Frederick Ernest Cleary CBE (11 April 1905 – 1984) was a Chartered Surveyor and property entrepreneur from Crouch End, London. Cleary was the founder of Haslemere Estates, a London-based development company. Cleary was primarily involved in the restoration of existing buildings. Cleary’s philanthropic activities included the founding of two charitable trusts: The Cleary Foundation (1953) and The Bay Trust (1969) , an environmental education charity. Cleary authored three books: Beauty and the Borough, I'll Do it Yesterday, and The Flowering City.

Early life

Cleary was born on 11 April 1905, in a flat on Prince of Wales Road off Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, London. He was the son of an electrical engineer. He attended Owen's School in North London and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor at the Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, in 1929. Cleary was married to Norah Cleary and had two daughters.

By the late 1930s, Cleary was living at 9 Waverley Road, Crouch End, near the junction with Haselmere Road. It is claimed that the name for his company was taken from this road.

Wartime career

The role of Chartered Surveyor was a reserved occupation during the war. Cleary also contributed to the war effort in London as an ARP Warden. During this time, he worked at The London Investment & Mortgage Company as a Chartered Surveyor.

Post-war career

Following the end of the Second World War, Cleary co-founded the City & Metropolitan Building Society and remained its chairman for the subsequent 30 years. He also joined Hornsey Council. One example of this work included The Grove Lodge Gardens in Muswell Hill. In 1949, Cleary and the Town Clerk successfully acquired the land for Haringey Council and converted it into a small park. Grove Lodge Gardens featured in his book Beauty and the Borough. In this, Cleary writes:

"The fence has gone, revealing the full beauty of very fine trees. The opportunities and the natural beauty of the site have been well used by intelligent planning and artistic garden designing."

Cleary's work at Hornsey Borough Council was environmentally-focused and he encouraged recycling. In his autobiography, I'll Do It Yesterday (1979), he writes about what people refer to as waste and the efforts of residents in Hornsey Borough to continue to salvage, repurpose, and recycle as much as they can:

"I pointed out that in the financial year 1950-51 alone, the 100,000 residents in Hornsey Borough had salvaged 1,550 tons of paper, 1,529 tons of kitchen waste, and 436 tons of metal and other items. Had it not been for the Borough's tremendous efforts during the salvage drive, the Council's estimates would have been exceeded by more than five thousand pounds."

Cleary founded the Cleary Foundation in 1953 (initially named the 'Cleary Charitable Trust'). The aims of the foundation have been to assist charities involved in education, the arts, conservation and the natural environment. For the most part, the causes supported are located in London and South East Kent.

From the early 1950s, Cleary played an important role in the provision of many gardens and open spaces provided by the Corporation of the City of London and others, resulting in his nickname 'Flowering Fred'.

Property renovation

Cleary established the company, Haslemere Estates before the war with the purpose of undertaking renovations of houses. Until 1958, Haslemere Estates was modestly active. However, in 1958, Cleary retired from the London and Investment Mortgage Company and focused his time and energy on Haslemere Estates with the support of Frank Collier and Hilda Lupton. The Company flourished and with a growing board of Directors, including David Pickford (managing director). The company went public in 1961, continuing to prosper for the subsequent 25 years before being acquired by Rodamco (part of the Dutch asset management group, Robeco) in 1986. 'Haslemere' specialised in restoring the integrity and elegance of period buildings, while simultaneously allowing for the considerations of the modern occupiers of such property. Lord Duncan Sandys, President and Founder of The Civic Trust, wrote about Haslemere Estates saying:

"No company has done more than Haslemere Estates to preserve our irreplaceable architectural heritage by the restoration of old buildings and their adaptation to present-day uses. In a striking manner, Haslemere Estates have proved beyond doubt that commercial interests and architectural conservation are by no means incompatible, and can, in fact, be complementary."

Contributions to London's parks and gardens

Plaque in The Cleary Garden, Huggin Hill. London EC4

Cleary was a member of the Court of Common Council from 1959 to 1984 and was for three decades also Chairman of The Corporation of the City of London's Trees, Gardens, and Open Spaces Committee and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. In these roles, he participated in creating green spaces in the city, frequently on bomb-damaged sites. Over 150 gardens within the City of London were established and refurbished, and maintained during his tenure, redeveloping derelict and war-damaged areas into public gardens. Examples of 'scars of yesterday being turned into the gardens of today' are illustrated in Cleary's books Beauty and the Borough and The Flowering City.

In 1982, to mark their centenary, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association funded the laying out of Cleary Garden, EC4, Huggin Hill.

Life in East Kent

As a child Cleary regularly visited the Kent Coast, his father having served in Dover during the First World War. In the late 1940s Cleary and his wife Norah became residents of St. Margaret's Bay. Cleary established and preserved several local sites, including Crabble Corn Mill near Dover and The Landmark Centre in Deal. Cleary established The Bay Trust (The St Margaret's Bay Trust) in 1969, a charity focused on environmental preservation education in the St. Margaret's Bay area. The Bay Trust continues this work to the present day. In 1975 Cleary purchased and refurbished (through the Cleary Foundation) an old rectory building ('Ripple Down House') in Ringwould. The site became an environmental education centre for children known as Rippledown now run and managed by The Bay Trust. The Bay Museum (later St Margaret's Museum) was opened in August 1989, where much of the collection of local maritime artefacts were collected by Cleary during his life.

Awards

Cleary was awarded an MBE (1951) and CBE (1979) in acknowledgement of his environmental and philanthropic activities. In 1976 Cleary was made an honorary fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge where he funded the restoration of the Pepys Library and the Cleary Research Fellowship award (which remains available to Land Economy students studying at the college). In 1981 he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society in recognition of his services to Gardening in the City of London and elsewhere.