Bolding’s Grosvenor Works

Tags

civil engineering

Bolding’s factory, or to give them their full name, John Bolding & Sons Grosvenor Works, were situated at 56-58 Davies Street from 1891 to 1969. The building nowadays holds Grays Antique Centre with small antique shops positioned around a visible stretch of the Tyburn river (see here), but it was for many years the workshop, salesroom and despatch department of one of the major manufacturers of sanitary appliances. The decorations on the outside of the building are a reminder of the Bolding history and have fortunately been left as they were and have not fallen victim to someone’s misguided idea of modernization.

The firm was established in 1822 by Thomas Bolding in South Molton Street. In the 1841 census, Thomas could be found at that address with his two sons Thomas junior and John, all three listed as ‘brass founders’. The 1841 census does not give any house numbers, but from Thomas’s will (he died in 1849), we learn that the business was situated at number 19. Thomas leaves his share in the business to the two sons he was in partnership with, Thomas Edward and John Lupton, no doubt the two sons already mentioned in the 1841 census as being brass founders. Thomas Edward lived at Hammersmith and died in 1866. John Lupton could be found above the business in South Molton Street in the 1851 census as brass founder. One of his sons, George, is also living there and has the same occupation as his father. By 1871, John Lupton had moved to 27 Elgin Road, Chelsea. In 1881 and 1891 he can be found at 23 Elgin Crescent and is listed as ‘retired brass founder’. In the mean time, in 1871, 19 South Molton Street was occupied by son John Thomas Bolding, the only son of John Lupton to show a lasting interest in the business.

In August 1879, John Lupton announces that he is retiring in favour of his son John Thomas and from the notice in The London Gazette (12 August), we learn that the firm has branched out and that they are no longer just situated at 19, South Molton Street, but also at 14, Barratt’s Court, Wigmore Street, and at 304, Euston Road. They describe themselves as ‘wholesale and retail brass and metal founders, lead, iron, tin, and general metal merchants’.

The activities of the firm must have slowly evolved from brass founding to sanitary appliances and that is what they became known for. Already in 1871, John Lupton and John Thomas, together with one Joseph Titsink, acquire a patent for “improvements in water closets and in valves and regulating apparatus for the same” (The London Gazette, 20 January 1871). South Molton Street was outside the City of London and there was no need for a member of the brass founding family to become a member of one of the Worshipful Companies of the City, but in 1883, John Thomas nevertheless deemed it in his interest to do so and he became a member of the Company of Painters by redemption. This membership gave him the right to apply for the Freedom of the City, which he duly did.

1893-1895 Ordnance Survey

At the end of the 1880s, the firm moved the business to a new building on a triangular plot on the corner of Davies Street and South Molton Lane, not very far from their old premises in South Molton Street (see for the whole building Google Street View here). The building was designed in the northern Renaissance style by John Thomas Wimperis and William Henry Arber who were strongly associated with the Grosvenor Estate who owned and still owns large swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia (see here). It is thus no wonder that Bolding named their business Grosvenor Works. The new building had showrooms, a warehouse and workshops on three of the floors, but, no doubt to the relief of the neighbours, the foundry was moved out in 1894 to Eden Street. John Thomas, according to one story, always came to Davies Street in a brougham and would not allow any females to work in the business. All the administration had to be entered by hand by the clerks or salesmen. John Thomas retired in 1824 and shortly after, the firm became a public limited company, although members of the Bolding family remained on the board.

1932 trade catalogue

Despite John Thomas’s old-fashioned practices, Bolding’s were one of the first companies to grant their employees holidays with pay and a sickness benefit fund. In 1932, the building in Davies Street was modernised with a new entrance and the basement workshop was turned into a showroom. New workshops and garages were constructed in Davies Mews. The 1930s were a busy time for Bolding’s as the taste in sanitary appliances moved away from the solid Victorian designs to more elegant bathroom furniture that was easier to clean and could be supplied in more colours than just plain white. In 1963, Bolding’s was able to buy their competitor Thomas Crapper & Co., but only a few years after that, the Bolding business was wound up, while Crapper still exists and, as they proudly announce on their website, is still producing bathroom fittings (see here).

