MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
The monks
of Westminster claimed to have been granted a small
farm at Paddington in 959 and to have held 2 hides
there in 1042. Although the early charters were
spurious, (fn. 38) Paddington, Knightsbridge, and Westbourne were probably part of the abbey's ancient
endowment and among the 13½ hides at Westminster
attributed to it in Domesday Book. (fn. 39) Paddington
presumably formed a separate estate by 1135x1152
when, with Fanton (Essex) and Claygate (Surr.), it
supported the almoner of Westminster. (fn. 40) Before
1185 the abbot bought from Richard of Paddington
and his brother William the whole tenement which
they held in Paddington of his church. (fn. 41) The manor
of PADDINGTON, so described c. 1266, (fn. 42) was
treated with Knightsbridge as a single unit in a
custumal of c. 1225. (fn. 43) Paddington, however, may
have had its own courts or have been served by those
for Westminster, whereas by the 14th century
Knightsbridge formed a manor with Westbourne. (fn. 44)
In 1647 and later Paddington was said to lie east of
Westbourne stream, with a few outlying fields to the
west. (fn. 45)
Paddington remained in the abbey's lordship until
the Reformation. The almonry, to which the tenement of Richard and William of Paddington was
assigned, later shared the issues with the abbey's new
work, which took the bulk in 1535, and the Lady
chapel. (fn. 46) After passing to the Crown the manor was
granted in 1550 to the bishop of London, (fn. 47) whose
successors held it until the Interregnum, when it was
sold to Thomas Browne. (fn. 48) At the Restoration the
bishop regained it and in 1868 his rights passed
to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 49) His lands
covered almost the entire eastern half of the parish,
the exceptions being mainly around Paddington
green. They also stretched across the Westbourne
to include a field called Desboroughs north of Harrow Road, Upper and Lower Readings and other
plots beyond Westbourne green, Hall field farther
south reaching to Black Lion Lane, and separate
fields abutting on the Uxbridge road. (fn. 50)
The manor was let at farm by 1422, when Edmund
Bibbesworth was to pay a rent which had scarcely
changed by 1514. Leases were made to Thomas
Parnell, a London butcher, in 1489 for 21 years, to
William Parnell in 1499 for 11 years, and to Thomas
Kempe, sergeant of the refectory at Westminster, in
1514 for 40 years. (fn. 51) The lease had passed to Sir
Edward, later Lord, North, by 1541, when the
Crown acquired it from him. The Crown granted
the lease to Sir Edward Baynton and in 1543, on
Baynton's surrender, to Richard Reade, salter of
London, whose term was extended for another 40
years in 1544. (fn. 52) Richard Reade died in 1550, when
his beneficiaries included the children of the late
John Browne, salter, who was probably his son-in-law. (fn. 53) Reade's widow Anne (d. 1558) was said to
have conveyed her interest both to Robert Vaughan
and, by will, to his brother-in-law Richard Browne,
her grandson. Litigation arose after new leases were
obtained from the bishop in 1595 on behalf of
Matthew Smale, who, directly or through his mother
Jane Parkinson, had already acquired Browne's interest, and in 1605 to Sir Fulk Greville, who asserted
the right of Vaughan's assignee. (fn. 54) A lease for three
lives was made in 1626 to Sir Rowland St. John (d.
