John Christopher Addison, chemist and druggist

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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	–>

Evans and Lescher, wholesale druggists

Tags

chemist

Street View: 87
Address: 4 Cripplegate Buildings

Cripplegate Buildings is now the top part of Wood Street and changed beyond recognition. For its history, see the post on Richard Finden who lived at number 1 Cripplegate Buildings when the Tallis Street View was published.
An advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 16 August, 1800, about the sale of an estate and dwelling house in Bampton, Oxfordshire, lists Mr. Bristow, druggist, at no. 4, Cripplegate Buildings, London, as one of the addresses where particulars could be obtained. Thomas Ferniough Bristow had links to Oxfordshire and is mentioned in several leases now held at the Oxfordshire History Centre, concerning the Bradwell Grove Estate.

Thomas died in 1826⁽¹⁾ and the next occupants of 4 Cripplegate Buildings were Messrs. Evans and Lescher, who styled themselves “wholesale druggists” in an advertisement in The Times of 30 December, 1830. In The Perfumery and Essential Oil Record of 1913, it it said that Joseph Sidney Lescher married Sarah Harwood, a niece of Thomas Bickerton Evans, so the gentlemen were not just business partners, but became related by marriage.⁽²⁾ In July 1839, that is around the time of the Street View publication, a notice in The London Gazette mentions John Evans and Thomas Bickerton Evans of Liverpool, wholesale druggists, as the main creditors of a druggist in Llangefin, Anglesey, who has assigned his assets over to them because of impending bankruptcy proceedings. The development of the port of Liverpool had opened up more markets and the Evanses were keen to take advantage of that opportunity.

Thomas Bickerton’s signature on a declaration to support the City freedom application of Frank Harwood Lescher

In 1842, the London Thomas Bickerton takes on as his apprentice Worthington Evans, son of John Evans of Bartholomew Close, also a wholesale druggist. Not sure whether Worthington was Thomas B.’s brother or nephew. To complicate things even more, a partnership is dissolved in April 1843 between John Evans, Joseph Sidney Lescher and Richard Hawley Evans, wholesale druggists of 60 Bartholomew Close.⁽³⁾ No mention of Cripplegate Building. A year later, a partnership is dissolved between Thomas Evans and Richard B. Colley, who were first at 6 Silver Street and subsequently at 4 Cripplegate Buildings. Can you still follow the story? I cannot, because I am not sure of the exact family relationship between all these Evanses, but that they are related is certain. We know that Thomas Bickerton was the son of John Evans, but whether all the Johns mentioned above are one and the same is debatable as there were more than one in the druggist business. The 1851 census gives us (Thomas) Bickerton Evans at 13 Parliament Street as a wholesale druggist, and Joseph Sidney Lescher at 17 Church Row, Hampstead, also a wholesale druggist.

There was no family feud going on despite all these changes, it was just decided to split the Liverpool and London branches with Lescher to concentrate on the London side of things. In 1856, the son of J.S. Lescher, Frank Harwood Lescher, becomes T.B. Evans’ apprentice. On the indenture paper, Lescher is given the address of 60 Bartholomew Close, which must have been the main London address for the firm. At the time of the 1861 census, both Lescher and Evans are still given as wholesale druggists, although they have both moved to a different address.⁽⁴⁾ The Evans family remained in the drug trade and an obituary for Edward Evans, one of the sons of John Evans (the one who dissolved his partnership with Lescher in 1843), appeared in The Chemist and Druggist of 1905. In 1916, another obituary, in the same magazine, for John James Evans, the eldest son of Edward, states that in 1902, the two branches in London and Liverpool were united again as Evans Sons Lescher & Webb Ltd. The firm also had branches in Canada and the US and more mergers were to follow.

J.W. Archer, Part of Cripplegate (Source: British Museum)

And what became of 4 Cripplegate Buildings? That question is not so easy to answer as sources frequently fail to give a house number and describe an occupant as just “of Cripplegate buildings”, but in 1843 and 1844 the combination Thomas Evans and Richard Bowen Colley could be found at no. 4. In 1843 they are given as the proprietors of a patent concerning a parasol.⁽⁵⁾ This does not seem to have anything to do with the druggist business and perhaps the name Evans is just a coincidence. A year later, the partnership between these two umbrella makers is dissolved (see here for a possible later career of Evans) and we have to wait for 1858 to find evidence that William Thorne occupied the building, although the address is given as no. 4a. He was a draper and artificial flower maker, lately of Houndsditch, who unfortunately went bankrupt.⁽⁶⁾ Next comes Robert James Blyth who, in 1862, gave his address as 4 Cripplegate Buildings in a notice regarding the estate of one Anna Maria Blyth. You can see the name Blyth on the building in the picture above. The carrier Deacon of the White Horse Inn yard whose name you can see on the green door will get a blog post of his own.

