The off-licence at 16 Barwick Road

Regular contributor Peter Williams continues his history of unusual and interesting buildings in Forest Gate. Here he examines the history of an off-licence called Capel Arms, 16 Barwick Rd, which was not a pub despite its name. It is just around the corner from 10 Capel Road, which he considered in a previous article (here).

This slightly unusual building looks like this. The shop has been empty for many years.

June 2016 author photo

Early history

It seems that the developer of the new shop was Mr Deller. He had a few problems with the council, which refused him permission to build it and threatened to take action against him if he did. However, they must have reached a compromise, as it was eventually built.

West Ham and South Essex Mail - 30 May 1891

Then, there is this fascinating advert, a month later. It seems the builder of 16 had already built a house in Upton for £200 and needed to get rid of it quickly. We learn from this that in the Victorian period, owners tended not to sell the freeholds of their properties, but to let them on a long lease, for about 90 years. This enabled them to keep their investment properties. There were few freehold owner-occupied properties then, when typically the rent of a terraced house in Forest Gate would have been around £100 p.a.

West Ham and South Essex Mail - 30 May 1891

Deller was probably short of money to develop 16 Barwick and needed to get rid of the house in Upton quickly (“must be sold at once”) to raise some cash. Many small terraces were developed in Forest Gate at this period on a shoestring by small business folk with virtually no capital.

If you ever need to research the history of licensed premises, the website pubwiki is incredibly useful in this part of East London. In 1890, the licence holder was shown as William Deller, who was a "beer retailer."

Below is the advert he placed to accompany his application for a licence:

Stratford Express - 10 August 1892

His wife took over the licence by 1896. Subsequent occupants of the property were Joseph Spurgeon (beer seller) and his wife Margaret, along with Thomas and Sydney Carter, who would appear to have been Margaret's children via a previous marriage, and Florence Johns, a servant (1901 census).

By 1906, the licensee was Walter Charles Melsom, and by the 1911 census, it was Charles Hodgson. Other occupants of the property at the time were husband and wife John and Frances Crawford (Source: census). 

Hodgson was replaced in 1914, as licensee by Nellie Ivory.

East End News and London Shipping Chronicle - 29 September 1914

Who, in turn, was replaced by Robert Curtie, the following year

East End News and London Shipping Chronicle - 20 July 1915

One notable feature gleaned from these cuttings is how many pubs in Forest Gate have disappeared!

Some families publish whole family trees on the internet, which are a rich source of research information. Below is a relevant example. The extract suggests that Edgar Sydney Durham was the tenant of the off-licence between 1936 and 1952 and a member of the Durham family, which ran a number of licensed premises in London in the first half of the twentieth century. 

source here

1939 register

At the time of the 1939 Official Register, although the pub was licensed to Edgar Jacobs, the residents of 16 Barwick Street was Edgar Durham.

Source: Ancestry

Edgar Durham c 1919 - source: family history

Edgar Sydney Durham’s 2 children (source: family history)

The caption on the 1949 photo, on the family history site, says: "Opposite the off-licence, Barwick Road, Forest Gate, Essex". Edgar Sydney’s son says: “the house was opposite the off-licence, which had recently lost all its shop windows, in a blast from a nearby landmine, whilst not far away a bus finished up with its nose in a bomb crater.”

From the Durham family history site

Freeholders

So far, we have considered the licensees and leaseholders of 16 Barwick Road. What of the freeholders?

An examination of these explains the "Charrington's" name plate that adorned the premises for much of the off-licence's existence. Business premises can be quite easy to research on the internet, as there are many specialised resources available.

The original building owner/leaseholder of 16 Barwick was Savill Brothers of Maryland Road, Stratford. This company was founded 1856 and registered as a limited company in December 1893. It ran the Stratford brewery and was acquired by Charrington and Sons in 1925.

Savill’s ran 14 pubs in the Newham area, including the Capel Arms, Burnell Arms and Blakesley Arms, both in Manor Park, the Browning Arms, Earl of Wakefield and Black Lion, all of East Ham, as well as the nearby Woodhouse Tavern, on Harrow Road. (source: here).

Note empty site to the left, probably bomb damage. Wanstead Flats to the left.Source: their family history site .

 

 

The view into Barwick Rd about 1900

There is a shop on the corner lost to bombing presumably as the 1940s photos above show an empty site here. 

It was later built on – see below

 

The same corner a few years ago

The same corner a few years ago. The derelict off licence is behind.

 

 Modern history of the off-licence

Prior to the current owners, the shop was operated by a family called Gregg. This was in the 50s and 60s.

A Sikh family took it on and it operated till early 2000s when it closed for good. The shop remains in the same semi derelict condition.

 

Strange footnote

There is evidence above that the current 16 Barwick Road was only constructed in 1891. Yet we see below that somebody died at that address in 1889!

This leads to an intriguing tale concerning 25 Capel Road, which Peter has previously considered on this blog (see here), as Forest Gate’s oldest continuously inhabited house. He will explore the intrigue in a later article!

Source: Probate records, via Ancestry