1645), whose term expired with the death of his son
Sir Oliver St. John, Bt., in 1662. (fn. 55)
PADDINGTON ESTATES c. 1830
Bishop Gilbert Sheldon in 1662 made leases of the
manor for three lives to the attorney-general Sir
Geoffrey Palmer, Bt. After further transactions by
the bishop's successor the manor was temporarily
transferred back to Sheldon in 1668, when he was
archbishop of Canterbury, and was leased by the
bishop of London in 1678 to Sheldon's nephews Sir
Joseph (d. 1681), a former lord mayor of London,
and Daniel Sheldon (d. 1699). (fn. 56) On the death by
1721 of Daniel's son Gilbert the lease was renewed
for Gilbert's sisters Judith and Mary. (fn. 57) Judith's son
Paul Jodrell and Mary's son Sheldon Craddock in
1741 conveyed their freshly renewed term to Sir
John Frederick, Bt. (d. 1755), of Hampton, (fn. 58) who
was succeeded by his sons Sir John (d. 1757) and Sir
Thomas (d. 1770). (fn. 59)
Sir Thomas Frederick's successors were his
daughters Elizabeth and Selina, who in 1778 respectively married Sir John Morshead, Bt. (d. 1813) and
Robert Thistlethwayte (d. 1802). (fn. 60) Both moieties
were mortgaged in the 1780s, the lease having been
vested in trustees. (fn. 61) In 1795 the bishop made a new
lease to the trustees of the former lessees for 99 years,
renewable after 50 years, in accordance with the
recent Act to promote building on the bishop's
estate. (fn. 62) Renewed by the bishop in 1845 (fn. 63) and by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1895, the lease
was converted into one for 2,000 years under the
Law of Property Act, 1925, and was surrendered by
the trustees to the Church Commissioners in 1953. (fn. 64)
From 1795 (fn. 65) the trustees of what came to be called
the Paddington Estate paid modest sums for the
traditional rent of the manor, for the curate's stipend,
for compensation to the parish for waste lands, (fn. 66) and
for the land tax; in return they took two thirds of the
ground rents from new building, until in 1892 the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners insisted that future
ground rents should be divided equally. During the
19th century parts of the estate were subleased to the
Grand Junction Canal Co., (fn. 67) the Grand Junction
Water Works Co., and the G.W.R. Co. Alienations
included the sale of c. 7 a. for the purchase of the
City of London's conduit system under an Act of
1812, smaller sales to redeem the land tax, and
grants of land for new churches. (fn. 68) In 1985 the
Church Commissioners still had c. 4,500 lettings in
Paddington, mostly on the Hyde Park estate but including some which they hoped to sell in Maida
Vale. (fn. 69)
The beneficiaries of the trust established in 1795 (fn. 70)
were Elizabeth Morshead (d. 1845), Selina Thistlethwayte (d. 1817), and their heirs. Their interests,
affected by many family settlements, passed chiefly
to the Thistlethwaytes. Selina's son Thomas
Thistlethwayte of Southwick Park (Hants) was himself a trustee in 1845 and was entitled to seven
eighths of the interests, estimated to be worth
£430,000 as a capital sum, at his death in 1850. (fn. 71) In
1868 the rental of the Paddington Estate, including
the third paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,
was £33,175. (fn. 72) Thomas Thistlethwayte's eldest son
Thomas (d. 1900) and grandson Alexander Edward
Thistlethwayte (d. 1915), of Southwick Park, between them held seven eighths in 1895, when, however, the trustees included Walter Morshead and the
other beneficiaries Elizabeth's grandson Sir Warwick Morshead, Bt. (d. 1905), of Tregaddick
(Cornw.) and his wife. A. E. Thistlethwayte's successive heirs, his brothers Capt. Arthur (d. 1924) and
Lt.-Col. Evelyn William Thistlethwayte (d. 1944)
both acted as trustees, as did the latter's nephew and
heir F. H. P. Borthwick-Norton (d. 1950). (fn. 73)
The building called the manor house may have
been the parsonage house (fn. 74) and was presumably the
one occupied by Matthew Smale, (fn. 75) where he allowed
the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham to stay c.
