Hamptons (estate agent)
[6] On the night of 16 November 1940 an incendiary bomb hit the Pall Mall premises and the greater part of the building was destroyed.[7] In 1952, the furniture side of the firm was involved, at a cost of £68,357, in the restoration of the Council Chamber of The Town Hall, Richmond (damaged during World War II), and at the same time were involved in the fitting out of the Royal Yacht Britannia[8] On 1 January 1957 the Estate Agency was purchased from the parent company (by now Camp Bird Limited, who had acquired Hampton & Sons' Limited around the same time[9]) when a partnership was formed by the founder's grandson, Mr PWP Hampton[10][11] (the furniture store in Kensington was sold by Camp Bird in March 1959[12]).By this time Peter Goldie had been appointed Chief Executive of British and Commonwealth and therefore he took no part in negotiations over the takeover of Abaco.[24] British and Commonwealth went into administration in June 1990[25] and despite the directors having assembled a management buyout,[16] Hamptons was purchased by Bristol and West Building Society in September 1990.[28] In February 1996, Hamptons was purchased by Cluttons London Residential Agency (CLRA)[2] for £3.8million and the Hong Kong operations of the combined company were renamed Cluttons-Hamptons in April 1996.[31] Hamptons director Richard Madley joined TFAAG's board and continued to run the Godalming and Marlborough salerooms which were rebranded as Dreweatt Neate after what the group called "a period of settling in".[32] The rebranded Marlborough and Godalming salerooms were subsequently closed in 2006[33] In 2005 Hamptons International was purchased by Wheelock Properties (Singapore) Limited.[35] In January 2014, Hamptons acquired the north London and Home Counties estate agency Preston Bennett which specialised in high end properties as well as having planning, land and development services departments.