[1] Harry Neal was born in 1872, the youngest child of John Neill and Ann French of Ibstock in Leicestershire, where his father ran a small bricklaying business.
[1] Harry Neal was beginning to build more expensive houses and in 1907 made the significant move up market into the high-priced residential area of Northwood.
With the onset of war, Harry ran down his work and took employment with McAlpine as a contract manager, giving him invaluable experience of larger construction projects.
[1] After the war, Harry gradually resumed his housebuilding not only at Northwood but also nearby Pinner and Ruislip and also further away, to the east of London.
[1] During the 1920s, with financial backing from the Westminster Bank, Harry Neal Ltd. was able to operate on a larger scale, buying first the Gatehill estate in Northwood.
Harry Neal had been slowly buying the freeholds of existing terraced houses in the prestigious Princes Gate.
[1] Mobilisation in World War II substantially reduced both the firm’s labour force and the demand for civilian work.
Other acquisitions gave Harry Neal greater expertise in the finishing trades important in the refurbishment market.
In the 1970s, contracts continued to increase in size and complexity and included both new construction and large-scale refurbishment work for museums, hotels, hospitals, offices and public housing.
A site on the King’s Road was purchased in 1983 and given planning permission for 53 large town houses to be known as Charles II Plaza; work started in 1986.
In that same year, Harry Neal was awarded its largest ever contract, the £34m redevelopment of Tobacco Dock in London Docklands, to create 265,000 square feet of retail and leisure space.
Standing out from the widespread liquidity problems were King Charles II Plaza where only three units had been sold and the Tobacco Dock.
[3] Family members later traded as Harry Neal Holdings specialising in extensions to very large London homes.