1582. (fn. 76) Apparently it was always subleased after Sir
Rowland St. John's time. In 1647 when Sir Rowland's 624-a. estate, consisting mainly of the
demesne lands and Paddington wood, had been
divided among 16 undertenants, a 'capital messuage
of three bay of building' was held with 6 a. and a
further 40 a. by James Hall. It abutted on the churchyard, itself bordered on the east by a 'great house'
occupied with a 4-a. close and a further 90 a. by a
London brewer, Alderman John Bide. Sir Rowland
St. John had lived in Bide's house, formerly occupied
by Edward North; (fn. 77) it may have been the larger and
newer building, as 17th- and 18th-century leases of
the manor always specified both the capital messuage
and North's house. (fn. 78) The 'great house' may have
been occupied by Arthur Blyth, the third largest
ratepayer in 1670 and an overseer from 1681 to
1683. (fn. 79) St. John's great house on Paddington green,
with a barn of five bays, was subleased with over
100 a. in 1697 to Sarah Blyth for 16 years and in
1709 to her son Charles for 21 years. (fn. 80) It was mortgaged by Charles, whom Gilbert Sheldon accused of
non-payment of rent, and in 1714 by Ralph Hide,
clothworker of London. (fn. 81) Probably it was the 'manor
house' or 'old house' of Manor House farm, held in
1742 and 1751 by William Godfrey. (fn. 82)
In 1810 the trustees of St. Mary's church, appointed under Acts of 1778 and 1793, (fn. 83) were empowered to buy 2 a., including the manor house, in
order to enlarge the churchyard which lay to the
south. (fn. 84) Part of the purchase money was advanced
by John Parton, the vestry clerk, who from 1811
held the house with 1 a. as security and kept separate
accounts of the rents. (fn. 85) Repairs were needed in 1813,
including iron bars to strengthen the first floor,
which was 'much pressed outwards'. The house was
leased for seven years in 1813, to the painter Joshua
Cristall, and annually from 1820. (fn. 86) After serving as a
girls' school, it was suggested as a parsonage and as
a watch house before the vestry finally ordered
demolition in 1824. (fn. 87) Only timber and ornamental
trees were to be preserved in 1825, when the site was
added to the churchyard. (fn. 88) In a novel about the mid
18th century the haunted Manor House was described by Charles Oilier, himself a vestryman in
1820, as a plain, square, red-brick building, in a
walled garden with elm trees. (fn. 89)
Paddington RECTORY was always leased with
the manor from 1489, (fn. 90) the rent being payable
separately to the sacrist of Westminster in 1514 (fn. 91) but
included in the rent for the manor after the Reformation. (fn. 92) When subleased by Matthew Smale to John
Chirme for eight years in 1591, the rectory estate
included the churchyard, two tenements, two closes
called Church fields, and a close called the Five
Acres. (fn. 93) Smale later resumed the rectory and in 1604
compounded for an undertenant's tithes, for a term
which was disputed. (fn. 94) Great Church field and Five
Acres were held in 1644 by Elizabeth Kenwrick, (fn. 95) a
widow who in 1647 lived in a house lately built by
Edward Kenwrick. By 1647 the rectory had been
subleased to John Lisle and consisted mainly of great
and small tithes on all freehold land in the parish, of
both Paddington and Westbourne manor, but not on
the demesne lands the tithes of which had been demised to particular tenants. (fn. 96) John Lisle or a namesake was later churchwarden and, in 1670, the largest
ratepayer. (fn. 97) Property in Paddington, previously
leased to George Starkey, was released in 1712 by
Thomas Lisle of Lambeth (Surr.), son of Thomas
Lisle of Paddington (d. 1678). (fn. 98) In 1742 the rectory
lands, which did not include Great or Little Church
fields, amounted to c. 30 a., mostly at Westbourne
green. (fn. 99) A 'new house' called Chirme's house at
