Samuel Hunt, billiard rooms and cigar divan

Tags

games, tobacco

Street Views: 19 and 9 Suppl.
Address: 370-371 Strand

In the post for Edward Cahan, tailor, we saw that he occupied 371 Strand from ±1845 onwards and that he was listed by Tallis in the 1847 Street View Supplement. But in the main collection of Street Views (±1839-1840), Tallis listed S. Hunt & Co, tobacconists, at number 371. The elevation at the top of this post shows Hunt as a billiard table maker. Samuel Hunt combined both jobs, after all, what better place to sell your cigars than in a billiard room full of gentlemen? Although Cahan moved into number 371 at some point, Hunt continued to use most of the premises as his “billiard rooms and cigar divan”. According to London as it is today, cigar divans were “essentially coffee houses, but of a distingué character, expensive in their charges, and more studied, elegant, and luxurious in their appointments and conveniences”. Cahan probably just had the ground floor of number 371 and perhaps a few bedrooms upstairs. Various illustrations of the property before and after Cahan’s occupancy show the cigar divan on the ground floor of number 371 with the billiard rooms above. It looks as if Hunt rented out some space at number 371 to Cahan, while keeping the rest of the property for himself.

Illustrated London News, 1843, showing the Exeter Hall divan on the right and the billiard maker above.

The neighbouring property at 370 Strand had been in the occupation of one Bennett, pastry cook and confectioner in the early Street View; we will find out what happened to him in a later post, but for now we are concentrating on Hunt & Co. They, that is S. and C.J. Hunt [Samuel and ??], entered an advertisement in The Athenaeum of 1834 in which they warned their customers against inferior billiard tables that were advertised under “names of the most ridiculous nature – such as ‘Imperial Marmorean Stratification’ and ‘Petrosian Stratification Tables’ – made use of only to mislead the unwary, and to disguise the fact that they are made of COMMON WELSH SLATE”. As you can guess, the tables Hunt provided were anything but common, but made according to an improved principle, which needed no trumped-up names; the use of the word ‘slate’ was enough. The only thing to surpass the slate tables of Hunt were their metal tables. In the same advertisement, Hunt also advertised “A Scientific Treatise on Billards”. No author or proper title mentioned, but it was probably François Mingaud‘s The Noble Game of Billiards, a translation by John Thurston, rival billiard table maker, of the Noble Jeu de Billiard. Thurston, by the way, had an advertisement just above Hunt’s in The Athenaeum in which he advertised his ‘Imperial Petrosian Tables’ and also Migaud’s book. No love lost between the two rivals apparently.

advertisement in The Athenaeum, 1834

Hunt & Co. had probably taken over from David Farrow, who was described in The London Gazette of 1834 as “formerly of no. 370 Strand, Middlesex, gun-maker and gun-dealer, and also a billiard-table-keeper, … out of business”. From an 1836 Old Bailey case, we learn a little bit more about Hunt. One Henry Bell was indicted for stealing 3 ivory balls, the property of Samuel Hunt. Hunt’s son, Horatio, gave evidence and said, “I live with my father, Samuel Hunt, in the Quadrant; he has another house in the Strand; he is a billiard-table-keeper”. While Horatio was cleaning the billard room in the Strand, “which is on the first floor”, the accused came in and started to “knock the balls about on the table”. The minute Horatio turned his back, the accused left, taking the balls with him; they were later found at a pawnbroker’s.⁽¹⁾ The 1841 census shows Horatio, with occupation tobacconist, living at 370 Strand and Samuel Hunt, billiard-table-keeper, at 371 Strand. Also living at 370 Strand is William Preist, trunk maker, who was in the debtor’s prison later that year.⁽²⁾ In the bankruptcy notice, Preist is described as a foreman to a trunk maker and it is entirely possible that he was employed by Hunt in the making of the billiard tables. In Robson’s London Directory for 1842, Samuel Hunt & Co. are described as “trunk and camp equipage manfrs, tobacconists & billiard table makrs” and in the 1843 Post Office Directory as “metal & slate billiard table ma. tobacconists, & trunk makers, 370 & 371 Strand, & 105 Quadrant”. That same year, 1843, Samuel and Horatio Nelson, as he is officially named, dissolve the partnership they have at 370 Strand. No mention is made of the other addresses.⁽³⁾

c.1825 Hand-coloured etching and aquatint “Drawn by W.H.Pyne / Engraved by G.Hunt / Etched by Williams” and “Pubd by Pyall & Hunt, 18, Tavistock Strt, Covent Garden” (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

