Hewetson Brothers, upholsterers & warehousemen

Tags

carpet, furniture

Street views 48 and 52
Addresses: 185 Oxford Street and 204 Tottenham Court Road

The Hewetson brothers, John William and Thomas, had two very similar shops, at least from the outside. They were listed in two of Tallis’s Street Views and in each of them they had a vignette of their property; in booklet 48 one for 185 Oxford Street and in booklet 52 one their shop at 204 Tottenham Court Road. The various descriptions they get in the indexes of the Street View booklets and the lettering on the elevations show that they dealt in a large variety of goods, all to do with furniture, bedding, carpets and even interior decorating. And if two vignettes and their names and occupations on the elevations were not enough, they also included an advertisement in the booklet for Tottenham Court Road.

advertisement in Street View 52

In 1840 they take out insurances with the Sun Fire Office, the one for the Oxford Street premises fairly simple with the property described as John’s dwelling house with offices, stables and loft, all communicating, of brick and timber, with no cabinet work done on the premises and with no pipe stove therein. It is insured for £1350 with an additional entry for the plate glass in the shop front, valued at £50. The total premium came to 2l. 3s. The Tottenham Court Road property is listed for Thomas and insured for £1100 (premium £1/8/6). However, a separate entry in the name of both brothers explains that the house is connected northwards via a covered walkway with a (ware)house and stables at the back in Alfred Mews, which is partly rented out to a shoemaker. They insure household fixtures in the house and in the house behind for £50; household goods, wearing apparel, printed books and plate for £200; stock, utensils and business fixtures for £1800; china, glass & lace for £150; and stock and utensils for £200, which included livestock in the stables and the cart house plus loft in Alfred Mews, for a total premium of 3l. 3s.⁽¹⁾

furniture label (Source: Grosvenor Prints)

But one property in Alfred Mews was not enough for the brothers and they gradually acquired more and more houses until they occupied almost the whole south side of the street. They also acquired more properties in Tottenham Court Road. Thomas Hewetson had partnered with Robert Thexton and the address given for them in 1871 is 200, 203 and 204 Tottenham Court Road.⁽²⁾ By then, the premises in Oxford Street had probably been given up and although the census finds an upholsterer there, Herbert J. Boutor, he is listed as employing 9 men and 2 boys, so probably working for himself rather than for the Hewetsons. The Hewetsons are slightly difficult to pin down as half the family was called John, John William, William John, or William, with none of these names used consistently. The 1861 census saw a William Hewetson at Oxford Street, but whether he was the John William of the 1840 insurance is not clear. When he died in 1864, probate was registered for his son John Hewetson, also an upholsterer.⁽³⁾ John Hewetson, the son of William or another John?, died in 1876 and Thomas of Tottenham Court Road in 1881⁽⁴⁾, but Thomas Hewetson junior carried on the business with Robert Thexton and later also with William Peart, who dropped out as partner in 1884.⁽⁵⁾ A year after that, Thomas Hewetson also left the partnership and it was just Robert Thexton who continued the furniture business until his death in 1889.⁽⁶⁾ In or just before 1889, one Milner must have joined the firm as partner as Goad’s insurance map of 1889 shows the name of the firm splashed across the crescent-shaped row of houses as Hewetson, Milner & Thexton.

The leases in the area were to expire in 1902 and the City of London Corporation Estate decided to do something about the crescents in Chenies and Store Street as they were considered “quite out of date”. Alfred Place was to be extended to Alfred Mews, going straight through the premises of Hewetson & Co. Hewetson, Milner & Thexton, by then a Limited Company, resisted the Estate’s attempts, but were eventually forced to move to premises at 209–212 Tottenham Court Road, going bankrupt a few years later. Not surprising if the notice of 1901 in The British Architect is correct; it said that Hewetson & Co were granted a new 80-years’ lease by the Court of Common Council at an annual rent of £3,000, which was an increase on their old rent of £2,300. A notice in The London Gazette of 19 March 1907 about the forced sale of their premises after the bankruptcy gives an indication of the extent of their business:

Leasehold premises, comprising shops and showrooms, numbers 209, 210, 211, and 212 Tottenham Court Road, numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, Chenies Street, numbers 15, 16, 17, and 18 Alfred Place, covering a ground area of upwards of eleven thousand square feet, and two dwelling houses and engineering works in the rear thereof, known as number 44, 46, and 44A, Whitfield Street, with a ground area of about three thousand four hundred square feet.

In November 1911, the Liquidators’ Report was ready to be shown to the members of the Company and that was, after some eighty years, the end of the flourishing furniture business started by two brothers. It is ironic, and rather sad really, that the so-called improvement of the extension of Alfred Place never took place and the crescents that were considered so out of date are still there. The Hewetson buildings in Alfred Mews have all been replaced and the street no longer shows the rounded front it had when the Hewetsons traded from there.