In 1866, John Knight and Robert Sealby registered a couple of lace designs⁽⁷⁾ from 4a Cripplegate Buildings and in 1867 they dissolve their partnership.⁽⁸⁾ Perhaps they just had part of the, rather substantial, building, just as William Thorne probably had, as in 1867, we also find Robert James Blyth, Charles George Blyth and one William Nicholes dissolving their partnership as wholesale clothiers at no. 4. The C. for Charles would match the name on the front of the building in the drawing by Archer.

As we saw in the post for no. 1, the 1881 census says, “Warehouses recently built. 5 warehouses built on the site of 11 houses Forestreet and Cripplegate Buildings”. Number 3 was amalgamated with number 4 and occupied at the time of the 1881 census by Charles Shepherd, a foreman porter, and in 1891 by Stephen Hunt as caretaker. In the long run, that is after WW2, the eastern side of the Barbican was built on the site of nos. 1-4 and nothing is now left of the original Cripplegate Buildings (see for a picture no. 1).

————————-

(1) He was buried on 1 February, 1826, at Reigate. Probate was granted on the 13th of that month to the executors (PROB 11/1708/234).
(2) The marriage took place on 5 October 1835 at St. Paul’s, Bristol.
(3) The London Gazette, 18 April 1843.
(4) Thomas Bickerton Evans died 9 October 1863 at Wavertree (near Liverpool) on 12 May 1866. The executors mentioned do not seem to be involved in the druggist business. Estate valued at under £30,000. Joseph Sidney Lescher of Elm Tree House, Pond Street, Hampstead and 60 Bartholomew Close died 5 July 1893. Probate was granted to his sons Frank Harwood Lescher, wholesale druggist, and Herman Joseph Lescher, accountant. Estate valued at over £8,500.
(5) National Archives, Kew, BT 45/1/80.
(6) The London Gazette, 2 July 1858.
(7) National Archives, Kew, BT 44/31/194670-194673.
(8) The London Gazette, 20 September 1867.

Neighbours:

<– 63 Wood Street

3 Cripplegate Buildings –>

Dymond & Co, operative chemists

Tags

chemist, photography

Address: 146 Holborn Bars
Street View: 8

In 1780, the Land Tax records for the Farringdon Without Ward list John and Robert Dymond for a substantial property in Holborn. They are charged almost twice as much as their near neighbours; not suprisingly if you consider the width of their property. The Medical Register for the year 1783 tells us that Robert, an apothecary, has died 17 June 1783 at Barnsley, Yorkshire. And in the list of subscribers to John Sheldon’s The History of the Absorbent System (1784), John describes himself as ‘surgeon’. We next hear of Dymond in 1802 as being the apothecary to the House of Recovery, the Institution for the Cure and Prevention of Contagious Fevers in the Metropolis.⁽¹⁾ He seems to have combined the skills of apothecary and physician as that same year, The London Medical and Physical Journal lists him as ‘physician extraordinary’ and as ‘apothecary’.

In 1813, the Land Tax records list Joseph Dymond as the owner of 146 Holborn Bars and The London Gazette tells us that the partnership between Joseph Dymond and Samuel Smith as surgeons and apothecaries has been dissolved by mutual consent on 25 December 1812. The next Dymond we hear from is another Robert who in 1820 receives a medical degree from Edinburgh University with his Dissertatio Medica Inauguralis de Morbis Artuum Quibusdam and we find him in 1836 in the Land Tax record for Holborn. The 1841 census lists him with his wife Mary, his daughter Mary and his son Robert at 146 Holborn Bars, but the large property is also occupied by Owen Thomas Owen, a surgeon and his family, John Turner, a chemist, and various servants. In other words, the property more or less houses a complete medical centre. Owen Thomas Owen and one Charles Button had at one time been in partnership “trading under the style or firm Dymond and Company, Operative and Manufacturing Chymists”, but the partnership was dissolved at the end of 1838.⁽²⁾ Although Owen is mentioned first in the census, Dymond seems to have been the owner of the business as he is mentioned as the one insured when a fire broke out in the premises by a “bursting small chemical apparatus”.⁽³⁾

