The first Westminster Bridge was built by Commissioners under the Act of 9 George II, c.29 (1736) and the amending Act, 10 George c.16, of the following year; it was designed by Charles Labelye. The first stone was laid on 29 January 1739 and the bridge completed in November 1750. After 1831, however, the structure became dangerous, and a new bridge, designed by Thomas Page, replaced it in 1862. The work was paid for partly out of the funds of the Westminster Bridge Commissioners, partly by a Parliamentary Grant. The bridge was transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works in accordance with the London Parks and Works Act, 1887.
Messrs Cowtan and Sons Ltd were high class decorators, upholsterers and cabinet-makers of West Halkin Street Galleries, Belgrave Square SW1. They were established in 1790.
The premises of this firm of funeral directors were at 73 and 75 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith.
The General Hydraulic Power Company Limited, was formed in 1882, the date of incorporation being 29 June. It incorporated the Wharves and Warehouses Steam Power and Hydraulic Pressure Company, formed in 1872, which became the London Hydraulic Power Company in January 1884 (as authorised by the London Hydraulic Power Company Acts 1871 and 1884) and the Liverpool Hydraulic Power Company (authorised by the Liverpool Hydraulic Power Company Acts, 1884 and 1887). Registered Office in 1976: Renforth Street, Rotherhithe, London, SE16.
According to website "Subterranea Britannica" (accessed Oct 2009): The Wharves and Warehouses Steam Power and Hydraulic Pressure Company was formed in 1871 to operate in London's Docklands. In 1884 it became the London Hydraulic Power Company, providing hydraulic power over most of London, for the operation of lifts, cranes, presses and similar equipment. Central pumping plants supplied high pressure water to a pipe network, which was extended progressively up to 1939. Post war damage and electrification led to the decline of the Company. In 1981 control of the Company was acquired by a group led by Rothschilds, which recognised the importance of the pipe network for the coming generation of communications systems. The network of 150 miles of pipes, ducts and conduits was sold in 1985 to Mercury Communications Ltd, now owned by Cable and Wireless Ltd, and subsequently many miles of optical fibre cable have been laid in this network.
See http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/h/hydraulic_power_in_london/index.shtml.
This collection also contains records of the predeccessor companies Wharves and Warehouses Steam Power and Hydraulic Pressure Company, London Hydraulic Power Company (which had pumping stations at Falcon Wharf, Rotherhithe, Wapping; City Road, Islington; and Grosvenor Road, Westminster) and Liverpool Hydraulic Power Company, and records of the following associated companies: Aldous Campbell Hypower Limited; Grosvenor Hypower Limited; Hatfield Insurance Company Limited (of 19 Hatfields, London, SE1); Hypower Limited; and De Trafford Estate Company.
In 1807 Frederick Albert Winsor, a Moravian, issued a prospectus for the grandiose New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company. In the same year a group of influential backers, led by James Ludovic Grant, met at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand to try to launch some sort of public venture. At that time any company raising capital by selling shares was deemed a partnership: if it failed, all its members were held personally liable for losses. It was therefore decided to seek a charter by act of parliament. An initial application in 1809 seeking to raise £1 million failed, largely through opposition by rivals such as Murdock and the younger James Watt. However, a more modest application for £200,000 was successful in 1810, though stringent conditions were attached. By 1810 these had been fulfilled and on 9 June the Gas Light and Coke Company - commonly known as the chartered company - was formally established, with Grant as its first governor. A Charter was granted by the Prince Regent in 1812.
The Company constructed first operational public gas-works in Peter Street, Horseferry Road, Westminster, and began producing gas in September 1813. The Company absorbed 27 smaller companies and several undertakings during its period of operation, including the Aldgate Gas Light and Coke Company (1819), the Brentford Gas Company (1926), the City of London Gas Light and Coke Company (1870), the Equitable Gas Light Company (1871), the Great Central Gas Consumer's Company (1870), Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the Independent Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the London Gas Light Company (1883), Pinner Gas Company (1930), Richmond Gas Company (1925), Southend-on-Sea and District Gas Company (1932), Victoria Docks Gas Company (1871) and Western Gas Light Company (1873). In May 1949, after the passing of the Gas Bill 1948, the Company handed over its assets to the North Thames Gas Board.
