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From 247 to 257 High Street, Old Brentford

By 1909/10 numbers 252 and 254-6 had been demolished. In the 1913 - 1933 trade directories numbers 252-5 are not included. By 1940 the Borough of Brentford & Chiswick Health Centre and Brentford & Chiswick Juvenile Employment Bureau were the only buildings recorded between numbers 249 and 258. In about 2000 the 1930s Health Centre building, Alexandra House, which faces on to Alexandra Road, was listed (L).

Properties

Notes prepared for numbers Duke of Cambridge (247), 248, 249, 250, 252, 253, One Tun PH (254), 256 and 257; also a list of photos, ephemera and maps

Duke of Cambridge Beer House (247)

In 1907 Mrs Susan Peasland was the beer retailer and barge owner here. She married Peter James Gotts in 1908.

In 1909 the Valuation return lists the owner as Messrs Fuller Smith & Turner, Chiswick and describes it as a house and shop at east corner of Spring Gardens. Top floor: 2 attics; 1st floor: 2 rooms; ground floor: shop, parlour, private entrance in New Spring Gardens, kitchen. Outside: washhouse, WC, old stable for 2 horses. Cellar in basement. This is an old property & dilapidated. Flooring in places is broken away. Front elevation wants painting. These premises were a beerhouse at 30/04/1909.

In the 1911 census the Duke of Cambridge was run by Susan Gotts and her second husband. The property had 7 rooms.

Henry Thomas Ford was recorded here in a 1913 directory, Mrs Alice Hopgood, confectioner in a 1928 trade directory.

Number 248

Miss Elvina Johnson, shopkeeper, lived here in the 1871 and 1881 censuses. In the 1861 census she is recorded on the western corner of New Spring Gardens, number 246. It seems unlikely she moved two doors down the road but that's what the censuses suggest. In 1901 she is recorded in the Ferry Lane Almshouses, aged 79 and born in Brentford.

In 1907 Charlotte Murray, wardrobe dealer, is recorded at this address in a trade directory. A 1911 directory has the same entry, the census from this year records her as a widow and 'general clothier', a daughter and grandson lived with her, also a boarder, William Arthur Blackburn, a gauger (wine and spirits). The property had 5 rooms.

Stephen Flint, greengrocer, was recorded here in trade directories from 1913 to 1940.

Number 249

By 1861 John's widow, Maria Sarah had moved to number 237 and was running the bakery from here. Number 249 continued as a bakery until 1891. At the time of the 1909/10 Valuation it was a butchers shop owned by Percy Meyers of Hounslow 'this is a very old property'. It was a brick-built, tiled terrace house and shop of 3 storeys:

• Top floor: 1 small attic
• 1st floor: 2 rooms and attic
• Ground floor: butchers shop, parlour, old washhouse.
• Very old shed at rear, 2 very dilapidated brick built sheds and 2 corrugated iron sheds.

In the 1911 census no. 249 was described as a lock-up shop (not used as a dwelling). Trade directories show: 1907 & 1913 James Nelson & Sons Ltd, butchers; 1926,1928 & 1931 Barnes & Co., butchers; 1933 & 1940 Donald Mackay Shaw, dairyman. Phone directories for 1950-1955 show D J M Shaw, photographer, at this address and the 1952 electoral register lists Donald M, Helen M and Hamilton N M Shaw at 249.

Number 250

By 1861 the dyers business was run by James Goldney, who remained here until 1891. In 1901 Mrs Clementine Goldney lived here. A Miss MCE Goldney was the owner & occupier in the 1909/10 Valuation returns and the property is described as very old and in fair repair. There is a note that the shops of numbers 250 and 251 communicate: Miss Goldney also owned no. 251. In 1913 James Goldney, draper & dyer used 250/251. By 1928 Mrs Mary Wilson, draper had taken over and remained there in 1933.

The property is not listed in 1940 and the Borough of Brentford & Chiswick Health Centre and Brentford & Chiswick Juvenile Employment Bureau are listed in the area between Alexandra Road and number 258.

Number 252

Number 253

The property was separated from the One Tun by an alley, Old Spring Gardens, to the British School which was used 1834 - 1855.

By 1861 John Johnson, fishmonger, was living here with his wife Matilda and five children aged 13 months to 16. John was born in Isleworth, his wife in Uxbridge. The Johnson family remained at no. 253 in 1871, 1881 and 1891.

In 1901 George Winckworth, also a fishmonger, was living here. Patricia Parma Johnson has written to say he was the son-in-law of John Johnson, having married John's daughter Hannah and that he took over the running of the shop when John Johnson died in 1894.

The Valuation Records from ca 1910 describe no. 253 as a house and shop, occupied by Winkworth and owned by Isabelle Steel. It was an old and dilapidated brick and tile corner building with a shop, 1 room over and a small yard with WC. It had a frontage of 14' to the High Street. It is included in a 1911 trade directory (George Winckworth, fishmonger).

In 1926 and 1933 Albert William Wheeler used no. 253: in 1933 he ran a café here, in 1938 this was run by Albert T. Nicholson.

