Former type Private Fate Dissolved Founded 1842 | Industry Construction Headquarters London Defunct 1895 | |
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Key people Charles Lucas, (Chairman) | ||
Lucas Brothers was a leading British building business based in London.
Contents
Early history
The business was founded by Charles Thomas Lucas (1820–1895) and Thomas Lucas (1822–1902). They were the sons of James Lucas (1792–1865), a builder from St Pancras, London. Charles joined his father's business and was soon employed to manage construction of the Norwich and Brandon Railway for Sir Samuel Morton Peto.
In 1842 Charles set up his own contracting business in Norwich and progressed to rebuilding Peto's house, Somerleyton Hall. Charles and Thomas established a facility in Lowestoft from which they undertook various works, including the railway, the station, the Esplanade, St John’s church, and several hotels.
At their works in Lowestoft the brothers pre-fabricated huts for the navvies who built the Crimea railway. Their centre of operations then moved to London where they built various public buildings.
Building contracts
Perhaps their most famous building contract was the Royal Albert Hall completed in 1871. They also built Covent Garden Opera House (completed in 1858), Floral Hall (1860), King's College Hospital (1862), the Junior Carlton Club (1866), Charterhouse School (1872), and the Alexandra Palace (1873). Private houses included Cliveden (1851), Henham Hall (1858), Rendlesham Hall (1870), Normanhurst Court (1870), and the South Kensington Exhibitions of 1867 and 1871 with Sir John Kelk.
Collaboration with Sir John Aird
In the 1860s the brothers collaborated with John Aird & Co. to form a civil engineering business known as Lucas & Aird.
About the founders
Charles Thomas Lucas married Charlotte Tiffin and had five sons and two daughters. He lived in London and then at Warnham in Sussex. He was created a Baronet in 1887.
Thomas married Jane Golder and had a daughter. After her death, he married Mary Amelia Chamberlin, daughter of Robert Chamberlin of Norwich, and had six sons and four daughters. He lived in London, Ascot, and briefly at Ashtead in Surrey.
Demise of the business
In 1895, following the death of Sir Charles Thomas Lucas, the business was dissolved.