Charles Boot
Charles Boot
Personal life
Charles Boot was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire,[4] and the second of 13 children and eldest son of Henry Boot (1851–1931) and his wife, Hannah White. Henry and Hannah's first home was in Napier Street, Sheffield next to the Plymouth Brethren meeting rooms. Henry became a member of the Brethren, eventually forming his own meeting place; Charles would have had a religious upbringing but there is no evidence that he shared his father's enthusiasm.[5]
Boot was 12 when his father began to work on his own account as a jobbing builder, and Boot joined him after leaving school staying with the firm until his death in 1945. The censuses mark his progress: a joiner’s apprentice in 1891; a foreman joiner in 1901; and a building contractor in 1911. It was in that decade that Boot appeared to take complete control of the business and in the 1919 flotation he was the managing director.
Boot married Bertha Matthews (1870–1926) in 1897, they had two children, Henry and Gertrude and lived at
Business career
Boot's business career is detailed under
Boot made representations to the House of Commons on the costs of building houses. In July 1926 (a time when almost all housebuilding was for local authorities) he gave an extensive address to the Health and Housing Committee – already speaking for a firm that had "built more houses than any other firm or individual in the world". He was a strong proponent of labour being paid by results and criticised local authorities whose contracts prohibited this. He was also critical of local authorities that overspecified and interfered with work. He contrasted Birmingham, where he could build good houses for £397 and make a profit while virtually the same house in another authority would cost £465 and he would make a loss.[8]
Boot's concern for the building industry's ability to supply low cost housing for rent was addressed more than once in the closing stages of his life. He pointed to the 8,000 low-rent houses built by the Boot subsidiary, First National Housing Trust, in the six years following the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1933 and he argued for the superior economics of the private trust as compared with bureaucratic local authorities.
Pinewood Film Studios
In 1934, Charles Boot embarked upon the design and construction of what would become
Boot's Folly
Charles Boot built
References
- 1939 England and Wales Register
- ^ "Deaths". The Times. 16 June 1945. p. 1.
- ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995
- ^ 1881 England Census
- ^ a b Ron Baines: The Boot Family (1998)
- ^ History - Thornbridge Outdoors Retrieved 2018-03-22.
- ^ "Building firm chief dead". Newcastle Evening Chronicle. 15 June 1945. p. 5. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ Address to the Health and Housing Committee, 20 July 1926
- ^ Charles Boot Houses Built by Private Enterprise 1943; and Post-war Houses June 1944
- ^ Charles Boot A Scheme for the Abolition of Large Slum Areas, 1935
- ^ "British Film Studios". Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- ^ "Folly Towers". Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
- ^ Satellite image