The Times, 20 December 1900

(1) London Metropolitan Archives, CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/575/1328805, CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/574/1328756 and 1328757.
(2) The London Gazette, 7 March 1871. They issued a debtor’s summons against a Miss Neville of Percy Villas, Teddington, who apparently failed to pay her bills.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1864. He left an estate worth £10,000, later resworn at £8,000.
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1876, John left an estate worth £40,000; England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1881. Thomas left an estate worth £25,000, later resworn at £16,000.
(5) The London Gazette, 15 January 1884.
(6) The London Gazette, 24 February 1885. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1889. His estate was valued at over £20,000.

Neighbours:

<– 186 Oxford Street <– 203 Tottenham Court Road

184 Oxford Street –> 205 Tottenham Court Road –>

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John Tullet, wine and spirit merchant

Tags

catering, food and drink

Street Views: 52 and 54
Address: corner 64 Tottenham Court Road and 1 Goodge Street

In his introduction to booklet 54 (the Goodge Street one) Tallis writes: “at the corner of the street, and its junction with Tottenham Court-road, is Tullet’s Wine Vaults, which forms our vignette. This splendid establishment is one of the most respectable and quiet in the metropolis, with wines and spirits of a superior order”.

Tallis also says that Goodge Street was built in 1763 and the vignette shows that the wine & spirits establishment was founded a few years later, in 1769. The proprietor at the time of the Tallis publication was John Thomas Tullet who refers on the building to the ‘late Sowerby’. We might imagine that Tullet took over when Sowerby died, but then we would be wrong. Tullet inserted an advertisement in the Tallis booklet in which he mentions “his predecessors, the late Mr John Read, as also his father-in-law, Mr John Sowerby”. John Richard Reid (not Read) had married Sowerby’s daughter Isabella in 1831 and is described in the 1832 Sun Fire Office record as the victualler of The Coachmakers Arms, Bentinck Street, Marylebone. On 15 June 1836 he is given as the one who takes out insurance for the property on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street. It was, unfortunately, one of the last things he would do, as on 4 August of that year he is buried at St. Marylebone’s, just 29 years old. In his will he refers to the property as the Talbot Arms, although in other sources it is usually referred to as simply ‘the Talbot’.

John Thomas Tullet took over from Reid, probably straight after the latter’s death, as in 1837, in an Old Bailey case, he says that is living at the Goodge Street property, “I occupy the house myself, it is a public house”⁽¹⁾. So, although the name of Sowerby is painted on the wall of the public house, he was not the immediate predecessor of Tullet. Perhaps the name of Sowerby was better known than Sowerby’s son-in-law Reid and ‘late Sowerby’ became more a quality announcement than a chronological reality. Fact is, that when John Sowerby wrote his will in June 1837 (proved after his death in August 1839), he described himself as of 10 Kent Terrace, Regents Park, but late of Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road. He was certainly the proprietor of the Talbot from 1817 to 1831 when his name, albeit sometimes spelled Southerby, appears in the Land Tax records for St. Pancras.

We may deduce the name of an earlier proprietor from a 1782 Old Bailey case in which one Michael Ranton is accused of assaulting and robbing Lachlan Mackintosh. One of the witnesses, William Hinton, testifies that he

was standing at Mr. Haythorn’s, the corner of Goodge-street, the sign of the Talbot, I heard a hallooing out, Stop thief! I pursued him over into these gardens; I went out of the tap-room door as he crossed the road, he run up the gardens; there was no person besides this man, the prisoner at the bar, he was going to run into another gateway, and he overshot his turning, there was no thoroughfare where he run up; there was nobody else before me, that place was Coye’s Gardens; I pursued him up to the top of the gardens, he turned about and said he would shoot me, and then I withdrew a little back; I followed him again, and he turned about again and said he would shoot me; I saw his hands drop, and I laid hold of his arms and pinioned him, and secured him, that was the prisoner.⁽²⁾

Although Hinton does not actually say that Haythorn is the publican and I have not found any corroborating evidence, it is likely. Why else would he mention the name in the same sentence as the name of the pub itself? And another witness, George Hamp, said that the accused “crossed Goodge-street: at Haythorn’s corner”. Also no actual evidence, but who else would you name the corner after than the person having the establishment on that particular corner?

