Thomas Waller: more than Thomas Cubitt’s confidential clerk
Thomas Waller: more than Thomas Cubitt’s confidential clerk
[This page is an early draft and is under revision]
This page was initially inspired by a throw away comment that Hermione Hobhouse made, suggesting that understanding Thomas Waller was a key to understanding Thomas Cubitt’s finances.
It was also inspired by a chance conversation, on site, with a plumber, Barry Waller, who stated that his family had taken over Thomas Cubitt’s business. At the time this appeared far fetched. However, a detailed examination of the surviving records appears to substantiate the claim that various Wallers took the building aspect of the business forwards. This page is dedicate to Barry Waller.
The sales particulars for Cubitt Lodge also gave us some inspiration.
Thomas Waller is briefly mentioned in Hermione Hobhouse’s Cubitt: Master Builder, New York, 1971 in the following passages:-
“Cubitt’s ‘confidential clerk’, Thomas Waller, was in charge of the financial side of the business. He worked for Cubitt from 1833 onwards, and may have been employed by him earlier.¹ He dealt with some general business earlier on, but by the end of Cubitt’s life he was largely responsible for the accounts. The payment of the half-yearly interest to the large number of individuals who had lent money to Thomas Cubitt was a considerable task in itself, and he also dealt with Cubitt’s own purchase of railway shares and other investments.
It is not clear what relation Thomas Waller was to John Waller, who was witnessing Cubitt’s signature on documents from 1830 onwards.²
John Waller was more concerned with the building side of the business, business after his death.
Robert Waller was also a partner in this enterprise, another prominent building employee in 1853.
Messrs R. & J. Waller became a successful contracting firm, being one of the successful tenderers for the Grosvenor Gardens houses.”
We have with the aid of digital search and indexing methods, not available to Hobhouse, as well as some conventional research developed a clearer understanding of the Waller family’s interactions with the Cubitt empire.
This page looks at Thomas Waller, Robert Waller and John Waller as our working assumption is that they are all related and in business together as well as having been employed by Thomas Cubitt. It is also possible that they are, distantly, related to the Rev Wise [via the Waller family of Woodcote] who sold and leased lands from The Wise Estate [on lands in the Manor of Neat now known as Pimlico] to Thomas Cubitt – this is an area of active work. Hopefully, more material will come to light that disambiguates their various businesses.
It is possible that Thomas Waller was a stone mason originally based in Shoreditch. There certainly was a Thomas Waller who was a stone mason at 111 Shoreditch in 1810 according to the records of The Sun Fire Company but it is by no means certain that this is the same individual.
[Guild records LMA CLC/L/MB]
[1847 pages 35, 36 of CEL lease book Waller leased Warwick Sq 3 plots – this related to an Edward Waller – it is relevant to this narrative – is Edward a relative? Await family tree]
An article in the Illustrated London News – Saturday 8th January 1853, shows that the Wallers were well thought of leaders in Thomas Cubitt’s organisation as they are invited to give speeches in front of Prince Albert at the opening of the new residence of the Russian ambassador [full article here].
Thomas Cubitt’s will
Thomas Cubitt died in December 1855 and left a massively long will, at the time the longest ever, drafted by James Hopgood. You can read a PDF of the full manuscript will here.
The third codicil of Thomas Cubitts will dated 2nd December 1855 specifically instructs his executors to issue a long lease to Thomas Waller on quite soft terms. It states that the lease will be “….I intend to grant a lease to Mr Thomas Waller (who has been a confidential clerk in my office for many years……..for the term of eighty years at the yearly rent of ten pounds as a token of my appreciation of his faithful service……”
In his instructions to his executors, Cubitt left Thomas Waller the lease of the house he occupied in Bessborough Street, Pimlico [D in the plan below].
