Charles Swain

• Born                      1882 Newton Heath; Birth registered April-June 1882
• Died                       1967? [VERIFY]

In Manchester Charles Swain was one of the most prolific architects of the inter-war period until a spectacular bankruptcy in 1934 ended his career. Given the causes, his bankruptcy received little sympathy from fellow professionals at a time when moves were afoot to impose rigorous professional standards in advance of the Architects Registration Act. Considered an embarrassment, Charles Swain was effectively erased from the record.

He was born at Newton Heath in 1882, the son of Matthew and Mary Swain. His father, was a master iron founder and head of Matthew Swain Limited, Newton Heath, Manchester, a business continued well into the twentieth century by Charles’s brother. At the 1937 British Industries Fair the firm exhibited a range of products including Cast Iron Holloware (Tinned, Enamelled and Rustless), Combination Grates, Mantels, Adaptable and Independent Fires, Mantel Registers, Furnace Pans, Domestic and Builders' Castings, Negro Pots, Rice Bowls and other Native Cooking Utensils.  The family lived at Newton Heath until moving to Buxton while Charles Swain was still a teenager.

In 1901 Charles Swain was employed as an architectural assistant and in that year, he obtained second premium in the competition for a Thermal Water Pump at Buxton, being a Memorial to Queen Victoria. According to evidence given at his bankruptcy proceedings Charles Swain opened an office in Manchester in 1904. He first appeared in the directory of 1906 with offices at 12 Exchange Street. Most of his early commissions were in and around Buxton, but in 1910 he was appointed architect for a new cinema in Whitworth Street, Manchester and obtained a number of similar commissions in the following five years. After the First World War he was initially involved with local authority housing schemes but was soon involved in major projects in the central area of Manchester, including Henry’s Department Store 95-101 Market Street Manchester (1921-1922) and Imperial Buildings Oxford Road (1926)  In 1922-1923 he prepared plans for a new stadium for Manchester City Football Club at Maine Road, Moss Side, where he was a director for a number of years. He also obtained several commissions from the Borough of Salford. All this would end in August 1934 when a petition for bankruptcy was made.

At a meeting of creditors in the offices of the Official Receiver, it was stated Charles Swain had unsecured liabilities amounting to approximately £16,000. He had attributed his failure to expenses in entertaining in order to secure contract, expense in purchasing his house and extensions and household expenses. Balance sheets showed that his business had shown profits, sometimes substantial profits running into four figures and that in nearly every year his drawings had exceeded his profits. [Manchester Guardian 8 November 1934 page 19]

The accounts showed that from 1922 Charles Swain's income had averaged £1,663. His best year was 1923, when his income was £4,189, and his worst was 1925, when it was only £240. His expenditure from 1922 to 1931 was £41,891. His deficiency account from January 1932 included bad debts £1,717; household and personal expenses, including illness of children and expenses for promotion of business, £7,428; and loss on investments in a picture-house £3,678. His liabilities were eventually estimated at £18,115. Assets, apart from those assigned to creditors, were estimated to produce £2.889, but realised only £6 7s. No dividend could be paid to creditors as the assets were insufficient to meet the expenses Incidental to the bankruptcy.

When Swain applied for discharge from bankruptcy in 1936, and much to the displeasure of the judge, the committee of inspection of the bankruptcy took the unusual if not unique step of passing a resolution that he was not a fit and proper person to be in business and that his application for discharge should not be granted. Mr. A. D. Gerrard, for Swain, said certain of the offence were the result of incurable optimism and ambition. However, the judge did note Swain’s strange habit of mind in forgetting that he had settled the family's shares upon his wife and then pledging these shares to the bank; his strange habit of mind in confusing trust moneys with his own and using them for a specific purpose; his habit of mind in giving large guarantees when he had little or no means to make good his guarantees. All marked the debtor as person who in his business dealings was one whose habit of mind required a good deal of correction. In view of the offences, the discharge was suspended for three years.

No further information after 1936