1898 advertisement (Source: Graces Guide)

Basin from Bolding’s (Source: English Salvage)

‘Plate 21: No. 58 Davies Street, Boldings’, in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair (London, 1980), online via British History Online here

Postage stamp with Bolding’s name as a commercial overprint (Source: COSGB)

More information on Bolding’s can be found in “A History of John Bolding & Sons” in The Plumber and Journal of Heating, vol. 84 July 1962 issue, p.474-478.

Beasley’s Yard

Tags

Nonconformists

When I was looking for background material for the post on Jackson & Walford, booksellers of St. Paul’s Churchyard, for my other blog, I found the Autobiography of William Walford which led me to Beasley’s Yard in Uxbridge.

The Autobiography was edited by John Stoughton and published in 1851 by Jackson & Walford. It takes the form of letters written by Walford senior to his friend Stoughton with the intent of having the letters collectively form a memoir of the reverend’s life. As I already said in the blog post on the booksellers, father William was not very good at details such as names or dates, so it is a bit of a haphazard process to distill his life story from the book, but what I am most interested in for the purpose of this post, is his connection to Beasley’s Yard.

The reverend says in one of his letters that he moved from Hackney to Uxbridge “about the time of the publication of this work”. “This work” is his new translation of the Book of Psalms as – in his view at least – the so-called ‘Authorized Version’ was badly translated and could be improved upon. Walford’s edition of the psalms was published in 1837 by Jackson & Walford, so the move to Uxbridge probably took place in 1837 or 1838. Walford senior had already been acquainted with the Congregational community in Uxbridge for quite some time before his move as he “was in the habit of going almost every week to Uxbridge to officiate in a congregation, the minister of which, a relation of my wife, was advanced in years, and lived but a short time after my visits to assist him were first made”.

portrait of William Walford from his Autobiography

After the death of the old minister, Walford continued to travel to Uxbridge, until an illness prevented him from doing so. In the years that he suffered from ill-health, the congregation was first served by a friend of Walford and later by a former pupil, but when the latter left for Birmingham, Walford’s health had improved enough for him to take up his duties again. He moved to Uxbridge “as the congregation was not large, [he] thought the discharge of the duties which it involved would not be oppressive”. His house stood “on Uxbridge Common, moderately elevated, and commands, on the eastern front, the hills of Harrow, Highgate, Hampstead, with several others; and on the west, the vicinity of Windsor, sufficiently near to see the Royal Standard, which waves with the breeze, when the Court is at the Castle”. Uxbridge Town was less than half a mile away from his house and as London could be reached in two hours, the reverend was quite pleased with his new abode.

These days, Uxbridge can be reached in less than half the time it took Walford, so one day I went by Underground to have a look at what was left of the meeting house where he had officiated. The building is situated just off the High Street in Beasley’s Yard, named after Thomas Ebenezer Beasley, the minister of the church from 1790 to 1824.⁽¹⁾ Walford does not mention the name of the minister whose duties he took over, but it could well have been Beasley. The Old Meeting Congregational Church is said to have been founded in the 1660s, but meetings were held in the homes of members until 1716 when their first meeting house was erected.

The 1716 building from The History of the Ancient Town and Borough of Uxbridge by G. Redford and T.H. Riches (1818)

Portrait of Thomas Ebenezer Beasley (Source: British Museum)

To the right of the tower, next to the windows on the present-day building, a few tiles forming the year 1883 can be seen and a plaque on the tower itself gives both the original year of 1716 and the year of the extension and rebuilding of 1883. The west wall was rebuilt, the three remaining 18th-century walls were raised to support a new roof, and a small square tower and vestry were added for a total sum of nearly £1,300.⁽²⁾ The windows are fitted with stained glass in a simple style, befitting the Congregational tenets.

The congregation was never very large and in 1962 it merged with the Providence Congregational Church to form the Uxbridge United Church and in 1972, the Congregational and Methodist churches amalgamated into Christ Church and the building in Beasley’s Yard was no longer needed as a church, but is now used for community purposes and has been renamed Watts Hall, in honour of Isaac Watts, the hymn writer.
When I visited the yard, there was no one around to ask if there was any possibility of looking inside, so the pictures from the outside will have to do, but you can see some inside pictures here.

