Whisson & Collis, wine merchants

Tags

food and drink

Street Views: 63 and 70
Addresses: 27 Old Compton Street / 27 Princes Street

The establishment of Whisson and Collis(s), the Two Ships, was situated on the corner of Princes Street and Old Compton Street and as both streets were depicted by Tallis, the pub was favoured by an appearance in two of Tallis’s booklets. The elevation on the left is the one in Princes Street and the one on the right in Compton Street. The property was later known as 54 Wardour Street. John Colliss had been running the Old George at 29 Oxford Street together with James Whisson, at least since 1834 when that address is mentioned on the baptism record of his daughter Susan (All Soul’s, Langham, Westminster). Before that, the Colliss family had lived at South Bersted, Sussex and it was there that John Colliss was married in 1822 to Martha Catchlove. One of the witnesses of that marriage was James Whisson, presumably the same James Whisson who later became Colliss’s partner in London. At least six Colliss children were baptised at South Bersted, two were to follow at Langham, two at St. Anne Soho when John ran the pub in Princes/Compton Street and two more afterwards when he had moved to Newington Causeway.⁽¹⁾

Pigot’s Directory for 1839 lists Colliss with James Whisson at the Old George in Oxford Street, but also with Whisson (no first name given) at the Two Ships. Colliss had, however, already moved from Oxford Street to Old Compton Street sometime between July 1836, when Charlotte was baptised at All Souls, and early 1838 when his daughter Mary was baptised at St. Anne Soho. The 1841 census found John and Martha Colliss and three of their children at 27 Old Compton Street. In 1851, the couple, and eight of their children, are found at 59 Newington Causeway and this was the address of the World’s End, the pub we have already come across in Tallis’s Street View as ran by Marc Elphick who went bankrupt in 1841. A picture of the World’s End can be found in the post on Elphick. The 1843 Post Office Directory does not list Colliss, but as his youngest son was baptised at Holy Trinity, Newington Causeway in May 1844 (born August 1843), we can assume that Colliss was already running the World’s End by then. It certainly means that he did not stay very long at the Two Ships; he arrived there in ±1837 and left ±1842/3 (Colliss and Whisson are still mentioned as the proprietors of the Two Ships in Robson’s 1842 Directory). Whisson was likewise just passing through.

1886 Goad’s insurance map with 54 Wardour Street indicated by P.H. (public house)

Although it seems logical that the Whisson who ran the Two Ships with Colliss was James Whisson, as they had ran the Old George in Oxford Street together, it may just as well have been Nathaniel Whisson, who was probably a relation of James. Nathaniel is also listed as a victualler, and at more or less the same time as Colliss co-ran the Two Ships, James Whisson ran the One Tun in Goodge Street and Nathaniel the Crown & Anchor at Judd Place, so that does not help much. So far, I have unfortunately not found any records that mention the first name of the one who co-ran The Two Ships with Colliss.

In 1862, so well after Whisson and Colliss were there, The Two Ships figured in an Old Bailey case, because a wrestling match (or pub brawl if you prefer) that had started in the pub was continued outside with the result that one person died. The victim, John Radford, and the accused, William Davis, were fighting in the street and witnesses described the victim as at some point having fallen against the window of Peppin’s chemist shop. That fall did not kill him, but a later one against a kerb stone did. No one was sentenced for the death of the man; it was just a fight without intent to kill that went tragically wrong.⁽²⁾ What surprised me, though, is that no mention is made of anyone from the chemist’s coming to the aid of the victim. A doctor from Dean Street testified that his assistant had seen to the victim and he himself had only seen the body two days after death, but apparently no immediate aid was given to the victim, or if it had, it did not make it into the statements of the witnesses.

