Yale Court

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History

Shortly after it was built Yale Court was described as: 'a block of 8 self contained flats of modern construction in red brick with stone dressings. The building is about 10 feet above the pavement level with access for tradespeople, coal shed and service lifts. Electric light is installed. Each flat has four rooms, kitchen, bath, WC'. The drains were also described as 'modern'.

Initially blocks within Yale Court had different owners. Flats 1-16 were owned by the Public Trustee, flats 49-56 and 65-72 were owned by Augustus Percival Bartley, and Ernest Owers owned flats 17-48, 57-64 and 81-88! Originally the flats were let out on short tenancies ranging from one to six years starting from 1904, together with one furnished weekly tenancy.

At this time the flats had two bedrooms, two sitting rooms, a bathroom with a basin with hot and cold water, a kitchen and a WC, except that flats 17-24 and 81-88 ground floor flats had one sitting room. The front room of flats 65-72 had bay windows on each side, while block with flats 33-40 had access under it for tradesmen to go to the rear of all flats.

In 1917, 18 Yale Court was advertised as a 'newly decorated, comfortably furnished flat, sitting room, 2 bed, kitchen, bath (h & c), 2 ½ guineas (£2.10)'. Also in 1917, there was an advertisement for 25 Yale Court, at the same rent.

In 1962 the freehold of the two blocks with the sixteen self-contained flats numbered 9-16 and 25-32, Yale Court – but not the other flats – was put up for sale. Each flat was described as having three rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and WC.

Early residents ranged between a dancehall operator, an Army officer, a chief officer in the merchant navy, and a JP.

In 1910 Lester Rosenthal of 49 Yale Court applied for a License for Music and Dancing at the 'Electric Palace' at 532 Oxford Street, in his 'occupation'.

Reports from The Times newspaper describe the sad story of two of many lives disrupted by the First World War. The first report was of a case brought by one-time resident of Yale Court, Lieut. Francis Julian Weldon Taylor, of the Royal Artillery, to recover furniture and other articles from a moneylender, Mr Whiteman. Francis Taylor had married Millicent Mount Beer in 1912 and they had lived at Yale Court from mid-1912 into 1915. In 1912 the Taylors had a child, presumably while they were at Yale Court. Francis Taylor had been in the Army and when he rejoined in 1915 to serve in the First World War, the couple gave up their tenancy of their Yale Court flat and arranged to put their furniture and possessions in storage. In 1916 while Francis Taylor was away on active service in France Millicent stored their possessions in her own name and moved to Brighton. She drew on the joint bank account, and then went to Mr Whiteman for a loan with furniture and other items as security. She fell into repayment arrears and Mr Whiteman sold off the security at a low price. Although judgement was given for Francis Taylor this was not the end of his problems with Millicent as in 1919 The Times reported his divorce from Millicent on the ground of her adultery.

In 1923 was a gruesome report of the mysterious death of a former resident of Yale Court, Alice Hilda Middleton, the wife of a chief officer in the merchant navy. Mr Middleton's duties involved long absences. Alice had lived in a flat at Yale Court on an allowance of £18 a month that her husband gave her. She then met Cecil Maltby, a tailor, and gave up the flat and the allowance when her husband was next away, to live with Cecil Maltby in his house in Marylebone. It was there that her body was later found.

In 1930s Nathan Lewin of Yale Court acted as a character witness for Mr Rickards, an umbrella manufacturer charged with conspiracy to cheat and defraud an insurance company. Rickards had supplied funds to Nathan Lewin to buy goods in Italy.

In 1930 the car of Miss Kathleen Chevassut of Yale Court was stolen with three test tubes containing dangerous cultures of nervous disease. The car was found with the test tubes.

The residents of Yale Court have over the years been keen letter writers:

In 1909 Jasper Kemmis of 88 Yale Court wrote to The Times about packages undelivered by the Post Office!

In 1923 R M Lister of 22 Yale Court had three letters published: the first was about the advantages of having 'fast omnibuses' run by the London General Omnibus Company; the second letter was about why the State should bear part of the landlords' losses from the then current rent strike due to the confusion caused by faulty legislation; and third letter concerned alleviating unemployment through drainage schemes in rural areas.

A long-term resident at 59 Yale Court, G Gneditch, also had three letters published in The Times, between 1953 and 1965. Their topics ranged from the rebuilding of the City of London – especially St Paul's – after the Second World War, to disorderly bus queues, through to the lethargy of the public in visiting museums and galleries.

46, Yale Court is mentioned in Scenes of Murder by Cargill and Holland (p.73; reference no.942.21.W) but we have not included the details.

Yale Court is named after the American University.

Honeybourne Road was built in 1898, and is first mentioned in the 1903 Street Directory. The name of the road recalls the Worcestershire village of Honeybourne. Victorian and Edwardian builders in Hampstead chose names that gave the impression of a genteel and rustic, and therefore desirable, place to live.

We know West Hampstead
In Medieval times the hamlet of West End was first established as a small – and rather poor – conurbation set on the vacant strip of land nestled between Hampstead and Kilburn. Some years later in the early 18th Century, as
Hampstead became an increasingly popular resort for wealthy Londoners on retreat, many of the residents of West End found employment serving in the grand houses and estates.

It was not until the latter half of the 19th Century that the village really started to grow. The arrival of the railway in the 1850s brought a new source of employment and transport access and by the 1890s the suburbs of London w ere gradually creeping towards Willesden and Cricklewood. During a 20 year period West End experienced a population explosion – up from 8 000 in 1881 to 30 000 in 1901. It was also during this time that West End picked up a new name – West Hampstead.

We know Mansion Blocks
The first Mansion Blocks were built in the early 19th Century, providing luxurious residences for the growing urban upper middle classes. As the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Europe it brought about a population boom in the major cities, and Mansion Blocks were devised to provide luxury us housing for wealthy white collar workers. As the centre of the cities became increasingly crowded, the blocks provided this growing class with housing that boasted impressive entrances, generous elevations and balconies reminiscent of mansions. They were a particularly popular innovation in polite Parisian society.

In spite of their popularity on the continent, Londoners were initially sceptical about this new style of accommodation. In the 1850s a spacious Mansion flat would set back the buyer somewhere in the order of £50-£200 per annum, but the idea of living in such a communal manner was entirely contradictory to the
dominant Victorian social ideals of the age.

Firstly, and most importantly, apartment dwellings were simply not considered 'proper', but it was not just a case of old English snobbery; there was also widely held fear that this new type of residence would increase the risk of burglary and the spread of infection and disease. By the 1880s London society had gradually warmed to the idea and the decade was marked by a flurry of Mansion Block construction across the city