William Walford’s Autobiography can be read online here.
A 1960 photograph of the yard can be found here.

(1) http://www.eddiethecomputer.co.uk/history/galli.htm.
(2) A History of the County of Middlesex, volume 4 (1971).

Watts Chapel

Tags

Postman's Park

Although this blog is about London Details, this photographic post makes an excursion to Compton, near Guildford, in Surrey where the Watts Mortuary Chapel can be found. The chapel is also known as the Watts Cemetery Chapel and can be found close to Watts Gallery. The first part of the name, Watts, may give you clue why I am including a Surrey chapel in this blog as George Frederic Watts, painter and sculptor, was the brain behind the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman’s Park. Although Watts already conceived the idea of such a memorial in 1887, it took so long to materialise that only four plaques had been installed in the memorial wall in the park before Watts’ death in 1904. His widow, Mary Seton Fraser Tytler, continued the project, as she was to do with the chapel in Compton.

Mary Watts was the artistic force behind the chapel, but her husband paid for it and presented it to the village of Compton. Lots of villagers were involved in shaping and decorating the chapel with Mary Watts teaching them how to make the terracotta tiles as well as guiding them in decorating the interior in the Arts & Crafts style mixed with Celtic influences. And it is true what Richard Jefferies, former curator of Watts Gallery, says, that nothing prepares you for the shock of seeing the interior, even after having been astounded by the outside (for link see bottom of post). Both George Frederic and Mary are buried in the cemetery behind the chapel. The chapel is now a Grade I listed building and the cemetery itself is Grade II.⁽¹⁾ Unfortunately the inside is rather dark and no match for my small camera, but I hope I can give you at least a faint impression of what there is to see in this amazing building.

Links
Lots has been written about the chapel, but you may like to start with these:
London Historians visited Watts Gallery and you can read their posts on the visit here. You can watch the short introduction to the chapel by Watts Gallery here, or the slightly longer explanation, Mary Watts & The Watts Chapel by Richard Jefferies here. Or simply go to the Watts Gallery website for more information.

——————-
(1) Historic England, Listed building 1029541; and Historic England, Register of Parks and Gardens.

53 Kingsland Road

Tags

glass

The history of the building at 53 Kingsland Road cannot be seen separately from the neighbouring property at numbers 41-49, now the premises of a motorcycle shop. An advertisement of 1928 (see below) gives the address of 41-53 Kingsland Road for Eaton, Parr & Gibson, “plate, sheet & ornamental glass merchants”. This would certainly explain the word ‘GLASS’ above the bay window, but that is not the whole story. Number 53 has always been a separate building with Caroline Place in between number 53 and the other property. Google Maps calls it Caroline Gardens, but as the little alleyway shows no streetname sign, I do not know if that is correct. Although it now looks like a dead end, reaching no further than the back of the shops on Kingsland Road, Caroline Place used to run much further back with houses on both sides. These are now gone and Google Earth shows that back section to be just a parking lot.

1893-95 Ordnance Survey

Before the large firm of Eaton, Parr & Gibson took over number 53, it had been a separate business and in 1878, one William Henry Tilley, “a lamp contractor” had his business there. One of his employees stole various bits of glass from his master and was caught. One day, he left the warehouse where the lamp-glass was stored with 11 panes of glass and a ladder to restore some lamps. After mending two lamps, he deposited some of the other pieces of glass with an accomplish, not knowing that he had been under suspicion and that the glass had been marked. The thief was found guilty and sentenced to three months hard labour.⁽¹⁾

