Thomas Farley, toy warehouse

Tags

toys

Street View: 58
Address: 32 Blackfriars Road

Farley’s property in Blackfriars Road was almost on the corner of what is now Colombo Street, but what was then called Collingwood Street. Christ Church Southwark can be found across from Colombo Street. On the insurance map of 1889 below, you can see the property with the church to the north and Collingwood Street bending down towards the south. The street at the bottom of the map is Cross Street, now Meymott Street. Farley’s immediate neighbour at number 32 was Mr. Millward, the proprietor of wine vaults (P.H. on the map for Public House).

Thomas Farley first appeared at Blackfriars Street in Robson’s Directory of 1823, when that part of Blackfriars Road was still called Great Surrey Street. Farley had been a freeman of the Vintners’ Company since 1809 when he acquired his freedom by patrimony, thanks to the membership of his father, John Farley. But Thomas was not a vintner in the sense that he sold wine, he had a toy warehouse. We have already come across another toy dealer named Farley, that is, Henry Farley of 31 Fleet Street, but there does not seem to be an obvious family relationship between the two. Thomas was the son of John and Henry of George, but who knows, maybe the link is further back through the generations.

Following the listing of Farley in the subsequent Robson’s Directories, we see him at 32 Blackfriars Road until 1841, but in 1842 his name has been replaced by that of Henry Chenu, silversmith. The 1841 census, taken on 6 June, already shows Chenu and his wife at number 32, so Farley must have left before that. Why he did so and where he went has not been established, so I cannot tell you more about him and we will turn to Chenu. Henry Chenu, son of (Michael) Nicholas Chenu, builder, had married Eliza Ann Draper, daughter of Thomas Draper, leather seller, on the 11th of November, 1840, at St. Andrew Holborn. The address for groom and bride is given as 97 Holborn. Tallis has W. & T. Draper, leather sellers at 107 High Holborn, and there must at least be a family connection there. Will sort that out when writing the post on the Drapers. Henry Chenu had at some point a stake in the leather business as at the end of 1864, he retired from a partnership he had with Charles L. Draper and William H. Draper as leather dressers and dealers in carriage silks at 107 High Holborn.⁽¹⁾

According to the directories, Henry started his career in Blackfriars Road as a silversmith and jeweller, but the 1845 Post Office Directory lists him as hatter and jeweller. And an advertisement in The Morning Chronicle of 27 July 1847, says he is a hat manufacturer. He apparently had a lodger, a Mr. Jones, who was trying to acquire some houses. Or was he just using Chenu’s address as a convenient collection point for his mail? Jones is certainly not mentioned as living at number 32 in the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

The Observer of 19 November 1855 reported on a great fog the previous Thursday and Friday which caused multiple accidents: two trains collided, people fell off boats into the Thames, cabs and carts had accidents, and less than honest people found it an excellent opportunity to rob others with impunity. Chenu had one of his shop shutters taken out, a window glass broken, and “wedding rings, keepers, gold eardrops, and other property, taken away, worth £80”. According to the newspaper report, either a barking dog, or the approach of a police officer disturbed the burglars and they dropped some of the stolen jewellery in the street.

By 1861, Chenu had moved his jeweller’s shop to Kentish Town, and the census found him living at 102 Gloucester Place. The census showed 32 Blackfriars Road in possession of James Brown, an iron plate worker. Chenu’s move did not do his business any good and in 1869, bankruptcy proceedings were taken out against him.⁽²⁾ He is then said to be of 96, Camden Road and 9, Leighton Road; the former his shop, the latter his house. To make his bankruptcy plight even worse, his shop was broken into in November 1869 and 9 gold watches, 25 silver watches, 60 rings and unspecified other property with a total value of £150 was taken. The thieves were apprehended while in possession of some jewellery, a jemmy and skeleton keys that had been used in the burglary.⁽³⁾

In 1875, Chenu’s bankruptcy case was closed as the London Bankruptcy Court was satisfied that “the whole of the property of the bankrupt had been realized for the benefit of the creditors, and that a first and final dividend of two shillings and eight pence in the pound had been paid to the creditors”.⁽⁴⁾ The 1881 census saw Henry and Eliza Ann at Willes Road and his occupation is given as “collector”, no indication what he was collecting, presumably rents or subscriptions. Eliza Ann died in 1887 and, according to the 1891 census, Henry went to live at Langdon Road in a “home for respectable aged people”. He died in 1901 and that is the end of the story as far as this blog post is concerned.