In 1825, John Sowerby of the Talbot was one of the subscribers to the Licensed Victuallers’ School and so was John Tullet who is at that time listed as of the Coachmakers Arms, Robert Street, Blackfriars Road.⁽³⁾ The school in Kennington Lane, Lambeth, was founded in 1803 to provide schooling for the children of those working in the pub trade and still exists, although no longer just for those with a parent working as a victualler.⁽⁴⁾ In 1829, John Tullet took out an insurance for the Duke of Grafton, Palace Row, New Road (now incorporated into Euston Road) and that same year he married Fanny Bristed.⁽⁵⁾ The couple had three children: Fanny Adelaide (1830-1831), Emily (1832-after 1884) and Fanny Clara (1835-1864). When Fanny Clara was baptised, the address given was still Palace Row, so it is likely that Tulley moved straight from the Duke of Grafton to the Talbot.

elevation from Tallis’s booklet 54, the Goodge Street front

elevation from Tallis’s booklet 53, the Tottenham Court Road front

1855 was a year for weddings: Fanny Clara married William Phillips, an auctioneer of the parish of St. Luke Old Street, and Emily married Charles Green, a miller of Stratton, Dorset.⁽⁶⁾ The girls’ father John Thomas is in both cases described as ‘gentleman’ suggesting he had retired. In the 1851 census he was still living and working at 1 Goodge Street, but the London Post Office Directory of 1856, lists one Nicolas Butler as the proprietor of the pub. The 1861 census sees the Tullets, “fund holders”, living at Camden Road Villas with their young grandson Edwin Green. In the 1871 census, they still live on Camden Road and Tullet is described as a retired wine merchant. He dies on 24 October 1871 and is buried at Kensal Green.⁽⁷⁾ Fanny dies in 1884 and from her probate record we learn that daughter Emily is still alive and that grandson Edwin has become a civil engineer.⁽⁸⁾

Ordnance Survey map, 1893, still showing P.H. = Public House on the corner

Sometime between 1871 and 1881, the numbering in Goodge Street changes and the pub becomes number 2, although it is still often referred to as being 64 Tottenham Court Road. The corner block (64-67 Tottenham Court Road and 2-8 Goodge Street) had gradually been taken over by the carpet store of Catesby who, in 1903, had a new building put on their – by then considerable – plot. The pub was included in the new building, but disappeared after a few years. The ‘new’ Catseby building is now Grade II listed.⁽⁹⁾

Present building (Source: Google Street View)

Below a list of all the proprietors I have managed to trace:
1769-1781 ?
1782 Old Bailey: Mr. Haythorn (perhaps)
1790 Sun Fire insurance: Thomas Henton
1791 Sun Fire insurance: George Rocke
1801 Sun Fire insurance: Walter Watkins (cook)
1817-1831 Land Tax records: John Sowerby
1832?-1836: John Richard Reid
1837-1853?: John Thomas Tullet
1856 Post Office Directory: Nicholas Butler
1861 census: Robert Wilson
1871 census: Thomas Adcock
1881-1884 census and Post Office Directory: William H. Baker
1891 Post Office Directory: Richard Bartholomew
1895 Post Office Directory: Towers & Coulson
1899 Post Office Directory: Mrs Charles White
1902 Post Office Directory: George Child
1910 Post Office Directory: Philip John Jagels

———————————-
(1) Old Bailey case t18371023-2341.
(2) Old Bailey case t17821016-5.
(3) Address to the Ladies and Gentlemen, Subscribers to the Licensed Victuallers’ School, in Kennington-Lane, Lambeth (1825). See for more on the school here and here.
(4) See the school’s website here.
(5) St. Pancras Church, 17 June 1829.
(6) St. Pancras Church, 20 September and 25 October 1855.
(7) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1871. Address given: 260 Camden Road, estate valued at under £2,000.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1884. Address given: 260 Camden Road, estate valued at a little over £3,397.
(9) English Heritage Building ID: 489616.

Neighbours:

<– 63 Tottenham Court Road <– 2 Goodge Street

64 Tottenham Court Road –>

Thomas Cazaly, engraver and stationer

Tags

book trade, engraver

Street View: 52
Address: 48 Tottenham Court Road

Looking for a subject for this post, I came across the name Cazaly and that rang a bell. Not so long ago, I wrote a post on my other blog about one of the Postman’s Park heroes, Herbert Peter Cazaly who drowned whilst attempting to save someone who had fallen into the Thames. Was the Cazaly mentioned in Tallis’s Street View related to the hero? Most likely, as Cazaly is not a very common name. A bit of research indeed proved a connection; Herbert Peter’s grandfather was the brother of Thomas Cazaly, the engraver. The Cazaly family tree has been extensively recorded by Libby Shade, so thanks go to her. See here for her webpage (click on ‘Cazaly family’ and then on ‘Cazaly.pdf’ to see the whole tree). To make life easy, I have taken the relevant characters of this post and produced a small Cazaly tree (click on it for a larger version).