Henry Hewitt began a nursery and seed business in Brompton in 1775 or earlier and this was carried on by his nephews John and Samuel Harrison. Some growing took place at the nursery but the majority of stock was grown by country farmers on contract. The business was run with some success and had regular clients in all parts of England, including many titled families. It was the practice for one of the partners to travel round the country to collect payment for outstanding accounts and probably orders (for the expenses for these trips include many gratuities to gardeners). In spite of this and an apparent high turnover, however, clients were bad at paying bills and the business was sometimes in difficulties. New partners brought fresh capital from time to time. The last partner was William Bristowe who joined in 1829 with a fourth share, the firm then being described as Harrison and Bristowe. In 1833, Samuel Harrison was described as a bankrupt.
The City of London Gas Light and Coke Company was founded in 1817, with offices at Salisbury Square, off Fleet Street. The company had Gas Works at Dorset Street, Blackfriars; Fetter Lane, Aldgate and Whitechapel. It was taken over by the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company in 1870.
The Ratcliff Gas Light and Coke Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1823-24 (George IV cap. 98), which was later consolidated and amended in 1855 (18-19 Victoria, cap. 12). ). The Company merged with the East London Gas Light Company (1831-1835). It was later amalgamated with the Commercial Gas Company, 1875 (38-39 Victoria, cap. 200).
The Ratcliff Gas Light and Coke Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1823-24 (George IV cap. 98), which was later consolidated and amended in 1855 (18-19 Victoria, cap. 12). ). The Company merged with the East London Gas Light Company (1831-1835). It was later amalgamated with the Commercial Gas Company, 1875 (38-39 Victoria, cap. 200.)
Scott of London, basket weavers, were founded in 1661 in the City of London. After the Great Fire of London in 1666 trades identified as a fire risk were ordered to move out of the City and so the company went to Soho, which was then a rural area. The products manufactured by the company varied over time but included bug traps (bed bugs are attracted to the bitter taste of willow), picnic baskets (the company claimed to have invented the modern picnic basket), cane furniture, cradles, dog baskets, and stage props such as effigies of Gog and Magog for the Lord Mayor's Parade or the frame of Falstaff's belly.
Seager Evans and Company was founded in 1805, principally as a maker of gin. They owned distilleries in Millbank and Deptford as well as many in Scotland for the production of whisky.
In 1956 they were bought by Schenley Industries of New York, in turn owned by Glen Alden Corporation. In 1969 Glen Alden Corporation was taken over by Rapid American Incorporated. The name Seager Evans was changed to Long John International, Ltd.
The collection also contains the records of a subsidiary company Holland and Co. Ltd, distillers, of Deptford Bridge, Deptford, Kent.
No historical information could be located for this Company.
Preservation and the care of records are perhaps inherent in a firm which manufactures a patent medicine, since its existence depends upon the careful protection and safe descent of an original recipe or formula. According to tradition the ointment in question was invented by a Lambeth doctor, Thomas Johnson, in the seventeenth century. It was used for eye complaints. On his death it passed to the Hind family, passing from them when a daughter married Thomas Singleton and took the recipe with her as a marriage portion. Thomas Singleton died in 1779 leaving the recipe to his son William and on his death it passed via his daughter to the Folgham family.