Tilley continued his business in Kingsland Road and in 1902 we find him, now as a gas fitter, in the Post Office Directory. Please note that number 41 is still a baker’s and also note that number 51 is mentioned as being on the same side of Caroline Place as 41-49 and part of Eaton & Co’s business. In Hughes’ Business Directory of London for 1921, Tilley Bros, gas engineers, are still listed for number 53. The London Street Directory for 1921, helpfully transcribed by pubhistory.com (see here) shows Eaton & Co. at nos. 41-49, then Caroline Place and then at no. 51 the Cheap Glass & Mirror Co. Ltd with Tilley Brothers, gas engineers and the Tilley High Pressure Syndicate at no. 53. It seems unlikely that number 51 suddenly jumped to the other side of Caroline Place, and more likely that it was a mistake in the directory. At least we know that the Tilleys are still at number 53, and although no more glass is mentioned in the directory, an advertisement in the Gas Journal of 1911 shows they still sold lamps and an 1920 advertisement in Building tells us that they undertook “repairs, cleaning, repolishing and relacquering” of bronzing and that fittings could be removed or refixed by experienced workmen.

The 1928 advertisement shown below already had Eaton & Co. at number 53 and the 1934 Post Office Directory confirms that that firm had taken over all properties from numbers 41 to 53. The question remains of course who added the ‘glass’ decoration to the front of the building? I am afraid I have to remain silent on that point as I have not been able to find out and my architectural knowledge is not good enough to determine whether it was done before 1925 and hence by Tilley, or after that year and by Eaton, Parr & Gibson, but I lean towards the later date as Tilley was not so much a glass dealer as someone who used glass in his business, while Eaton & Co. were ‘proper’ glass merchants. Suggestions welcome, however.

Advertisement from The Times, 22 May 1928

(1) The Times, 13 september 1878.

Green oasis 3 – Geffrye

Tags

horticulture

On a rainy day, I decided to visit the Geffrye Museum on Kingsland Road. After all, visiting a museum is an excellent pastime when it is raining, but as could be expected, it was rather busy inside. Outside, however, few brave souls visited the gardens and that is a shame really, as they are very nice; even when it is raining. So, if you want a quiet moment in a green space, go to the museum when the weather is not all that good and enter the garden just inside the left-hand entrance (opening times the same as the museum; see for directions here). The first thing you come across is a small area with some gravestones, then a bit of lawn and next the walled herb garden. From there, go through the exit on the right and wander into the period gardens; each one is provided with an information panel. Below my pictures, complete with raindrops.

entrance to the herb garden

herb garden

Echinacae pururea

Elizabethan knot garden

Elizabethan ‘useful’ garden

Paeonia mascula

Mid-late Victorian greenhouse

Informal Edwardian garden

Hope you enjoyed that!

Website of the museum here.

A gate at the Royal Exchange

Tags

civil engineering, coat of arms, Mercers' Company

Anyone even slightly familiar with London knows the impressive Royal Exchange building, but have you ever looked further than the massive porticoed front? Oh, you have been inside, have you? Great, but that was not what I meant. Have you, for instance, gone round the whole building on a Sunday morning when it was still shut? No, I did not think you had, but you should, because if you had done so, you would have seen this very elaborate fence closing off the northern entrance.

The present Royal Exhange building is the third on the spot. The first was built at the instigation of Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566-68, but that building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The same fate fell to the second building on the 10th of January, 1838, and the third was subsequently built in the early 1840s. Many plans were submitted for the new building, but the Committee could not decide on a winning design. Several architects were then asked to submit a design, but not many were willing to commit themselves, and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing the classical design of Sir William Tite was chosen who characterised his design as a building “of grandeur, simpilicity and usefulness”. The fact that a classical design was chosen is no wonder as the remit was that the design was to be “of the Grecian, Roman or Italian style of architecture, having each front of stone of a hard and durable quality”.⁽¹⁾

Tenders for the actual building work were received in October 1841 and the firm of Messrs. Webb was chosen to lay the foundation. A second contract for the actual building itself was granted to Thomas Jackson, “of course”, as the Sydney Herald would have it, because he submitted the cheapest estimate.⁽²⁾ On 17 January, 1842, the foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert. The official opening took place on 28 October, 1844, by Queen Victoria herself.⁽³⁾

In the centre of the grillwork at the entrance in Threadneedle Street, a maiden can be seen, the symbol and coat of arms of the Mercers’ Company. Thomas Gresham, a mercer, had bequeathed the first Royal Exchange jointly to the Mercers and the City of London Corporation. You can see the coat of arms of the City on the gates at the southern entrance. The Mercers’ Maiden graces many buildings in London signifying their ownership. According to the Mercers’ website, she first appeared in 1425 on a seal and over the centuries her apparel has changed with the fashions of the day until 1911 when she was officially turned into the coat of arms of the Company.