Report in The Morning Chronicle of 10 July 1851

In 1844, Dymond is still the one listed in the Land Tax records, but by 1847, Charles Button had taken over the premises. Was he the same person who had been in partnership with Owen before? The 1851 census tell us that Robert Dymond has moved to Bolton Hall in Yorkshire. He must have done well for himself in the time he had his business in Holborn as he now employs nine servants, ranging from domestics to gardeners. In the 1851 census, Button is living at 146 Holborn Bars and styles himself “operative and manufacturing chemist employing five persons”. That same year, a report in the newspaper shows us that Button was not just a chemist who concocted pills and potions, as we are told that “a number of gentlemen met yesterday at 146, Holborn-bars, to inspect a model of Messrs. Shepherd and Button’s submarine telegraph”. The invention consisted of a chemical substance with which the usual gutta percha coating of electrical wires was covered. Around these layers came a metal casing which was to protect the wire when placed on rocky seabeds.⁽⁴⁾ The wire was to be used for the electric telegraph between Copenhagen and Hamburg.⁽⁵⁾

Advertisement in Thomas Sutton, A Dictionary of Photography (1858)

In 1853, Button placed an advertisement in The Journal of the Society of Arts to notify “photographers &c., that he still continues to manufacture and supply Chemical and Apparatus for their use”. The curious use of the word “still” may very well have something to do with a fire that broke out on the premises. The inquest, reported in The Standard of 16 March 1853, tells us that police constable Walker and serjeant Patterson had discovered that the back warehouse of Button’s shop was on fire. The firemen were alerted, who doused the fire quickly, but one of the firemen brought out “a vessel of melted fluid, which he poured into the gutter. The liquid immediately ignited, but was put out by the firemen in the course of a few minutes, by their throwing water upon it. It then formed itself into a solid mass about the pavement and road”. A little later, the stuff had ignited again and serjeant Patterson tried to stamp the fire out and while doing that, his trousers caught fire and after the firemen doused him in water, he was transported to the hospital, but later died of complications. Patterson admitted to having put a piece of the material in his coat pocket, which probably ignited when he was trying to stamp out the fire in the road. It turned out to have been phosphorus which, according to Button “was quite safe when covered with water”, but, although the external had become solid when the fireman doused it, the internal was still liquid and when Patterson stamped on it, hot sparks would fly out in all directions and that was what probably ignited the piece in his coat pocket. The verdict was accidental death. At the inquest, it also transpired that Button, who had been at his country residence when the fire broke out, occupied the back warehouse and that the front shop was occupied by Mr. Boulton (this was in fact William Bolton), chemist and druggist.

Advertisement from The Photographic News (1859)

Although Button annouced in the advertisement that he continued to supply photographers, his business was declared bankrupt in 1854, but he must have managed to hang on, as in 1856, both Bolton and Button were still at 146 Holborn Bars. In that year, they were mentioned in the papers because several inhabitants of Holborn and Brook Street had complained of unpleasant smells because of the chemical experiments carried out on the premises. Dr. Letherby, the medical officer of health, reported that he had “directed that Mr. Button should construct a hood over his yard, for collecting the acid vapours, that he should discontinue the distillation of muriatic acid, and that he should adopt means for preventing the escape of sulphuretted hydrogen”. He also “directed that Mr. Boulton should discontinue the manufacture of gun cotton.”⁽⁶⁾ Chemistry was a dangerous business and later that same year, Bolton himself got his hands burned when he tried to extinguish a fire when two bottles of ether exploded.⁽⁷⁾

After Button was once again declared a bankrupt in 1858, Bolton remained at number 146 until his death in 1867⁽⁸⁾, at one point in partnership with Francis Barnitt (1859-1864). One of their distinguised customers was Charles Darwin who in 1863 bought 9s worth of “poison for plants” to protect his childrens’ dried flowers from getting mouldy. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Darwin’s friend and Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, had advised him to ask Bolton and Barnitt for a bottle of the poison they supplied to the Kew Herbarium and to wash the flowers in it before drying.⁽⁹⁾

If you are interested in what Dymond had for sale, there are 1834 (Joshua Dymond, 28 pages) and 1837 (Dymond & Co., 34 pages) catalogues under the title Chemicals and Apparatus Prepared and Sold, Wholesale and Retail to be found in various libraries, but you may have to travel some distance (see WorldCat).
———————-
(1) The Morning Chronicle, 3 February 1802.
(2) The London Gazette, 1 January 1839.
(3) The Charter, 8 December 1839.
(4) The Morning Chronicle, 10 July 1851.
(5) The Morning Chronicle, 30 December 1851.
(6) The Morning Chronicle, 19 March 1853.
(7) The Standard, 18 August 1856.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1867. Probate was granted to Catharine, his widow, and the estate was valued at £10,000, later resworn at £6,000.
(9) The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 11: 1863 (1999).

