Uncovering the secrets of Ivy Court on Eltham High Street

Now I am intrigued by this picture which dates from 1909.

The caption just says, “site of the London and South-Western Bank (High Street), House formerly the residence of the late Miss Fry, now of Mr Coulson).”

Not much to go on I grant you but a start.

The bank had been formed in 1862 and merged with Barclays in 1918, all of which would seem to put our picture on the site of the modern Barclays Bank in the High Street.

But this was built in 1932 which seems a long time between our picture and the current building dispensing its cash.

And so to Miss Fry who was one of two sisters who lived on the High Street at Ivy Court.

They were the daughters of John Fry, who owned Jubilee Buildings as well as other properties and was one of those self made men.

The family home was on the north side of the High Street behind a long garden which fronted the main road and commanded a fine view up across fields to the woods beyond.

The house had ten rooms and this was where Harriet and Lydia saw out their days.

Harriet died in 1895, and Lydia in 1907 and thanks to their father they lived on “income from interest” and both left effects worth over £1200.

Their house is still there behind the bank.  “An ornamental iron gate alongside [the bank] frames a path leading to a house of the mid 1820s in a secluded location [which] is now offices.”*

Mr Frederick Colson and his wife Lucy and three children were still in Ivy Court in the April of 1911.

He was a solicitor and the family had moved from Westmount Road where they had been a decade earlier.

Their new address was listed as 29B, which helps  solve the mystery of when the bank was built.

Back when the Fry sisters lived at Ivy Court it was numbered 29, but by 1911 number 29 has the postal address of the London and South Western Bank, and was also home to Harry Wallis the bank manager and his wife and daughter.

So sometime after our two chaps posed infront of Ivy Court part of the garden became a bank and in the fullness of time Barclays chose to demolish their old premises and build the one we see today.

All of which now just requires a picture of Ivy Court as it is now, down that path from the High Street, beside the bank.

And as you would expect my friend Jean is already on to it which will make for another story.

*Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000

Picture; Ivy Court, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Uncovering more of that hidden house in Eltham High Street

Here we are again with that house tucked away down an alley beside a bank on the High Street.

It was the home of the Fry family, possibly from 1819 and certainly through that century till the last of the Fry sisters died in 1907.

And it is a story I keep returning to, partly because it says a lot about a middling family here in Eltham during the 19th century and because it is a case book example of how you start with a name, go on to locate the family home and along the way discover that a property you thought lost is still there.

Now all of that you can read about by following the link to Ivy Court, John Fry or the Fry sisters.

I fear nothing will remain of the original features, but the firm may be in possession of the deeds which will date the building tell us a lot about the Fry family and may well throw up other interesting stories.

Picture; Ivy Court today courtesy of Jean Gammons

A little bit of lost Eltham, the house behind the bank on the High Street

Ivy Court today

This was the home of Harriet and Lydia Fry.  

They were born here in the 1820s and died here, Harriet in 1895 and Lydia in 1907.

Today it is hidden from view down a passageway beside the bank on the High Street.

But during their life time the property was situated in a long garden which fronted the main road with fine views back across the fields to Shooters Hill and the woods.

It was known as Ivy Court and had ten rooms.

As such it was a suitable house for a family of industry and property.

Their father was John Fry who described himself variously as a builder, carpenter, sawyer, land agent and appraiser and in 1833 he built Fry’s Buildings which were just north of the High Street.

They were twelve wooden cottages which faced east across the fields with longish gardens at the rear and were only demolished in 1957 to make way for an extension to Hinds Store and an additional playground to the old village school on Roper Street.

They were a decent size consisting of three rooms upstairs and two down.  And in 1837 were assessed for the land tax at £3 12shillings.

Ivy Court in 1909

It was these properties which allowed him to qualify to vote in Parliamentary elections and in the election of 1837 he voted for the two Tory candidates.

He was born in 1792 in Kent, possibly at Tunbridge and may have been in Eltham by 1818 for although I can find no record of his marriage to Henrietta she was from Eltham and their first daughter was baptised in the parish church in October 1819.

And this may be a clue to the date of our house which Darrel Spurgeon* suggests was sometime in the 1820s.

Only with the death of Lydia did our house vanish behind the old bank and pretty much out of the view and knowledge of many in Eltham.

It may briefly have come back out of the shadows with the demolition of the old bank but was lost again after the building of the Barclays Branch in 1932.

I would love to know more about its history and what if anything has survived of the original features and perhaps in time that will happen.

But in the meantime I shall resist that unhistorical assertion that here is a house that could represent the changes that have happened to Eltham.

The garden just during the construction of the first bank

True it once stood proud for all to see at the end of a long garden and did so for most of the 19th century, and during their long residence here the Fry sisters would have seen many changes, but so could lots of other people.

Nor was what happened to their home so different from those other even finer homes which were adapted for other uses and different occupants.

So I shall just close by reflecting that for me at least what was once lost is found.

*Spurgeon Darrell, Guide to Eltham, 2000

Picture; Ivy Court, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm and picture of Ivy Court today courtesy of Jean Gammons