On the bottom of the gate the name of the ironworks that supplied the gates can be found: H. & M.D. Grissell. Henry and his brother Martin De La Garde Grissell had a partnership between 1841 and 1858 as the Regent’s Canal Ironworks at Eagle Warf Road. Henry was the driving force behind the firm and had worked with John Joseph Bramah before he started his own business. After 1858, Henry continued the business on his own. The firm made ironworks for bridges, lighthouses, dockyards and other waterworks, both in England and abroad. Robert Stephenson and Grissell had the highest regard for each other and they often worked together on Stephenson’s engineering projects, such as on the bridges over the Nile. Other gates and fences that were supplied by the Regent’s Canal Ironworks can be found at Buckingham Palace and the British Museum. After Henry’s death, an obituary appeared in the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers (vol. 73, 1883) in which Henry was given the sobriquet of “Iron Henry” and was said to be almost obsessed by the details of his work. This attention to detail speaks strongly from the gates at the Royal Exchange. Let’s hope that this Royal Exchange does not fall victim to a fire as its predecessors have done and that we can admire Grissell’s gates for a long time to come.

One question remains, however. What do the initials G.T. mean on the gates? The only two explanation I can come up with is Guilliam (Latin variant of William) Tite, the architect, or a combination of the first letters of Tite and Grissell. Any thoughts, anyone? Update: the initials are indeed of Sir Thomas Gresham, so the guess by London Remembers (see comment) turns out to be correct. Thanks go to Michael Moore, Building Manager at the Royal Exchange, for confirmation.

More on Henry Grissell and his activities on the school committee of Holy Trinity, Hoxton, at London Remembers.

(1) Wilson’s Description of the New Royal Exchange (1844), pp. 73-78.
(2) The Penny Mechanic and Chemist: A Magazine of the Arts and Sciences, 11 September 1841, p. 325; and The Sydney Herald, 8 February, 1842.
(3) Wilson, p. 80-81 and 116.

Honey Lane

Tags

market

Walking along Cheapside and having to divert slightly because of building work going on, I noticed an interesting keystone above a little alleyway. As the builders’ hoarding was blocking the entrance, I could not go through to see what lay behind, but the name of the alley and the design of the stone said it all. This was Honey Lane, once leading to Honey Lane Market – or so I thought.

But when I did some research on the old market, I noticed that the Ordnance Survey map of 1893 had the alley further to the west. The blue arrow is roughly where I saw the alley, the red arrow is where the OS-map situates Honey Lane. Although there appears to be a walkway, possible covered, on the OS-map marked by the blue arrow, it would be unlikely that both lanes were called Honey Lane. More research was obviously necessary. Let’s first look at the old market. The OS-map mentions Honey Lane Market, but just as part of a street. If you compare it with Horwood’s 1799 map, you will see that the market used to cover a far larger area. What the OS-map calls Honey Lane Market is just the southern side of the market in Horwood’s map and the whole area between Russia Row and Honey Lane Market appears to have been built upon sometime in the century that lies between the two maps, obliterating the original market.

Ordnance Survey map 1893-1895

Horwood’s 1799 map

And that is exactly what happened. Honey Lane Market had been established after the 1666 Fire on the site of some private houses and the churches of All Hallows Honey Lane and the adjoining St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street. Although the name suggests that the market was primarily for selling honey, much in demand as sugar was still an expensive commodity and also used in large quantities by the apothecaries, it had a far more varied range of produce on offer. There was a market house in the centre with warehouse space in the cellar and on the first floor, and there were over a hundred butchers’ stalls in the square, besides those for the sale of fruit, vegetables and herbs. The area would also accommodate sellers who brought their wares in baskets.⁽¹⁾

In 1834, an Act of Parliament established the City of London School which set its sights on the Honey Lane Market area. The neo-Gothic building was designed by the City architect James Bunstone Bunning (1802-1863). The first stone for the school was laid on 21 October 1835 by Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux and it opened its doors in 1837. The grand doorway and porch were on the western side of the building in Milk Street.

