Pearson Thompson

Who was Pearson Thompson?

Pearson Thompson was an English solicitor and property developer who was responsible for the layout of a great part of Cheltenham, and of the Ladbroke Estate in London. He subsequently emigrated to Australia where he practiced law.

Thompson was the son of Henry Thompson and Judith, née Teshmaker. His father was a wealthy London merchant and underwriter who had bought a large piece of farmland near Cheltenham in 1801. Shortly after this, medicinal springs were discovered there and his father had developed the Montpellier Spa on the site. The first pump room was built in 1809. In early life Thompson practised as a solicitor in London, but after inheriting his father’s property in 1820 moved to Cheltenham to develop the estate.

Thompson employed J. B. Papworth as his architect from 1824 onwards for both the layout of the Montpellier estate and the design of the Montepellier Pump Room, which included a domed circular room that became known as the Rotunda. In addition to creating the infrastructure, Thompson sought talent to support the spa’s activities, for example Henry Davies, whom he bought from London to run a library and produce periodicals. Thompson owned the wealthy Lansdown district of Cheltenham, where Papworth also designed a number of large houses, including one for Richard Roy, a fellow developer. Both Thompson and Roy were members of a committee formed to provide fashionable public entertainments such as musical promenades and summer balls. In 1836 they were working together to consider the various proposals for railway lines to Cheltenham and founded a local joint-stock bank. Thompson also worked with the architects and developers R. W. and C. Jearrad, who took over the running of Montpellier Spa and designed Christchurch on land donated by Thompson.