E. Fergusson Taylor

Edward Fergusson Taylor was born in St Paul's, Covent Garden, London.^[2] He married Annie (born c.1850). Their youngest son, George, died aged 3 at Bracon Ash, New Barnet, on 8 March 1887.^[3] They had a second son, also Edward Fergusson Taylor. Annie died on 1 March 1892 from pneumonia following influenza.^[4]

Taylor was an estate agent, surveyor and property developer who was instrumental in the development of New Barnet.^[5] He encouraged the construction of churches and a town hall. He was a temperance campaigner and promoted the erection of a temperance hall and a coffee house to attract people away from alcohol.^[6]

He built the Lytton Road Assembly Rooms in New Barnet around 1870^[7] which became a cinema in 1925^[8] and was replaced with a purpose-built building in 1926 known as the Hippodrome, the Kinema, and the Regal from 1933.^[9] The 1871 census, when he was aged 22, records his occupation as "Stationer and House Agent".^[2]

In 1888 he was practicing from 55 Chancery Lane in the City of London and from New Barnet, and in 1895 from 70 and 72 Chancery Lane.^[10] In 1895 he held an auction sale of leasehold properties in New Barnet at the Assembly Rooms there,^[11] one of a number of such sales he held. He advertised extensively in London papers for the sale or lease of property in north London, particularly in New Barnet and Lyonsdown.