Lucas Brothers (company)

Lucas Brothers, Builders

Company type	Private
Industry	Construction
Founded	1842
Defunct	1895
Fate	Dissolved
Headquarters	London, England
Key people	Charles Lucas, (chairman)

Lucas Brothers was a leading British building business based in London.

Sir Thomas Charles Lucas 1st Bart. of Ashtead Park and Lowestoft

Sketch of Thomas and Charles Lucas, Circa. 1870

Early history

The business was founded by Charles Thomas Lucas (1820 London – 1895 Warnham Court, near Horsham)[1] and Thomas Lucas (1822–1902). They were the sons of James Lucas (1792–1865), a builder from St Pancras, London. Charles joined his father's business and was soon employed to manage construction of the Norwich & Brandon Railway for Sir Samuel Morton Peto.[2]

In 1842 Charles set up his own contracting business in Norwich and progressed to rebuilding Peto's house, Somerleyton Hall.[2] Charles and Thomas established a facility in Lowestoft from which they undertook various works, including the railway, the station, the Esplanade, Wellington Terrace, Kirkley Cliff Terrace, St John's church, and several hotels.[2]

The Royal Albert Hall built by Lucas Brothers

Building contracts

Building contracts included:

• Covent Garden Opera House (completed in 1858)[2]
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History (1860)[3]
• Floral Hall (1860)[2]
• King's College Hospital (1862)[2]
• Langham Hotel (1865)[4]
• Charing Cross Hotel (1865)[5]
• the Junior Carlton Club (1866)[2]
• City Terminus Hotel (1867)[6]
• Royal Albert Hall (1871)[7]
• Charterhouse School (1872)[2]
• Alexandra Palace (1873)[8]
• Royal Station Hotel, York (1878)[6]
• Great Eastern Hotel (1884)[6]

Stations included:

• Lowestoft railway station (1855)[9]
• Charing Cross railway station (1864)[6]
• Cannon Street station (1866)[6]
• Liverpool Street station (1874)[10]
• York railway station (1877)[6]

Private houses included:

• Cliveden (1851)[2]
• Henham Hall (1858)[2]
• Rendlesham Hall (1870)[2]
• Normanhurst Court (1870)[2]

Civil engineering works i.e. railways and bridges were undertaken from 1870 by the joint venture, Lucas and Aird.[11]

Lucas Brothers also undertook the construction for the International Exhibition of 1862[12] and the South Kensington Exhibitions of 1867 and 1871 with Sir John Kelk.[2]

Structure

After the company began collaborating with John Aird & Co., their combined businesses were re-organised in 1870 as follows:[13]

• Lucas Brothers – Building
• Lucas and Aird – Railway work and civil engineering
• John Aird & Sons – Water and gas contracts

In 1895, when Sir Charles Lucas died, Lucas Brothers and Lucas and Aird were dissolved.[13]

About the founders

"Arthur". Caricature by Elf published in Vanity Fair in 1909.

Charles Thomas Lucas married Charlotte Tiffin and had five sons and two daughters. He lived in London and then at Warnham in Sussex. He was created a Baronet in 1887.[2] Thomas Lucas married Jane Golder and had a daughter. After her death, he married Mary Amelia Chamberlin, daughter of Robert Chamberlin of Norwich, and had six sons and four daughters. He lived in London, Ascot, and briefly at Ashtead in Surrey.[14]

Sir Thomas Charles Lucas was the first of the Lucas baronets, the present holder of the baronetcy is Sir Thomas Edward Gubbins Lucas 5th Bt.[15]

References

1. "Charles Thomas Lucas". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
2. "Charles Thomas Lucas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49439. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. "Oxford University Museum of Natural History: Introduction". Oxford University. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
4. "1863 – The Langham Hotel, Portland Place, London". Archiseek.com. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
5. "Charing Cross Station 1864-1964" (PDF). The Railway Magazine. 1 January 1964. p. 140. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
6. "Obituary: Charles Thomas Lucas 1820-1895". Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 124 (1896). Institution of Civil Engineers: 440. 1896. doi:10.1680/imotp.1896.19616. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
7. British History Online (ref. 124)
8. National Archives: Correspondence of Charles Thomas Lucas
9. Brodribb, John (2003). An Illustrated History of the East Suffolk Railway. Hersham, Surrey: Oxford Publishing Co. p. 176. ISBN 0-860935-72-8.
10. Architectural mini guide – Liverpool Street (PDF) (Report). Network Rail. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2014.
11. "Lucas and Aird". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
12. "The International Exhibition Building". Retrieved 21 October 2021.
13. "Portraits by the friend of Sherlock Holmes discovered in the City of Westminster" (PDF). Westminster Council. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
14. "Sir Thomas Lucas". The Peerage. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
15. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.

Further reading

• The Master Builders by Robert Keith Middlemas, Hutchinson, 1963, ASIN B0000CLXYL
• Sir Samuel Morton Peto by Rev Dr Edward C Brooks, Brookes, 1996, ISBN 978-0-9502988-4-9
• Deptford, Toronto and Kingston by Peter Stirling-Aird, Grimsay Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84530-021-0