Thomas Cubitt
Thomas Cubitt
Thomas Cubitt [1788 -1855] was a good businessman as well as being a renowned builder. The quality of his record keeping is enviable.
Cubitt built large tracts of Belgravia and Pimlico as well as estates in Brighton, Clapham and various other parts of London.
Thomas and William were sons of Jonathan Cubitt and Agnes (Scarlett) Cubitt.
Norfolk Records Office has plenty of Cubitt related family records. Cubitt is a reasonably common name in Norfolk but is an interesting attempt to disambiguate the various branches and clans Cubitt [Collection for a History of the Family of Cubitt, of Norfolk, Walter Rye, Pub Samuel Miller & Co, 1873 Pg16] in which Thomas’ branch is termed The Cubitts of Frettenham. [We are attempting to construct a Cubitt family tree from primary sources as it is possible that what is below is a little misleading].
The usual story told, is that Thomas was a ships carpenter and saved enough money on his passage to set up his building concern.
Thomas set up in business, initially, with his brothers William [later an MP and Lord Mayor of London] and Lewis [a civil engineer].
Thomas, then carried out a major re-roofing job for the Russell Institution, to such a high standard that he secured various other very substantial and profitable works.
It is suggestive that he was quite well educated and that he understood calculating commercial margins and managing workforce from these early successes. His education is a mystery.
By 23rd June 1827 the partnership of Thomas, William and Lewis Cubitt had been dissolved [Gazette June 1827 pg 1404].
From this point Thomas was carrying on the speculative developments and William was carrying on the contracting business. Needless to say it was not as simple as that and it is pretty clear that Thomas and William carried on working together and were quite interdependent with, for instance, Thomas designing Osborne House [Royal Archives PPTO/PP/OSB/MAIN/OS/2/4 & PPTO/PP/OSB/MAIN/OS/2/2 which appears to be a stage account 5th April – 10th May 1845 which then confusingly references works carried out by Thomas Cubitt] and William building it – this can be seen in Thomas agreeing the specification with Prince Albert whereas William sends the letters to the royal household re payment schedules [Royal Archives PPTO/PP/OSB/MAIN/OS/2/1 – 24th May 1845].
However, a partnership between Thomas and Lewis then appears to have continued until that too was dissolved in 1830 [Gazette, May 1830, pg 1004]
However, it is unwise to read to much into the dissolution of the partnerships relating to the construction business[es]. It is very clear that William Cubitt was managing the formative Cubitt Estates [Limited] from 1827 as all of the press adverts are in the name of William Cubitt or Wm. Cubitt. Whereas between 1823 and 1827 all of the press averts were styled T. W. & L. Cubitt.
In amongst the early works was the building of the very substantial The London Institution and it was here that Cubitt would have met Robert Smith, 1st Lord Carrington, The Institution’s president from 1812 – 1827. The chair of the first two meetings of the putative Institution was Sir Francis Baring, of the banking dynasty. The Baring clan was to re-emerge when Cubitt was working in Brighton on Kemps Town which was owned by Thomas Read Kemp who had married Frances Baring, daughter of Sir Francis.
Then Cubitt moved onto, what for a better expression we are terming for a better expression, his ‘Royal’ phase working on Osbourne House and Buckingham Palace. The specification for Osbourne House agreed via Anson with Prince Albert survives [Royal Collections PPTO/PP/OSB/MAIN/OS/2].
Cubitt rated eleven entries in Queen Victoria’s Private Journal.¹
On Cubitt’s death, Queen Victoria wrote in her Private Journal: Entry of Monday 24th December 1855 [link takes you to PDF image of the entry – click on page 2];
“Have been much grieved by the death of that excellent & worthy man, Mr Thomas Cubitt, which occurred on the 20th. Shortly after returning from Scotland, we had heard that he was very ailing, & he rapidly became worse. Fortunately his sufferings were not so great at the last. In his sphere of life, with the immense business he had in hand, he is a real national loss. A better, kinder hearted or more simple, unassuming man, never breathed & Osborne must ever be bound up to us with the memory of this excellent man, who executed & aided in carrying out all my beloved Albert’s plans, & he was so truly devoted to us. He used to come very frequently during the actual building of the Pavilion, & the other part of the house. We feel we owe much to him for the way in which he carried out everything.”