Stephen Green, the Lambeth stone potter, married into this family and by 1848 acquired the proprietorship of the recipe. It eventually passed to the Carlill family who continued manufacture as Stephen Green Ltd. The descent of the recipe was surrounded by many ad hoc legal safeguards, designed to preserve its secrecy. Where they failed, elaborate litigation commenced between claimants to the proprietorship and this accounts for the preservation of deeds and settlements of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The remaining early material seems to have survived largely as a result of the prominence given to the "historic" nature of the firm in its publicity, a feature which Stephen Green, in particular, seems to have emphasised.
The South Metropolitan Gas Light and Coke Company was founded in 1834 to serve Southwark and other places in what was then Surrey and Kent.
The following companies were amalgamated with the South Metropolitan: Surrey Consumers, 1879 (established 1854); Phoenix, 1880 (established 1824); Woolwich, Charlton and Plumstead, 1884 (established 1855); Woolwich Equitable, 1884 (established 1855).
The Company was nationalised in 1949 and placed under the control of the South Eastern Gas Board. It was the sole trustee of the South Metropolitan Gas Company's Officers' Pension Fund. It was wound up voluntarily, as the Pension Fund was wound up, on 1 April 1964 in accordance with the Gas (Superannuation Schemes) (Winding Up) Regulations, 1964.
The Woolwich Equitable Gas Company was formed in 1832. Dissension about the price of gas in Woolwich led in March 1844 to the formation of the Woolwich Consumers Protective Gas Company with gasworks fronting the River Thames at Hog Lane. The company was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1855 (18 and 19 Victc.ii) as the Woolwich, Plumstead and Charlton Consumers Gas Company. Around 1862 it moved to new works in Glass Yard, Woolwich. In 1884 both the Woolwich, Plumstead and Charlton Consumers Gas Company and the Woolwich Equitable Gas Light and Coke Company were amalgamated with the South Metropolitan Gas Light and Coke Company.
The company was formed in 1834 and incorporated by Act of Parliament, 19 and 20 Vict., c.lxii, 1856, to serve the Wandsworth and Putney neighbourhood. It was amalgamated in 1913 with the Mitcham and Wimbledon District Gas Light and Coke Company and the Epsom and Ewell Gas Company to form the Wandsworth, Wimbledon and Epsom District Gas Company from 1 Jan 1913.
The County Courts as they now exist have their origins in the County Courts Act 1846 with modifications etc under the County Courts Acts of 1888 and 1934. The area of jurisdiction of each court is set from time to time by the Lord Chancellor.
The original jurisdiction of the courts included claims of debt or for damages (except for libel, slander, seduction and breach of promise) not exceeding £400; claims for recovery of land (less than £100 rateable value); claims for the administration of estates, execution of trusts, foreclosure, redemption of mortgages; matters regarding the maintenance of infants, dissolution of partnerships, relief against fraud or mistake where the value of the estates or property etc was not more than £500; contentious business in probate and administration matters where the estate was less than £1000.
The courts have had varied and extensive jurisdictions under numerous Acts including questions between husband and wife under the Married Women's Property Act 1882 and compensation for injured workmen by employers under the Workmen's Compensation Acts 1897 and 1925.
More recent decisions and judgements of County Courts can be found at the Registrar for County Court Judgements, Cleveland Street, London W1.
Address of Bow County Court: Bow Road, E3; later 96 Romford Road, Stratford.
District of the Court: Bromley, Stratford, West Ham, Buckhurst Hill and parts of Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. Please see Post Office Directories (available in the LMA History Library) for lists of County Courts existing at any one time together with an account of the area covered by each court.
The County Courts as they now exist have their origins in the County Courts Act 1846 with modifications etc under the County Courts Acts of 1888 and 1934. The area of jurisdiction of each court is set from time to time by the Lord Chancellor.
The original jurisdiction of the courts included claims of debt or for damages (except for libel, slander, seduction and breach of promise) not exceeding £400; claims for recovery of land (less than £100 rateable value); claims for the administration of estates, execution of trusts, foreclosure, redemption of mortgages; matters regarding the maintenance of infants, dissolution of partnerships, relief against fraud or mistake where the value of the estates or property etc was not more than £500; contentious business in probate and administration matters where the estate was less than £1000.
