John Hollingsworth started his career at the beginning of this century with J Crawford Platt, who were established in the area in 1725, and founded his own practice in 1904 at Harwood House in Fulham Broadway. At the time Fulham was an expanding suburb and the new underground railway to Wimbledon was opening up the whole area. The vast majority of Fulham and South West London was covered with market gardens or large houses, all of which were rapidly being converted into housing estates. With the larger houses and grounds their memory lives on with such names as the Stokenchurch Estate, the Shaftsbury Estate, St Mary’s and the like.

Happy Accident

Much of the building material was delivered to the bank of the Thames and master builders would go down and negotiate with the Bargees for their loads. If a Bargee had Welsh Slate on board then the builder would build all his houses with Welsh Slate. The same applied to Belgian Slate – if this was readily available then the builder would use it.
Likewise all other building materials and it is this happy accident of history that has provided the area with the rich diversity and pattern of its houses and which has made them so sought after.

Still a bakery - the view from the Clapham office circa 1914

Started by renting

The John Hollingsworth practice started mainly by letting properties that had been built in the area, although the selling of houses became an ever important side of the business. A good house could be purchased for less than £250 and could be rented for about 7 shillings and six pence per week. That equates 37 ½ p at today’s money! The Company had a number of rent collectors – all on bicycles – who would collect rents throughout Battersea, Wandsworth, Clapham and Southfields as well as Fulham, Hammersmith and the closer neighbouring boroughs.
Carrying on this tradition the Company opened its Battersea office in 1985 and in Clapham in some 7 years later in early 1992. Battersea itself started expanding in 1838 – at which time the local population was still under 5,000 – when Clapham Junction station was opened (something of a misnomer, this, as it is set in the heart of Battersea). Thirty years later the area was virtually covered with new houses and estates, much as we see it today. It was also during this early Victorian era that the riverfront was built up with major industrial developments taking place throughout the period.
Clapham, on the other hand, was still a small village and was a country residence of city businessmen and men of position and influence. (Clappenham or Clopham is the old name for a village, homestead or enclosure on a hill and the earliest reference comes from Domesday Book). However, by the 1860s the large houses on the Southside of the Common began to be developed.
William Cheeseman entered the Hollingsworth partnership in about 1920 and when he retired in 1935 the practice was carried on by John Hollingsworth junior.
He retired, in turn, in 1970, selling the practice, which was subsequently purchased by the present owners in 2006. One of his many achievements was the foundation of the Fulham Tradesmen’s association – now known as the Fulham Chamber of Commerce.

The view outside our Lavender Hill offices circa 1910 (on the right of the picture)

Old-fashioned service

Both Hollingsworth's managed the company on the ‘old-fashioned’ basis of providing the best possible service for their clients. This tradition is still carried on today along with the combination of the up to the minute web marketing and technology, perhaps this is some of the reasons why we are oldest established Estate Agent in the area.