Engraving by J. Woods of the City of London School. Original steel engraving drawn by Hablot Browne after a sketch by Robert Garland, published in The History of London Illustrated by Views in London and Westminster (1838) (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

According to the British Almanac for the Diffusion of Knowledge of 1836, the school was to be “divided into seven or eight classes, and there [would] be a spacious lecture room, twenty-seven feet high, capable of containing from 400 to 500 pupils”. There would also be “a large writing room, a library, &c.” Hmmm, wonder what the &c. was. Spacious as this may all sound, the number of students soon outgrew the space available and a further Act of Parliament in 1879 allowed the school to seek larger premises which they found on the Victoria Embankment. The school moved hence in 1883.⁽²⁾.

The Honey Lane site was redeveloped after the Second World War and nothing now remains of the market or the school building. A birds-eye view of the area will show one large building reaching from Cheapside to Russia Row. According to Keene and Harding, Honey Lane was moved during the reconstruction and “now lies some 140 ft. (42.67 m.) to the E. of the original lane”.³ Alright, that explains the discrepancy between my observation and the Ordnance Survey map. Mystery solved. In the Google Earth View below, Honey Lane lies between the large building fronting Cheapside and the construction site (red arrow).

(1) Susan R. Henderson, The Public Markets of London before and after the Great Fire of 1666 (1977), p. 74-75.
(2) More on the history of the school can be found here.
(3) D.J. Keene and V. Harding, Historical Gazetteer of London before the Great Fire: Cheapside; parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane (1987), p. 3.

Radiant House

When strolling along Mortimer Street, I noticed a building at numbers 34-38 that stood out from its neighbours by its blue facing on the higher floors. It is called Radiant House and a closer look revealed the name of E.E. Pither & Sons above two of the bay windows and that of W.O. Peake Ltd above the other.

34-38 Mortimer Street

In the porch at number 38, that is, on the left-hand side of the building just behind the man in the top photo, a plaque can be found telling us that the building was designed by Francis Léon Pither and erected by Ernest Eugène Pither to honour the memory of Sophia Elizabeth Pither née Bézier. The name of F.M. Elgood, FRIBA, architect, can be seen on one of the bottom tiles on the same wall. The date at the top of the plaque is 1914-1915.

So, F.L. Pither was the designer and Elgood the architect, but aren’t these two jobs the same? If you design a building, you are the architect, aren’t you? And what was the role of E.E. Pither? He apparently ‘erected’ the building. Does that mean he built it? A quick search on the Internet found various explanations for the Pither/Elgood collaboration if that was what it was. The general consensus seems to be that Pither could not be the architect as no other buildings are known to have been designed by him, so perhaps he ‘just’ designed the decorative elements. The Brick Building Society definitely attributes the building to Elgood with F.L. Pither being “the occupier of nos. 36 and 38 who had imput[sic] in the design”, although they also said that the name above two of the windows was F.L. Pither, and one wonders about their powers of observation, as it clearly says E.E. Pither.⁽¹⁾ As we will see, the historical facts are also against their interpretation.

Let’s start with the family. Since the people mentioned on the plaque all had the same surname, I assumed that they were related and the amount of diacritical marks suggested a French background. Since the building was erected in 1914-15, I started with the 1911 census, which gave me Francis Léon Pither (henceforth FL), architect, 57 years old, a widower, living at 91 Tollington Park with four of his children of which the eldest, Harold Francis, 24 years old, was studying to become an architect. Ernest Eugène Pither (henceforth EE), an art dealer, 55 years old, lived at 10 Steele’s Road with his wife Amelia and two sons, one a journalist, the other an engineer. This gave me a rough date of birth for the two Pithers involved in the Mortimer Street building and it was easy enough to work backwards to find their baptismal records: FL was born on 20 May 1853 and baptised on 28 July of that same year at St. Mary’s Paddington; EE was born 25 November 1854 and baptised on 9 February 1855, also at St. Mary’s. Their parents were Edward, a stationer/tobacconist and Sophia Elizabeth and they lived on the Harrow Road. Edward Pither and Sophia Elizabeth Bézier were married in 1852 at St. George’s Hanover Square. Edward died on 10 January 1866⁽²⁾ and Sophia on 25 May 1891. Her sole executor was FL of 10 Regina Road, Tollington Park.⁽³⁾ The 1891 census saw FL at that address with his wife Maria Louisa and his mother Sophia who was indeed of French origin and born in Paris. FL had married Maria Louisa Barratt on 26 April 1883 at St. Mary’s, Hornsey, Islington. EE had married Amelia Elizabeth Thomas a year earlier on 11 April 1882 at Holy Trinity, Brompton.

