J Gibbs
Although only one postcard of Brislington is currently known from this publisher, others depict locations in the nearby town of Keynsham, Somerset.
John Gibbs was born in or around 1841 at Gawcott, Buckinghamshire. His wife Elizabeth was some six years older and from Rangeworthy, Gloucestershire. In 1868 their daughter Elizabeth was baptised at Rangeworthy although the family lived in London where John worked as a baker. The 1871 census shows the family, with a new-born daughter - Sarah Jane - living in Chelsea, Middlesex; John now worked as a railway signalman.
A decade later the census shows John working as a dairyman with the family (which now included a third daughter - Lilian) still living in Chelsea although at a different address. The 1891 census shows the family (now including a domestic servant) living in Kensington, Middlesex. John was still working as a dairyman, and Sarah Jane was employed as a school teacher.
The 1901 census shows the couple and Lilian had moved to Bradford on Avon (Wiltshire), where John was self-employed as a grocer. They soon moved to Keynsham though, where his wife Elizabeth died in 1902 and was buried at Keynsham Cemetery, Durley Hill.
The 1911 census shows John (aged 70) had a newsagent and tobacconist shop on Keynsham High Street - an ideal location from which to sell local postcards (examples of J Gibbs' Keynsham postcards are known from 1907, and were probably published several years earlier). The only other person at the property recorded in this census is a daughter called Jane (her age and place of birth matches those of Sarah Jane). Jane worked at home, possibly in connection with the shop.
Aged 90, in 1931 John died and was laid to rest with his wife. In 1939 Jane was living at Bath Hill, Keynsham, still single, and proprietor of a newsagent. It's not known whether "J Gibbs" refers to John or (Sarah) Jane, or perhaps even to both, either collectively or consecutively.
Brislington postcard
Beese's Riverside Bar - BEESE'S TEA GARDENS, CONHAM. The same photograph was published by J B & S C. Earliest known picture: 13 June 1905.
Some notes
Although more information is needed to be on statistically firm ground, early indications suggest the postcard of Beese's by Gibbs may have been published in or around 1915 (postdating the version published by James Baker & Son (Avonvale Series) by around ten years).
Ken Taylor