After the Whisson/Colliss years, many more landlords ran the pub. From various resources,⁽³⁾ I found the following:
1848 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1851 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1851 John Renshaw, census gives him as “manager of a public house”
1856 Edwin Dean, Post Office Directory
1861 William Dawson, census
1869 James Frederick Phillips, Post Office Directories
1871 Frederick Phillips, census
1881 John Wakely, census
1882 John Wakely, Post Office Directory
1884 John Wakely, Post Office Directory
1889 John Weston, bankrupt
1891 Michael Hart, census
1891 Michael Hart, The London 1891 Public House & Publican Directory
1894 Michael Hart, bankrupt
1895 Arthur Lee, Post Office Directory
1899 Jon Jas Wm Wood, Post Office Directory and The London 1899 Public House & Publican Directory
1901 Albert Kagi, census
1911 Albert Kagi, census (he died in 1914, but was probably retired by then)
1915 Louis Cantor, Post Office Directory
1921 Louis Cantor, Post Office Directory

May 2014, Google Street View

If you look at Google Street View (their latest picture is from July 2016) for 27 Princes/Compton (which is now 54 Wardour Street) you can see a lot of scaffolding, but if you went back, for instance to May 2014, you can see how small 54 Wardour Street had become after 1913 when the building had been diminished by the widening of the street at the corner. The number 76 you see next door used to be 28 Old Compton Street and another property altogether. But big plans are afoot and Westminster Council has published documents to go with an application to enlarge the ground floor space at number 54 from 24 to 38 square metres by combining number 54 with 76 Old Compton Street. The whole plan is more complicated than this, but the picture below will explain what will happen at ground floor level. Wonder how it will look when the scaffolding is taken down again.

plan taken from the website of Westminster Council (see all the documents online here)

(1) South Bersted: Sarah (1823), Elizabeth (1825), William (1827), John (1829), Martha (1830), Ann (1832); Oxford Street: Susan (1834), Charlotte (1836); Old Compton Street: Mary (1838), James (1841); Newington Causeway: George (1844), and Hannah (1845).
(2) Old Bailey case t18620922-956.
(3) Among them the website of pubshistory.com.

Neighbours:

<– 26 Princes Street

25 Princes Street –> 28 Old Compton Street –>

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John Christopher Addison, chemist and druggist

Tags

chemist

Street Views: 63 and 70
Address: 25 Princes Street, corner Old Compton Street

The chemist, J.C. Addison, had a corner shop and as both streets were included in the Tallis Street Views, he had the privilege of appearing twice in the booklets. The elevation above is from booklet 63, the Old Compton Street side, and below you can see the side in Princes (from 1878 named Wardour) Street from booklet 70. The wall on the right-hand side is the wall around the churchyard of St. Anne’s, Soho.

Tallis also included a vignette showing both sides of the chemist’s shop, an illustration no doubt paid for by Addison himself.

And if all that was not enough to draw attention to the shop, Addison made sure you knew of his existence by having the following advertisement in both booklets.

So, who was this Addison? The first record I found for him was a letter sent by him in October 1837 to the editor of The Lancet contradicting the claim of one Dr. Traill who allegedly discovered the use of antimony as a pigment. Addison claimed to have done the same two years previously. The year after, on 19 December 1838, John Christopher Addison married Ann Unthank at St. James’s, Westminster, and the couple, and their young daughter Isabella, are indeed found in Princes Street at the time of the 1841 census. Also living with them is Robert Price, a chemist’s assistant and Leah Fisher, a servant. As the building was a fairly large one, the Addisons rented out some rooms to Henry Whitacker, an artist, and his family. The 1843 Post Office Directory still lists Addison at 25 Princes Street, but an advertisement in The Lancet of 24 August 1844, names Messrs. Gill and Peppin at the corner premises. Addison must have moved, although it is not entirely clear why, and in 1848, his name is listed among the bankrupts as “formerly of no. 5 Church Street, Chelsea, chemist and druggist, occasionally selling grocery and tallow chandlery, and now of no. 20 Sussex Street, Tottenham Court Road, out of business”.⁽¹⁾

In 1849, George Wadman Gill and Sydenham Henry Peppin at 25 Princes Street dissolved their partnership and all debts were to be settled with Mr. Peppin.⁽²⁾ So, we can forget about Addison and Gill and continue the research with Peppin who married Emma Louisa Pain in October 1850 at the parish chapel, St. Pancras. She is the daughter of Charles Pain, a solicitor, and he is the son of another Sydenham Henry Peppin, a clergyman⁽³⁾. The 1851 census lists the couple at 25 Princes Street and it tells us that Sydenham is 34 years old and originally from Devon. In 1854, Peppin’s name appears unfavourably in a list of suppliers of adulterated opium. The Lancet published a report into the adulterations of powdered opium and sample 24 was bought from Peppin. It was found to be “largely adulterated; contains much poppy-capsule, and a considerable quantity of wheat flour, probably the burnt crust of bread”. Peppin was not alone as most samples were adulterated, but whether that was done by the London chemists, or abroad at source is not made clear in the individual cases.⁽⁴⁾