Silversmith, after Caspar Luyken from ‘Menschelyke beezigheeden’, 1695 (© Trustees of the British Museum)

(1) The London Gazette, 1 January 1865.
(2) The London Gazette, 4 October 1869.
(3) Old Bailey case t8700110-171.
(2) The London Gazette, 26 March 1875.

Neighbours:

<– 50 Regent Street

52 Regent Street –>

Zetterquist & Sons, oilmen

Tags

fuel, indigo

Street View: 58
Address: 60 Blackfriars Road

Although Zetterquist is called an oilman in the Tallis index, he was not the same type of oilman as Thomas Snelling was. Snelling ran an Italian warehouse, not unlike a deli, but Zetterquist was more frequently referred to a ‘blue manufacturer’, that is, someone who produced blue dye from indigo. Zetterquist is an unusual name and I believe it has Swedish origins, although the Zetterquists of this post had been in London for quite a few generations. Already in 1767, we see a Carl David Zetterquist in the marriage register for St. Dunstan’s, Stepney. His spouse was Ulrika Long (or Lang) and from a Land Tax entry of 1778, we know that at that time he lived at Lower Shadwell (land side). He must have died quite soon afterwards, as his widow remarries in 1780 to Willem Gyllenskiepp (later usually referred to as Gyllinship), also of Swedish origin. In the 1781 tax records, Willem is living at Wapping Dock Street, and in 1788 at Ratcliffe Square, Stepney. Ulrika’s son from her first marriage, Charles David Zetterquist, marries Ann Cuckow on 12 July 1799 at Saint Anne, Soho.

Indian indigo dye lump. Photo by Evan Izer (Palladian). Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_indigo_dye_lump.jpg

Charles and Ann had 7 children, all but the youngest baptised at St. Marylebone’s: Mary (1800), Charles David (1802), Ann (1804), Gustavus Adolphus (1805), Elizabeth (1807), Thomas Cuckow (1809) and William (1812). William was baptised at Christ Church, Southwark which corresponds nicely with the move of the business to the other side of the Thames. In 1809 Gustaf Gyllinship and Charles Zetterquist, oilmen, take out an insurance with the Sun Fire Office for 18 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, but in the 1811 London and Country Directory, Zetterquist is listed at 15 Commerce Row, Blackfriars Road as oilman and blue maker. Gyllinship is then still at 18 Warren Street as oil and colourman. How Charles and Gustaf were related is uncertain, but Gustaf may have been Charles’s half-brother. The problem is that the name Gustavus was a very popular one in Swedish circles and certainly in the Gyllinship family. Never mind, we will continue with the story of the Zetterquists.

The part of Great Surrey Street that was called Commerce Row, between Gt. Charlotte Street and Cross Street (Horwood, 1799)

An 1816 Sun Fire insurance entry lists Charles as “oil and colourman indigo blue and frankfurt black manufacturer”, still at Commerce Row, but in 1819 he is listed at 60 Great Surrey Street, the earlier name for Blackfriars Road. Despite this apparent change of address, he did not moved as Commerce Row was part of Blackfriars Road “about a quarter of a mile on the right hand from the bridge, and nearly opposite Surrey Chapel”⁽¹⁾, which is about right for number 60. The street name and the numbering changed, not Zetterquist’s place of business.⁽²⁾