Westbourne green was mortgaged in 1714 by George
Starkey, the house itself being in the possession of
the Huguenot marquise de Gouvernet (d. 1722). (fn. 1)
Mrs. Elizabeth Starkey paid the highest rates in the
parish from 1721 to 1723 and Thomas Starkey was
also a substantial ratepayer from 1725 until 1745. (fn. 2)
All the tithes were commuted in 1844 for a rent
charge of £154 11s. 5d., payable to the trustees of the
Paddington Estate. (fn. 3) Chirme's house had been
divided by 1758, when it was sold by John Starkey
to William Pickering. (fn. 4) In 1771 it was sold, with other
property, by Pickering's executors to Jukes Coulson
and by 1801 it had been demolished, the site forming
part of the grounds of Coulson's Westbourne Place. (fn. 5)
Lands in the west part of the parish belonged in
the Middle Ages to Westminster abbey's manor of
KNIGHTSBRIDGE WITH WESTBOURNE,
most of which lay in Westminster. Although Westbourne tenants remained subject to courts at
Knightsbridge, (fn. 6) lands in Westbourne were not
named in late 15th-century leases of Knightsbridge
manor. (fn. 7) The lordship of Knightsbridge with Westbourne was granted in 1542 to the short-lived see of
Westminster, from which it passed to the dean and
chapter of the collegiate church. (fn. 8) The manor was
sold by parliamentary commissioners in 1650 to
Thomas Evans, who in 1652 conveyed it to Sir
George Stonhouse, beneficial lessee of the Westbourne estate described below, but it reverted to
Westminster at the Restoration. (fn. 9) In 1821 Joseph
Neeld (d. 1856), later of Grittleton Hall near Chippenham (Wilts.), (fn. 10) obtained a lease of Westminster's
manorial rights, in order to inclose all the remaining
waste. He also obtained a lease of the Westbourne
estate, for three lives, in 1832 and again in 1850. (fn. 11)
Neeld's proposals for building leases were treated
with caution by the dean and chapter, who felt that
the lessees of the bishop of London's estate had been
treated too favourably. Arbitrators, appointed in
1859, in 1862 allotted 74 a. in a single block to Westminster and the same acreage in two blocks to
trustees for Joseph's brother Sir John Neeld, Bt.,
whose lands were thereupon enfranchised and soon
afterwards built over. (fn. 12)
The estate known in the 19th century as the
manor of WESTBOURNE or WESTBOURNE
GREEN
(fn. 13) formed part of the abbey's lands in the
parish. Abbot Walter of Wenlock (d. 1307) was
found in 1316 to have acquired property without
licence in Knightsbridge, Paddington, Westbourne,
and Eye, the Westbourne lands totalling 26 a. and
including 2 a. received from Maud Arnold. (fn. 14) By the
time of Henry VIII the warden of the abbey's new
work had been assigned much land in Westbourne,
including Arnold's and William's fields north of
Harrow Road and Knight's field to the south. (fn. 15) Together with all the lands in Paddington formerly
devoted to the Lady chapel, they were leased for 99
years in 1542 to Sir Edward North. (fn. 16) Thereafter the
estate consisted mainly of the three fields in Westbourne, 6 a. farther south in the common fields near
the Uxbridge road, and five closes west of Arnold's
field, formerly of St. Mary's chapel and known by
1669 as Ashgroves. They were leased in 1631 for
three lives to George Stonhouse, (fn. 17) who in 1632 succeeded as Sir George Stonhouse, Bt., of Radley
(Berks.). (fn. 18) Sir George (d. 1675) settled the lease on
his third son James, (fn. 19) for whom and for whose heirs
it was repeatedly renewed for lives. In 1725 the
lessee was James's son Richard Stonhouse (d. 1776)
of Tubney (Berks.) and in 1742 Richard's son James
(d. 1795), (fn. 20) physician and divine, who later inherited
the baronetcy, (fn. 21) and in 1796 the Revd. Timothy
Stonhouse Vigor and George Vansittart were trustees
for Sir James Stonhouse's son Sir Thomas (d.
