Born: c.1833 Turnham Green, Chiswick, Middlesex. The 1841 Census gives his birth year as 1834. The 1861 Census has 1832. The 1871 Census has 1834.
Died: 10 November 1897 while living at 6 Wrights Walk, Mortlake, Surrey. On his death his will left effects of £35 11s 7d left to his widow Elizabeth Jemima.
Parents: George Frederick Eydmann c.1805-1876 and Laura Janet Arnold 1808-1887
Married 1: Emma Reeves c.1833-1869 Emma was from (or was then living at) Richmond, Surrey or (as recorded in the 1861 Census) from Brightsbridge, Middlesex.
Children:
George Frederick Eydmann 1856-1949. The 1861 Census has him born 1856. The 1871 Census has 1857. The 1881 Census has 1856.
Alfred William Eydmann 1859- The 1861 Census has him born 1858.
Ada Eydmann 1861
Annie Eydmann 1863
Willie Eydmann 1965
Flora Eydmann 1868, The 1871 Census has her born 1867.
The 1861 Census notes an Anna Reeves (born Aldgate, Middlesex in 1788) as an assistant in the Chiswick household of George’s father George Frederick Eydmann c.1805-1876. By this time George had married Emma Reeves and was living at Mortlake. The 1871 Census records Anna Reeves as Hannah Reeve, boarder. Were Anna and Emma from the same family?
Married 2: Elizabeth Jemima Turner 1840-19?? on 26 April 1870 at Hammersmith or in June 1870 at Kensington, London. This needs to be confirmed. Elizabeth was born at Dagenham, Essex.
Children:
Frederick Henry Eydmann c.1871
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Eydmann c.1872
Herbert (Bertie) Arnold Eydmann 1875-1947
Lillian Maud Eydmann 1877
Daisy Elma Eydmann 1880
All of George’s children, by both marriages, were born at Mortlake.
This photograph, taken at Hammersmith and left in the possessions of Herbert’s daughter may show Laura in mourning after 1897:
The 1871 Census records George and Elizabeth living at High Street, Mortlake, Surrey with children George Frederick, Alfred William, Annie, Willie and Flora.
The 1881 Census records the same at High Street, Mortlake but without Flora and Alfred William. Flora who was aged 18 and working as a barmaid and living with her married brother Alfred William at Acton.
The 1891 Census shows George and Elizabeth now living at 6 Wright’s Walk, Mortlake along with Lizzie, Lillian and Daisy.
Profession: Following in the footsteps of his father George Frederick Eydmann c.1805-1876, George became a hairdresser and established a business at Mortake, Surrey. However, on his son Herbert’s death certificate his profession is recorded as tobacconist.
The choice of Mortlake, across the river from his home area at Chiswick, was perhaps an astute one as the town was about to develop considerably through expansion of tge brewing industry and the coming of the railway. The family home and business were located on Mortlake High Street and hairdressing activities are likely to have been carried on in the ground floor, front shop, as in this illustration from nineteenth-century London:
High Street hairdressers shops were often social hubs were news, gossip and business were exchanged. Some clients would also have been attended to privately in their homes. The precise location of the Eydmann premises is discussed below.
Memorabilia: A medal from The Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes – Express Lodge fraternal society survives with the inscription:
Presented to “This order of merit / was presented to / Primo G. F. Eydmann / by the / members of / the Express Lodge / in estimation of his services / in the cause of Buffaloism / and in their regard for / him as a man /26 February / 1883
The medal is in a case marked Bond and Kedge, 97 High Street, Putney.
Information on the RAOB organisation can be found here.
Stuart Anthony Eydmann 1953- recalls that his father Harold Edward David Eydmann 1925- had in his possession a case of finest-quality Sheffield-steel, barber’s open razors that had been handed down in the family, presumably from George.
Events:
The Era (read via British Newspapers online at the British Library) carries a reference to a G. F. Eydmann in reports on rowing on 27 March, 10 April and 29 May 1859. According to The Morning Chronicle, London, 8 April 1859, p. 3:
The Eydmann home and business on Mortlake High Street:
The location of the Eydmann house and business premises on Mortlake High Street can be determined using data from a number of sources.
Correlating information in the 1861 Census and the First Edition Ordnance Survey [Surveyed 1867, published 1870] we can locate the property on a stretch of the south side High Street between two public houses and across from Mortlake Brewery. From west to east, were:
The Old George Public House
Greengrocer
Ironmonger
Eydmann Hairdresser
Greengrocer
Fishmonger
The Two Brewers Public House
An undated photograph, looking east, shows this group of buildings but with the Eydmann property tantalizingly out of view on account of the bend in the road:
You can see the greengrocer and The Old George here (left):
…and part of the shop neighbouring The Two Brewers here (right):
The 1901 Commercial Directory for Mortlake has occupiers and street numbering but confirms that there was no longer an Eydmann presence:
40 Edward Cox, Old George Public House
42 Minton Herbert, fruiterer
44-46 Leach Brothers, Oilmen
48 Wm Pether, butcher
50 James Reynolds, fruiterer
52 Fred Pugh, Two Brewers Public House
Charles Goad’s 1907 Fire Insurance Plan is also very helpful as it adds information not shown on the Ordnance Survey including street numbers, some property uses and the number of storeys of individual premises. Here we find number 44 listed as a grocer’s shop with the two-storey (and attic?) number 46, which was previously the Eydmann property, operating as an associated premises dealing in oil and colour (i.e. paint).
An undated photograph of Leach Brothers premises confirms number 44 in use as a grocery and the former Eydmann shop at number 46, on left, by then specialising in lamps, oil and other hardware:
This company had been on Mortlake High Street since at least the time of the 1878 Post Office Directory of Surrey [p. 270] that records them as ‘Leech Brothers, oil and color men’. Leach Brothers also had an ‘oil and Italian warehouse’ and grocery, oilmen and wine and spirit stores at Kingston and other outlets at Putney, Richmond and Wandsworth.
We know from the Census returns that the Eydmann’s had moved into Wright’s Walk sometime between the 1881 and 1891. Kelly’s London Suburban Directory of 1896 [Part 5. Southern: Commercial and Trade Directories] has George F. Eydmann, hairdresser, still at High Street and, given that he died in 1897, we can assume that the Leach Brothers took over the Eydmann premises shortly after that time.
The former Eydmann premises, and other shops situated between them and the Two Brewers pub, were subsequently demolished and in time the assembled site was given over to a new cinema, that can be seen in this photograph and survey drawing:
The remaining Leach premises, subsequently occupied by J. Edwards, was also demolished and the site enclosed by a brick wall prior to the comprehensive redevelopment of that stretch of the High Street in the middle of the Twentieth Century.
The Eydmann home at 6 Wright’s Walk
The High Street house and shop was a modestly scaled, 2-storey premises with a small yard and would have been extremely cramped by modern standards and the size of the family. The site would also have been noisy on account on account of its location on the main street and the presence of the large brewery concern across the road. It is not surprising, therefore, that the family would aspire to the spacious and semi-detached new house with modern facilities and a garden at nearby Wright’s Walk.
The Eydmann’s new home at 6 Wrights Walk, was very close to the High Street site. It still exists and is a very desirable property.
The property was last sold in April 2013. When advertised for sale in November 2012 the sales particulars stated “Situated in the heart of Mortlake in a row of Victorian cottages. This cottage has possibly been in the same family for over 100 years.”
The following drawings accompanied a subsequent application for planning permission.
