sections of heritage railways before they opened to the public. This exhibition is expected to remain until Easter 2025.
This will be accompanied by seasonal and topical 'pop-up' displays. For the Christmas 'Santa' and 'Epping Ongar Lights Express' period there will be a special feature ''Snow & Frost & Steam' featuring the best of Geoff Silcocks railway photography in these winter conditions. There will be displays mounted both in the Penny Salon and also in the catering marquee at Ongar.'
Future Exhibitions
Details and dates of new exhibitions for 2025 will be announced later. 2025 marks 160 years of the railway from Loughton to Epping and Ongar and also 200 years since the first public steam railway , the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825. We expect to feature both of these anniversaries with exhibitions in 2025.
The start and end dates for each exhibition will be dependant on other activities happening on the railway but will be advised here. Other ‘pop-up’ displays may also feature at times, particularly in connection with Gala events.
The Gallery
The Epping Ongar Railway opened the ‘micro-gallery’ at Ongar Station on Saturday 27 May 2017. The gallery is in the Ladies Waiting Room at the station. A railway volunteer and professional photographer who specialises in steam photography, Geoff Silcock, has worked alongside the Epping Ongar Railway Volunteer Society members to transform the room into a place to display photographs and pictures. Mr Silcock has worked with local photographic and historical societies to bring a programme of interesting and relevant exhibitions to the Railway.
The free bijou exhibition area has been named "The Penny Salon" and will be open whenever trains are running to provide interest for passengers.
The output of "The Penny Salon" consists partially of the well established work of Eastender Reg Batten, who achieved his 100th birthday before he passed away in 2014. Reg spent much of his leisure time from the 1930s until he was well into his 80s, recording images from the now bygone world around him, especially from around Essex; Malcolm Batten is the custodian of his fathers work, and continues the family tradition, with countless photographic images published in magazines, plus several articles to his credit, and with published books on related transport subjects; and Geoff Silcock, with well over 50 years overall involved in the pursuit of his passion for especially steam trains, including its related photography and railway journalism content, with over 100 published articles in specialist magazines over the last 25 years... Plus he assures everyone that he also found the time to spend over 45 years in the photographic "D&P" profession from the early 1960s...
The inaugural month through to 18 June 2017 hosted The Essex Monochrome Society with Black and White images mainly from in and around Essex, including steam trains. This was followed by an exhibition by the Ongar Historical Millenium Society titled "The Railway Comes to Essex". "Bygone Essex" was the third exhibition to be held in the gallery, and a further selection of Reg Batten's iconic images will appear in a future exhibition. The 2017 season concluded with a selection of images from by long- time steam photographer, troubadour writer, and former Sentimental Journeys charter organiser Geoff Silcock, entitled Steam in the Frame, taking viewers on a journey from 1961 right through to the present day Epping Ongar Railway.
Fry's Chocolate Cabinet
The c.1890s "Frys Chocolate" glass cabinet,that was gifted to the Epping Ongar Railway, and refurbished by Malcolm Batten forms an important part of The Penny Salon's presentation of artefacts allied to the main displays.
Why "The Penny Salon"?
The name "The Penny Salon" is taken tongue in cheek from the c. 1865 built station rooms other use as its original Ladies Waiting Room.