Samuel Hunt died in July 1845 of “disease of the lungs and debility”, just 48 years old. Horatio Nelson continued the business, at one point assisted by one John Drucquer, who had at one time had had his own tobacconist and billiard establishment at 334A Strand, but had fallen on hard times.⁽⁴⁾ By 1850, Horatio must have left the tobacco side of the business to William Henry and Charles Russell who dissolve their partnership as tobacco and snuff dealers at 370 Strand in February 1850.⁽⁵⁾ The billiard business was, however, still in Hunt’s hands and he is listed as billiard table keeper at number 370 in the 1851 census. At number 371, the census lists George Beckingham, also a billiard table keeper. What exactly the relationship was between Hunt and Beckingham is not clear, but it seems that Beckingham took over part of Hunt’s business as in 1859, The Building News of 15 July reported that 371 Strand, known as Beckenham’s Billiard-rooms, was sold for £1230. The Land Tax records still show Hunt at number 370 and Cahan at 371. The 1861 census shows Horatio and his family at number 370, but 371 is just occupied by a single lodger, so no great help in determining what happened. In the 1871 census, Horatio has moved to 2, Montague Place, and is described as billiard table maker, employing 5 men. He went bankrupt in 1878 and was then living at 11 Finborough Road, South Kensington.⁽⁶⁾ He got himself out of trouble and continued to work as a billiard table maker/keeper, in 1881 at 6 Tavistock Street. He retired sometime between 1881 and 1891 as the 1891 census finds him living on his own means. He died in 1898.

It is unclear what happened to 370 Strand just after Hunt left, but it came on the market in 1872 with an unexpired lease of 56 years.⁽⁷⁾ It became part of the Exeter Hall Hotel, often referred to as Haxell’s Hotel after its proprietor Edward Nelson Haxell, but at some point it also housed George Hammer & Co’s, school furnishers. In the 1920s Haxell’s Hotel became part of the very grand Strand Palace Hotel, but that is another story.

(1) Old Bailey case t18360919-2121.
(2) The London Gazette, 16 November 1841.
(3) The London Gazette, 29 September 1843.
(4) The London Gazette, 6 February 1846.
(5) The London Gazette, 5 February 1850.
(6) The London Gazette, 19 February 1878.
(7) The London Gazette, 3 September 1872.

Neighbours:

<– 372 Strand

370 Strand –> 369 Strand –>

John Jaques, ivory turner

Tags

games, ivory, turner

Street View: 33
Address: 102 Hatton Garden

In 1821 at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, John Jaques of 102 Hatton Garden married Ann Danks, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Danks of 98 Hatton Garden. She was the sister of Michael Danks who continued the carpet business at number 98 and 99 after his father’s death (see here). John Jaques was the son of Thomas Jacques and Mary Phillips and was born on 13 October 1795 in Leather Lane. The family was of Huguenot descend and John’s birth was registered by the Protestant Dissenting (Baptist) Minister W. Smith at Eagle Street Chapel in Red Lion Square, also known as the Kingsgate Chapel.⁽¹⁾ Father Thomas Jaques was an ivory turner at 65 Leather Lane and son John followed in his footsteps. The back of a trade card in the British Museum collection, dated ±1814, shows us the range of items that could be obtained from Thomas Jaques’. Not unexpected were the ivory fans, billiard balls, ivory handles, boxes and cases, but perhaps more surprising are the games, such as Pope Joan, Back Gammon and Cribbage.

