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Soho House

Jayell

master brummie
I spent about 15 Christmases at Soho House as I grew up there! In those days it was Soho Hall Hotel and my family owned it for 26 years from 1929, firstly my grandparents and then my parents. I have very many happy memories of those days. I was privileged to go around the house when it was in the middle of renovation in 1993 and again when it was finished but before it was open to the public. What a lovely idea to have a Georgian Family Christmas there.
 
Here is a picture of Soho House in 1798, drawn and engraved by Francis Eginton. Home of Matthew Boulton between 1766 and 1809.
 
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Tremendous isnt it, maybe you could tell us a little more of your childhood judy39, I'm sure it would make fascinating reading. Do you have any photos of when you were little?
 
My grandparents, Albert and Emma Jane Tuck, bought Soho in 1929. They had been running the Waverley Hotel in New Meeting Street for some time (owned by Ansells) when they decided to buy Soho Hall Hotel and run the two hotels together.

Soho was a commercial hotel in those days, and was usually full during the week with reps who visited on a regular basis. This left us with the hotel more or less to ourselves at the weekends, although there were two elderly residents living there. I have slept in most of the bedrooms in the house at one time or another. My grandad also built an extension to side of the property, building over the existing stillroom and pantry, adding extra bedrooms, bathrooms/showers and toilets. He also built a block of 14 garages to the front at the right of the entrance driveway. All this has now been demolished. Both my grandparents died at Soho.

My sister and I were lucky as children to be able to grow up in such a lovely old house (which is supposed to be haunted, and athough I never saw any ghosts, there were a few unnerving happenings while living there!!) There was a quarter of an acre of garden left at that time and we used to invite all our friends in to play (mostly from Vicarage Road).

Here are some photos - one of me in the garden, one of Dad (Alex Tuck) in the garden, and one of the entrance driveway at the time we lived there. The driveway has now disappeared and the garden looks completely different.
 
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What a brilliant story, and the pictures say so much too. Can we use this stuff on the mainsites? and sorry to be asking more but do you have pictures of the Waverley Hotel.
 
Judy how wonderful as Rod said the pictures say it all. I am so pleased that you have posted this memory for us. I have just read your post out to my husband. He found it facinating, we both loved the pictures. Thank you for sharing this with us. Wendy.
 
I found this discussion fascinating, as I sang in the choir at St Michael's church opposite from 1950 to 1959, and I think we (the church youth club) once visited the hotel unannounced to try to raise some money by carol singing in December either 1950 or 1951. I can't remember the details, but I think my feelings at the time were that we should have given advance notice of our visit.
I've been trying to remember who took the hotel over in 1955. Was it the RAF Association, who later moved to the house on the corner of Soho Hill and Soho Avenue, or did Lucas's acquire it for a time, for use as a social club?
Anyway, my first serious visit there was about ten years ago, when it was fairly newly opened as a museum. It was on a visciously cold day just after Christmas, and there were no other visitors, as I remember. I certainly want to go there again, but can't make it before Christmas, much as I would like.
Peter
 
Peter sadly the house isnt open at the moment. I had planned a visit with a group this thursday but I was informed on the telephone that the house is currently closed, only opening for the Xmas special.
Open from Saturday 30th March to Sunday 28th October, Tuesday to Sunday 11.30am - 4.00pm (closed Mondays except Bank Holidays)

I love the story related by Judy, especially the bit where she says she slept in most of the bedrooms.
The following Kellys extraction is from a 1964 Kellys. The 1956 Kellys shows the house as a Hotel. I dont have a Kellys for the years in between to find any further info for you.

SOHO AVENUE, Handsworth
(19), 125 Soho hill
to 18 St. Michael's road.


MAP
33 I &3? I .

LEFT SIDE.

