York Buildings Company

The York Buildings Company was an English company in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The full name of the company was The Governor and Company for raising the Thames Water at York Buildings. The undertaking was established in 1675 and incorporated in 1690 with a capital of £4800, but obtained a Private Act in 1691 to increase its capital and enable it to buy lands. As might be expected this provided the company with a steady, but unspectacular income from the rents paid by the householders supplied with water. Water supply was its sole business until 1719.

The company was technologically advanced for its time. It tried the steam pump of Thomas Savery, a precursor of the steam engine, though this proved a failure. In 1726, a Newcomen engine was installed at York Buildings but when the company fell into financial difficulties in 1732 the engine was broken up, cylinders being sold to the London Lead Company and Sir James Lowther. However the company continued to operate its waterworks for many years, becoming the final asset of the company, just as it was the first. However the business had been injured as far back as 1731, by the establishment of a rival Chelsea Waterworks Company. The works were leased out in 1746, and the lease was renewed periodically until 1818.

By 1719, procuring the incorporation of a company had become difficult, with the result that it was cheaper for speculators to buy up the patent of an existing company than to obtain a new one. In that year, its new proprietors resolved to raise a joint stock of £1,200,000 to buy forfeited and other estates in Great Britain. The new capital was immediately taken up and a 10% call was paid. This fund and borrowings then enabled the company to buy estates costing over £300,000, with a rental of £15,000. The estates purchased were estates, mainly in Scotland, forfeited after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, when the rebels were stripped of their lands.

In January 1720, it proposed to undertake life assurance, though the Attorney-General advised them that this was ultra vires. The company's stock rose in price during the year, reaching its peak in mid August, but the threat of a writ of scire facias depressed the price, which collapsed to the point where the shares became almost unsaleable. In September, the company agreed to 'proceed only according to ancient known and regular methods, agreeable to their constitution and of the encouragement given them by Parliament'. They promised to make a call on their proprietors and did so, but gave each proprietor the option of surrendering half their stock to the company. Most proprietors took this option, with the result that the capital was little increased. The directors were left with £675,000 of stock (10% paid) which they had difficulty in selling. The result was that the company was crippled, and had difficulty in meeting its obligations. In 1721, it raised money by conducting lotteries, the prizes including stock in the company and annuities secured on its estates.

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