Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

===Covent Garden estate===
[[File:Covent-garden-panorama-1913.jpg|thumb|left|400px|alt=roofscape of inner London in 1913|1913 panorama of the Covent Garden estate]]
Influenced by an ambitious financier, [[James White (financier)|James White]], Sir Joseph Beecham had agreed, in July 1914, to buy the Covent Garden estate from the [[Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]] and float a [[limited company]] to manage the estate commercially.<ref name=beecham142>Beecham (1959), p. 142</ref> The deal was described by ''[[The Times]]'' as "one of the largest ever carried out in real estate in London".<ref>"Covent Garden Estate: Sale of the Property to Sir Joseph Beecham", ''The Times'', 7 July 1914, p. 8</ref> Sir Joseph paid an initial deposit of £200,000 and covenanted to pay the balance of the £2&nbsp;million purchase price on 11 November. Within a month, however, the First World War broke out, and new official restrictions on the use of capital prevented the completion of the contract.<ref name=beecham142/>  The estate and market continued to be managed by the Duke's staff, and in October 1916, Joseph Beecham died suddenly, with the transaction still uncompleted.<ref name=sol>Sheppard, F. H. W. (ed). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 "The Bedford Estate: The Sale of the Estate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629214609/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 |date=29 June 2011 }}, ''Survey of London, Volume 36: Covent Garden'' (1970), pp. 48–52. Retrieved 14 March 2011</ref> The matter was brought before the civil courts with the aim of disentangling Sir Joseph's affairs; the court and all parties agreed that a private company should be formed, with his two sons as directors, to complete the Covent Garden contract. In July 1918, the Duke and his trustees conveyed the estate to the new company, subject to a mortgage of the balance of the purchase price still outstanding: £1.25&nbsp;million.<ref name=sol/>

Beecham and his brother Henry had to sell enough of their father's estate to discharge this mortgage. For more than three years, Beecham was absent from the musical scene, working to sell property worth over £1&nbsp;million.<ref name=sol/>  By 1923 enough money had been raised. The mortgage was discharged, and Beecham's personal liabilities, amounting to £41,558, were paid in full.<ref>"Sir Thomas Beecham to Pay in Full: The Receiving Order Discharged", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 29 March 1923, p. 10</ref> In 1924 the Covent Garden property and the pill-making business at St Helens were united in one company, Beecham Estates and Pills. The nominal capital was £1,850,000, of which Beecham had a substantial share.<ref name=sol/>