Although EE called himself an art dealer in the 1911 census, an 1895 advertisement in The Nursing Record finds him at 36 Mortimer Street selling the “ever-radiant” stove, hence – I presume – the name of Radiant House. EE died in 1936 and from his probate we learn that he had at least four sons: Frederick Ernest Leon, farmer; Robert Ernest, heating engineer; Frank Eugene, antique dealer; and Charles Edwin, accountant.⁽⁴⁾ The heating business continued for many years, changing its name to “The (National) Heating Centre” and lasting at least till the late 1960s when one David E. Pither was the director.⁽⁵⁾

Pither stove at Bateman’s East Sussex (Source: National Trust, inv. nr. 760978)

William Oliver Peake, who has his business at 34 Mortimer Street, dealt in good quality coats. In 1962, the firm was to merge with Aquascutum, a firm that still exists. English Heritage has a few photos of the shop’s interior which show the unusual arrangements for getting more light into the interior (see here – put ‘peake mortimer’ in the search box).

But back to FL and his Radiant House. FL never saw the completion of the house as he died on 17 December 1913.⁽⁶⁾ From his obituary in The Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (17 Jan. 1914. p. 175), we learn that he

studied at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools, where he was awarded the Queen’s Prize and R.A. Silver Medal … He was articled to Mr. Henry Jones Lanchester, and was afterwards Assistant to Mr. R. Phené Spiers and Messrs. Goldie and Shield and other architects. He started practice in 1876, and from that year until 1913 had been a visiting master at University College School … His principal works were country houses and business premises, mostly in North London. Shortly before his death he was completing the plans for a block of buildings to be erected in Mortimer Street, W., the front elevation of which was to be faced with faience work. The designs gave promise of a building of unusual interest.

Well, there we are: FL was indeed the architect of Radiant House. Most likely, Frank Minshull Elgood just took over after FL’s death. EE may very well have given his brother the commission to design the building to house his heating and art businesses. The building has had a grade II listing since December 1987; you can read the listing text here and, yes, the obituary was right; Radiant House has proved to be “a building of unusual interest”.

(1) David H. Kennett, “London: Soho and Charles Dickens” [a report on a guided tour arranged and led by D.H. Kennett] in Brick Building Society, Information, 125 (December 2013), p. 19.
(2) Probate granted to widow Sophie Elizabeth Nicol Pither of Harrow Road on 9 June 1866, effects valued at £1,500.
(3) Sophia’s estate was valued at just over £907.
(4) Effects valued at over £38,000.
(5) He wrote an article “Home Central Heating: The Lessons learned in Oil” in The Financial Times, 19 September 1966.
(6) Probate granted to his son Harold Francis, architect. The estate was valued at a little over £3,000.

Ashentree Court and Northcliffe House

Tags

newspapers

Once upon a time, the Whitefriar monks walked the – presumably – shady courtyard in the centre of the Whitefriar monastery site. Judging by the name, the trees planted in the court were ashes, but that is just an assumption. In 1708, Edward Hatton called the Ashentree Court “a pleasant Court on the E. side of White Friars, about the middle”.⁽¹⁾ Apparently, houses had been built in the court after the monks had left, as in 1763, three “old houses” are reported to have fallen down, killing a boy.⁽²⁾

These days, there is not a tree or house in sight, but plenty of shade from all the office buildings around the court. Ashentree Court can be found off Whitefriars Street leading to Magpie Alley which runs to Bouverie Street. The section of the Google Map below shows where the tiles depicting the history of the association of Fleet Street with printing can be found (green line), where the Whitefriars Crypt is (red cross), and where the panels that are the subject of this post (blue line) are.