One Tun PH (254)

Numbers 254, 255 and 256 were demolished by the time of the 1909/10 Valuation: 254 and 255 were not referred to, 256 was a 'building site'. 'This land has special value in consequence of the long return frontage to Alexandra Road and its value in conjunction with the adjoining site.' The site was about 250' deep and had 20' rear frontage to Albany Road. Having looked long and hard at the maps and directories, I've concluded that Alexandra Road was built around 1909/11 using the land created when the One Tun and number 255 were demolished.

Number 256

Elizabeth Waight is recorded here in the 1851 and 1861 censuses, by which time she was 67. In 1851 she was a 'bricklayer' and the 1861 census shows she was born in New Brentford, whereas her children were born in Old Brentford. In 1871 her son Thomas, a builder, is recorded as the head of household. He remained here in 1881.

Pages 1 and 2 of the 1891 census were damaged (and are omitted from some of the subscription web sites) but Lynn Hayter, having checked the originals at The National Archives in 2009, is confident that the Pither family, headed by James Pither, bricklayer, lived here in 1891.

James Pither, bricklayer, born Hurst, Berkshire, continued to live here in 1901 with his grown up daughter and two sons.

In the 1909/10 Valuation no. 256 was a 'building site': see notes above for 254. The site was owned by Francis G D Watson, presumably a descendant of the Colonel Watson who owned this property 70 years previously when the tithe enumeration took place. It was valued at £300.

See below for a link to a postcard showing this area.

Number 257

The Waight family lived at 256 and their next door neighbours to the east were:
1841: Thomas Vere, shoemaker, age 55, household of two; also Edward Cates, labourer, 35, household of three
1851: Charles H Newbury, engineer, heading a household of three; also Mrs Elizabeth Allard, fundholder
1861: Stephen Palmer, tobacco manufacturer, age 41 heading a household of eight including a visitor
1871: Thomas Moles, lighterman, with wife Martha Mary, 5 children aged 1 to 14, plus a family of three lodgers (William Sedgwick, Eliza Chandler and their baby Caroline), plus two other lodgers Walter Young and Jane Matilda Oakley who were in their 20s.

By the next census the High Street was numbered and occupants of no. 257 were:
1881: John Collins, carman, heading a household of eleven (he is also recorded at this address in an 1878 trade directory); he remained here in 1890
1891: page damaged, possibly a housekeeper and a household of five including an auctioneers assistant (no names visible)
1901: Horace A Collins, 29, dock labourer, household of seven including two boarders; also Henry Salt, general labourer, 38, household of two

The 1841 and 1851 censuses also include a lodging house in Hardings Court (1841) and Sweeps Alley (1851) in each case the next entry on the census, next but one to the Waight family at 256.

But equally no. 257 could accommodate as many as twelve (including six children) as it had three floors and a wider than average frontage.

The 1909/10 Valuation describes no. 257 has having a 20' 6” frontage to the High Street with a right of way under part of the cottage to the school playground at rear. Originally known as Hardings Court and 79 Albany Road.

It was a detached cottage and shop, with 2 small attics on the top floor, 2 rooms and a box room on the first floor and a shop, parlour, outside washhouse and WC 'This is a very old cottage of brick and plaster with tiled roof (1909/10 Valuation)'. It was owned by E C Platt, 25 Rowan Rd, Brook Green W with a tithe of one penny paid by the owner.

The 1911 census shows Albert William Wheeler, a confectioner at this address, he had moved here recently (his 5 month old son was born in Marylebone). The property had 6 rooms. In a 1926 trade directory Albert William Wheeler was a 'general dealer' at 257 & 253 High Street. In 1928 and 1933 directories he was a 'furniture dealer'.

See below for a link to a postcard showing this area.

Photos/Ephemera/Maps

References such as '1899 (A11)' indicate the date of a photo (1899) and where it is published (A11). Details of 'A' are available: see Mainly paper sources page; '11' refers to the page no, or photo no. in the publication.

• 248 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47); 1935 (A49)
• 249 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47); 1935 (A49); possible back garden view (Mark Bruce)
• 250 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47); 1909 advert J Goldney dyer (L); 1935 (A49)
• 251 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47); 1935 (A49)
• 252 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47)
• 253 Ca 1905 (B92) and (C47)
• Old Spring Gardens 1945 (H)
• 254 One Tun Inn, ca 1905 (B92) and (C47)
• 256 1901 (D20); early 1900s postcard
• 257 1901 (D20); early 1900s postcard
• Hardings Court 1901 (D20); 1-10 Hardings Court were cottages existing as at 30 April 1909 but since demolished (T)

Roads Off

Old Spring Gardens between numbers 253 & 254; known as British Schools Alley in 1848 (OS Map)

One Tun Yard and One Tun Alley (both names are recorded in 1881) between numbers 254 & 255; widened in the early 1900s to create Alexandra Road (appears in 1911 directory)

Hardings Court between numbers 257 & 258; known as Sweeps Alley on 1848 OS map and 1861 census; in the 1881 census the enumerator for district 18 has noted 'Sweeps Alley now named Hardings Court'

Published 2006; last updated December 2017