There was also another house on Bessborough [B in the plan below] that was leased in 1872 to Fanny Waller , presumably his daughter, ‘on the instructions of Thomas Waller’s Administrator.’ At the very least this shows that Thomas Waller had considerable influence with Cubitt Estates even after his death [in 1864] and that looking after himself and his family was in the forefront of the minds of the Trustees of Thomas Cubitt for reasons that can only be speculated at.
The 1856 Post Office Directory lists Thomas Waller as living at, 7 Bessborough Street, Pimlico.
3-4 Lyall Street were Thomas Cubitts offices in the final phases of the Belgravia development and would have been seen as a very significant address to trade from.
Cubitt’s executors then divided 3–4 Lyall Street into two properties in 1856 having received an offer for 3 Lyall Street.
Separately, 16 Hobart Place [formerly Grosvenor Street West], a shop, was leased by Thomas Cubitt’s executors, to Robert John Waller on 13th November 1858 [below].
Robert John Waller takes on the mantle
Robert John Waller (1815–1892) had also been a prominent Cubitt employee. He later set up additional premises on the King’s Road in Chelsea, which he ran in tandem with the Lyall Street workshops, and his sons Charles Buller Waller and Pickford Robert Waller joined him in business. Waller & Sons operated from Lyall Street for over 40 years as builders, interior decorators and estate agents.
Thus the 1865 surrender of the Hobart Street lease and the taking on of 4 Lyall Street and later the workshops behind it, in Lyall Mews West by Robert John Waller. Indirectly, affirming that Thomas Cubitt’s trustees and later Cubitt Estates Limited (C. E. L.) were content for The Waller Clan to continue to control that aspect of Thomas Cubitt’s legacy.
The 1871 census shows Robert J. Waller living at 4 Lyall Street, employing 286 workmen, labourers, clerks and boys; by 1881 business was thriving and his staff numbered 428. Robert J. Waller and his sons were born and bred in West London and had a second family home in Grosvenor Crescent.
In 1878 Robert John Waller leases, for 21 years, a coachhouse and stable at the corner of Lyall Street & Lyall Mews North.
However, by 1891 Robert John Waller has moved his family up in the world to 15 Grosvenor Crescent.
Robert Waller died on 9th august 1892. A notice inviting claims on his estate was published in the Gazette, on Dowson.
Ongoing business success of Waller & Co
An announcement in the Morning Post on Saturday 4th December 1897, makes it quite clear that Waller & Co is carrying on its business as a successor to Thomas Cubitt, Builders and Estate Agents from Thomas Cubitt’s former premises at No 4 Lyall Street, Belgrave Sq S.W.
This is very interesting as both this and Thomas Waller’s death notice [above] make it quite clear that Waller & Co were carrying on Thomas Cubitt’s business(es). Which suggests that the part of the Cubitt businesses that went forwards and amalgamated with Holland & Hannen was actually from the William Cubitt side of the operation.
Robert’s son, Pickford continued to run the family firm until the turn of the century. Pickford Robert Waller (1849–1930) was also a respected English designer, art collector and proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement who collaborated with the American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and English painter Matthew White Ridley (1837–1888). In later life Pickford turned his focus to the arts rather than property development and in 1909 he was granted a licence for change of use and alterations to the Lyall Street premises [see Cubitt Estates Limited lease book – page 800 reproduced above].
The Trustees of the Cubitt Estate purchased the freehold 1906 [see Cubitt Estates Limited lease book – pg. 800 above].
¹ Certainly his death notice in the West Middlesex Advertiser and Family Journal – Saturday 1st October 1864, states that waller had worked for Cubitt for ‘nearly 40 years’ as of Cubitts death in 1855 (it states 1856 which isn’t correct). So we have an unevidenced working assumption that Waller was working with Thomas Cubitt from around 1815.
² We are trying to build a family tree so we can understand these relationships and to see if we can retrieve any documents relating to Messrs R. & J. Waller or to Messrs Waller & Co.
³ Sales particulars for Cubitt Lodge retrieved July 2024 – https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/2105298/doc_1_0.pdf