William Russell was born 27th January 1820 and was active in Leamington Spa from about 1849 to 1874. He was a son of the John Russell who owned the Bath Hotel (there is no known relationship with the architect with the same name, John Russell). He served his time with the architect, John George Jackson. … Read more
Victoria Eleanor Louise Doorly, known as Eleanor, was a teacher and writer of children’s books. For her biography of Marie Curie, ‘The Radium Woman’, she won the 1939 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, which recognises the year’s best children’s book by a British subject. She was born in 1880 in Richmond Hill, Port … Read more
George Thomas “Metz” Robinson was active in Leamington Spa for only about a dozen years from 1855 to 1870 but he went on to be successful elsewhere in several fields. He did draw up some designs for buildings in Leamington but he had other interests and occupations including journalism. His journalistic career perhaps began in … Read more
On 27 September 1921, one hundred and forty delegates from trade unions around the country assembled at Leamington Town Hall to complete their amalgamation as the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU). It was a decisive moment in the history of the British labour movement. The TGWU would go on to become the biggest trade … Read more
Lockdown Living History Research Challenge Thank you to all contributors for the Leamington History Group’s Living History Lockdown Project. A new contribution from a youngster was added on 29th April. The ‘Leamington Scrubbers’ When the Covid pandemic took hold, Ashleigh Linsdell, a nurse from Cambridge, started a grass-roots movement For the Love of Scrubs to … Read more
John Russell was born in 1770 and died on 10th August 1840, aged 70. In 1831 he was living near the canal bridge in Tachbrook Road. Russell was in business on his own in Wise Street until he took on Edmund Mitchell as a partner around 1828. They adopted the name Russell and Mitchell and … Read more
Edmund Mitchell was active in Leamington Spa s an architect from about 1828 to 1860. He was a partner with the older John Russell until John died in 1841, in the firm of Russell and Mitchell based at No 18 Wise Street; he then continued as a sole trader. He is sometimes incorrectly referred to … Read more
John George Jackson was born on 2nd February 1799, the son of Ralph Jackson and Eliza (nee Hopwood). He was baptised at St George’s Church in Hanover Square in London, the church where his parents had married. John married Emma Prichard, daughter of Bristol surgeon William Evans Prichard and Sarah Radford on 19th February 1835 … Read more
John Cundall, 1830 to 1889 John Cundall is a person who is not quite as well-known as he deserves to be; he was in fact an architect whose designs peppered the town of Royal Leamington Spa. They are buildings which mostly have a distinct air of belonging to the same family. They are mainly unashamedly … Read more
NOTE: This page is a revised and more comprehensive version of the subject than the previous page with a similar title and lists over 140 architects. Introduction Following the date when a village of simple cottages, a spring and a small church, named Leamington Priors, quite rapidly morphed into a burgeoning town from after 1800, … Read more
Frederick Foster (1851 to 1929, age 78) was born in North Marston near Winslow in Buckinghamshire on 25th January 1851; he was the eighth son of Joseph Foster who was a tenant farmer and the family is recorded as moving quite frequently from farm to farm. His Christian name is sometimes found written without a … Read more
Frederick William Hobill Lee (about 1876 to 1954, aged 78) was the son of Frederick W Lee, a local builder of No 18 Clarendon Avenue. He was active as an architect in Leamington Spa from around 1898 to 1954 in a partnership with Harry Quick which was simply known as Quick & Lee. The other … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026