Inheriting the land
Sebastian Deckker
LONDON differs significantly from other cities in its pattern of land ownership, being divided not into remote and individual freeholds but into substantial landed estates. After the Norman Conquest, much of the land now occupied by London's West End was granted to the followers of William the Conqueror, who in turn bestowed it upon various religious institutions. With the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, vast holdings were confiscated by Henry VIII, who then sold, leased or gave away plots to his loyal courtiers. By the beginning of the 19th century, most of central London was owned, through business acumen or prudent marriages, by private families whose titles and country seats are apparent in the names of the streets, squares and mews.
The first of the estates to be developed belonged to the Russell family. Henry VIII had granted John, the first Earl of Bedford, the Covent Garden area. In 1631, Charles I gave permission to the fourth Earl of Bedford to demolish the existing buildings on the site and Inigo Jones was engaged to realise the housing project — according to Sir John Summerson 'the first great contribution to English Urbanism'.
The Portman Estate can trace its origins back as far as the 13th century. Originally covering an area of 270 acres stretching from Oxford Street to Regent's Canal, the land was acquired by Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice, from Henry VIII in 1533. The land remained relatively undeveloped until 1820, when the original building develop ment was largely completed. The driving force behind the estate's rapid expansion was Edward Berkeley Portman — 'his knowledge of engineering and his irrepressibility changed the landscape of Georgian London'.
Recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, the Manor of Tyburn had a value of 52 shillings and a population of no more than 150. Leased to a succession of tenants until 1538, the northern part of the manor was then turned into a royal hunting park by Henry VIII. In 1611, James I sold the rest of the manor for £829 3s 4d. Almost a century later, John Holies, Duke of Newcastle, paid £17,500. By the early 18th century, the village of Marylebone consisted of a few houses near the line of the present High Street, and took its name from the parish church of St Mary and the nearby Tyburn stream.
Over 100 years later, the estate passed into the hands of the Duke of Portland, who held it for five generations during which today's tali and dignified houses began to emerge in Harley Street, Portland Place and Wimpole Street.
Based in its new headquarters in Grosvenor Street, the Grosvenor Estate continues to administer the family trust's £1.5 billion property interests of Mayfair and Belgravia — 300 acres of some of the world's most expensive real-estate. The Grosvenor Estate can trace its origins back three centuries, to when Sir Thomas Grosvenor married the 12-year-old Mary Davies in 1677, heiress to the Manor of Ebury. Her inheritance comprised 'The Hundred Acres'. north of Piccadilly, which included most of Mayfair, and The Five Fields', now Belgravia and Pimlico. In Eaton Square, named after the family seat in Cheshire, Ayrton Wylie (020 7730 4628) are agents for a 'superb ground-floor apartment with its own private street entrance' at an asking price of £1,250,000.
The new boy on the block' is the Wellcome Trust which purchased the residue of the Smith's Charity South Kensington Estate for £280 million in 1995. The 84-acre estate was bought with money left by Henry Smith when he died in 1628. Originally a £1,000 bequest to help ransom the `poore captives being slaves under the Turkish pirate', it was let until 1806 for £130 per annum. Today the wedge between Fulham Road and Old Brompton Road contains some of London's smartest and most exclusive addresses, including Lennox Gardens, Pelham Crescent and Egerton Crescent. Onslow Gardens, named after the third Earl of Onslow, a trustee of the estate, was built in 1846 by Charles Freake. A 'beautifully presented ground-floor maisonette with a drawing-room opening directly on to communal gardens' is available through Lane Fox (020 7225 3866) for £1,425,000.
In 1760, the Crown gave up the income from its estate in return for the Civil List, although the Queen is still the ultimate owner of 150 acres in central London. The estate is managed by the Crown Estate Commissioners and holdings include most of Regent Street, St James's, Kensington Palace Gardens and the elegant, stuccofronted Nash terraces circling Regent's Park. In Hanover Terrace, designed in 1822, a Grade I listed leasehold house with a private garden and mews house, is on the market for £3,750,000 with Knight Frank (020 7586 2777).
To the west of Belgravia lies Earl Cadogan's 90-acre Chelsea estate, which was formed after the marriage between Charles Cadogan and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Hans Sloane. Development of the estate did not take off until 1777, and Cadogan Square was one of the first major developments of the 19th century to favour red brick instead of white stucco. There is always a constant supply of properties for sale in the square, an excellent example being a secondand third-floor maisonette on the east side with W.A. Ellis (020 7306 1610) at £1,450,000.
However, a swathe of legalisation, starting with the 1967 Leasehold Reform Act and culminating in the 2002 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, has meant that it is getting progressively easier for lease holders to purchase long leases or freeholds (enfranchise). Stuart Corbyn, chief executive of the Cadogan Group, says that the estate, like so many others, is already diminishing, and that he did not 'expect to retain Cadogan's sizable holdings between Hans Place and Cadogan Gardens'. Indeed, a number of freeholds have recently been sold off, partly to fund the redevelopment of the 10.5-acre Duke of York's Barracks.
Other private estates which own, or used to own, significant portions of London include Eyre, Phillimore, Thurloe, Trevor, Sloane-Stanley, Harrington and Gunter, which actually sold the residue of its estate earlier this year for a sum 'in excess of £20 million'. On the Ilchester Estate in Holland Park, named after the fifth Earl of Itchester, Bective Davidson (020 7371 3244) are marketing a ground-floor apartment in an attractive house designed by Norman Shaw in 1875. The guide price is £1,350,000.
In keeping with the 21st century, the Portman Estate website comments 'one reason why the great London estates have survived is that they have learned to manage their London property in a more commercial, proactive manner. Instead of being observers of their fate they have become participants in their future.'
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