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Original Text (Annotation: EAW000535 / 2032345)
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The first resident of 23 Park Street, Southwark, was somewhat less celebrated, though he would have been considered a well-heeled character at the time. Charles Spurrell had spent 12 years working for the East India Company, the world's biggest trading conglomerate, which then controlled much of India, before he opted to settle in Southwark at the start of the 19th century.It was a period when beer was both immensely popular and profitable, buoyed by the fact that safe drinking water was still scarce. Spurrell landed a plum position with one of the world's largest brewers, Barclay, Perkins and Co. In fact, when Spurrell joined, the firm was London's most productive, its Anchor Brewery close to the south bank of the Thames producing 330,000 barrels a year.Spurrell excelled, quickly becoming a director and, aged 37, was rewarded with 23 Park Street, an 1820 newbuild situated close to the brewery entrance for which the owners, including David Barclay, abolitionist, philanthropist and co-founder of Barclays Bank, charged him an annual rent of £25.Jonathan Spurrell, great-great-grandson of Frederick, one of Charles's children born at 23 Park Street, said that today's valuation of the property reflects the fact that only a decent house would be considered fitting for a senior figure in the brewing industry when it was constructed. "A lot of brewers became MPs, they were considered quite respectable members of society. In fact Charles later became a magistrate," said Jonathan, who has spent years meticulously researching his family history.After 15 years in Park Street, Spurrell moved 100m north to Anchor Terrace, another new-build for the brewery directors, but the superior location of which, on Southwark Bridge Road, was reflected in an annual rent increase to £63. The elegant terrace, also still standing, occupies the ground upon which Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre once stood. '