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Chart &
Lawrence and the great West Street fire
Many of us will remember Chart and
Lawrence – that splendid department store that
occupied what was (and still is) probably the prime
retail site in the town, on the corner of West Street
and the Carfax, now the home of Waterstone's. But the
days of such individually-owned outlets, launched by
enterprising local businessmen during the reign of
Victoria, could not survive the harsher commercial
realities of the later twentieth century, with chain
stores buying in bulk and selling at the keenest of
prices, and Horsham's are now long gone. Tanner and
Chart in Market Square and later Middle Street
(co-founded by Harry Chart, who died in 1953 aged 91)
and Hunt Brothers in West Street, opposite Chart and
Lawrence, were another two such stores. They were here
before Chart and Lawrence, but left the scene earlier.
All three are reminders of a less frenetic shopping
age, when staff lived above the shop and customers
were known by name. Happy days.....
In January 1898 Messrs Chart and Lawrence 'begged to
announce' in the West Sussex County Times that 'they
have taken the drapery business lately carried on by
Mr G Duke at the corner of West Street and the Carfax',
and in a supporting editorial mention the paper noted
that George Duke's 'warehouse' had been there for many
years. The new management set about developing the
store, and by October an enlarged showroom was open
for business. Its range included jackets and capes 'in
immense variety' along with millinery, mantles and 'specialite-divided
skirts', and while they were proud to boast that they
were 'always up to date', in the way of things then
they also let their customers know that they closed at
2 o'clock on Thursdays.
But who were these enterprising young businessmen?
While Chart came from a local family (his was a well
known trading name in the town), Ernest Edward
Lawrence was a newcomer. He came from Norfolk stock,
and his parents had moved to Tunbridge Wells, where
Ernest went to school. He was born on 7 March 1874,
and came to Horsham as a young man, and married May
Cramp (from another local family). So he was
approaching 24 when he and his partner bought out
Duke's, and before that they had run a small shop
further down West Street.
No doubt the opening of their new store brought a
sharper competitive edge to the town, but at a time
when Horsham's population was expanding, with a
railway connection to London now well established and
much new housing developed around the kernel of the
old town, there were probably customers for everyone.
The classic way of attracting shoppers, the seasonal
sale, was put into operation by all the big guns.
Chart and Lawrence ran a 'great clearance sale' in
June and July 1898, and Hunt Brothers, earlier in
February, mounted their regular winter sale – claiming
it to be their 34th such event, which puts them back
to a starting date of 1864.
But just over ten years later Chart and Lawrence
suffered a near catastrophe which could have put them
out of business. On the night of Monday 2 May 1909 a
severe fire broke out in the next door premises of
Messrs Rice Brothers, cycle agents and saddlers.
Theirs was 'one of the oldest buildings in the town',
with much timber in the structure and a Horsham stone
roof, and on their other side was Timothy White's,
'cash chemists'. Across the other side of the street
stood 'the handsome new premises' of the Capital and
Counties Bank (where Lloyd's now is), and one down
from the bank was Hunt Brothers, who had earlier
occupied the bank building as well. The conflagration
was reckoned to be the worst 'in the very heart of the
town' within living memory, and seriously threatened
the shops around.
At 11.53 pm PC Frederick Russell, while on his beat,
had heard a loud crackling sound from the back of
Rice's, on the chemist's side, and the town alarm
sounded at 12.04 am. The fire quickly got a hold, and
a worried crowd soon gathered. J. Rice was summoned
from his home, Oxley House in East Street, and T. Rice
rushed to the site from Springfield Road, where their
motor business was – both men, no doubt, in a great
flap.
Many people lent a hand. H.Chart ran to his shop in
Middle Street and fetched a Minimax fire extinguisher
(which had little effect on the flames), and the hard
work of volunteers Father Laurence, H.Quested and A.
Sturt was publicly acclaimed in the local paper.
W.Hull was also a great help in allowing Chart and
Lawrence's stock to be moved to safety to his nearby
Crown Hotel. |
