Avant, Frederick William

Tottenham Court Road, London; cabinet maker, upholsterer, house furnisher and auctioneer (b.1852-d.1928)

Frederick William Avant was the son of the upholsterer and cabinet maker, John Avant and his wife, Charlotte, born in Dawlish, Devon on 4 June 1852. By 1871 he was working as an assistant to his father at 26 The Strand, Dawlish, and by 1880 had moved to London when marrying Florence Marie (born 1857), an American and naturalised British citizen. They first lived at Kirton Villas on Turnham Green in Chiswick (1881 census).  Frederick's and Florence's first child, John Charles, was born in 1882 with six more arriving over the following thirteen years: three further sons and three daughters.  

Electoral rolls record Avant at 232 Tottenham Court Road, in 1889. Whether or not he lived there or this was his business address is undetermined, but whatever the circumstances, he was situated in an advantageous part of town because the northern region of Soho was a bustling centre for furniture making at the period. The furniture stores, Maple & Co., Heal and Son, and J. Shoolbred & Co. were situated at the north-end of Tottenham Court Road and the surrounding neighbourhoods were filled with hundreds of furniture making businesses: cabinet makers, upholsterers, chair makers; marqueteurs, carvers and gilders; and ancillary businesses known to have supplied the trade, for example, papier mache makers, glass merchants and brass founders.

By 1901 Avant and his family were living at 60 Onslow Gardens, Muswell Hill, a large semi-detached house comprised of five bedrooms. They would have needed the space as his nephew, Frederick George (age 26) and his wife Elfrida (age 25), also from Dawlish, Devon, were living there, too. The Avants ran a family business, the 1901 census describing Frederick and his nephew as auctioneers and house furnisher employers; Frederick's eldest son, John Charles (age 19), as a house furnisher assistant, and his second son, Wilfred Henry George (age 16), as an auctioneer's clerk. The electoral roll of 1901 recorded Avant as an auctioneer and house furnisher at 200 Tottenham Court Road.The firm was relocated at 171-173 Tottenham Court Road by 1910. By 1911 his nephew, Frederick George, had returned to Dawlish and was working in his father's auction and house furnishing business.

At the time of Frederick William's death on 23 July 1928 the Avants had moved to a north London suburb, Woodside Park, Barnet. His estate of £7015 16s was left to his widow. The family firm continued after his death, listed as house furnishers at 171-173 & 180 Tottenham Court Road in 1934. Of his sons, the eldest, John Charles, died in 1910 and the others died in France during the 1st World War. His widow, Florence Marie, died in Eastbourne in 1937. 

Sources: Devon parish birth register, June 1852; Devon parish probate register, Jan. 1882; England Electoral Rolls, 1889; London Post Office Directory, 1891; 1901 census; London Post Office Directories 1902, 1910, 1914; England & Wales Government Probate Death Index, 23 July 1928 (The National Archive (TNA), PROB 3 Nov 1928); House Furnishers, 1934.