The full text and scanned/photographic image of Queen Victoria’s Journal entries is on The Queen Victoria’s Journals microsite. Text only version on our site is here.
Cubitt’s final letter in of 29th November 1855, concerning the works to Buckingham Palace – reproduced below.
r
Thomas Cubitt’s will [England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384–1858 for Thomas Cubitt, PROB 11: Will Registers 1855-1859 Piece 2225: Vol. 1, Quire Numbers 1-50 (1856) pages 101 – 124] was, at the time, the longest will in England & Wales.
There are two extant version of the will. Firstly the Canterbury Quire version that is close to impossible to read. The second version is the manuscript from Hopgood’s office which is very nearly written and quite legible – we have imaged this and turned it into a PDF. You can read a PDF of the will here complete with the four codicils].
We have transcribed the will in text in five parts for convenience as it is such a large document. Please click on the links below for a text transcription of each part of the will.
Text version of the First Codicil
Text version of the Second Codicil – coming soon
Text version of the Third Codicil
Text version of the Fourth Codicil
Text version of the Main Will – coming soon
Our Research Focus
Our starting point for this series of pieces on Thomas Cubitt is Hermione Hobhouse‘s substantial book on Thomas Cubitt [Thomas Cubitt: Master Builder (1971, revised 1995)]. It is worth bearing in mind the times [1960’s] when this initial research was undertaken: catalogues were not electronic and the deposits in archives were very often catalogued only to box level.² Access to bank archives was extremely limited and by personal introduction only. These were formidable barriers to research and it says much for her perseverance and determination that a very substantial volume of work eventuated.
There is very little point in rehashing such a substantial work, the majority of which has stood the test of time so well.
So our focus has been:
- on previously unknown documents that we have come across in our searches; and
- imaging and sharing some of the beautiful surviving documents; and
- how the first two points taken together can change our approach to interpreting the life and works of Thomas Cubitt.
The Curious Story of the Surviving Records of Cubitt & Co
The early company records [taken as everything pre 1850] were stated as ‘perished’ in Hermione Hobhouse‘s book on Thomas Cubitt [Thomas Cubitt: Master Builder (1971, revised 1995) Chapter II, endnote 10] and Hobhouse references the loan of notes from Sir John Summerson, taken in 1946, to cover for the lack of these records³. In a personal oral communication around 2007 she told one of our directors that this was as a result of a fire.
The sole surviving extensive set of records, for the early phase of Cubitt’s career, relates to The London Institution. The contract for the building of The London Institution and the minutes book of The London Institution are examined in some detail on this page. When put together with the other records that we have found and acquired a remarkably clear picture of the size, scale and difficulties that Cubitt encountered with his first major commission emerges.
The only publicly accessible collated contemporaneous records of Thomas Cubitt & Co are the six surviving letter books – many letters are in Thomas Cubitt’s own hand. These are held by London Metropolitan Archives [LMA/4608/01/01/001-006].
What are often known as The Cubitt Estates Limited ledgers are often supposed to have been created in the later half of the 1800’s for Cubitt Estates Limited. We are pretty sure that this is not the case and that they the earlier volumes were created from about 1833 onwards when the complexity of Thomas Cubitt’s operations was exploding. It may also have been stimulated by the needs to have clear records to consult regarding what property was mortgaged to whom for how much when the more casual mortgaging and lending arrangements with Robert Smith [1st Lord Carrington] drew to a close and more formal arrangements with Smith, Payne & Smith and others took their place.
The ledgers themselves were provide a meticulous set of records for each of his areas of operation which recorded the:-
- arrangements with the landowner and terms; and
- a map or plan of the area to be developed; and
- a page per property with a colour washed plan on it noting whom the property was leased to when and for how much; and
- any mortgages secured on the property; and
- any registration of deeds and or mortgages at registry usually with a registry number in red ink.
There were probably 11, or so, of these volumes each with about 800 pages, on heavy laid paper, not all of them used. Three of the volumes are held by London Metropolitan Archives [LMA/4608/01/02/001-003].
