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The history of this company
is rather confused since not all accounts seem to tally.
The Turkish bath in Earls Court Gardens was built
for Thomas & Co in 1885 and altered (or enlarged) for them three
years later.
Kelly's London directory identifies Mrs Mary Ann Thomas & Co.
as proprietors of the baths in 1893.
The
Earls Court Turkish Baths Company Ltd was incorporated in 1895. Its
stated objects were to operate the baths and purchase the lease of
the property from Mrs Thomas and a Mr John Walkey (both of whom were
now listed as its proprietors, though still trading as M A Thomas &
Co).
The
new company included Walkey and Mrs Thomas among its Directors, and
its Registered Office was located at the baths. Another Director was
George Grosvenor Thomas, an artist of (distant) Glasgow who, it is
presumed, may well have been the husband of Mary Ann Thomas.
But
in the following year, 1896, Kelly's (inevitably lagging
behind actuality) was still indicating that the baths were owned by
Mrs Mary Ann Thomas & Co. The new company—with 7
shareholders—included Mrs Thomas, now Mary Ann Walkey, in the list
of Directors.
Kelly's continued to show Mrs Mary Ann Thomas & Co as
proprietors of the baths until 1900, but in 1901 and 1902 the
proprietors were individually named as John and Mary Ann Walkey.
Yet
the records of the Earls Court Turkish Baths Company for 1900 show
that Mrs Walkey had reverted to her earlier name, Mary Ann Thomas,
even though John Walkey was shown as Secretary of the Company and
Manager of the baths. The following year, the last in which the
company submitted a return, John Walkey was shown as Managing
Director.
Kelly's 1903 directory, presumably still behindhand in recording
what was actually the situation, showed that the baths were now
owned by Archibald Reynolds James, an hotelier who had owned the
Albany Road Turkish Baths in Wolverhampton since 1888.
So
it seems that the Earls Court Turkish Baths Company
never succeeded in its objective of owning the baths they proposed
purchasing. It may be that Mary Ann Thomas, having separated from,
or divorced, John Walkey, sold the baths to Archibald Reynolds James
at the end of 1899, or at the latest by March 1900.
Support for this theory comes from three letters sent to the
Registrar of Companies. The first was from John Walkey, on Earls
Court Baths headed paper, and dated 13 August 1901. Replying to a
standard request for the year's company accounts, Walkey wrote that,
...The
company never went to allotment… The
Board of Directors having taken one share each accessory to forming
the Company and property still belonging to Mrs M A Thomas. In the
event of an improvement of business at the end of the South African
War it will probably be gone through with.
There are a number
of problems arising from this letter and it is difficult to
understand how it came to be sent from the Earls Court Baths address
since the baths already belonged to Archibald Reynolds James by the
time it was written.
One possibility is that James forwarded the
Registrar's letter to Walkey who replied from his own address, using
a sheet of the Earls Court Baths paper (of which he might well have
had quite a stock). In theory, there would have beeen no reason why
the company should not in due course have still made an offer for
the purchase of the baths, but it seems unlikely.
Another (slim) possibility is that James might
have kept Walkey on as his manager for a year or so. James might
have been considered useful if he needed to remain in Wolverhampton
for a while.
We
know that the baths were owned by James at this time from an earlier
letter sent to the Registrar on 19 March 1900 on behalf of Archibald
James. Its formal phraseology, compared with that of a later letter
sent by him in 1903, suggests that it might have been written
for him by an accountant or, perhaps, the solicitor who acted for
him in his purchase of the baths.
The
first letter states that,
… so
far as the present proprietor is aware the company never went to
allotment, he having purchased the business from Mrs Mary Ann
Thomas.
He also understands that the Baths
were never purchased by the company from the vendor.
Everything in fact fell through from
some cause or other.
While part of the
cause might have been the Boer War, it might also, perhaps
more plausibly, have been the split between Thomas and Walkey. The
Registrar of Companies, rather like today's Revenue and Customs,
seemed to have difficulty in accepting that companies cease to
exist, for James had to write again to the Registrar on 29 October
1903:
Dear Sir, I am the
Proprietor of the Earls Court Turkish Baths.
Last year I wrote you to this effect.
I know knowing [sic] of any Company.
Yours etc.
A R James
The
Earls Court Turkish Baths Company Ltd was dissolved the following
year on 16 March.
PRO:
BT31 6516/45844(All
information is taken from this file unless specifically footnoted)
1895 Memorandum of
Association: 2 November
Capital:
£10,000 divided into 10,000 shares of £1
Objects include:
'To purchase or otherwise acquire the leasehold premises, Nos 25a,
26a, and 27a Earls Court Gardens, Kensington in the County of
London, with the Turkish and other Baths therein and thereon, and
the fixtures, fittings, and other appurtenances connected therewith,
now the property of Mrs Ann Thomas and Mr John Walkey carrying on
the said premises as Proprietors of Turkish and other Baths,
Tobacconists, and Lodging House Keepers
under the style of "M
A Thomas & Co" and to take over and continue the said business.'
Subscribers:
Jordan, Herbert
William (Registration agent)
Jordan, William
(Parliamentary agent)
Shields, Frederick
(Director, Jordans Sons Ltd)
Thomas, George
Grosvenor (Artist, of Glasgow)
Thomas, Mary Ann
(Turkish Baths Proprietor)
Walkey, John (Turkish
Baths Proprietor)
Directors:
Coward, Henry
Thomas, George
Grosvenor
Thomas, Mary Ann
Walkey, John
Registered Office:
26a Earls Court Gardens (5 November)
1896 Number of
shareholders: 7
Mary Ann Thomas is now
entered as Mary Ann Walkey
1900 Number of
shareholders: 7, all directors (12 April)
Mary Ann Thomas has
reverted to her earlier name, and is no longer entered as the wife
of John Walkey.
Secretary and
Manager: John Walkey
From the
correspondence noted above, it would appear that this return, and
the one sent in 1901, were posted from an address other than that
which was still, officially, the registered office of the company.
1901 John
Walkey is now Managing Director.
1904 No returns
were filed after 1901
Dissolved under
Clause 7(4): 16 March
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