“Our true nationality is mankind”

“What really matters is what you do with what you have”

Herbert George Wells was born on 21 September 1866 in Bromley, Kent.  He died in London on 13 August 1946.  H G Wells commissioned the building of Spade House, Radnor Cliff Crescent, in Sandgate in 1899. 

The architect for Spade House was Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857 to 1941). 

The Builders of Spade House was a local established Folkestone Building Contractor called William Dunk Ltd.

H G Wells wrote to Mr W Dunk on 19 August 1899, whilst living at Arnold House in Sandgate,  advising that he was proposing to have a house built between Folkestone and Sandgate and his budget for this new build was £1,200 to £1,500.

A copy of this letter, along with other documents relating to the build of Spade House, has been kindly donated to the Sandgate Society Archives from local retired builder John Steed.  These newly acquired documents were discovered when John Steed’s mother passed away in 2017.  John’s late father had worked for William Dunk Building firm and over many decades his family has taken great care of these documents.

In 2019 all of the original documents, including letters, paint chart, architect house plans, purchase orders, invoices etc were donated to the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) at the Victoria & Albert Museum by John Steed.  The RIBA will conserve and protect these items for the future and they will, in time, be available for the public to view.

However, some of the less fragile documents have been photocopied by John and kindly donated to the Sandgate Society Archive Team for our exhibition. 

We would like to share the letter mentioned above with you in this Tales From the Archives.

H G Wells was living at Arnold House in Sandgate at the time of writing this letter to Mr W Dunk on 19 August 1899.  The handwriting is not easy to read so a transcript is provided below.

“Dear Sir

I am proposing to build a house of about the value of £1200-£1500 between Sandgate and Folkestone.  If you are in a position to undertake such a contract for this work I shall be  glad to hear from you.

Yours truly H G Wells”

Christine Bleach /Archive Team/March 2021