Neighbours:

<– 147 Holborn Bars

145 Holborn Bars –>

James and Richard Starkie, chemists

Tags

chemist

Street View: 13
Address: 4 Strand

On the 1st of March, 1912, windows in a large number of shops in Westminster were deliberately smashed by women trying to get attention for their struggle to get the vote. And attention is what they got. The Manchester Guardian reported on the disturbance the next day with a triple headline “Militant suffragists. | Window-smashing raid in the West End. | Mrs. Parkhurst arrested.” Emmeline Parkhurst was, however, not arrested for breaking shop windows, she went one better and, with two other women, went to 10 Downing Street and broke the windows of Asquith’s residence. As we now know, it still took several more years for the final granting of their wishes, but the noise they made in 1912 certainly made everybody sit up. Among the shops that were attacked was the chemist shop of Starkie at 126 Strand. From 1911 to her death in 1926, the shop was managed by Mrs Jane Starkie, the widow of Richard Stringer Starkie who had succeeded his father James Starkie after the latter’s death in 1863.⁽¹⁾
The 1912 incident was not the only time that glass was broken in the Starkie shop. In 1887, a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on the 13th of November⁽²⁾ turned into a riot and Richard later appeared at the Old Bailey to state that

I am a chemist, and one of my shops is 7, Grand Hotel Buildings, Charing Cross, which faces the S. E. corner of Trafalgar Square—on Sunday afternoon, November 13th, I went to the Square about 4 o’clock from the Strand—I found great difficulty in getting to my shop—the mounted police were trying to disperse the crowd that choked the Strand, and as they returned, pieces of stick and a few stones were thrown at them, and there was hooting and booing at them—I got just up to my shop—my plate-glass windows are not protected by shutters, and about 6 o’clock one of my windows was smashed.

Opening of the Grand Hotel from The Graphic, 5 June 1880

Two incidents and two Starkie shops: 7, Grand Hotel Building and 126, Strand. The 1881 census shows that Richard and his wife Elizabeth were living at 126 Strand.⁽³⁾ The Grand Hotel had only opened in 1880 and Richard explained at the Old Bailey that “no one lives in the shop; it is under the Grand Hotel”. According to the description of the listed building the “ground floor has central archivolt arched entrance and altered shop fronts articulated by polished granite pilasters carrying entablature”.⁽⁴⁾ In the late 1870s, major redevelopments had taken place in the Strand/Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square area and the two shops listed for Richard had only recently been acquired by him. Before that, he had had his – only – shop at 4, Strand and so had his father before him. Whether the move from there had been voluntary or forced by the development scheme is unclear, but judging by Richard’s wealth at the time of his death, almost £14,000, he had not fared badly.⁽⁵⁾

Vignette from Tallis’s Street View 13

When exactly father James Starkie obtained the shop at 4 Strand, corner of Northumberland Street, is uncertain, but he was certainly there on 18 April, 1824 when Richard’s sister Cecelia Louisa Eliza was baptised at St. Martin in the Fields. Richard Stringer was baptised on 8 June 1828 at St. Marylebone Christ Church (he was born 17 December 1827). A third child, Julia, was baptised 8 May 1831, also at St. Marylebone (she was born 29 Sept. 1829). James had married the mother of his children, Cicely Amelia Green, on 5 May, 1822 at St. Marylebone, but his address at that time was not recorded.

Although Starkie was not one to advertise his chemist shop, or at least not in the papers that I have seen, other advertisements in various papers can still tell us what James had for sale. In 1835, he was mentioned as one of the addresses where Stirling’s Stomach Pills could be bought. The pills were prepared by J.W. Stirling, a chemist at 86 High Street, Whitechapel, and contained “sulphate of quinine, and the most choice stomachic and aperient drugs of the Materia Medica” and they were – of course – “superior to every other medicine in the cure of stomach and liver complaints, loss of appetite, indigestion, sensation of fullness and oppression after meals, flatulence, shortness of breath, spasms, worms, and all disorders of the stomach and bowels”.⁽⁶⁾ And if that was not enough, the advertisement goes on with a whole list of other complaint that would benefit from these pills, but I will spare you the rest. Stirling was a busy man and a week later another of his remedies was advertised; this time his Ree’s Cubebs with Sarsaparilla, which would cure gonorrhoea, pains in the kidneys, bladder irritation, etc. The stuff could be bought in bottles of 4s. 6d, 10s. or 20s. It was allegedly “invaluable for the removal of secondary symptoms, pains of the bones, and all diseases arising from the impure state of the fluids.”⁽⁷⁾ This time, Starkie is the only chemist mentioned by name where the concoction could be bought; the others are grouped under “all the principal medicine vendors in town and country”. Stirling ends his advert with a caution against imitations; the buyer had to make sure that ‘J.W. Stirling’ was engraved on the stamp.
And if you should happen to have a decaying tooth, all you had to do was go to Starkie’s and buy Thomas and Howard’s Succedaneum and put some in the cavity. It would fill the hole, harden to the consistency of enamel and remain firm for many years.⁽⁸⁾