In 1883 the William Cubitt & Co [sometimes later styled W. Cubitt & Co] business was acquired by Holland & Hannen, a leading competitor, which combination became known as Holland & Hannen and Cubitts, later Holland, Hannen & Cubitts. The final chairman of Holland, Hannen & Cubitts was Henry, 4th Baron Ashcombe. The company was acquired by Drake & Gorham Scull in 1969; then by Tarmac in 1976 and subsequently integrated into Tarmac Construction. The William Cubitt & Co records ultimately ended up in Tarmac Construction’s archives. Tarmac Construction was ultimately acquired by the ill fated Carillion.
After Thomas’ death in 1855 Cubitt Estates Limited was split out from Thomas Cubitt & Co also managing some of the real estate assets of William Cubitt. Thomas Cubitt & Co continued to trade [until around 1864 which is the last entry in the later books] in order to finish Buckingham Palace and the projects in hand. Thomas Waller then took on the mantle of Thomas Cubitt & Co and this was then seemingly subsumed into Messrs R. & J. Waller and untimely into Messrs Waller & Co operating, for some of the time, out of 4 Lyall Street [3 & 4 Lyall Street were Thomas Cubitt’s last HQ with the workshops behind] or the Lyall Mews workshops.
The Cubitt Estates Limited records were, lately, held in their 66 Warwick Square offices.
The Cubitt Estates Limited physical offices starting winding down around 1968, with various paintings that adorned the walls placed with The National Portrait Gallery. At that point the ledgers were transferred to the possession of Henry, 4th Baron Ashcombe probably at Debbie’s. Ultimately, they moved with him to Sudeley Castle. There are no records now held at Sudeley Castle. Baron Ashcombe refused all requests for access to the records.
According to the Telegraph obituary dated 25 December 2013, ‘In 1970 his [4th Baron Ashcombe] CR Developments sold, for £4.4 million, the Pimlico Estate covering 27 acres in Victoria, including 480 homes, to a consortium controlled by the Hanson Trust.’
In 1975, Cubitt Estates Limited and its various associated companies were voluntarily wound up by special resolution.
In amongst all of this archival chaos, it appeared, judging by the references in Hermione Hobhouse‘s book on Thomas Cubitt [Thomas Cubitt: Master Builder (1971, revised 1995)], that the Cubitt Estates Limited lease books and six of the letter books (they are specifically listed as Primary Sources in the text pg 551) had been accessible. We understand, from her family, that Hermione Hobhouse was the depositor of three of the lease books and six letter books to The London Metropolitan Archive. The LMA catalogue merely records that they were ‘Gifted to London Metropolitan Archives in January 2010 and received May and June 2012’. We can be quite grateful that Hobhouse retained these volumes and deposited them in a public archive otherwise they would probably have vanished from view.
There were a number of attempts to sell the Cubitt records privately to various institutions, including to London Metropolitan Archives, for an extraordinary valuation of £70,000. Then shortly before Henry, 4th Baron Ashcombe, died he seemingly consigned the full parcel of records in his possession to auction in 2012: it is easy to speculate that he might have been rather out of patience with a large lump of records that plenty of researchers wanted to consult and that nobody wanted to pay for. They duly sold, at auction, for £17,000. Sadly London Metropolitan Archives, who were trying to acquire them, didn’t have the budget to acquire them. These records and now in private hands and no records remain at Sudeley Castle.
26 volumes of papers from Holland, Hannen & Cubbits, some from 1856 onwards but none pre 1855, were deposited in the Wolverhampton City Archives [ref DX-912] in 2003 by Tarmac Construction. These records all relate to William Cubitt & Co.
Two internal publications on the ‘Cubitts’ have been produced – it is more than likely that there were various editions. ‘Cubitts’ is, in this context, a confusion conflation of William, Lewis & Thomas Cubitts’ activities with an added layer of Holland & Hannen.
The first, a book, in the 1920’s (probably 1923 with subsequent editions with varying adverts) was essentially a hard bound coffee table book on impressively thick paper, clearly meant to look like a very expensive production and ooze quality. It has some interesting illustrations in it. We have made it into a PDF but we have removed the adverts that are contained, front and back, as the PDF file was simply too large. You can view the full book here. Unfortunately it does not, in the manner of the time, give any references and a few of the statements in it are a little suspect.