The metal panels in Ashentree Court depict the history of the newspaper presses at Northcliffe House, situated on the corner of Whitefriars and Tudor Street, just south of Ashentree Court. I apologise for the quality of the photographs; my camera is only a small one and the panels were rather dirty, combined with the poor light conditions … well, what can I say. At least it will give you some idea of what there is to see. More and better photos – with transcriptions of the panels – can be found on Ian’s blog.

The plates not only show the working of the printing presses inside the building, but also the building of Northcliffe House itself in the 1920s. Harold Harmsworth (Viscount Rothermere), the then owner of the Associated Newspapers, had Northcliffe House built and named after his brother Alfred Harmsworth who had become Lord Northcliffe in 1904 and who had started his career as the owner of the Evening News, later also founding the Daily Mail with his brother. Alfred died in 1922. The Times of 20 January 1927 reports on a General Meeting of the Associated Newspapers Ltd. in which the chairman reported the following on the building progress,

As the directors explained in the last annual report, unexpected delays were met with in the construction of the new building […] which, with its new devices and new inventions, will provide the Daily Mail and Weekly Dispatch with the last word in equipment for newspaper production. However, I am glad to be able to say now that the rate of progress has been such that it is hoped to make a start with the printing of part of the Weekly Dispatch at Northcliffe House within the next few weeks. You will be glad to hear also that the greater part of this magnificent building with it wonderful up-to-date machinery had already been paid for out of profits. (hear, hear).

Northcliffe House was designed by Ellis and Clarke, the architects who were a few years later also to design the Daily Express building in Fleet Street. Northcliffe House has been a Grade II listed building since 1988 and the description on the English Heritage site says,

Stone clad steel framed structure. Roof not visible. 4 storeys. Plus attic storey. 7 bays to Tudor Street and 6 bays to Whitefriars St.Corner entrance, square headed, with prominent keystone. First, second and third floors unified by giant order Ionic pilasters with lion head masks to capitals. Almost fully glazed between,the first and second floors linked by continuous mullions to long 3-light windows; metal glazing bars in margin glazing pattern, sub-divided into very small panes. Fluted coved cornice of neo-Egyptian character above third floor. Recessed attic storey. Short polygonal corner tower.⁽³⁾

The Associated Newspapers moved to Kensington High Street in 1989 while the actual printing was by then done at their plant at Surrey Docks, but Northcliffe House, although no longer in use for publishing newspapers, remained as yet another reminder of the newspaper history of the Fleet Street area.⁴ The façade of the building, because of its Grade II listed status, had to be retained when the site was redeveloped in 1999-2001 and still shows the Egyptian-style and lion head details.

You may also like to read the posts on the Daily Express building, the Whitefriars Crypt or on Magpie Alley.

(1) Edward Hatton, A New View of London, Or: An Ample Account of that City(1708) p. 3.
(2) “The Monthly Chronologer” in The London Magazine, Or: Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, volume 32 (1763), p. 275.
(3) English Heritage.
(4) Hugh Pearman, “The New Fleet Street”, Sunday Times, 2 July 1989; and Brian MacArthur, “Fleet Street’s last farewell”, Sunday Times, 6 Aug. 1989.

Green oasis 1 – Barbican

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horticulture

Looking for a green space to get away from the hustle and bustle of London? You do not have to go far. The huge concrete expanse of the Barbican hides an oasis where few people go and even fewer people ever get. Yes, I got lost too trying to find it. But don’t give up and you will be rewarded with an amazing conservatory full of tropical plants. The entrance is on level 3 of the Barbican Arts Centre and the ‘easiest’ way to get there is from the Museum of London. With your back to the museum entrance, take the walkway on your left and follow the signs to the Barbican Centre. If you manage to get there, take the stairs or elevator to level 3 and you will see it right in front of you. Good luck!

The conservatory was originally designed to hide the adjacent theatre’s fly tower, but who cares? It is there to be enjoyed, but mind! only on certain days, usually Sundays. The opening dates can be found here.