The courts have had varied and extensive jurisdictions under numerous Acts including questions between husband and wife under the Married Women's Property Act 1882 and compensation for injured workmen by employers under the Workmen's Compensation Acts 1897 and 1925.
More recent decisions and judgements of County Courts can be found at the Registrar for County Court Judgements, Cleveland Street, London W1.
Address of Lambeth County Court: Cleaver Street, Kennington Road, SE11.
District of the Court: Lambeth, Sydenham, and parts of Lewisham and Deptford, Bermondsey, and New Cross. Please see Post Office Directories (available in the LMA History Library) for lists of County Courts existing at any one time together with an account of the area covered by each court.
The County Courts as they now exist have their origins in the County Courts Act 1846 with modifications etc under the County Courts Acts of 1888 and 1934. The area of jurisdiction of each court is set from time to time by the Lord Chancellor.
The original jurisdiction of the courts included claims of debt or for damages (except for libel, slander, seduction and breach of promise) not exceeding £400; claims for recovery of land (less than £100 rateable value); claims for the administration of estates, execution of trusts, foreclosure, redemption of mortgages; matters regarding the maintenance of infants, dissolution of partnerships, relief against fraud or mistake where the value of the estates or property etc was not more than £500; contentious business in probate and administration matters where the estate was less than £1000.
The courts have had varied and extensive jurisdictions under numerous Acts including questions between husband and wife under the Married Women's Property Act 1882 and compensation for injured workmen by employers under the Workmen's Compensation Acts 1897 and 1925.
More recent decisions and judgements of County Courts can be found at the Registrar for County Court Judgements, Cleveland Street, London W1.
Address of Edmonton County Court: 59 Fore Street, Edmonton, N18.
District of Court: Bowes Park, Winchmore Hill, Cockfosters, Clay Hill, Cooper's Lane, Edmonton, Enfield, Forty Hill, Palmers Green, Ponders End, Stoke Newington, Southgate, New Southgate, Tottenham, West Green and Wood Green. Please see Post Office Directories (available in the LMA History Library) for lists of County Courts existing at any one time together with an account of the area covered by each court.
The National Society was founded in 1889 as the Printers' Labourers' Union, "to protect the interests and wages of printers' labourers ... and to afford them a means of mutual support". In 1899 it was renamed the Operative Printers' Assistants Society, and in 1904 it became the National Society of Operative Printers' Assistants.
In recognition of the skilled managers as well as assistants among its membership, its title was altered again in 1912 to the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants (NatSOPA). In 1965 the union merged with the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers to form the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT).
The union was organised on a branch (chapel) basis, each chapel being presided over by its "father".
Aldgate Ward Club was known until 1906 as the Aldgate Ward Association. It was a social club encouraging the discussion of topics of local or general interest.
The City of London was divided into wards for the purpose of government as early as Norman times. The wards had responsibility to keep the peace, supervise trade and oversee sanitation, and each ward has the right to elect an Alderman and Commoners to sit in the Court of Common Council. The Aldgate ward is bounded by White Kennet Street in the north and Crutched Friars in the south, and includes Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street.
The troop was a society meeting weekly for social purposes; the officers of the society bore mock military titles and the members were known as troopers.
The Association was a professional association supporting those in the meat trade.
The Institution was founded prior to 1858. Its name was changed to the Clothier Cutters' Society on 6 November 1865.
The Bouverie Street Society (renamed the Bouverie Society in 1889) was established in 1801 at the Queen's Head tavern, Holborn, as a dining and debating society for master pawnbrokers. It was dissolved in 1948, owing to lack of support, when its property was sold and the proceeds transferred to the Pawnbrokers' Charitable Institution.