1810). Their interest was conveyed in 1805 to the
engineer John Braithwaite (d. 1818), who obtained a
new lease in 1811. (fn. 22)
The Stonhouses probably always divided and subleased their estate: Ashgroves and William's field
were subleased in 1634 and Ashgrove, (fn. 23) Ash field,
and Knight's field were part of the large Westbourne
Green farm in 1776. (fn. 24) No house was recorded in
leases by Westminster until the early 19th century,
when Westbourne Manor House stood north-east of
Harrow Road and north of the Grand Junction
canal, with William's field to the north-east. (fn. 25) There
was, however, a building on or near that site by
1746. (fn. 26) John Braithwaite's residence in 1814, with
two storeys and a steeply pitched roof, was perhaps
of c. 1700; the main front was of five bays, with a
single-storeyed extension of three bays, beyond
which it was proposed to build new stables and
offices. Extensive improvements were reported in
1815, including the inclosure and planting of ground
between the house and Harrow Road and probably a
tree-lined walk which ran from the rear alongside
William's field to the Westbourne. (fn. 27) Braithwaite
died at Westbourne Manor House, which his son
John (1797-1870), also a noted engineer, (fn. 28) retained
until c. 1840. Later tenants were William Charles
Carbonell, a wine merchant, who held it with 14 a.
in 1846, and from 1854 John, afterwards Sir John,
Humphreys. The house probably survived in 1866
but had been replaced by the western end of
Sutherland Avenue in 1867. (fn. 29)
The estate known c. 1800 as WESTBOURNE
PLACE
(fn. 30) and later as WESTBOURNE PARK
(fn. 31)
probably represented lands in Westbourne which
had been left to Westminster abbey by Margaret
Beaufort, countess of Richmond (d. 1509). (fn. 32) Her
gift consisted of the Kensington manor of Notting
Barns, which she had bought from feoffees who
included Sir Reginald Bray and to which the Westbourne lands may have been added as the result of a
separate purchase. Perhaps they were Stonyland and
Herryland in Westbourne, sold to Bray in 1492 by
Thomas and Robert Stillington, cousins and heirs of
the Lord Chancellor Robert Stillington, bishop of
Bath and Wells (d. 1491). (fn. 33) Westminster abbey
leased lands in Westbourne and Chelsea detached,
with Notting Barns manor, to Alderman Robert
Fenrother, a goldsmith, who by will of 1524 (fn. 34) left
them to his son-in-law Henry White, whose son
Robert in 1543 was forced to exchange them with
the Crown. Robert White's house and lands at Westbourne had been subleased to Thomas Dolte (fn. 35) and
in 1554 were occupied by William Dolte. In that
year, having been separated from Notting Barns
which had gone to Sir William Paulet, the reversions
were granted in fee to the queen's doctor Thomas
Hughes. (fn. 36)
Alderman Benedict Barnham died in 1598, seised
of a house called Westbourne and 70 a. in Paddington, Kensington, and Chelsea detached, held of the
Crown by 1/40 knight's fee, and a further 66 a. there,
of unknown tenure, including 40 a. occupied by
William Lisle. (fn. 37) Of Barnham's five daughters Alice
married Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, and in
1626 John, later Sir John, Underhill, and Bridget,
who married Sir William Soame of Thurlow (Suff.). (fn. 38)
Westbourne farm in Paddington, Kensington, and
Chelsea was the subject of a recovery executed by the
Underhills on their marriage and was among the
lands to which Underhill renounced all claim, in return for £400 a year, on separating from his wife in
1639. (fn. 39) Alice (d. 1650) apparently settled her interest
on her nephew and executor Stephen Soame, who in
his will proved in 1658 stated that she had left him a
moiety. The lands may have been sold to meet
bequests (fn. 40) but in 1673 were named in a claim by
Underhill against Stephen's son William Soame
(later a baronet, d. 1686) for the full payment of his
annuity. (fn. 41) Their ownership in the late 17th century
is obscure.
Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Allam of Westbourne
green, and her children Jane and Thomas Allam
mortgaged a capital messuage with 4 a. in 1715 to
William Gilbert, by which time it had been divided
from a brick house belonging to Catherine Whitcomb
and her three half-sisters, the daughters of John
Scudamore. (fn. 42) Jane Allam in 1730 conveyed her interest to Reginald Heber of the Middle Temple, (fn. 43)
who had been resident from 1725 (fn. 44) and whose son
Reginald, with William Gilbert's brother Edward,
in 1742 conveyed the house in trust for the architect
Isaac Ware (d. 1766). Ware sold it in 1764 to Sir
William Yorke, Bt., (fn. 45) who in turn sold it in 1768 to
Jukes Coulson, a London anchorsmith. (fn. 46) In 1771
Coulson also bought, from the son-in-law and
daughter of William Pickering, Chirme's house at
Westbourne green, with the nearby brick house
called Mr. Scudamore's, which Pickering had bought
from John Ewens in 1759 and which had been
allotted in 1731 to Catherine Whitcomb by her
half-sisters. (fn. 47) Westbourne Place was the seat of
Coulson's widow in 1795 and was sold by his nephew
and namesake in 1801 to the architect Samuel Pepys
Cockerell (1753-1827), who died there. (fn. 48) Samuel's
eldest son John held a compact estate west of the
Westbourne stream, on either side of Harrow Road,
in 1828. (fn. 49) As Westbourne Park or House the main
residence was leased from c. 1829 to 1837 to Gen.
Lord Hill (1772-1842), while John Cockerell lived
at a smaller house to the east, Little Westbourne.
Sir Charles Rushout Cockerell, Bt., Samuel's
nephew, conveyed his interest in the estate in 1844
to John Pink, who already had started to build
there. (fn. 50)
Isaac Ware rebuilt Westbourne Place and Coulson
presumably demolished Chirme's and Scudamore's
houses, both of which had gone by 1801. Allegedly
incorporating materials from Lord Chesterfield's
former London residence, (fn. 51) Ware's seat had a stuccoed entrance front of nine bays; three, between
canted bows, rose above the cornice to form a third,
attic, storey with a central pediment. (fn. 52) Coulson enlarged the house and laid out park-like grounds, to
which Cockerell added from the waste. The pleasant
situation was widely admired, (fn. 53) and during Lord
Hill's tenancy visitors included William IV, Queen
Adelaide, and the duke of Wellington. The house
partially survived, a little south of the railway, in
1846 but its site had been covered by nos. 6-18
Westbourne Park Villas by 1847. (fn. 54)
Half of a large estate called WESTBURY or
WESTBOURNE FARM, in Paddington, Kensington, and Chelsea detached, was held in 1724 by
Thomas Folkes of Great Barton (Suff.), a lawyer. (fn. 55)
Then or lately occupied by Mrs. Starkey, the moiety
was settled on Folkes's only child Elizabeth (d.
1741), (fn. 56) who married the Speaker Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bt. (1677-1746), but eloped with Thomas
Hervey (d. 1775). Elizabeth left Hervey her moiety
of Westbourne farm, (fn. 57) which was included in marriage settlements for Capt. Thomas Hervey in 1774
and for his son William of Bodvel (Caern.) in 1802. (fn. 58)
Folkes may have held the other moiety also, since in
1759 William and Henry Folkes conveyed it to Tomlinson Busby of Gray's Inn. (fn. 59) Lt.-Col. Tomlinson
Busby secured a rent charge on Westbourne farm in
1803 and he and William Hervey jointly sold some
land to S. P. Cockerell and another piece to John
White, the tenants, in 1810. (fn. 60) Partition of the estate
was regulated by an Act of 1816 for the Revd. William Beaumont Busby, dean of Rochester (d. 1820),
and William Hervey. (fn. 61) Some 10 a. with a house east
of Westbourne Park were sold by Hervey in 1817 to
William Penney, varnish maker. (fn. 62) Busby's heirs retained a substantial estate in 1828, west of the village
and south of Harrow Road. (fn. 63)
In the 18th century the farmhouse of Westbourne
farm was divided. In 1803 it had been occupied by
Jacob Simmons, tenant of Hervey's moiety, and by
the marquess of Buckingham, (fn. 64) who had had a
country retreat there in 1792. (fn. 65) From 1805 until
1817 the actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) also had
a retreat at Westbourne Farm, described by her husband William as 'a thing so pretty and so small',
where she received several famous visitors. (fn. 66) It was
later called Desborough Cottage and finally Desborough House, (fn. 67) taking its name not from the Westbourne farm estate but from a neighbouring meadow
called Derborough in 1647 and Desboroughs in
1742, leased by the bishop as part of the demesne of
Paddington manor. (fn. 68) A sketch by the actor Charles
James Mathews, who lived there with his wife Mme.
