Stories behind the sale ads

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (194) analyses the town’s property market (1884) from both economic and social perspectives. It combines details of real estate advertisements with occupancy details derived from directories and the census. Genealogical profiling adds further texture. In almost all cases, the advertisements relate to leases changing hands. Evidence about letting does not seem to survive. The findings from the study, therefore, relate in part to macro-developments within Bournemouth’s contemporary real estate business. 

Victorian Bournemouth (194): property sales 

Distress

During the 1880s, auctioneer firms advertised property leases for sale in the Bournemouth Guardian. The notices often contained enough detail to reproduce the houses’ back stories. Genealogical analysis of identified occupants can characterise a house’s social profile and its neighbourhood. Rent levels triangulate this. Some lease sales appeared to occur either because holders died or suffered financial problems, perhaps even bankruptcy. Thus, ‘Lyons’ on Knyveton Road, went on the block in 1884 by order of trustees, following the leaseholder’s death. ‘Armathwaite’, Branksome Wood Road, came to market because its occupant, Stephen Lewin, went bankrupt, his timber and foundry business collapsing. Some occupants had decided ‘to leave’. Samuel Baker, a wine merchant, who auctioned ‘Heatherleigh’, ‘went abroad’. Research shows he moved to Dresden. Such departures, however, may have masked financial issues. Whereas distress encountered by some lessors triggered sales, social trends of visitors and residents may have encouraged others to sell.

Refocus

The first lessors of building plots made available by local proprietors built properties there. Their  decisions about design would have depended on the probable social profile belonging to Bournemouth’s early visitors. Its early positioning for the gentry, sick or well, appears reflected in Westover Villas, the first mansions, erected near the shore. Each aimed at single families and their servants. Descriptions of subsequent architectural developments suggests that they followed this initiative for substantial mansions. Lessors or their tenants, however, would have soon realised they could squeeze more revenue from a building by subdivision into apartments or even rooms. This happened to Westover Villas. Furthermore, as the social profile of visitors widened from gentry to respectable, some properties no longer matched the market. Some of the sales advertised in the 1880s may have happened, therefore, as investors decided to align their portfolios to social changes in Bournemouth’s visitors and residents.  

Victorian Bournemouth (194): distress sales

William Warren

The sudden death of this man (1822-1878) resulted in the dissolution of his property portfolio. Some problem with his estate may have delayed probate until 1884, but at that point the executor decided on liquidation. William Warren, a Midlands building artisan, had married his second wife in 1866, Bournemouth migrants by 1871. By his demise, he had taken leases on two villas situated on Oxford Road, rented to a builder (his son) and a tailor. In addition, he had a much larger, ‘desirable property’, nearby on smarter Madeira Road. During 1881, a retired naval captain rented this. Together, these would have generated perhaps over £100 a year rental income. His junior by twenty-one years, Warren’s widow had remarried by 1883, a year before probate. She appears to have placed their young son behind in lodgings when she left Bournemouth. Thus, the portfolio, illustrating William’s social mobility, did not outlast him.

Chant’s Refreshment Rooms

According to the 1881 census, Martha Chant kept refreshment rooms situated on Commercial Road, one of Bournemouth’s main streets. A directory shows the family had occupied this property at least by 1878. Genealogical exploration posits her husband as Joseph Kingwell Chant (1820-1888). The pair came from Somerset, in 1851 both found in Yeovil. Joseph had prospects, a master carpenter having employees. Martha made dresses. Twenty years later, still in Yeovil, Joseph had progressed to become a builder and appraiser. During the 1870s, they must have seen opportunity in Bournemouth, but took this in the form of a different business: a refreshment room. Prosperity may not have occurred, since, in 1881, Joseph had resorted to carpentry, lodging in east Hampshire. The auctioneer’s advertisement, placed in 1884, reported that ‘Mr Chant is leaving Bournemouth’. This probable code for financial problems perhaps represented an auctioneer’s signal that buyers could expect a knock-down price.

Victorian Bournemouth (194): changes of investment strategy

Oakwood

‘Oakwood’, Albert Road, run as a lodging-house in 1881, came on the market in 1884, instructed by F. Moser, esquire. The auctioneer positioned its eleven bedrooms and four reception rooms, plus its central location, as suitable for a small hotel. It had operated as such during the 1870s, its reputation winning a place on visitor lists. The name Frederick Moser could have referred to a father or son, but perhaps the former. A one-time iron merchant in Lewisham, by 1871, he lived in what would become Southbourne. He had retired from business, now a landowner, living there until 1911, his estate worth more than £100,000. He perhaps had a nearby farm, larger than 200 acres. The auctioneer’s doubt about the property’s suitability may have reflected Moser’s opinion. Indeed, it seems to have had intermittent usage at least until 1891. He perhaps could not get a price to match his investment.

Bradburne and Crescent Roads

This same year, a substantial estate came to market. It comprised ten properties, many adjacent, situated on Bradburne Road and adjacent Crescent Road. Photographs show the buildings as substantial. The auctioneer stated that the ‘original rents’ ran at about £10-£20 above those quoted. The prices lowered ‘a few years since during a time of depression, but is now sufficiently recovered to bear the original rents’. Bradburne rents ran around £80, Crescent £65. Despite the possibility that their rent might rise, the auctioneer claimed some tenants would welcome visits by prospective buyers! No evidence about the owner of this estate has survived, nor the reason for divestment. The auctioneer does not hint at necessity, so the owner, that is the head-lessor, perhaps had undergone a change in investment strategy. During this decade several buildings became lodging-houses. The area, therefore, perhaps could no longer attract wealthy visitors at a higher level of rents.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (194) has illustrated how genealogical analysis can provide back-stories to, in this case, property sales during 1884. Clues within the auctioneers’ advertisements combined with social profiling of the vendors provides this texture. Sales seemed to have occurred either because of the tenants’ encountering distress or from changes within investment strategy made by the lessors. In turn, the latter provide insights into the changing profile of Bournemouth’s visitors and residents.

References

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