The Gout by James Gilray (© Trustees of the British Museum)

advertisement in Reynolds’s Newspaper, 23 November 1862

Peppin continued to sell his patent medicines from 25 Princes Street, and after his retirement (the 1871 census has him as ‘proprietor of land’ in Harpford, Devon), a number of chemists ran the shop. The 1871 census finds Henry B. Ellis, a student of medicine and chemist, on the premises, and also Charles Cary, an assistant.
At some point the house numbering changed and number 25 became number 52. In the 1881 census William Hairsine and his family are living at number 52. William is listed as a chemist, employing three men. Two of the assistants are living above the shop, one of them is the very same Charles Cary whom we already saw in 1871 and who continued to work at number 25/52, at least until 1901 when the census found him there. Also there in 1901 is Mary Christie, the housekeeper, who moved to Hampstead with Hairsine when he retired (1911 census).⁽⁵⁾ Collage has a nice photograph of the shop front, which they date to 1909 (see here). The windows and doors look just the same as they did in the elevation at the top of this post. The name of S.H. Peppin can still be seen above the door, but the fascias above the windows, which once showed the name of Addison, give the name of W. Hairsine.

Despite the fact that Harsine retired, the shop continued under his name, although the proprietors were in fact Ellerington & Scott until early 1927 when their business was bought by Heppells Ltd.⁽⁶⁾ In 1909, Westminster Council was planning the widening of Wardour Street for which they wanted to demolished part of Hairsine’s shop. He was offered £5,500 compensation, which he accepted, but there was a complication as the Improvements Committee reports: “We have received a report from the Valuation Surveyor to the effect that a lease of the premises for 21 years from Christmas 1908, at a rent of £230 per annum, has now been granted by Mr. Hairsine, the recent purchaser of the premises, to Messrs Ellerington & Scott, chemists, sometimes trading as Frizell & Co. It is stated that the lessees are about to expend the sum of £640 in a new shop front and the building of a small shop in the rear of the premises. The lessees are said to have sub-let the whole of the upper part of the premises at a rent of £122 per annum inclusive of rates”. Ellerington & Co also wanted compensation and negotiated for such with the council. The Improvements Committee reported that “after negotiation we are now informed that the Surveyor acting for Messrs Ellerington & Scott is prepared to advise the acceptance by his clients of £1.000”. But that was not all, they also wanted a building lease for 80 years at a ground rent of £60. The council agreed to Elleringtons terms on the condition that he sorted things out with the sub-lessees.⁽⁷⁾

bomb damage in the St. Anne area from the West End at War website which has more information on the damage done to the church

World War II caused a lot of destruction in the area and the church of St. Anne was badly damaged. Today, the building at number 52 still shows a peculiar small extension at the back, but I do not know whether that was the original extension at the back that Ellerington & Scott had in mind, or whether it is a replacement necessary because of war damage, or even a more recent replacement. Although no longer a chemist’s, the building still retains a physical link to the past, as on the wall at the back, the word ‘chemist’ can clearly be seen. The fence in the front of the picture is a recent replacement at St. Anne’s Churchyard.

(1) He can be found at various addresses afterwards, still as a chemist and druggist. The last address before he died in 1872 was Townsend Street, Old Kent Road.
(2) The London Gazette, 10 April 1849.
(3) He was the vicar at Branscombe from 1837 till his death in 1867.
(4) The Lancet, 1854. Online here.
(5) William died 30 December 1916. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1917. Estate valued at over £3100.
(6) The Chemist and Druggist, 30 August 1919 and 5 February 1927.
(7) Westminster City Council, Minutes of Proceedings of the Mayor, Alderman, and Councillors, 1909 (London, 1910).

Neighbours:

<– 27 Princes Street	–>
<– 26 Old Compton Street	–>