70 Years On...
11 June 2018
This year we are celebrating a 70th anniversary: since 1948, the Brewers’ Company has employed the same firm to look after its estate in Islington, our Hall in the City, and other property belonging to the Company.
We know the names of all our Company Surveyors going back over the last 200 years. They include two eminent Victorians, George Tattersall (aka “Wildrake”), a sporting artist of some note, and Arthur Patrick Mee, a pupil of one of England’s greatest architects, Sir John Soane.
In an unbroken chain now going back to 1948, the last five of our Surveyors have all been partners in the same firm: Daniel Watney. Ferdinand Eiloart, the first of these, was appointed on a fee of £300 p.a. - or 6% of all the accounts for repairs and maintenance, if this was higher. He took over from Frederic Tudor, who on his retirement in January 1948 described the properties on the Owen Estate in Islington as being in an “obsolescent condition”. The recent bombing of WWII had added to the general run down state of Islington in those days. In that post-War era, the streets of Georgian and Regency houses in the vicinity of the Angel, Islington, were not a very desirable area in which to work or live. How times have changed!
Our current Surveyor from Daniel Watney is John Harding and it so happens that 2018 is also the 20 anniversary of his appointment as our Company Surveyor. Congratulations!
