What’s Happening
Local Property Company celebrates 125th anniversary
Marston’s the Fulham property company celebrated it’s 125th anniversary in 2020. To commemorate this special year in the company’s history they are launching a new book entitled “All the More Determined”. W J Marston & Son was founded in 1895 by William James (WJ) Marston who started the company in Hugon Road where Marston Properties is still located today. The company continues to be family owned and is run by WJ’s great-granddaughter Caroline Marston, a 4th generation Marston who lives and works in Fulham; just 3% of family enterprises continue into the fourth generation as Marston’s has done.
The anniversary book describes how the Marston family and their company has survived and developed over the last 125 years. It includes some fascinating insights into Fulham’s history illustrating social changes during this time. A map in the book highlights buildings that Marston’s has built and redeveloped across SW London including extensions to the Natural History Museum and Fulham Town Hall in the 1930s, building the Empire petrol station on the New Kings Road (1938), Bousfield School in Kensington (1954) and the London Oratory in Fulham (1966), air raid shelters and repairing bombed properties during the war. They prioritised helping the council during this time even though it meant losing commercial business.
Roots in the community have been important to them from directly employing 32 people in Fulham frequently multiple members from the same family; ‘Lockdown Selfies’ are included in the book. Marston’s feel strongly that it’s important to be good neighbours and ‘responsible to our community’. Since 2017 it has been the lead sponsor of the Parsons Green Fair which 10,000 people attended in 2019 and it also recently reorganised and rebuilt the playground at the nursery school in Crosland Place, where it is developing rental properties. We didn’t know this but here are approximately 8.5 million trees in London, one for every Londoner and one of Marston’s objectives when it develops a site is to plant more trees than were there before. They are also working with Hammersmith and Fulham Council and Earthwatch to plant a ‘Tiny Forest’ in the borough and recently converted its fleet of company vehicles to run on electricity.
Caroline Marston followed her parents into the hotel division of Marston’s working aged 15 as a chambermaid before joining Martson Properties in 1986. After twenty years as Managing Director she becomes Chairman on 1 January being replaced as Managing Director by John Clarke, a highly experienced property professional and the first non-family Managing Director. Caroline told Urban Village LDN “We hope you enjoy reading this book about our family business and its development which spans three centuries. We are a local, family owned, Fulham property company who has stayed true to our roots and remain in the area where our ancestors founded our company 125 years ago. It is important to us to develop buildings carefully and to preserve their history wherever possible, to play an active role in the community, to look after the environment, our tenants and our employees. We take a long-term view and look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries in the future.”
Happy 125th Anniversary Marston’s and congratulations Caroline on becoming Chairman. “All the More Determined’ 125 years of Marston’s – book out soon! To register your interest get in touch info@marstonproperties.co.uk
New Venue For Hire
New start-up company Inspire Fulham Ltd, conceived during the first lockdown, have been given the task of showcasing the much talked-about permanent site for the Fulham Boys School. They will have the sole remit of letting out this brand new state of the art building situated on the Fulham Road during out-of-school hours.
The founders, Sophia Wade and Juliette Khan are long time Fulham locals, mothers to boys at Fulham Boys School, small business owners and property and marketing experts respectively. Urban Village LDN talked to both Sophia and Juliette in between lockdowns to hear about their ambitions to offer this new venue as a hub for the local and wider community.
The new venue includes a double aspect hall, a large courtyard, a new gym, drama room, seminar room, dining room and some 20 classrooms. Inspire Fulham’s objectives are to bring grassroots sports to the fully equipped sports hall, provide spaces for catch-up tutoring, introduce food markets, run shopping fairs, host supper clubs and much more.
Juliette told us 'To be given the opportunity to generate a much needed revenue stream for Fulham Boys School whilst also providing the community with a fantastic new venue and incredible facilities really is the dream. I’m personally passionate about giving small independents and local entrepreneurs a tangible platform where they can reach their consumers without crippling rents and rates, whilst simultaneously giving our community some genuinely exciting and innovative ways of socialising & networking”.
Sophia continues “As one of the ten founders of The Fulham Boys school I am devoted to my Christian faith, sport and business/enterprise. Alongside Juliette, we are committed to delivering opportunities that both mirror and are aligned with the distinct ethos of The Fulham Boys School”.
We look forward to hearing more and when it’s safe to do so taking a look around the new facilities. We’ll keep you posted! In the meantime if you’d like to enquire about venue hire get in touch with Juliette Juliette.khan@inspirefulham.co.uk