17, 19, 21, etc would have been on the other side of the road from 16 and 22, and 18 if it existed.

That’s correct of course.
https://www.google.com/local/place/f...dlJZN3ZYZFE%3D
The property (down bottom right) with the red door, and red blinds is 21, which belongs to Mencap, and our theatre sometimes rent a large room for rehearsals. It’s almost opposite no.18, a much more modern house. That’s further down the other side where the blue car is.

Here is Kelly's Directory of Reading from 1914 which also jumps from 16 to 22:

http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/d...d/183700/rec/1

(page 105 if the link doesn't take you to the right place.)

Oh thanks Kite - that great :)

But on the 1901 and other census that I also looked at the numbers were in order as above 22 then went 23, 24, 25. No odds and evens and also on the 1911 census I was looking at the even numbers as above 16 to 22.

I assumed the photos were not written on at the time they were taken but a lot later in time when someone may have been going through them which has happened in my family when getting photos in order for albums.

In 1914 the even numbers were on the north-west side and the odds on the south-east side, but I don't know whether it had been renumbered between 1901 and then.

If the photos and negatives were found in another local house then is it likey the people from the mysterious number 18 had moved there? If we knew the address where the photos were found that might help!

Fair enough if you don't want to post that info, it's just a suggestion. If you feel we could have that info if it was more private, then you could begin a thread on the Sensitive Research board. I would offer to move this thread over, but I'm never convinced a thread can't be found if it begins in a public area!!

If I remember correctly they didn't officially start numbering houses until 1891 before that houses had names or the enumerator just numbered the houses on the census as he came across them in order of his enumerating.

They were found in an outhouse of the house on the (large) estate of a prominent local family. The finder kept them ‘out of curiosity’ and has loaned them to try to find out more about them. The house in question was demolished many decades ago, at the time the photos were found. The estate is now a massive housing estate, no trace of the house exists. Nor the family who owned it, well not in this area. Coincidentally waaay back I did know the grandson of the original owner of the house - but after the estate was sold he went to Australia, and never heard of him since.
However, we are surmising that the owner in Alexandra Road and the estate owner could have been friends - hence the informal photographs of people enjoying themselves in the garden. There’s no reason to think the owner of the house on the large estate, moved to Alexandra Rd. Certainly the grandson didn’t - he lived in the family home.