Long-standing residents of the eastern districts of St Albans and who are familiar with the St Albans' Own East End website, may have recalled the section about a little cinema in Fleetville which never got to open; there is also a chapter about the building in the book St Albans' Own East End Volume 1: Outsiders. You might like to refresh your memory about the events before reading on here.
The main character in the story, which took place during 1912 and 1913, was Russell Edwards who had arrived in St Albans at the time and took residence of a house in Granville Road, now among the houses later replaced by Cotsmoor and W O Peake, manufacturing coat makers.
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| A version of the "tin church" type of demountable building popular at the start of the 20th century. To be put together at the corner of Hatfield Road and Tess Road (now Woodstock Road South), but never completed. COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES |
Briefly, Edwards took a lease on a site in Fleetville where, since the 1930s was built the Post Office, and still trading as such. His imagination encouraged him to open a little cinema and manage the enterprise – or so he informed everyone – and his intention was to make use of the funds of others in the enterprise.
Edwards had not only acquired the site; possibly a dubious claim, but he advertised in the national press: ""Partnerships – Advertiser requires about £200 to acquire fully equipped picture theatre, now running. Has taken £30 weekly; electric plant, seat 450; expenses nominal; no opposition."
None of the claims was true: this was to be an enterprise based on deceit. Yes, he had a site, and yes he had acquired a building – a second-hand structure formerly a small meeting hall; but this was in pieces awaiting workmen to put it together. He had no knowledge of the building's capacity, and from the drawing made by a St Albans' designer and architect there would probably been seating for less than half that which our entrepreneur had claimed. Of course, if the structure had not yet been erected how could the costs and profits have already been known?
For the deceits which Edwards committed he was brought to court in St Albans, one of many such visits he made on various matters. Even spent time in prison. The court had to decide how various creditors were to be paid what was owed to them. Edwards was committed for trial at the next Assizes on a charge of perjury, given that he had made many false claims about his affairs to the court. 46-year-old Edwards pleaded guilty and was committed to prison for a period of fourteen days.
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| The completed Palace Theatre, Mill Street, Luton in 1913. SOURCE UNKNOWN |
Residents of Luton would already have been aware Russell Edwards had form, for before he moved to St Albans he had been planning a somewhat larger development project in the centre of Luton, where he aspired to build a "large theatre and place of entertainment" to be called the Palace Theatre, 17 Mill Street, today a road of apartments and hotels near the rail station. Number 17 was acquired by a mortgage syndicate, led by Managing Agent Russell Edwards as its managing person. The cost was projected to be £20,000
As in St Albans a case of bankruptcy was heard, as well as one of contempt. The bankruptcy was to be answered, not by Edwards, but by an investor who had been enthusiastic enough to answer an advertisement published by Edwards in the Daily Telegraph, requesting investments of £750 to put into a profitable and successful new place of entertainment. A Mr R G Byers was, possibly, the first and maybe only investor, upon much would be expected, and he would become the unfortunate one in the dock with much of his property now in the hands of the Sherriff.
Edwards, who was expected to produce numerous documents to the court absented himself on occasions, with excuses for being away or ill in bed, eventually being summonsed for contempt of court. He appeared to be adept at manipulating others to become responsible for payments or documents for which he himself was legally responsible and often benefited.
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| One end of Cowper Road, Harpenden, where Russell Edwards was building a house for himself and family, partly using materials taken from the site of a theatre development in Luton for which Edwards was responsible for managing. It is also alleged that he returned some of those materials before he "got found out"! COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW |
He also appropriated large quantities of building materials from the theatre site after proper delivery had been made and signed for, to be dispatched to a house site in Cowper Road, Harpenden, which he was building for himself and his family.
As to the advertisement's claim of a successful theatre, there was no company, no theatre, not even a site for one; only an option to purchase the site had been agreed. But one document which did come to light was an apparent agreement between Byers and Edwards stated that, following completion of the place of entertainment, Edwards would take 1000 guineas per annum from the income of the Palace.
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| At least the theatre was completed, for advertisments began appearing by mid-1913 in the Luton Reporter newspaper. |
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| Mill Street today, showing where the Palace had been; close to where the photograph above had been taken. The cream building is a hotel today. The Palace occupied the right half of the cream site. COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW |
How could Edwards have been free to continue his rather dodgy business dealings just one year later and in a different town? And what was his penance for for sing benefactor Myers into bankruptcy while creating/arranging so many apparently falsely composed documents, while stealing quantities of building materials for his own personal gain?