Vestris from 1845 until c. 1849, showed a building
with three gables facing Harrow Road. In 1856 it
survived, south of the canal, but by 1861 it had been
replaced by Cirencester and Woodchester streets. A
few yards to the south Desborough Lodge, recently
completed by Sarah Siddons's brother Charles
Kemble, who soon moved nearer Paddington green, (fn. 69)
was advertised with 4 a. in 1813. (fn. 70) Occupied with
nearly 2 a. in 1846 by James Oliver, (fn. 71) it made way
for Desborough Mews between 1855 and 1861. (fn. 72)
William Craven, Lord (later earl of) Craven (d.
1697), was a modest ratepayer in Paddington from
1670 to 1672. (fn. 73) In 1671 he rented land near Marshall
Street, Westminster, to which he later added and
which he settled in trust in 1687 for a pest house and
burial ground to serve the parishes of St. Clement
Danes, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. James, and St.
Paul, Covent Garden. (fn. 74) The spread of building
nearby impelled William, Lord Craven (d. 1739), in
1733 to buy two houses at Bayswater, forming an
outlying parcel of Tyburn manor, with 6 a. and a
further 3 a. in the common fields of Westbourne,
from Jane, widow of Thomas Upton, and her son
John Davis Upton. (fn. 75) Thomas Upton had bought the
property in 1725 from Robert Pollard. (fn. 76) The pest
house was moved there under an Act of 1734 (fn. 77) and
existed as a long building with several enclosures,
amid fields and well back from the Uxbridge road, in
1746. (fn. 78) Presumably it was no longer used as a pest
house in 1795, when the CRAVEN estate was 'very
pleasantly situated' on a slight eminence known as
Craven Hill. (fn. 79) In 1811 Robert Shirley, Earl Ferrers
(d. 1827), granted a lease of no. 3 Craven Hill, (fn. 80) presumably one of a terrace of 6 houses, varying in size,
which in 1829 stood on the site of the pest house,
east of a detached house and along the north side of
a lane called Craven Hill. The estate then formed a
rough rectangle, bisected by the lane which ran from
behind Porchester Road (later Terrace) eastward
almost to the Westbourne stream. (fn. 81) The vestry was
told in 1833 that an outbreak of plague, rather than
cholera, would be needed before the land could be
claimed for charitable purposes. (fn. 82) Detached and terraced houses were built along both sides of Craven
Hill, and in mews to the north, between 1840 and
1854. Leases were granted by William, earl of
Craven (d. 1866) to several builders, (fn. 83) including
Charles Claudius Cook for no. 23 in 1840, (fn. 84) and
James Ponsford. (fn. 85)
The GRAND JUNCTION CANAL CO., whose
negotiations were exempted from the restrictions of
the bishop's building Act of 1795, (fn. 86) in 1798 took a
lease until 1894 of c. 48 a. between Westbourne
green and Edgware Road. The land consisted mainly
of a strip along the canal but from North Wharf
Road by the basin it stretched southward to the intended Grand Junction Street, (fn. 87) where 8 a. were
subleased under an Act of 1812 to the new Grand
Junction Waterworks Co. for a peppercorn rent. (fn. 88)
The canal company, represented on the select vestry
from 1825, shared the building up of Grand Junction Street with the bishop and his lessees. (fn. 89) More
lands were acquired from the Paddington Estate, including 14 a. of Desboroughs, in 1825, when some
parcels were exchanged. (fn. 90) The company had 81 a. in
1845 (fn. 91) and was granted a renewal of its lease for 99
