No 62 King Street

62 King Street

The building

Historic Environment Record: This is a unique Victorian town building retaining fine proportions and detailing. Formerly the Hotel du Palais de Cristal. Two-storey, five-bay. Frontelevation: oversailing eaves with brackets to soffit. Plain frieze. Full width of elevation framed by pilasters (turning north corner) with narrow, round, columns dividing window bays (central bay slightly wider).

Occupiers

No 62 King Street's main claim to fame is that it was the location of the Hotel du Palais de Cristal, a French-run establishment which dominated the western end of the street in the first three decades of the 20th century.

1976: James Walker, the 'shop under the clock', which can be seen in the top right of the picture

But the earliest commercial records show that this was where a drapery business was founded by James Temple Metivier. The Metivier family gave their name to the narrow lane which still separates Nos 62 and 60, and in the second half of the 19th century was much wider, and lined on both sides by cottages which housed dozens of working class families.

By 1861 the business was concentrated at No 60 and George Boielle was in business at No 62. George was a fancy toy dealer and lay reader. He was the father of Edward Clarence Boielle, whose wife Jane Greenaway Boielle, nee Le Masurier, was in business at No 66 King Street in the first decade of the 20th century.

• Boielle family tree

Cafe Parisien

No 62 is not listed in the 1881 census but by 1885 the Cafe Parisien and Hotel du Palais de Cristal, run first by Henri Louis Menou and his wife Olympe, then by Henri Richer and later by Jules Parison.

By 1927 the business had been renamed Bodega Charles, and after a spell as Hotel Melbourne, it reverted to Charlie's Bodega. In more recent times, from the 1960s through the '80s, the business at No 62 was known as James Walker, 'the shop under the clock'. It was then taken over by jewellers H Samuel, before being redeveloped in the 1990s for Boots the Chemist.

Jersey House was at No 62 during the 1950s

Chronology

• 1834 - Metivier and Co
• 1851 - James Temple Metivier, draper
• 1861-1864 - George Boielle
• 1880 - John E Mahling, draper
• 1881 - Not listed in Census
• 1885-1890 - Cafe Parisien, H and A Richer
• 1900-1919 - Hotel du Palais de Cristal
• 1927 - Bodega Charles, public house
• 1930-1940 - Hotel Melbourne
• 1939- Charlie's Bodega
• 1949 - H F Stevens Ltd, W G Nixey, Jomen Ltd
• 1949-1955 - Jersey House
• 1960-1980 - James Walker
• 1990 - H Samuel, jewellers
• 2000 - Boots

The first floor windows are of original design and the overhanging roof remains as a memory of the building's grand days as a town-centre hotel. The narrow gate on the right of the picture is at the entrance to Metivier Lane. In the 19th century this passage, which opens out after a few metres, led to a jungle of small town houses and cottages, home to a large number of working class families. Gradually in the 20th century these cottages, along with others at the rear of many of the commercial properties along this length of King Street, were demolished to allow the expansion of the shops

<gallery widths="300px" heights="200px" align=center style= "color: darkgreen;font-family:garamond;font-size:12pt;font-weight: normal;text-align:center;font-style: italic;letter-spacing: 1px; cellspacing= 30px;padding: 20px 20px 30px 20px;"> File:S24Chronique1850Metivier62KingStreet.png|1850 File:S24Chronique1850Metivier62KingStreet2.png|1850 File:JS16AdJamesWalker.jpg| File:JamesWalkerAd.jpg|James Walker advertisement File:F19JerseyHouse2.jpg|Jersey House was at No 62 from 1949 to 1955, before the owners changed the name to James Walker File:F19JerseyHouse1.jpg|Staff of Jersey House File:GM22Ad1866No62KingStreet.jpg|In 1866 the recently constructed No 62 King Street was offered for sale, together with No 61 on the opposite side of the road