British businessman Sir Arthur Alvin is perhaps one of the most famous inhabitants of Ingram Avenue, a leafy street situated in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Residing at his home in Kenwood Close with his wife, the ‘Wizard of Wembley’ was best known for his achievements in the sporting arena.
Sir Arthur Elvin is best known for owning and operating Wembley Stadium, the iconic London arena that still today hosts some of the most important football and non-sporting occasions. The son of a Norfolk policeman, he was a notable entrepreneur and went on to secure a knighthood in 1947 for his help in planning the Olympic Games of 1948.
Elvin first saw potential in greyhound racing, a largely American import, and relied on it to fund the stadium purchase in 1927. The Empire Pool stadium would go on to become Wembley Arena, the home of English football several decades later in 1978.v
Arthur Elvin wasn’t born and bred in London. He originated from Norwich and spent his early years, like many children of his generation, by eventually dropping out of school at the age of fourteen.
From there, Elvin worked many jobs, honing his entrepreneurial skills to make money. He was most notably a soap salesman in Aldgate before he joined the Armed Forces at the young age of seventeen. After becoming part of the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, he served in the First World War and became a prisoner of war when his plane was shot down over France. Despite his best attempts to escape, Elvin was captured and held for a total of two years.
Managing to survive the war, Elvin continued to work in France after securing a job working for the Ministry of Munitions salvaging metal from artillery shells. Sadly, he soon ran out of money in 1924 and returned to England, picking up work as a cigarette kiosk operator in no where else but Wembley Park.
This is the job that changed Elvin’s fortunes and propelled him into the iconic businessman and knight of the realm we know him as today.
You can watch a film of Sir Arthur Elvin at British Pathé.
Elvin worked at the cigarette kiosk for one year before seeing the opportunity to buy up shops within the grounds and make them his own. In 1925, with ownership of the kiosks, and plenty of foot traffic as a result of the British Empire Exhibition, he turned a profit of £1,000. His initial investment cost him £100.
Unfortunately, the BE Exhibition wouldn’t last forever, and the business started to drop. Nobody had any idea what to do with the park once the exhibition was over, so it was eventually sold to a businessman named James White for £300,000. Elvin was contracted by White to clear the site but had bigger ideas up his sleeve.
Slowly but surely, he procured the empty, derelict buildings to sell off the scrap inside. During this time, Elvin saw the potential in the Empire Stadium, and his opportunity to buy it arose after it went into liquidation. In 1927, he managed to convince White to sell it to him for a total upfront fee of £122,500, with a £12,500 down payment, and regular interest payments over the next decade.
White agreed, yet the sale was put in jeopardy after White died following a bout of depression after being on the brink of bankruptcy. Once White took his life, Elvin had to raise the full sum, as well as an additional £27,500, to prevent the sale from going under. This was when he turned his attention to greyhound racing, transforming the stadium to hold races and meetings.
Thanks to the popularity of greyhound racing at the time, the gamble paid off and Elvin was able to form the Wembley Stadium Limited company and become the de facto chairman. By maintaining the stadium’s ties with the FA, Wembley Stadium finally became the permanent home of English football, hosting the FA Cup final and home internationals every year until the start of WW2 in 1939.
Following the trauma of the war, Elvin decided to provide the use of Wembley Stadium for free for the 1948 London Olympics. Thanks to the disused buildings from the British Empire Exhibition, there was no need to build any additional space, although the Olympic Way was added.
The Olympics were a huge success, especially for the UK, which won three golds and twenty medals in total. The 1948 games were also the first to be televised, ushering a new era for sports commercialism.
This is when Elvin officially became Sir Arthur Elvin in 1947, receiving his honour from King George VI.
Although originally from Norfolk, Arthur Elvin set up home in Ingram Avenue in London. After meeting his wife at the British Empire Exhibition – she was selling jewellery while he was selling cigarettes – they moved to West London to a property built and designed by no other than John Soutar, one of the masterminds behind the Hampstead Garden Suburb.
The Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust purchased the northwestern area of London in 1930-31 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and set about turning it into an inspiring residential area, hiring Soutar to design the roads and buildings. Other architects were used, including Harold Dicksee, Guy Church, Minoprio and Spencely, Brian Sutcliffe, Evelyn Simmons and Rudolf Frankel.
The development was highly sought after due to the terms that were granted by the Trust. For example, a garden had to be laid out and maintained, so the buildings came with green, airy spaces. As houses were created with wealthy business owners in mind, they were designed for specific clients and included their own individual specifications.
No. 24 Ingram Avenue, the home of Arthur Elvin and his wife, Jennie Harding, enjoyed the luxury of a first-floor boudoir as Mrs. Harding did not need the copious amounts of space in the attic.
Sir Arthur Elvin died in 1957, but his memory still lives on. As well as an office block commemorating his name until 2006, Ingram Avenue remains much the same as in his era. To this day, the houses are set amongst undeveloped green spaces that include the nature reserve Turners Wood, the Heath Extension, Kenwood and Hampstead Golf Course. The area continues to host exacting homeowners with a taste for style and a particular connection to nature too. It’s no wonder Hampstead Garden Suburb continues to endure and be such a popular area.