Long before the advent of computers but a short while after the invention of the abacus, two Chartered Surveyors in West London seized an opportunity to set up a new business focused solely on property management. Richard Goldwater and Michael Rowbottom saw a gap in the market – there were hundreds of firms scrabbling around as sales or letting agents, but very few wanted to be managing agents.

Fixing roofs and broken lifts has never been the glamorous end of the property world but it’s an important job that someone has to do. So what would the new firm be called? Richard thought that “Goldwater & Rowbottom” sounded like a firm of undertakers and so the “Michael Richards” brand was founded in 1959.

Soon a solid and loyal client base was built up and the firm moved from its two rooms above a shop on Shepherds Bush Green to a converted shop and offices on Chiswick High Road where it flourished for the next forty years.

In 2000, Roger Smith, who had been with the firm since the early 70’s, and Richard’s nephew Adam Goldwater, who joined in 1991, bought out the old partnership and together drove the firm forwards into the 21st century. Roger and Adam saw the move away from investor-owned blocks to resident-owned blocks as a further opportunity to expand the business which in 2008 moved to larger premises in Isleworth.

Richard stayed active as a consultant up until 2012 and passed on his unique experience of 60 years in the property world complete with his famous one-liners so loved by his clients. His philosophy was “always do what’s best for the client” and this still underpins everything that is done at Michael Richards and Co today.

After Roger retired Adam continued to move the company forward and in 2020 was delighted to welcome Carol Cherriman as a Director of the new Limited Company.