F W Woolworth & Co Ltd v Lambert    Landlord and tenant – Improvements – “without licence or consent” – unreasonable
withholding – Offer of reasonable sum as compensation – Landlord and Tenant Act 1927
(c 36), s 19(2).
In a lease in which the defendants were the lessors and plaintiffs the lessees, the plaintiffs
covenanted, inter alia, that they would not make any structural alterations on the premises
demised without the previous consent in writing of the landlords, and that they would use,
occupy and preserve the premises as a first-class shop. The plaintiffs acquired a lease of a
piece of land behind the demised premises and, desiring to erect one large shop over the
whole property, they proposed pulling down the back wall of the shop on the demised
premises, moving the main staircase and making other material alterations. The defendants
refused their consent to the proposed alterations: (a) undertaking to reinstate the demised
premises at the expiration or sooner determination of the term in the condition in which they
now are; (b) securing the performance of this undertaking by a policy of insurance; and (c)
paying to the defendants such sum (if any) as the court should deem to be reasonable:—