top part of Charles David junior’s indenture, 1816

In 1816, Charles David junior joined his father in the business as an apprentice via the Fishmongers’ Company and the address given is already Blackfriars Road. The younger son, Thomas Cuckow joined in 1823. Both boys remained single and continued the business in partnership long after their father had died. The other two sons, Gustavus Adolphus and William, probably died young as they are no longer mentioned in the will of Charles David senior (he died in 1844). The three girls survived, but Mary was the only one to get married (to William Blewitt); Ann and Elizabeth remained spinsters all their lives. It was a close-knit family and in the 1851 census Charles, Ann and Elizabeth are living together at Elm Hill, Streatham. On the day of the census, Thomas is keeping an eye on the premises at Blackfriars, but in the 1861 and 1871 censuses he too could be found in Streatham. Thomas is the first to die on 6 April 1882, Charles David follows on 9 October 1883, Ann on 3 November 1890 and Elizabeth on 4 July 1892. Thomas named his brother Charles as executor, but the others chose Blewitt nephews as executors.

An intriguing and rather sad article appeared in The Era of 20 December 1857 in which an inquest is reported on three bodies found at Croydon. It transpired that William Smither murdered his mother Mary and his younger brother Charles with prussic acid and afterwards committed suicide. Charles Zetterquist said that he was a relative of the dead. The inquest tried to established who had died first in order to sort out who inherited from whom. They found that the mother had died first, then Charles and then William. In The London Gazette of 3 May 1859, Charles David and Thomas Cuckow Zetterquist are mentioned as the creditors of Charles Zetterquist Smither, suggesting a close family relationship, considering that Charles Smither had been given the Zetterquist name as his middle name, but it remains unclear how exactly the Zetterquists and the Smithers were related. The only sister of the Zetterquists that married was Mary and she became a Blewitt, so there must be another link somewhere between the Smithers and the Zetterquist.

The London Gazette, 3 May 1859

The death of the Zetterquists from Elm Hill, Streatham, did not mean the end of the business. As late as 1934, Zetterquist & Harvey Ltd, 16 Collingwood Street, are listed in the Post Office Directory as “established in Blackfriars Road, London in 1812”, “laundry blue & scouring powder manufacturers, oil merchants & drysalters”. Collingwood Street is not a new address for the firm as already in 1828, Charles David junior explained that the Zetterquist “manufactory was at the back of the premises in Collingwood-street, Blackfriars-road”.⁽³⁾ Collingwood Street was a later name for Green Walk, see the Horwood map above. In 1879, one James Harvey testified in an Old Bailey case and he then says that he is a “clerk to Charles Zetterquist, a blue merchant of Blackfriars Road”.⁽⁴⁾ Was he the Harvey who later added his name to Zetterquist in the Limited Company?

In 1864, the Zetterquests applied to the Metropolitan Board of Works for permission to erect a furnace chimney at their premises in Blackfriars Road. Permission was granted on the condition that the foundation of the chimney was made according to the regulations set out in the Building Act.⁽⁵⁾ At some point, Zetterquist must have had his premises rebuilt, as an obituary for the architect Thomas Hayter Lewis (1818-1898) mentions that “several large wharves and warehouses, demanding very considerable knowledge of construction, were carried out by him in London, such as Hedge’s Wharves at Wapping, Reed’s Upper and Lower Wharves, Bermondsey, and Zetterquist’s Factories, Blackfriars”.⁽⁶⁾ No more details are given about these ‘factories’, but they were most likely the ones at the back of 60 Blackfriars Road.

——————–
(1) James Elmes, A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs (1831).
(2) Early 1820s advertisements in the newspapers, for instance in The Morning Chronicle, 2 May 1820, for the Margate Steam Packet ‘Eclipse’ gave Mr. Zetterquist, Commerce Row, Blackfriars Road, as one of the addresses where information could be obtained.
(3) Old Bailey case t18280221-10.
(4) Old Bailey case t18790805-706.
(5) Minutes of the Proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works, 18 November 1864, application 66.
(6) Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 14 Jan. 1899, p. 126-130.

Neighbours:

<– 61 Blackfriars Road

59 Blackfriars Road –>