1 Jones Mrs. E. J
3 Gupwell Mrs. Alice Julia
City of Birmingham
Police Hostel (iSoho ho)
13 Orr Jas. 0?
.... here is Vicarage rd ....
29 Oldaker Thos. Philip



37 Harrison Edgar Thos
 
Peter, I also used to 'occasionally' attend St Michaels Church. I went to the Sunday School, and also was in the Brownies in the Cub Hut. I don't remember the choir visiting the hotel to sing, but then I may have been at school at the time.

My parents sold Soho to the GEC in 1956 and I believe it was used as student accommodation for trainees. The GEC sold it on to the Police as a hostel. I visited the house when the Police had it and was dismayed to see how the lovely house had changed. the sweeping drive had gone and the old tennis court to the side had been built on and now had a modern extension which looked out of character. The inside was shabby, cold and drab, and looked just what it was - a hostel.

I was upset to see the old house fall into such a state and when I found out that it was going to be restored to its former glory I was very pleased.

Judy

Judy
 
Waverley Hotel

Rod, I'm glad you were interested in my memories of Soho and would be happy for you to put them on the main sites.

As to the Waverley Hotel in New Meeting Street, I don't know anything about this hotel and if anyone can give me any information on it I should be very grateful. Here is the only photo I have found of the Waverley which was taken in November 1949, showing the junction of Albert Street/New Meeting Street. You can just see the sign for the hotel.

Judy
 
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Just heard on the radio that there is something going on this Sunday 21/6/8 at Soho House. Did'nt quite catch what but it sounded ok. That's if anyone is interested. Might go myself.

Hanco
 
I visited Soho House on several occasions in the 1990's when my company supplied some specialist floor-coverings during renovation. We did a good job and I think James Watt would have been proud of our efforts.

Regards,

Big Gee
 
I took some friends to Soho House yesterday, they hadn't visited it before and were most impressed. Then we drove to Foundry Lane and Averys to look at the preserved cottages from Soho Foundry. The jobsworth on security finally agreed that we could look at the outside of the cottages but, when I ventured around the back (which backs onto the factory's main car park) He came over shouting "You can't look around the back, there's all sorts of masonry and rubble that falls off here!".
Now I'm worried...the cottages are, I'm sure, listed (Wm Murdoch lived in the end one in 1817) but they're in an awful state inside and seem to be used for dumping boxes, and the back of most the cottages is overgrown with shrubs and weeds. I hope I'm wrong, but nothing seems to be being done to look after these wonderful cottages....I know Averys is now owned by an American company (Weigh-Tronix) and just wonder if they have the same 'reverence' for this history that we do.
Maybe I'll try and ring Averys to find out!
See: averyweigh-tronix.com (can't remember the link, sorry).
 
judy...ive just been reading that handsworth book again..and as i have said before you were so lucky to live in soho house....just imagine treading the same path as lord nelson and lady hamilton....its seems to me that it is only now that i am just beginning to realise just what history there was in my neck o the woods....still we are never to old to learn...

lyn:)
 
You are right Lyn. I never realised when I was growing up that I was living in such a treasure - to me it was just home! It was a hotel when my family had it, and there were people coming and going all the time - I just longed for an ordinary house like my friends.

I loved that house. As children we would explore the cellars to see if there were any ghosts. Down the steps to the cellar, and there was a long passage with rooms off each side. One year when I was having a birthday party when I was young, I took some friends down to have a look. My dad had gone down before us and we didn't know he was there. As we were slowly going down the passage, which was dark and cobwebby, suddenly a broom handle with a white sheet on it popped out. We all screamed and ran back up the stairs. Dad was lucky we didn't all have heart attacks it scared us so much. :D

Judy
 
lol judy...just as a matter of interest...when was the last time you went to the house....

lyn
 
I can't remember exactly Lyn. I was invited to the "Open House" to mark the restoration of Soho, in 1995, as I had been in correspondence with the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery in connection with the Soho House Project for a couple of years before the official opening, and had been round the house while restoration was in progress in 1993.

I think I went round as a paying visitor a few years after this so it would be around 1999 or so, not really sure. That is the last time I visited.

Here is a copy of a drawing by Francis Eginton of Soho House in 1798.

Judy
 
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