Our history
1856 to the 1960's
British Land is a property investment company based in London, founded in 1856 and its early history is highly unusual.
The Company was set up with the aim of enabling people to buy freehold property at market prices in order to qualify for a vote in Parliamentary elections. Before the Victorian era there were severe restrictions on voting rights and the simplest way for an individual to obtain a parliamentary vote was for him to show he owned property. Following the Reform Act of 1832 the standard qualification was the ownership of a house with a “forty-bob freehold”, that is a freehold with an annual rental value of £2, which was 40 shillings in pre decimal currency. A number of freehold land societies were set up with the aim of buying large tracts of land at wholesale prices and subdividing them into 40 shilling plots. The plots were sold, thereby conferring the right to vote on the purchasers.
Sir Joshua Walmsley
(1794-1871)
RIchard Cobden
((1804-1865)
John Bright
((1811-1889)
The National Freehold Land Society, which was the immediate precursor of British Land, was established in 1849 by two Liberal Members of Parliament: Sir Joshua Walmsley and Richard Cobden, joined a year later by another illustrious MP, John Bright. The Society was not the first of its kind, but no other organisation grew to such prominence or was active on so wide a scale, especially in London. The public first became acquainted with the project through a meeting held on 26 November 1849 at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate in the City of London, where the principal speaker was Cobden. An account of his speech occupied three columns of The Times on the following day
Cobden and Bright were both radical figures who were very much in the public eye – hence the extensive coverage of Cobden’s freehold land speech in The Times. They were great Liberal reformers, and were particularly prominent in anti-Corn Law agitation.
Because the National Freehold Land Society was actually a building society, in spite of its name, it was unable to own land and all dealings in land had to be carried on by the directors as individuals at their own risk for the benefit of the Society. This was clearly unsatisfactory and, from 1856 onwards, land dealings were entrusted to a separate organisation, The British Land Company. British Land operated from the same address as The National Freehold Land Society and with the same directors. The formation of this new company was possible by new legislation permitting limited liability for shareholders in companies, meaning that they only were liable to the extent of their investment.
The business of this new company was to purchase land and to resell it on the best terms it could get to any customer who might be willing to purchase. The political impetus, so strong in 1849, quickly disappeared. Henceforward the main business thrust of the Company was definitely towards home ownership, not voting.
Corporate governance brought about British Land and the Society splitting into two independent companies. They continued to operate from the same premises for some years, with the Society being a tenant of British Land. The final break in their business relationship was caused by a row over the rent. Despite this they maintained a cordial relationship until the Society merged with the Abbey Road Building Societies, creating Abbey National.
The Company had the commercial foresight to protect its estates by a series of restrictive covenants, which limited, for instance, any additional building on individual plots. Even in its 150th year it still enjoys fees for consenting to variations of these covenants. British Land conducted a steady, small but undeniably profitable property business. Unfortunately little more can be said about this period, since virtually all British Land’s records were destroyed during the 1939– 45 war.
Towards the end of the 19th century the Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Sir David Burnett, had inaugurated a policy of acquiring income producing property investments for the purpose of guaranteeing income and stabilising dividends. With the election of Lord Bethell as Chairman in 1929 – he held the position until 1954 – large holdings of Government stocks were sold and the proceeds used to buy retail shops. This type of property investment gradually formed the larger proportion of the assets.
The Second World War dealt a heavy blow to the Company and the rental income suffered considerably. As a result of the Blitz on the City of London, eight buildings belonging to the Company were totally destroyed, and a large number of its properties suffered substantial war damage. During the night of the 29/30 December 1940, the Company lost its headquarters at 67 Basinghall Street together with its strong rooms, which contained all records from the date of incorporation, except copies of balance sheets from the year 1907 onwards and the original Deed of Settlement.
By the 1960s, wholly owned subsidiary companies held portfolios of offices and showrooms, shop properties, flats, ground rents, houses, garages, factories, warehouses and studios. Only with the acquisition of Quadrant House, Pall Mall, in 1961, did property development become an integral part of the Company’s activities. British Land was still a very small property company, however, and it was not until 1963 that gross rental income exceeded £1 million a year for the first time.
The company's history to 2006 was extracted from:
'No Stone Unturned. A History of The British Land Company 1856 - 2006' John Weston Smith (2006)
