The Georgian House
Modern Times
No. 1 St John Street
No. 1A St John Street
No. 3 St John Street
No. 5 St John Street
No. 7 St John Street
No. 9 St John Street
No. 11 St John Street
No. 13 St John Street
No. 15 St John Street
No. 17 St John Street
No. 19 St John Street
No. 21 St John Street
No. 23 St John Street
No. 2 St John Street
No. 4 St John Street
No. 6 St John Street
No. 8 St John Street
As we explained on the page about the owners of the Georgian House, the house had been sold by the Merediths in 1898 and bought by the Symes family, who added a shop to the front of the house and ran a garden supply shop and cooper's business from the premises.
Following the death of Rose Symes in 1970, the shop (and the room behind it) were
let out to tenants. Albert and Marjorie Pridham continued to live in the
rest of the house. For a time the shop became Fairfield Gardens Shop.
We have been told that this was run by the Fowler family who sold fruit and
vegetables, some of which seem to have been grown by the De Sallis family at
Fairfield House. When the "new" shopping arcade appeared in Thornbury
the Fowlers moved the shop to that site. For many years, Thornburians will remember the shop
as 'Whites' the electrical retailers where we ourselves bought fittings and
fuses etc in the 1970's. For a shorter period in the early 80's it
became a shop where people could rent or buy videos.
In the 1980's the house was sold by the Pridhams. We have been told by Ken Wilkins, who was a neighbour at that time, that the house was bought by Brian Simpson, the owner of the fish and chip shop in the High St. It was subsequently acquired by the HSBC bank who left it empty for some time. It was occupied by squatters during this time and the house fell into disrepair.
The house was eventually acquired by a local entrepreneur, Tony Johnson. Tony had given up a career as a teacher and had various businesses in Thornbury including an agency for renting villas in Spain, which he ran from an office in Castle Street. He saw the potential of the large house as a nursing home for the elderly. He pulled down the old shop, and restored the front garden. Tony opened the nursing home in 1994 in partnership with Bev Kelly.
Tony gave the house the name of 'The Georgian House', a very fitting title and that ended the long standing confusion over its address. It was also pleasing to see such a sensitive restoration of the house, although the work was financed by the sale of a large part of the huge rear garden to Crest Homes for the building of the houses in Sawmill Lane. The nursing home business, however, failed to live up to expectations and closed after two or three years.
The next business to occupy the house was the Thornbury Chiropractic Clinic. This was owned initially by Pam Cronin, but she left the business in 2005/6 and it has continued under new ownership.
This page was last updated: 13/01/2008