Home › Building histories › The Lordens of Wandsworth: Builders
– William Henry Lorden (1837–1901)
– John William Lorden (1862–1944)
– Appendix: Housebuilding Notices by W.H. Lorden
William was the son of Suffolk-born John Lorden (1803–1889). He was born at Dymchurch, Kent. In 1851 John Lorden is described as Superintendent of Building Works at Coddenham in Suffolk (probably referring to work at Shrubland Hall, coincidentally visited by Prince Albert in that year). In 1861 William Lorden was working as a bricklayer in Southwark. By 1871, he had advanced to builder’s foreman, living at Bevington Road, North Kensington, where several of his wife’s brothers were also engaged in the building industry. William Lorden was still living at Bevington Road in September 1871 when he gave notice to the Wandsworth District Surveyor for three houses in Brodrick Road. These were followed by two houses in Althorp Road in April 1874. William Lorden had moved into one of the latter by 1875 when he gave notice of two houses at the corner of Geraldine Road and East Hill.
William Lorden’s focus remained in the area south of Wandsworth Common during the late 1870s and 1880. Many of the houses were substantial properties, hence the sometimes protracted intervals between notifications to the local District Surveyors. Between 1876 and his death in 1901, Lorden is credited with a total of forty-nine properties, a very modest average of two per annum, although there were few prolonged gaps prior to 1888. The apogee of William Lorden’s career in Wandsworth came around 1880. In 1881 he was living at no. 1 Buckingham Terrace, Trinity Road with his wife, son John William Lorden and a ‘general servant’. Lorden gave his occupation as ‘builder’, employing twenty-one men and a boy, a substantial workforce for a single builder at that time. In 1882, an application for a house in Endlesham Road is made in the name of Lorden & Son, the latter referring to John William Lorden (see below).
William Lorden placed several advertisements for his properties in The Times. Examples include a house to be sold ‘near Wandsworth Common, with possession, a charming villa with a 80ft. frontage, a row of large elms and a carriage drive’. There were five bedrooms and two w.c.s. ‘Cards to view’ could be had from Lorden in Althorp Road. In August 1879, Lorden advertised a seven-bedroom detached house to let in Nightingale Road near Rusham Road for £150 p.a.
William Lorden’s son John (1862–1944) was involved in the erection of a “coffee tavern” in Upper Tooting Road in 1888. Several other retail premises were built by Lorden in and around Trinity Road. Shortly before his death in 1901, William Lorden was living at no. 111 Trinity Road with his widowed sister Jemima. For reasons as yet unclear, William Lorden’s death was registered at Portsmouth, and he appears to have died intestate. The Lordens’ total output between 1871 and 1899 was forty-two houses and retail premises, an average of one per year.
John William Lorden’s career may have begun as an assistant to his father, but he was destined for greater things. He was born at Colchester in 1862 and died in London in 1944. In 1881, he was living with his parents, with no occupation given. John Lorden married Ellen Garwood of Althorp Road in 1883. Ellen was the only child of Matthew Garrod (1820–95), described on their marriage certificate as “gentleman”. Garrod had for many years been a lodging-house keeper in the St. James area of Westminster, generally with a single servant and two or three lodgers. By 1891 the Garrods were living in Tooting Bec at Worcester Lodge, Langroyd Road. Matthew Garrod left an estate of £1,590.
In 1901, John Lorden and his family were living at no. 45 Earlsfield Road. He gave his occupation as ‘Building Contractor’ and employed a cook and housemaid. From the scant references to him in local District Surveyors’ Returns, however, it would appear that Lorden’s work lay mainly outside the Wandsworth area. Locally, he was only responsible for three houses between 1902 and 1906. Lorden was still living in Earlsfield Road in 1903 when he became a member of the Wandsworth Borough Council Masonic Lodge, giving his occupation as ‘Contractor’. During the 1900s, John Lorden clearly prospered. In 1911 he was living at Ravenswood on the south side of West Hill at the junction with Beaumont Road. The family then comprised Lorden, his wife and three children, with three servants. John described his occupation as ‘building contractor and farmer’.
From the early 1900s, if not earlier, J.W. Lorden was an active Conservative politician. He served twice as Mayor of Wandsworth, initially as a ‘Moderate’. [KB: mayoral years to be supplied.] Lorden served as a member for Wandsworth on the LCC between 1910 and 1913. He won the Parliamentary seat of North St. Pancras from the Liberals in 1918, but lost it to Labour in 1923. He died at his estate at Eastbourne in April 1944, leaving an estate valued at £117,900 — a far cry from his father’s humble beginnings as a bricklayer in Southwark.
[Table of housebuilding notices to be inserted here. Notes: 1. Lorden & Son; 2. Coffee Tavern.]
Draft version, April 2026. © Keith Bailey, 2024. All rights reserved.