years in 1846. (fn. 92) In the late 19th century a third of all
its income came from rents from property in
Paddington. (fn. 93)
A new term was secured in 1899 and converted to
2,000 years under the Law of Property Act, 1922. (fn. 94)
Having purchased the Grand Union Canal Co. in
1894, (fn. 95) the Grand Junction Canal Co. with effect
from 1929 transferred all its canal undertakings to
the Regent's Canal and Dock Co., which was reconstituted as the Grand Union Canal Co. (fn. 96) Subleases
were made to the new canal company of extensive
property including most of North and South
wharves, canalside sites in Harrow Road between
Bishop's Road and Harrow Road bridges, and
Amberley wharves. (fn. 97) The Grand Union Canal Co.'s
title passed under the Transport Act, 1947, to the
British Transport Commission and under the
Transport Act, 1963, to the British Waterways
Board. The freehold nos. 431 to 523A (odd) Harrow
Road, along the canal, were sold in 1937 to the
Artizans' and General Dwellings Co., which owned
the neighbouring Queen's Park estate, houses farther
east in Harrow Road were sold in 1966 to the G.L.C.
for the Western Avenue extension, and part of
Amberley wharves was also sold in 1969 to the
G.L.C., whose interest passed in 1980 to Westminster council. In 1983 the British Waterways
Board had agreed to sell c. 4 a. to the Department of
Health and Social Security for an extension to St.
Mary's hospital. The sale was to include nos. 6-16
South Wharf Road and access over the canal to
North Wharf Road, leaving the British Waterways
Board with c. 11 a. around the east end and along the
north side of the basin, together with an option to
buy the former Lock hospital in Harrow Road.
Land and buildings not used for the canal undertaking remained after 1929 with the renamed Grand
Junction Co., which functioned as a property company. (fn. 98) While retaining its own name, it was taken
over in 1972 by the Amalgamated Investment
and Property Co., which went into liquidation in
1976. (fn. 99)
The Grand Junction Co.'s extensive Paddington
holdings were reduced by sales, including those of
houses in Shirland Road, Formosa Street, Amberley
Road, and Abourne Street in 1956 and by the
L.C.C.'s compulsory purchase in 1960 of property
in North Wharf Road and between Delamere Terrace, Chichester Road, Westbourne Square, and
Lord Hill's Road. (fn. 1) More houses in Formosa Street
and Warwick Avenue, still held in 1965, had been
sold by 1973. (fn. 2) The company nonetheless took leases
of some of the British Waterways Board's premises
for rebuilding, including land in Irongate Wharf
(later Harbet) Road from 1970 and in North Wharf
Road from 1971. In 1973 the Grand Junction Co.'s
Paddington estate was mainly freehold and lay north
of the canal basin or in blocks from Praed Street
across St. Michael's and Star streets to Sussex Gardens, with an estimated capital value of £9,727,950,
half that of all its properties. Major assets included
new factories at nos. 55-6 North Wharf Road, on
land leased from the British Waterways Board, the
new London Metropole hotel, freehold but with
access across leasehold ground in Harbet Road, the
flats of Siddons House, at the corner of Harrow and
Harbet roads, and of Cambridge Court, with shops
beneath, in Edgware Road, and most of the houses
which had been converted into hotels along the north
side of Sussex Gardens. (fn. 3) The estate had been broken
up and sold by 1984, (fn. 4) when the London Metropole
was owned by Lonrho. (fn. 5)