Thomas Cazaly’s parents, Pierre (Peter) and Sarah had eleven children of which Thomas was number 6 and Herbert Peter’s grandfather number 9. Another child of Pierre and Sarah (number 8), William, was a linen draper in Red Lion Street who has been given a blog post of his own. Thomas was baptised on 2 December 1792 in the French Church L’Eglise de St. Jean, St. John Street, Spitalfields, not surprising for a descendant of a Huguenot family, but the next generation no longer married or baptised their children at the French Church. Thomas married Henrietta Louisa Brand on 8 August 1825 at St Botolph without Bishopsgate; they were both of the “Liberty of Norton Folgate”. Their son Thomas Peter was born in 1831, or at least, he was baptised on the 25th of that year in the parish of West Hackney. The family’s address is given as Derby Road, Kingsland and Thomas’s occupation as bank clerk, but in May 1834, when their next child (Henrietta Louisa junior) is baptised at St. Pancras Church, Thomas is working at Tottenham Court Road as a stationer. The couple’s third child (Ellen Julia, born 1837) is also baptised at St. Pancras’s with the same address and occupation for Thomas. We still find him there at the time of the 1841 census and in 1847 when his name appears in an advertisement (see below), but in 1851, the family has moved back to West Hackney and are living at 18 Ufton Road; Thomas is now listed as a printer and young Thomas Peter as a clerk. The next census of 1861 still finds Thomas and Henrietta there, but Thomas is now listed as ‘Pensioned Cl. Bank of England Printer’. Thomas Peter has embarked on a family of his own and is living with his wife Emma and young son Alfred at Bay Street, Dalston and is listed as clerk in the lace trade. Thomas died in March 1868 and was buried on the 13th in Abney Park Cemetery, as were quite a number of other Cazaly family members, not least of course Herbert Peter, but also Thomas’s wife (in 1883) and his daughters (Ellen Julia in 1863 and Henrietta Louise in 1906).

Publishers Circular and Booksellers’ Record 15 October 1847

Very little is known of Thomas’s professional life. He is variously described as a bank clerk, an engraver, a printer, or a stationer. His father Peter was employed by the Bank of England in the Note Office and it is not unlikely that Thomas obtained his position as bank clerk through his father’s influence and that the engraving of bank notes was how he got involved in the printing business. On Wikipedia I found the following information on bank notes: “notes were originally hand-written; although they were partially printed from 1725 onwards, cashiers still had to sign each note and make them payable to someone. Notes were fully printed from 1855”. Whatever the exact circumstances of Thomas’s involvement in the Bank, he apparently also had a shop in Tottenham Court Road where he offered his services as an engraver and a stationer. I have found only one advertisement for a publication in which Thomas’s address is given as the place to obtain the book. Whether he was financially involved in the publication or whether he just sold it remains unclear. He certainly did not print it himself, the actual printer was one George Taylor. In 1846, the 16-page booklet concerned was written by one F.N. with the very long title of A few observations on the mismanagement and consequent barrenness of numerous out-of-door grape-vines, in and about London, and of the means likely to restore many to a state of fruitfulness.

Jacques Le Moyne ©British Museum

The booklet was favourably reviewed in The Gardeners’ Chronicle of 5 September, 1846, despite, according to the reviewer, its “quaint, we had almost written queer, style”. Apparently the language was full of “hereinbefores and hereinafters, hereofs and thereofs, singulars enforced by plurals, expletives, and aforesaids” which made it more like a law treatise than a work on vine-growing. But, the author had valuable points to make on pruning vines, although they appeared to be more suitable for growing the fruit in the countryside than in London as the ever-abundant soot was always to influence the taste of the grapes. Not only did the six-penny booklet strike a cord with the editor of The Gardeners’ Chronicle, it also found favour with the public and one year later, it came to a second – enlarged – edition of 35 pages. This was the edition advertised by Cazaly. Cambridge University Library, who owns copies of both editions, tells us that the initials F.N. stand for Francis Newnham of Chelsea, but who he was remains a mystery, nor do we know why Cazaly was involved in this publishing enterprise. Did the two gentlemen know each other? Did Newnham just pick a likely outlet for his booklet? Or …. ? Suggestions welcome.

I had a look at 48 Tottenham Court Road and you can still recognise the building as it was at the time Cazaly lived there in the present building. Above a picture of numbers 47-51, on the left the Tallis Street View and on the right Google Street View. Cazaly’s number 48 has turned into Sunrise Digital, but has not been altered all that much. Number 47 has been given a different top floor, number 49 has a totally different front and has been extended upwards, but number 51 can still be easily recognised as the Henson property.

Recent photograph of the premises (November 2015)

This story has been put together from the information on Libby Shades website, census records, and some additional research.

You may also like to read about Thomas’s brother, William Cazaly, who was a linen draper at 48 Red Lion Street, or about Postman’s Park hero Herbert Peter Cazaly, the grandson of Thomas’s brother James George.

Neighbours:

<– 47 Tottenham Court Road

49 Tottenham Court Road –>