BOOT, Alfred (1823-1884) — London
Steam printer, lithographer, stationer & engraver. Produced Gustave le Gray, ‘A practical treatise on photography, upon paper and glass’ 1850, for T. & R. Willats; ‘Oxfordshire : the manor house and farm of 228 acres in the parish of Standlake’ 1860, an auction prospectus with a coloured map; ‘On the banks of the Thames, Lady Place, Hurley, Berks. Valuable freehold building site, with possession. Particulars and conditions of sale’, again with a map. Lithographed, as ‘Alfred Boot & Son’, The “District Railway” miniature map of London ca.1881, published by ‘W. J. Adams & Sons’ (William James Adams) of Fleet Street. Also published local reports, poetry, polemical essays, etc. Printed ‘The magic lantern, dissolving views : and oxy-hydrogen microscope, their history and construction, also directions for use, with oil lamps, oxy-calcium and oxy-hydrogen light : and instruction for painting on glass : spectral effects, ghosts described, and how to produce them’ ca.1865, for Henry Negretti and Joseph Warren Zambra.
Born in London 5 Feb 1823 in York Street, Covent Garden, and baptised in a non-conformist ceremony, the son of Alfred Boot (1799-1872), an accountant, and later an advertising agent and a commercial traveller in the printing trade (presumably for his son), and his wife Eliza Johnston (1800-1868), who married in 1820. Boot was living at home as an apprentice in 1841. He married Catherine Holloway (1824?-1892), daughter of a Ramsgate innkeeper, with whom he had a number of children, at St. Pancras in 1848. Listed as a director of the ‘London & Provincial Provident Society’ in 1858. In 1860, he advertised, “Commercial and general printer, lithographer and engraver, bookbinder and stationer, 10 and 18, Dockhead, Bermondsey, S.E. Chancery bills, plans, particulars of sale, catalogues, and posting bills, accurately printed at a few hours’ notice. Everything the printing press is adequate to perform, executed on the premises, combining cheapness and elegance with punctuality and despatch. Try the prices. Compare the work” (London City Press, 15 Sep 1860). In 1861, Boot was employing ten men, twelve apprentices, and five errand boys; he was then living in Greenwich with his wife and six children. His premises were seriously damaged by fire in 1863, “The fire was discovered by the police, and the inmates, with great difficulty, made their escape, but it was not extinguished until the premises were nearly gutted, and the adjoining houses damaged by fire and water” (South London Times, 23 May 1863). Boot testified at a major insurance fraud trial in February 1865. By 1871, he was employing fourteen men and twenty boys, resident in Grange Road with his family; his sons Alfred Charles Boot (1852-1931), who later emigrated to the United States, and Harry Edmund Boot (1856-1930) were both apprentices. Boot, as a creditor, petitioned for the winding-up of the Holborn Skating Rink Company 20 Jan 1877. Became a freemason at Grosvenor Lodge 27 Apr 1878. In 1879, his Dockhead premises were compulsorily purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works. His lawyer at the claim for compensation “said that the gentleman had by honest, hard and unremitting attention during the past thirty years worked up a large printing, &c. business at Dockhead, and was now required to give up the premises, much, as he said, to his detriment and loss, especially as Mr. Boot had not been able, after great trouble, to obtain new premises in the neighbourhood, and had to go as far as Old Bailey, to find the accommodation which his business required. There was 6¼ years of the lease of the premises to run, and when they ascertained that the average profits of business was just under a £l,000 a year, half of which the claimant would tell them was entirely local, and which he would lose in consequence of removal, they would see the great loss which this improvement was likely to entail upon the claimant. He then asked for compensation for the item of £1,740, and also an assessment for the cost of removing plant, the payment of increased rent and taxes, and other items amounting in all to between £3,500 and £4,000” (Southwark & Bermondsey Recorder, 18 Oct 1879). Not long after, a partnership with Henry Vile Clements (1843-1922) was formally dissolved on 30 Sep 1879 — “The business will in future be continued at the same place by Henry Vile Clements in partnership with Alfred Charles Boot, a son of Alfred Boot, who has retired … Dated this 28th day of October, 1879”. Boot was then declared bankrupt on 13th April 1880, but despite press reports of liabilities (principally on guarantees) of £49,087 and assets of just £4,059 (Southwark and Bermondsey Recorder, 8 May 1880) the business somehow continued. In 1881, Boot was employing thirty men and twenty boys; his son, Harry Edmund was already a partner, while a younger son, Arthur Frederick Boot (1861-1929) was still an apprentice. Alfred Charles Boot, the eldest son, originally to have taken over the business, emigrated to the United States at about this time. Boot died at home 2 Mar 1884 and was buried at St. Olave Southwark. Probate on a personal estate of £5,113.14s. was granted 28 Apr 1884 to his sons Harry Edmund Boot and David Johnston Boot (1843-1917).
33 Leicester Square (home) — 1841
3 Dockhead, Bermondsey — 1849-1855
10 & 18 Dockhead, Bermondsey (Letterpress & Steam Works) — 1860-1879
4 Park Row, Greenwich (home) — 1861
— and 8 Eastcheap (General Printing and Photographic Offices) — 1867-1869
— and 7 Mark Lane, City of London — 1874-1879
43 Grange Road, Bermondsey (home) — 1871-1884
24 Old Bailey — 1880-1884
BNA. Census 1841-1881. Hyde. LG. LHD. LMA. NA. Twyman.