Belgravia and Thomas Cubitt

Although we have given up on Julian Fellows'  new TV series Belgravia, it had one interesting fact for me, and that was the district was built by Thomas Cubitt. He actually appears in the programme. In my early career in building, Cubitts was a well respected name in the industry, although by then they were part of Holland, Hannen and Cubitts. In fact they were amalgamated in 1833. Thomas Cubitt started in business in 1815, building houses in Bloomsbury around 1920 and then Belgravia in 1924.

It was Tarmac who acquired Holland Hannen and Cubitts in 1976 and became part of Tarmac Construction. This division of Tarmac was the subject of a demerger from the parent company to form Carillion in 1999. Up until that company went bust in 2018, the headquarters were still at the old Tarmac Construction offices in Wolverhampton.

The building industry has lost so many old companies over recent years. When I started out in 1963, national and regional builders were still employing many of their own workforce. We were still in a post war boom. But as the industry contracted, builders ditched their own men and relied more and more on subcontractors. Obtaining work by tender became a cut throat business, cash flow became critical. Thomas Cubitt would not recognise this once thriving part of the industry. But then again, as a house-builder, he would recognise how many of these specialists still thrive.