Justin Browne Factory in Euston Road

[jjm]

Hi,
I am interested in 237 Euston Road where Justin Brown had his factory.
Strangely there appear to be at least two other businesses at the same address at the same time.
A cabinet making firm and an auctioneers. Both remained here well after the address has supposedly burned down in the 1870s. This suggests that 237 Euston Road was actually more than one building.
Does anyone know about this firm or know where I would find old catalogues or illustrations of the factory? I assume photos is a long-shot for this time.
Thanks,
James

[Bill Kibby]

At different times, Justn Browne gave his address as 237. 239, 243, or 245. I have not yet been able tp pin down the sequence of dates for these, but nowhere does he say that this is a factory.
My 1892 Post Office London Directory lists Justin Browne, Pianoforte maker, 237-245 Euston Road NW. The Street Directory shows some shared useage of office premises, and this is unlikely to have been a factory: 237 to 245 Euston Road is listed for Justin Browne, but 237 & 239 are occupied by Ash & Edwards, auctioneers. At 239a is William Bond, american novelty stores.
The Street Directory also lists Colonel Richard Hurford as being at 154 Brecknock Road, at the corner of Anson Road. This was later the address of the piano firm Joseph Charles Browne, a piano dealer.
By 1914, Cramer & Co. had taken over the manufacture of "Justin Browne" pianos, which might then bear Cramer's address, 139 New Bond Street, and conform to Cramer serial numbers. Browne was part of the "Cramer agencies", the pianos were then made at Castle Road.

[jjm]

Thanks for your reply. This is very interesting. I also found the auctioneer listing. In fact this company were at the 237 address for many years and are Ash & sons in 1900.
I also found an advert in a paper from 1869 which lists 237 as "a new factory" with 4 floors: https://i.ibb.co/FxPstdW/237-Euston-Roa ... b-1869.png
So the information we have seems slightly contradictory at times!
I have just looked in detail at the historic OS maps and also the Britain from above photos of the location and I think that what may have happend is that there were several buildings which had the same address. Partly because they may have been a larger building over the location of some smaller ones and took the address 237 to 245 and partly because there is one factory building behind another or behind smaller shops. The one behind is not directly on Euston Road but still uses the 237 Euston road numbering.
Looking at the later images (1920s+) we can see there is a large building hehind smaller ones.
In the 1880 illustrations of London by Herbert Fry it looks like there may have been 2 factories but it's hard to tell.
Certainly the Pianoforte part burned down in 1874 so must have been separate from the Cabinet making firm and the Auctioneers.
Going back further it seems the original building had an very different function: http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/StPancrasRfy/

Thanks

[Bill Kibby]

The 1869 ad doesn't say where the factory is.

[jjm]

Hi,
Yes it says 273 Euston road at the end but I suppose that could be just the address of the person renting out the factory.
However, I have done further research today and found an illustration in the future gazette of 1886 which has an illustration of the factory and the shops in from front. It is clearly 5 floors high so I do think this is the correct address.

[Bill Kibby]

I'd love to see that, can you post a link, or email me?

[Bill Kibby]

James has done a tremendous amount of research on the address, and would very much like to hear from any descendants of Justin Browne, especially if they have any useful information or illustrations.