The second, a pamphlet, produced in 1975 (by the date on the cover page). A lot of it seems to be lifted straight out of Hermione Hobhouse’s book on Cubitt. Although no author is named. We suspect that the text of this pamphlet was created for Cubitts as a favour in return for access to their records. You can view the full pamphlet here as a PDF.
Cubitt’s Surviving Financial Records
Cubitt’s financial history appears to be grouped in four phases:-
1810-21, the pre and London Institution phase of which very little is know and there appear to be no extant records of.
1821-33, the informal arrangements that he had with Robert Smith, 1st Lord Carrington (1752-1838) and its intermingling with banking with and works for Smith, Payne & Smith.
1834-early 1840’s, the more formal lending arrangements from 1833/4 onwards with Smith, Payne & Smith.
Early 1840’s-1855, the Osbourne House era when he had royal patronage and ongoing royal contracts as well as an endorsement. He continues to bank with Smith, Payne & Smith but as he is now a businessman of some status his access to capital increases as do his income streams.
Cubitt’s Early Bankers
Thomas Cubitt banked with Smith Payne & Smith (subsumed via various acquisitions and mergers into the NatWest Group) from around 1821, according to Hobhouse pg .
Robert Smith, 1st Lord Carrington (1752-1838) was a banker and co-founder of Smith, Payne and Smith and partner in several smaller banks and business enterprises. Five of his six sons became partners of one or other of the Smith banks. He financed Thomas Cubitt from the 1820’s in rebuilding the streets around Westminster and Belgravia in London and there is a remarkable set of correspondence and papers revealing the financing of that enterprise in The Buckinghamshire Archives D-CN.
Initially, Robert Smith, 1st Lord Carrington (1752-1838) provided Thomas Cubitt with credit/loans personally, via his family and through Smith, Payne and Smith up to about 1834.
In an articles of agreement [click here for full PDF] and a separate agreement to deposit deeds [click here for full PDF] and agreement of April 1828 George Smith agrees to led Cubitt £7,000 on security of specific deeds deposited.
Land Purchased from Earl Spencer
Whilst this is not strictly banking it does shed a light on the state of Cubitt’s liquidity.
Cubitt had purchased lands in The Earl Spencer land sales of the 1830’s [full PDF here] – particularly around Battersea. But his name does crop up a few times in the auction receipts ledgers. This is relevant to understanding Cubitt’s finances as it shows the resources that he could deploy, at that time.
2nd Auction on 30th October 1835 receipts page (below) lists – Lots 13 – £230; 23 – £115; 56 – £610 ; 2&3 of the first sale – £1,350 [auction catalogue plan for the 2nd auction below].
But what is very interesting is that it appears that the payment was made there and then as there is no note of later payment or of interest. Note the lack of entries on the columns to the right for deferred payments or interest.
Again it appears that the payment was made there and then as there is no note of later payment or of interest in the ledger.
19th July 1837 Lots 1, 2, 3 & 6 £1280 [auction catalogue plan below].
Again it appears that the payment was made there and then as there is no note of later payment or of interest in the ledger. So this provides evidence of consistent and substantial liquidity over a period of time.
Cubitt’s Banking Relationship(s) Evolve To Become More Formal
In his beautifully expressed letter of 13th October 1883 written at Deal Castle, Robert Smith, 1st Lord Carrington points out to Thomas Cubitt that he is getting approaching 83 years of age and that when he dies his executors would be forced to pay his daughters £40,000 and they would be forced to seek repayment of the loans to Cubitt to satisfy this. So Cubitt is forced onto a slight different path.
Cubitt initially seems to do ‘more of the same’ type of borrowing, this time with George Smith as the 1835 letter, below, from Thomas Cubitt to Samuel George Smith acknowledging the loan of seven thousand pounds would appear to indicate.
Sadly the agreements that went with this ‘List of Deeds Deposited by Thomas Cubitt’ doesn’t survive but the conjecture of a more overarching form of lending facility would appear to be reasonable.
