The South of England Postcard Fair was launched at the
Civic Hall, Guildford, Surrey in April 1991. It was an immediate success (
many of the dealers who came still say that it was the greatest fair of all time!) and so much so that, in September 1996, we launched a companion event, the Autumn South of England Postcard Fair, at Woking Leisure Centre, 5 miles away.
Then, in May 2002, and faced with the permanent closure of Guildford’s Civic Hall, we moved our spring event to
Woking as well - where it has increased in size each year and, on average, now contains 90 dealers and 120 stalls at every fair.
In May 2002 we decided to issue a free 8 page glossy
programme at all our events (now 16 pages at Woking and 12 pages at our other shows) and this has been an immense success, with a blend of articles, adverts, fair information and superb illustrations, which is quite unique on the postcard fair circuit in the UK! (Articles have ranged from amazing pictures of the original Photocrom postcard factory at Tunbridge Wells to childrens artists, model yachts, a History of the Postcard Club of Great Britain, Thames Locks, advertising postcards, the Brighton Stagecoach run, comic military cards -and much more!)
One further development came in May 2004 when we decided to launch a
modern postcard fair at each of our twice-yearly Woking events and this has been a big hit with public and dealers alike, dealers travelling regularly to Woking from as far afield as Wales, Yorkshire and Devon to take stalls here! Indeed, it is now the biggest and most important flagship for modern postcard collectors in the country! (And for those who don’t know,our modern event always takes place on the second day (
Saturday) of our Woking fair, in addition to the customary two day event!)
