22 Sleaford Street (2, 10), Cambridge

Rivar House

In 1881 this house was number 2, and in 1891 this house was number 10.

Rivar House, 22 Sleaford Street, home of Thomas Kingston

For over 40 years,  Rivar House was home to Thomas Kingston, born in Shalbourn Wiltshire, where his family were local notables and landowners.  We do not know what drew him to Cambridge, nor where the name Rivar or Ryvar derives from , as it is likely to be a name chosen from his heritage.  At his death in 1902 at the age of 96, newspaper articles were puzzled by his move to Cambridge saying that he had intended to study medicine but had become a landowner on the death of his father and inherited substantial estates in Shalbourne, Wiltshire.  What the newspaper articles agree upon, is that there was surprise in Cambridge in 1902 that Thomas Kingston left over £100,000 in his will and that his wealth was quite this substantial, because in old age Kingston had led a very quiet and unostentatious life on Sleaford Street.

It was well known locally that Thomas Kingston also bought the plot of land for Rivar Place which he developed into housing, renting out the 12 cottages on Rivar Place plus 15 houses on Sleaford Street, and several land holdings in Romsey, such as plots which Kingston developed into housing on Hemingford Road, Argyle Street and St Phillip’s Road.  On his death, much of Kingston’s wealth had been donated to philanthropy in Romsey, notably the building of the Church on the corner of Mill Road and Thoday Street, called St Phillip’s Church at 185 Mill Road. On his death he also made provision for a fund to be administered by the parish church where he lived, leaving bequests for 20 widows in St Matthew’s and St James’ churches locally for annual funds to support women in need.

In addition an educational charity Kingston had founded in his birthplace of Shalbourne in 1856, also supported a library, local elementary schools, with prizes for proficiency in religious knowledge, and burseries for children to attend secondary school or technical school. The largest bequest was set out to a foundation called “The Kingston Trust” which the newspapers in 1902 reported on variously because it was such a surprisingly large amount of money to support churches and schools of ‘low anglican’ denominations, as Kingston’s will underlined that only evangelical institutions could be given support from his £100,000 bequest.

1879 Sewage Petition

Thomas Kingston is an early settler into Sturton Town, the lead on a petition in 1879 to the Borough of Cambridge, complaining that he and other residents had been now occupants for ten years, and there were still no sewers, only brick cess pits adjacent to the houses that had never been emptied!  On the petition, Thomas Kingston signs his name with the occupation of ‘gentleman’.  We have not found the original land deeds from Thomas Kingston’s purchase of this plot of Sleaford Street, but from the dating and wording of the petition we can estimate fairly correctly, that Kingston bought the plot of land for Rivar House & Rivar Place from Joseph Sturton in 1869, because the petition of 1879 says the group of petitioners have been resident for a decade.  Joseph Sturton is the landowner on whose land most of Sturton Town was built.

1881

Thomas Kingston was significantly older than the other Heads of Household on Sleaford Street, already 75 years of age, described as ‘Landed Proprieter’ as his occupation. Kingston was single and never married. For help running his household, there may have been daily domestic helps for cooking cleaning and laundry, but on the census there was only one live-in servant, a fifteen year old youngster, Frederic Adam,  described as a domestic servant living at 2 Sleaford Street who was his ‘Groom’.  For keeping horses, there was a large garden plot behind Rivar House also owned by Thomas Kingston, so likely this was where the Groom worked in the adjacent stable with a pasture for horses.

1891

In 1891, Thomas Kingston,  age is  85, (CHECK ages inaccurately written down by the census enumerator compared to age in his will and obituaries) and no other inhabitants are recorded as occupants of this substantial house.  Kingston still likely had hired help on a daily basis, for domestic work of cooking and cleaning and laundry.

1901

By 1901, Thomas Kingston, now 95, retired from any work and the census says “living on own means” i.e. living off his presumably sizable wealth. There was a feature in the Cambridge Chronicle, remarking on Kingston’s wealth and reclusive lifestyle. After his death in 1902, newspaper articles in Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire covered his death and also his wealth left to the Anglican Church was reported in a variety of publications, including Lloyds of London.

1911

By 1911, because Thomas Kingston’s executors had sold off his properties rather than keep them as part of the Kingston Trust, it was the case that Rivar house was now home to Arthur Harradine and his two children. Arthur, aged 54, born in Bourne, a Cabinet Maker, lived with Percy Harradine, a 26 year old Grocer’s manager; and Gwendoline, aged 15, working as a Milliner’s apprentice.

Bath House Development up to 1914

However, there is an interesting twist to this story, because Harradine who unusually was an owner occupant rather than a renter, is approached in 1912 by the Borough of Cambridge, looking for a location for a Bath House and Refuge for Women.  The Borough purchase Rivar House under a compulsory order, using funds from the Borough Committee for Public Health.  The surveyor has plans drawn up but historian Helen Weinstein who has recently discovered the documents for these plans in the Public Health Committee Minutes, thinks these plans are never acted upon because the outbreak of World War One distracted the realization of the proposal, and after WW1 the site was sold again into private hands; and eventually the plot of the Doctor’s house on the corner of Mill Road and Gwydir Street was purchased instead demolishing the Victorian villa for a purpose-built space which is still the Bath House building today!

Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901 & 1911 UK Census, 1888 OS Town Plan of Cambridge, 1901 revised map of Cambridge, 1879 sewage petition, The Cambridge Chronicle