The Post Osbourne House & Buckingham Palace Era
A receipt from Smith Payne & Smith, for the same of £481 13s 8d, dated 15th January 1855 ‘which is placed in he account of Thomas Cubitt Esq’ has been found in the Royal Archives Collections [PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/8/5070]. This would appear to firmly squash the idea that Thomas Cubitt was using a different bank at the time of his death. Although it is perfectly possible that he had accounts at various banks in parallel.
It is possible that he kept his banking separated from his business letter books but this doesn’t make a lot of sense as you can see occasional letters to bankers.
Previous work now superseded by the discovery of [PPTO/PP/QV/PP2/8/5070]
We have tried to following approaches
Cubitt’s final letter book covering 1855 Apr 28 – 1859 Mar 12 [LMA/4608/01/01/005] appears an obvious place to start an investigation. What is curious is that his solicitors, Messr Palmer, Palmer & Bull, rate around forty six letters in that one letter book. We would have expected to see a similar number to a banking partner but none of the other name even have a fraction of the number of entries against them. There are however, some names that are banking related. The other letter books [1-4] are not currently available as they are undergoing restoration and in a fragile state.
So we made a PDF copy of the index and shared it with the major banking archives and received some interesting responses – summarised below.
The letter book contains entries for Manchester and Sheffield [which sounded to us like a bank – but doesn’t appear to be one] Payne, Smith and Payne, London & County Bank, G. Barclay [the entry on page 11 is about a packet of drawings so does not appear to be relevant], Sir Walter Farquhar [one letter in which Cubitt wants to meet – below] and W. Lechmere [the last having a goodly volume of letters at around seven – which do appear to concern finances but the role is obscure].
The proposed meeting between Cubitt and Sir Walter Farquhar could have been to do with the estate at Polseden Lacey.
“The Sheridan family purchased the estate in 1797 and the house was in ruins by c 1814, when Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the playwright and politician, pulled most of it down with the intention of rebuilding it. However it was left to Joseph Bonsor, a stationer and bookseller, who purchased the estate in 1818, to rebuild the house to the designs of Thomas Cubitt. Bonsor was also responsible for planting thousands of trees, and renovating the garden, park, and estate. Sir Walter Farquhar purchased the estate in 1853 from the Bonsor family, and he enlarged the house between 1853 and 1870, preserving most of Cubitt’s structure. Farquhar’s house was in turn rebuilt in 1903-5 by Ambrose Poynter for Sir Clinton Dawkins, a civil servant and financier, who owned Polesden Lacey between 1902 and his death in 1906”
The letters to W. Lechmere do appear to show that there was a financial relationship but it is hard to figure out if it was a personal or commercial one from the contents.
We got the following helpful responses from the various archivists:-
NatWest Group Archivist
Personal communication May 2024
“I can confirm that Manchester & Salford Bank (later Williams Deacon’s Bank Ltd) has not operated under the name Manchester and Sheffield Bank. I am not aware and have not been able to find reference to a bank operating under that name. As you say it is possibly a misnaming unique to the document you have.“
The archives have been searched and Cubitt does not appear to have banked with either Drummonds or Child & Co.
London & County Bank to Kemp Town was its Brighton branch on North Street (later on Castle Square) which opened in 1837. There are no surviving customer ledgers for this branch. There are some minute books for the branch, which discuss some individual customer transactions, but there are only 2 from before 1855 and Cubitt is not mentioned in either volume.“
Lloyds Group Archivist
Personal communication May 2024:-
“I have had a quick look through your index and two names which jumped out were Farquhar and Lechmere – from the private banks Herries Farquhar and Berwick, Lechmere & Co. Herries Farquhar was a West End bank and Berwick Lechmere had its roots in Worcestershire.
We have a huge number of constituents which had changes of partnerships frequently over their histories so there could well be many that I am missing in your index. I might suggest that you take a look at the constituent list on this page in case some of these names might be familiar to you.”
Herries Farquhar looks promising regarding translations with Sir W Farquhar and the signature books survive so can be checked for Cubitt.