Copaiba from Franz Eugen Köhler, Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887)

In February 1847, an advertisement appeared for a book by George Franks on urino-genital diseases, which could be ordered from all booksellers, but was also available at Starkie’s. Although the advertisement for the book does not say that Franks had also developed a medicine to go with it, an injunction in Chancery does. In The Era of 10 October that same year it is stated that in Franks versus Weaver the injunction is granted to Franks restraining John Weaver of Wolverhampton of “making, vending, or offering for sale, or in any manner disposing of any preparation with which any statement or representation is made indicating, or implying, or tending to induce the public or purchasers to suppose that such preparation is the same as ‘Franks’s specific solution of copaiba.’” Franks’ medicine had “the government stamp attached and covering the cork of each bottle, on which is engraved the name and address, ‘George Franks, Blackfriars-road.’” The solution and the book could both be bought from Starkie’s.

Whether all these patent medicines actually worked is very much to be doubted, but most of them did no harm either. Unfortunately, partaking of one of the products that Starkie sold would have dire consequences. One Charles Tathana of Stanhope Street came to Starkie’s shop one Thursday in October 1846 asking for some arsenic to kill rats. Starkie replied that he did not keep arsenic in the house because of the dangerous qualities. But, if the customer wanted something to kill rats, he could recommend Butler’s Vermin and Insect Killer. Tathana bough a packet for sixpence and went home. He committed suicide by taking the poison and at the inquest into his death Dr. McKenzie who had conducted the post-mortem and subsequently examined the powder, gave it as his opinion that the product contained arsenic and there was enough in one packet to kill six men.⁽⁹⁾ What Starkie’s reaction was to this discovery went unreported, but Butler’s product remained on the market and figured in another – slightly botched – suicide case of 1863.⁽¹⁰⁾

Source: pinasotte.blogspot.fr

But dodgy medicines were not the only items that could be bought from Starkie’s. They may not even have made up the major share of his supplies, but were certainly the items that made it into the newspapers. To round off the list of items that could be bought from him, one innocuous one: Guerlains’s shaving cream. An advertisement in the York Herald of 28 November 1840, tells the prospective customers that “this luxurious article has obtained the favour and patronage of the first ranks of fashion and distinction” and that it was only made by Monsieur Guerlain of 42, Rue de Rivoli, Paris. In 1828, Pierre-Francois-Pascal Guerlain had opened his first shop at the rue de Rivoli. In the same street the Hotel Meurice, a favorite haunt of the British high society, could also be found. To begin with, Guerlain imported products from Britain, but he was soon developing his own toilet waters, soaps, creams, cosmetics and perfumes which he also exported to the UK.⁽¹¹⁾

The Starkies do not appear to have attracted any unusual attention themselves, but went quietly about their business in the Strand for just over 100 years and did quite well out of toiletries, patent medicine and poison.

Morning Post, 1 June 1832

(1) The London Gazette of 16 April, 1926 contained a notice that Jane Starkie had died 7 February and that all claimants should address themselves to Woolley and Whitfield, solicitors. A similar notice had appeared in 1911 after the death of Richard Stringer Starkie on 4 August, 1911.
(2) See Wikipedia: Bloody Sunday (1887) and here for the press reports.
(3) Richard and Elizabeth had married 22 August 1877. Richard was to become a widower and marry again on 22 July 1891 to Jane Tavener.
(4) Heritage list of English Heritage, online here.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1911, p. 260.
(6) Morning Chronicle, 15 January 1835.
(7) Morning Chronicle, 20 January 1835.
(8) Morning Chronicle, 16 January 1847.
(9) The Northern Star and National Trades’ Journal, 17 October 1846.
(10) See here.
(11) More information on Guerlain’s history here.

Neighbours:

<– 5 Strand

3 Strand –>