A 'factory' in this context is an establishment for traders carrying on business in a foreign country or a merchant company's trading station. Leghorn or Livorno is a port city in Tuscany which was important for trade with the Levant and the population included many foreign merchants. There was a thriving and wealthy British community there which used the British Factory chapel and chaplain for Protestant services. The Factory closed in 1825 and the community dwindled.
A 'factory' in this context is an establishment for traders carrying on business in a foreign country or a merchant company's trading station. A chaplaincy attached to the Factory was established in the mid 17th century, with the first chaplain being appointed in 1654.
The Association was founded in 1896.
The City Clerical Society was a debating society for City of London incumbents and licensed curates, which met at Sion College.
The Association was founded in 1849 "for the purpose of bringing before the legislature and the Poor Law Board the unfair, unequal and oppressive operation" of the poor rates in the City of London Union.
The Concentores Society was also known as Sodales Concentores, a glee club, which met at the Buffalo Tavern, Bloomsbury. A glee club met to practice and perform glees and other songs. Glees are a form of English song, for three or more voices, which were usually unaccompanied.
Described as "an association for the ratepayers of St Giles Cripplegate, for the purpose of ... interchange of ideas upon the various subjects which arise affecting the interests of the ratepayers", this Association discussed the municipal and administrative matters relative to Cripplegate ward without and St Giles Cripplegate parish (especially vestry reform).
The Eclectic Book Society met at members' private residences, both within and without the City of London. The society acted as a private circulating library with members suggesting (often religious) titles for purchase.
The City of London was divided into wards for the purpose of government as early as Norman times. The wards had responsibility to keep the peace, supervise trade and oversee sanitation, and each ward has the right to elect an Alderman and Commoners to sit in the Court of Common Council.
In 1394 the Ward of Farringdon was divided into Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without (without [outside] the London wall) because it was too hard to manage as one unit.
Many London wards have social clubs for residents.
The club met in Hoxton, but its membership included many City figures. It was wound up in 1880.
A notary is officially authorized to perform certain legal formalities, including drawing up or certifying contracts and deeds, administering oaths, and protesting dishonoured bills of exchange.
The committee consisted of representatives of the National Federation of Inland Wholesale Fish Merchants; the Liverpool Wholesale Fish, Game, and Poultry Merchants' Association; and the Birmingham Fish and Poultry Merchants' Association. It was formed in 1950 to provide a means of communication between the wholesale trade and the White Fish Authority.
The regiment was formed in 1779, disbanded in 1783, reformed in 1794, and finally disbanded in 1829. Its members were mainly wealthy Londoners, including many merchants and bankers.
According to the original paper wrapper (now tipped in at the front of the volume), the volume belonged to Colonel Bosanquet who was commanding officer when the corps disbanded in 1829. The volume was evidently among the archives of the regiment held by him which are mentioned on page i of An historical account of the Light Horse Volunteers of London and Westminster... by James N. Collyer and John Innes Pocock (London, 1843). The subsequent provenance of the volume is unknown.
The Committee consisted of representatives of the City Corporation and the livery companies. They met to discuss the promotion of technical education; which was vocationally oriented training held at junior and senior technical institutes. The encouragement of such education was thought vital to provide a skilled workforce and support the economy.
The London Municipal Society was founded in 1894 to promote the interests of the Conservative party in London local politics and to press for structural and financial reform of the London County Council. Closely associated with the ratepayers movement, it fought local elections before 1945 first as the Moderate and later (from 1906) as the Municipal Reform Party. It was dissolved in 1963 on the eve of the reform of London local government and the closer involvement of Conservative central office in London local politics.
The Society had offices at the following addresses, all in Westminster: 16 George Street, 1894-1902; 11 Tothill Street, 1902-11; 33 Tothill Street, 1911-13; 2 Bridge Street, 1913-17; 1 Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, 1917-21; Palace Chambers, Bridge Street, 1922-7 and 1932-63; and 25 Victoria Street, 1927-32.