front and back of trade card ±1814 ©British Museum

In May 1837, John Jaques gave evidence at the Old Bailey against John Arnold, who was accused of stealing from him a saw, a tap and box, total value 6s. Jaques states that Arnold had been in his employ on and off for two years, but that he was “a very irregular man […] in the habit of coming early, before the other men, and leaving before breakfast”. Arnold confessed to stealing the articles and was sentenced to transportation for seven years. As an aside, at the end of the transcript it says between brackets “(The prosecutor stated that the prisoner had previously robbed him, and had been forgiven.)”⁽²⁾

By the time Tallis’s Street Views came out, the firm had expanded to Hatton Garden and in the Tallis advertisement (above), it can clearly be seen that it was not just ivory they dealt in, but also hardwood and pearl. The list of items already shows a greater emphasis on games and that was what the firm became known for, especially John (II), the son of John and Ann, had a vivid imagination which allowed him to invent all sorts of games we still play. Around 1840, John (II) invented Happy Families; Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and Tiddledy-Winks were to follow.

Happy Families (Source: museumvictoria.com.au)

Back of box of Counties of England (Source: www.card-tower.eu)

The 1841 census shows John (I) and Ann with daughter Mary and son John (II) living above the Hatton Garden shop, but in the 1851 census they are found at 78 Belitha Villas, Islington. On the 31st of January, 1860 John (II) marries Harriet Ingram Cooke at St. John’s, Notting Hill and the 1861 census sees the newly-weds at 4 Caroline Place. John (I) and Ann are then living at 31 Doughty Street. John (III) is born on 3 September 1862 and baptised in January 1863.
In early 1867, John (I) retires from the business and a notice in the London Gazette of 22 February announces that John Jacques junior is from then on solely responsible for the firm. John and Harriet move once again as in the 1871 census they are found at 50 Holland Street; John (I) and Ann live at 52 Argyll Road and that is were John senior dies on 18 May 1877.⁽³⁾ In the 1891 census, John (II) and Harriet are residing at ‘Hillside’, Duppas Hill, Croyden with sons John (III), Percy (both ivory workers) and Alfred, a printer, daughter Ellen, and five servants. John (II) dies 3 April, 1898, and a notice in the London Gazette of 20 May, urges all creditors to put in their claims before the 1st of July with Peacock and Goddard, solicitors for the executors.⁽⁴⁾

(Source: Pinterest)

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was perhaps the watershed in the fortune of the Jacques firm as John (II) introduces a new game there for which he received a gold medal: croquet. Various forms of similar games had been played before, for instance in Ireland, but it was the version that Jaques introduced that became an enormous success. In 1862, he took out a patent on the game of “croquêt” – it was to lose its circumflex a few years later. Jaques was astute enough to sell complete kits from his shop which included a booklet with the rules. By 1867, sixty-five thousand rule books had been sold. One of the attractions of the game was the fact that it could be played by both sexes at the same time and also outdoors which gave it an air of informality.

Croquet Galop ©British Museum

When John Jaques (III) joined the company in the 1880s, he expanded it to include all kinds of sports equipment such as for cricket, tennis, football, hockey, badminton and archery. He also invented table tennis (first called Gossima). Subsequent generations kept the company in the forefront of the games and sports industry, but after a devastating bombardment in the Blitz, no longer at Hatton Garden, but first at Thornton Heath, Surrey and these days in Edenbridge, Kent.⁽⁵⁾

portrait John Jaques (Source: jaqueslondon.co.uk)

(1) The National Archives; Kew, General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857; Class: RG 4; Piece: 4235.
(2) Proceedings of the Old Bailey t18370612-1502, 12 June 1837.
(3) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1877. Probate granted 11 July 1877 to John (II) and David Henry Hastings, the executors (effects under £12,000).
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1898. The executors were widow Harriet and Herbert Edgar Reid (effects just over £88,000).
(5) Their website: jaqueslondon.co.uk.

Neighbours:

<– 103 Hatton Garden

101 Hatton Garden –>