Watsons @ 100 Years: 1890-1990
Following our surveyor finding an old key-tag celebrating ‘Watsons (1890 – 1990) 100 years of Home Selling’ while carrying out a survey on a property on Napier Street in Norwich, this inspired us to look back into the archive and remind ourselves how the firm celebrated its centenary.
Our archives show the firm held an auction of water colour paintings at Norwich Castle (the first ever event to be held there) to raise money for charity. A photo from the archive shows John Watson, who was known for his auction prowess, raising his gavel during one of the lots.
In addition to this, a special calendar was also created to commemorate 100 years and sold to raise further funds for charity. The other archive photos in the carousel show some of these watercolours, the original invite, calendar introduction page with a history of Watsons and the ‘100 Years of Home Selling’ key tag!
Short History of Watsons
If this has got you thinking about the history of Watsons, you can see a summary below:
- Watsons started life as Edwin Watson & P L Browne in Bishops Stortford, becoming Edwin Watsons when P L Browne retired in 1921.
- Edwin’s son, Edwin John Watsons (better known as John) joined the firm in 1940, shortly before heading to fight in the war, where afterwards he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. He returned to Watsons in 1946.
- The 50’s saw Watsons expand into the Home Counties and by the 70’s had 17 offices.
- By the 1980’s Watsons had a total of 28 offices, with branches in Great Yarmouth, Cambridge, and of course Bishop’s Stortford. Sadly, the stock market crash in 1987 resulted in Watsons having to sell 17 of the offices, leaving 11 in total.
- By the 1990’s, Watsons Head Office was based on Upper King’s Street in Norwich. An idea to approach the surveying side of the business in a new way resulted in a new Survey Shop (with three full-time surveyors) also opening at separate premises on Prince of Wales Road, Norwich. Surveying was big business!
- 2003 saw Andrew Tayler becoming Senior Partner. John Watsons sadly passed away in 2006.
- The Global Financial Crash in 2008/2009 saw further office closures, leaving Watsons with 6 branches (Norwich, North Walsham, Sheringham, Cromer, Holt and Loddon).
- By 2010, the three partners were Ray Smith, Nick Eley & Andrew Tayler. Alison Crawford joined Watsons in 2013. In 2018, Ray Smith became Senior Partner, with Andrew Tayler retiring in 2021.
- During the uncertainty of the pandemic (2020/2021) the business worked hard to survive, restructuring the business internally and introducing hybrid working to fit the new way of the world.
- October 2022 saw Watsons moving from 1 Bank Plain to 18 Meridian Way, with the firm also incorporating as Watsons Property Group Limited. All sales offices were retired, except Sheringham which became the central sales hub for North Norfolk, with employees working both from home and in the field.
- Flash forward to 2024 and Watsons Property Group Limited has morphed into a multi-disciplinary property services firm. Surveying is now 70% of our core business. We operate over 28 counties and have a force of 31 surveyors, who are all RICS-qualified, supported by fantastic customer services, client services, quality assurance, and business development teams.
- Block & Estate Management is thriving across East Anglia, with new buildings and developments being added to our portfolio. Our Lettings Team work tirelessly and have built up a fantastic portfolio in Norwich and the surrounding areas. Our Residential Sales Team continue to thrive despite the challenges of the current property market.