For a history of the Society see Local Politics and the Rise of Party by Ken Young (Leicester University Press, 1975).
The Association was formed in 1872 and its members met weekly in the City, most often at 8 Queen Street, Cheapside. It became the London district branch of the National Phonographic Society in 1894. In 1898 this body became the Incorporated Phonographic Society, a society still in existence.
The Pawnbroking Parliamentary Reform Association was established in Nottingham in 1868 by representatives of the pawnbroking trade from English and Scottish towns in order to draft and promote a parliamentary bill to amend the law regulating pawnbrokers. Its action resulted in the passing of the Pawnbrokers' Act of 1872, which regulated the amount of interest that pawnbrokers could charge, established guidelines and protected pawnbrokers who sold stolen items without knowledge of the theft.
The Royal Society of St. George was established as a patriotic society in London in 1894, with the aim of promoting Englishness and the English way of life. It is not affiliated to any political party. The City of London Branch was formed before the Second World War.
The Waterloo Club was for card players. It met at the Sussex Coffee House, Bouverie Street.
The Butchers' Charitable Institution was founded in 1828 as the meat industry's trade charity, assisting people unable to work or retired, a function it continues today. Although it is entirely independent from the Butchers' Company, it uses Butchers' Hall for its committee and annual general meetings, and has for some periods maintained offices elsewhere for day-to-day business, including 61 West Smithfield from 1909-c.1995. In 1986 it merged with the London Meat Traders' and Drovers' Benevolent Association to become the Butchers' and Drovers' Charitable Institution.
The Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Association was founded in 1886 to 'provide for the relief of necessitous persons who are or have been members of either ICAEW or the former Society of Incorporated Accountants and their dependents'.
It was based at Moorgate Place (1886-1965), City House, 56-66 Goswell Road (1965-c.1982) and 301 Salisbury House, London Wall (c.1982-2001). In 2001 it moved to 3 Cottesbrooke Park, Heartlands, Daventry.
Sion Hospital was formally separated from Sion College by Act of Parliament in 1875, to administer charitable payments to pensioners from the revenues of estates given to it. Sion College had formerly maintained a number of almspeople at its buildings on London Wall, but these had been removed in 1845 beacuse of poor conditions. Plans for re-establishing them came to nothing. Sion Hospital's supporting estates comprised some of the College's estates in Essex and Hertfordshire and one quarter of the London property. It was run by twelve Trustees, consisting of 8 Fellows or ex-Fellows of Sion College and 4 appointees of the Charity Commissioners. Meetings were held at Sion College. Candidates for pensions were nominated by various bodies. Sion Hospital was wound up in 1957.
The Chartered Accountants' Charities Ltd was set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales in 1955, based at Moorgate Place, to act as trustee for the Institute Prize Trust Fund and the Chartered Accountants' General Trust Fund. Its directors were taken from the ICAEW's Finance Committee. In 1962 it also became trustee of the Chartered Accountants' Investment Pool for Educational Endowment.
Sutton's Hospital was founded by businessman Thomas Sutton in 1611 in the old monastery of Charterhouse, situated on Charterhouse Square, EC1. The hospital was intended for professional men fallen into poverty through "shipwreck, casualty or fire". A school for poor boys was attached to the hospital. The hospital opened in 1614 and admitted 80 men.
In 1872 the school moved to Surrey and part of the London site was sold to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1941 Sutton's Hospital was badly damaged by enemy bombing, but was repaired and still functions as an almshouse.
See http://www.thecharterhouse.org/ for more information.
The fund was established in 1866 under the control of the trustees who were incorporated in 1899 and took over the business of the fund as the Colonial and Foreign Banks Guarantee Corporation. The business of the Corporation was transferred to the Alliance Assurance Company in 1920. The fund was based at 86 King William Street (1866-1900), 94 Gracechurch Street (1900-8) and 16 St Helen's Place (1908-20).