The exact origins and original premises of Thomas Potter's firm have not yet been traced. However by about 1850 the company’s main premises were in 44 South Moulton Street, just off Oxford Street, central London, and from here Potter ran a very successful business for many years. The name was "already well established in 1851" when the firm exhibited at the Great Exhibition a brass lectern designed by N. J. Cottingham (1823‐54) for Hereford cathedral ("T. Potter & Sons"; Catalogue, 13, item 63). The saga of the travails and journeys of that particular lectern is entertaining. By the 1860s, Potter had also established an iron and brass foundry in West Hampstead, the area where he lived, building accommodation nearby for his workmen (see Cockburn et al. 126). Note that the area was not known as West Hampstead until the 1880s: before that, it was simply known as West End (see Weindling and Colloms).
The ornamental case for the Law Courts clock.
Whatever its earliest beginnings, from 1851 at least, Potter rapidly became a major force in the production of Victorian ecclesiastical ironwork. The firm "specialised in metalwork, in brass, iron and bronze" ("T. Potter & Co."), mostly ecclesiastical but with some important secular work as well. It was used by many major architects of the period including William Butterfield (for example, the ironwork for All Saints, Margaret Street and G. E. Street, for many of the churches he built and restored. Among the foundry's secular products were railings and gates for the outer screen walls and the ornamental clock case for the Law Courts in London, built 1874‐82, also by Street; St George’s Hall, Liverpool, where it was responsible for making the huge bronze doors around the great hall; the Crimea Memorial gates at Chatham Barracks, as well as many other church and secular fittings both in the UK and overseas. The Butterfield-designed lectern suppled to the Cathedral in Fredricton, New Brunswick is affectionately known there as "Big Bird" after the puppet-character in the children's television series, Sesame Street.
In 1861, Potter was elected to membership of the Society of Arts, which in 1908 became the Royal Society of Arts, the RSA of today. The firm’s standing "reached new heights" when they made the doors and outer gates of A. J. Humbert‘s Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, Berkshire, complete in 1871 ("T. Potter & Co."). There, Potter stood out as being one of the very few British craftsmen to have been involved. The "Potter List" of works by the firm refers to many more buildings and projects where his work may be found. “Most striking is not only how wide a distribution of Potter’s works enjoyed — both national and international, and just how prodigious the output of a relatively modest engineering firm was” ("Homage to Potter," 34).
The Foundry, which was a partnership, was dissolved in 1888. The land was retained and leases granted to developers of private property, shops and so on. But, since the name can be found in directories up to 1909, the company continued even after this. Potter himself is said to have given up after meeting the eccentric Duke of Portland on the coach. They shared a rug, and from then on he worked almost exclusively for the Duke at Welbeck Abbey – much of the iron work and underground work there was done by him. He became a wealthy man through the business and built himself a large house at Ardingly, Sussex which he called Hapstead House (see Kelly's Handbook 527). There were 152 acres of land, and the house with its land was his home from 1867 until his death in 1895.
Bibliography
Baker, T. F. T., Diane K Bolton and Patricia E. C. Croot. "Hampstead: West End." A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington. Ed. C. R. Elrington London: Victoria County History, 1989: 42-47; 111-130 Web. 9 September 2000.
Carson, Patrick. Thomas Potter: Victorian Craftsman, 1804-1895. Privately printed, 2018.
"Homage to Potter." The Victorian (the magazine of the Victorian Society). March 2019: 34.
Kelly's Handbook for the Upper 10,000. 5th annual ed. London: Kelly & Co., 1879. Google Books. Free Ebook. Web. 9 September 2020.
Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. Corrected ed. London: Spicer Bros. 1851. Google Books. Free Ebook. Free Ebook. Web. 9 September 2020.
"Potter's Iron Foundry." The Underground Map. Web. 9 September 2020.
"T. Potter & Co." in "Architects & Artists P-Q." Sussex Parish Churches. Web. 9 September 2020.
Weindling, Dick, and Marianne Colloms. "West Hampstead History." West Hampstead Life. Web. 9 September 2020.
Created 9 September 2020