HSBC Group Archivist
Personal communication May 2024:-
“As the brothers managed their business from London, they might have been associated with a small number of banks that feature in our archive, as follows:
London Joint Stock Bank was founded in 1836 and operated from Coleman Street, before moving to Princes Street and later Pall Mall. In 1840 it acquired Wright & Co, gaining a branch in Covent Garden. This was followed by the purchase of Albion Bank (est. 1864) in 1871, which increased the branch network to include West Smithfield and Islington; and Imperial Bank (est. 1862) with offices in Lothbury, Fenchurch Street, Marylebone, South Kensington and Waltham Abbey
It is worth pointing out we do not have customer records for each of these operations, and in some cases it would require searches through un-indexed board minutes, which can be quite time-consuming. However, I assume that if you are looking for the bank the Cubitts were associated with from 1840 onwards, the London Joint Stock Bank will be the only one within the right time period. So it might be possible to whittle the search down.”
Barclays Group Archivist:-
Personal communication May 2024
“I have checked our records of the London bank Goslings and Sharpe of Fleet Street, to see if any account for Thomas Cubitt appears in the ledgers – sadly, there is no account in that name in the ledgers. I have also checked our general catalogue and cannot find any references to him.”
Santander
This may seem like an odd target. However, one of the constituents that formed Alliance and Leicester was Brighton & Sussex Equitable Building Society.
Cubitt was involved in the construction of and lived in Kemps Town in Brighton so it is just possible that there is a connection there.
Unfortunately the Santander archives are not currently accessible.
Barings
We have explored if the many links to the Barings family might have resulted in some banking interactions. Including Sir Francis Baring [London Institution] and Thomas Read Kemp [Kemps Town, Brighton] and Kemp’s marriage to Frances Baring, the daughter of Sir Francis Baring.
Thomas Read Kemp’s ledger entries exist almost in full. However, he only did his day to day banking with Barings for a short period. Later in life he clearly banked elsewhere.
Personal comincation from Barings archivist:-
Hoare’s
Hoare’s did not have an account in the name of Thomas Cubitt.
We are exploring if some other known payments to Thomas Cubitt left any further trace in Hoare’s ledgers.
Hoare’s have, kindly, traced various payments through their historical ledgers. Sadly they do not seem to confirm which banks the payments to and from Thomas Cubitt were made to or from.
Coutts
Coutts did not have an account in the name of Thomas Cubitt.
We are looking to see if other known payments to Thomas Cubitt left any traces in Coutt’s ledgers.
Current work
Track down Sir John Summerson’s notes from the early Cubitt archives [destroyed] probably in RIBA @ V&A maybe part of the unpublished works on the development on Victorian Building – SUJ/33-39 – “Research material, including drafts, for “Victorian London” (an unpublished work), undated.
The curious Mr W. Cundy
Whilst hunting for Thomas Cubitt’s bankers we came across W Cundy’s signature. However, what first caught our attention was the address against the signature, ‘Belgrave Warf, Pimlico.’
What is curious is that Thomas Cundy was surveyor to the Duke of Westminster who was dealing with Cubitt extensively.
Tempting as it is to speculate about this there is, currently, no further data to hand as the Herries, Farquhar and Company ledgers do not survive.
Sir William Cubitt
Sir William Cubitt had an account at Bland, Barnett and Hoare. There are references to his account in the quarter reports [Lloyds Group Archives A12/1/b/series] in the volumes we sampled spanning 1843 – 1864. These show relatively modest balances. It is unlikely that this was the only account that he had.
1843 – £421:15:7
1847 – £3,027:16:11
1850 – £2,022:2:9
1852 – £2,327:2:7
¹ Entries for Thomas Cubitt in Queen Victoria’s Private Journal
² This is specifically a reference to the Buckinghamshire County Archives collection relating to the 1st Lord Carrington where there are 18 archive boxes listed and that they were only catalogues at item level in 2008-12. Searching through this volume of materials would be a substantial project in itself. “The Carrington Collection (ref D-CN) was deposited at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies in the 1960’s. Initially listed to box level it was recatalogued between 2008 and 2012, with funding provided from Ca[r]rington Estates Limited, and a few documents were added.”
³ We have examined Sir John Summerson’s notes in the V&A archives. They shed very little light on Cubitt at all. Indeed the note for ‘Clapham Park’ sole inscription is ‘Cubitt ?date?’, which shed no light whatsoever. Most of the other notes are similarly uninformative.