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196 - 208 High Street, New Brentford

The building line from number 191 to the Half Acre was set back in the 1960s leaving a wide pavement with flower beds (L).

In the 1871 census this stretch is numbered, starting at 1 for the (unoccupied) property on the corner of the Market Place and reaching 14 at The Castle Inn. There are only 13 properties in this stretch which fronted the High Street (and they became numbers 196 – 208). I think the anomaly arises as the Castle Inn is made up of three inhabited buildings on the tithe map (1838): numbers 207 and 208 plus a small property behind no. 207. In the 1909/10 there is no mention of no. 207, suggesting number 207 became part of the Castle.

The High Street numbering in New Brentford could have been just for the 1871 census: the whole High Street was numbered in 1876.

Properties

Notes prepared for numbers 196, The Red Lion (197), 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 205 and Castle Hotel (208); also a list of photos, ephemera and maps

Number 196

When the 1909/10 Valuation records were compiled, the property was assessed along with the adjacent no. 1 Market Place. At this point the occupiers of 196 were ‘Boots Cash Chemists Ltd’ (1 Market Place was empty) and the owners Misses Emily & Olivia Stein, of 37 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead.

The condition of no. 196 High Street and 1 Market Place was described as ‘new’ so presumably they had been (re)built within the last decade. Boots remained in business here until at least 1940, when they were listed as simply ‘Boots the Chemists’ by 1940. D & L Kay & Sons used these premises in 1978.

Top

The Red Lion (197)

At the time the Pigot directory for 1839 was prepared, Sarah Pearce was the publican. There is a PCC will for Isaac Pearce, licensed victualler of New Brentford dated 1835, presumably her husband.

By 1851 Frederick Shipley had taken over, and he is listed in the 1861 census too. He was succeeded by John Wetherley by 1871; George Loader (1881); William Henry Fear (1890 & 1891); William Farmer or Farriner, from Brighton, Sussex (1901).

The valuation on 3rd December 1914 describes the property as ‘3 storey building, upper part cement faced. Painted lower part with wood front and glazed with double swing doors; green tiled dado to centre. Wood cellar flap in pavement

• Ground floor: 2 public saloon & bottle bars; kitchen; scullery & parlour; outside WC
• Basement: cellar
• First floor: 3 rooms
• Top floor: 2 rooms, bathroom & WC.

The occupier was Richard Boxall (who may be a descendant of George Boxall, who ran the Magpie & Crown at no. 128 in the late 1830s to mid 1840s); the owner Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co Ltd, Brick Lane, Spitalfields. Freehold, term – yearly, from 18 Jan 1909. Rent £52. Gross value: £2375.

The Red Lion closed in 1928 and the London Co-op opened here in the same year, remaining here until at least 1940. Used by Barclays Bank in 2003 and is now the first building after the Market Place (L).

Number 198

It is remembered as a ‘double fronted butcher’s shop’ and when valued in 1915 was described as ‘occupied by an oilman, with stable, storehouse, WC and shed at rear…the whole in very fair condition’. It had a frontage of 22’. See 199 for details of owners.

Number 199

At the time of compiling the 1909/1910 Valuation Records, numbers 198,199 & 200 were owned by Miss M A Leader, 79 Goldhurst Terrace, West Hampstead and Mrs M E Hawkins, 13 The Mount, Reading.

Number 200

Number 202

Number 203

By 1861 Elizabeth Meades had moved away, possibly having remarried, and no. 203 was occupied by locally born Henry Samuel Barnes, confectioner. His household included a Richard Meades, aged 19, a relative of Elizabeth Meades? Henry Samuel Barnes remained here until at least 1874 (he is recorded as a wholesale confectioner in a trade directory).

In 1881 Charles Box, wholesale confection born North Devon lived here with his wife Emma, two boys surname Burgess and a female servant.

The 1890 Kelly’s trade directory records ‘Pescud & Ransom, manufacturing confectioners and biscuit bakers’. William Pescud lived here in 1891 and 1901 with his wife Alice and family (8 children by 1901). There is a marriage at Westminster Registration District in 1879 of a William Pescud and Alice Pescud which fits the age of their eldest child. William was from Richmond a few miles to the south of Brentford, Alice was Brentford-born.

In 1913 Charles Robinson, solicitor, was recorded at this address. The 1909/10 Valuation (which is dated 9 April 1915 for this property) records Eliza Robinson, Lampton Road, Hounslow, as the owner but the property was vacant.

It is described as a 3 storey, brick and flat roofed property with cement washed upper part, shop premises but used as offices. It had a projecting wood framed window to the first floor and a wood and glazed office front to the ground floor.

• The ground floor had matchboard partitioned offices (3), a book room, and rear office plus a kitchen with sink, dresser and range
• There were 2 rooms on the first floor and a half landing with a lavatory and small room.
• On the top floor were 3 attics.

Number 204

George Brown,possibly the son of John, lived next door to John Brown in 1841 and remained on the High Street in 1851.

No. 204 was used by a greengrocers in 1881 then various butchers from 1890 – 1933.

Number 205

Castle Hotel (208)

The Lodge of Affability (Freemasons) met at the Castle Inn from 1790 until the lodge was ‘erased’ in 1813 (I). It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1823 (Q64). By 1839 it was named the ‘Castle Inn & Posting House’. The tithe return for around this date shows the Castle and its outbuildings.

It possessed a theatre in 1904; was the Head Quarters of the Brentford Philanthropic Society (J J Cowley secretary) in 1913; it closed 1936; Brentford PO built on site 1960 (Q64 / trade directory). Converted to Jenny’s Restaurant (hamburger chain), an estate agents and a dry cleaners, with flats above, in 2002 (L).

A former resident remembers it in the 1930s as ‘a pub with a dance hall above it & premises for solicitors offices’.

In the 1909/10 Valuation Returns it is described as :208 High Street “Castle Hotel” Licensed house, concert room, yard, stabling, garden, office & premises, extent ½ acre, owned by Captain Charles P B Wood DSO, Culmington, Bromfield, Salop, occupier P H Jones.

Landlords from trade directories and other sources:

• William Cullen (1839, 1841)
• Thomas Cullen (1851)
• In the 1861 census there is no specific reference to the Castle but it seems probable that Charles Coombs, bailiff of Brentford County Court lived here: the household numbered 11 and included an ostler, a labourer in the stables and a helper in the stables
• George King (1871, 1874)
• Mrs Harriet King (1881)
• John Brill (1890)
• Alfred Mellis (1891)
• Mr Orchard (1894 -(N))
• Frederick W Bird (1901)
• Augustus Greco (1913) - who may he the man of the same name who was born in Monmouth ca 1873, son of an Italian musician; in 1901 this Augustus Greco was a musical director living in West Ham)
• Joseph William Smith (1920, 1928)
• Frank R C Vivanti (1933)

Photos/Ephemera/Maps

Roads Off