INTRODUCTION
The greater part of the area dealt with in this, the third volume of
the Survey of the parish of St. Pancras, comprising the southwestern portion of the parish, lay within the manor of Tottenhall.
A brief account of the descent of this manor is given in the introduction to Part II of the Survey and its boundaries are indicated in the historical
sketch map of St. Pancras which is included in that volume.
At its southern end the parish of St. Pancras extends in a tongue
of land on the west side of Tottenham Court Road to within 150 feet of
Oxford Street. The south boundary crossed a meadow, which was sold by
James Blount, Lord Mountjoy, in 1569, (ref. 1) to Edward Kyngeston of St. Martinin-the-Fields, brickmaker, and was described as a little field containing
2½ acres, partly in the parish of St. Marylebone and partly in St. Pancras,
in the occupation of Nicholas Holden. It was further described as adjoining
a great watering pond called St. Giles' Pond and abutting on the Queen's
highway from St. Giles towards Hampstead [Tottenham Court Road] on the
east, and the Queen's highway from St. Giles to Uxbridge [Oxford Street]
on the south. This land, formerly belonging to the Hospital of St. Giles,
became the site of Hanway Street, Pettys Court, John's Court and Hanway
Place. The street and place get their name from Thomas Hanway, a
Commissioner of the Royal Navy. From a transaction relating to part of the
property, it appears that Thomas Hanway left the estate by will to his nephew
the Rev. James Altham, sometime of Harlow in Essex and that the latter's
eldest son James Hanway Altham of Epsom was in possession in 1796. (ref. 2) In
the 19th century Hanway Street (partly in the two parishes) became a busy
thoroughfare leading from Oxford Street to Tottenham Court Road and a
shopping centre to which there are many references by writers on the
neighbourhood. (ref. 3)
In the early part of the 18th-century the land between Tottenham
Court Road and the boundary of St. Marylebone lay in four fields (apart
from the small area mentioned above), viz. Crab Tree Field, Walnut Tree
Field, Culver Close and Home Field
Crab Tree Field and Walnut Tree Field (Hassell & Goodge Estates)
These two meadows which extended north as far as the present Chitty
Street (formerly North Street) were bounded east and west by the parish
boundary and were copyhold of the manor of Tottenhall, being held at the
beginning of the 18th century by Abraham Dudley of Gray's Inn, a quaker,
who died in 1703. His son John Dudley, of the Six Clerks' Office, leased
the southern part of 4 acres, in 1717, to John Hassell, (ref. 4) a brewer of St.
Giles and at the same time the northern part of 16 acres to William Beresford,
both leases being for 111 years.
At that time only two houses stood on the four acres, occupied by
Widow Bluck and Widow Sarah Smith under two leases. The frontage
extended from Hanway Street to the back of the ground attached to the houses
that were afterwards built on Percy Street. Mr. Hassell was to lay out
£1,000 on building within three years. The vestry of the adjoining parish
of St. Giles then proposed to lease some of the property for a burial ground
at £15 a year and an agreement was drawn up, but this was never ratified by
the vestry because they discovered that the burial fees would go to the vicar
of St. Pancras, so depriving the incumbent of St. Giles of this source of income.
Claiming that his plans had been modified to meet the proposal and that he
had lost money through its not being carried out, Mr. Hassell went to the
Court of Chancery for redress but lost his case. (ref. 5) The planning of Gresse
Street, Stephen Street and Tudor Place suggests that it was not developed
uniformly with the Tottenham Court Road frontage.
Figure 1:
Gresse Street, drawing by Dennis Flanders
The progress of building along Tottenham Court Road is indicated
by the petition to the Commissioners of Sewers from John Hassell and others
in 1720, (ref. 6) that the common sewer being choked by mud and filth, might
be cleared. In 1722 (ref. 7) he applied for leave to enlarge the sewer on the west
side of Tottenham Court Road before several houses belonging to him, the
sewer being too small. The surveyor reported that the frontage was 410 feet,
upon which there were then erected or intended to be erected 15 houses
next the road, with a stable yard backwards (Black Horse Yard, alias Tudor
Place). The frontage of 410 feet extended from the Black Horse to the corner
of Percy Street. In 1732, (ref. 8) again, Hassell and his tenants complained that
the common sewer was choked and that the rainwater overflowed the kitchens
and cellars of their houses.
In 1752 the Hassell estate was sold in lots, (ref. 9) subject to ground rents
and the original lease, the southern portion of Gresse Street having then
been built, while the area between Gresse Street and the houses in Tottenham
Court Road was occupied by Black Horse Yard (Tudor Place), with extensive
stabling. A house lately tenanted by the Hon. Charlotte Hassell, with a
large garden, occupied two acres, or half the estate and this was bought by
Peter Gaspard Gresse. (ref. 10) He does not appear to have built on it until the year
1768, when he laid out the northern part of Gresse Street (fn. *) and Stephen
Street. His son was John Alexander Gresse, painter and drawing master. (ref. 11)
Talbot, Bishop of Durha
The sale of 1752 was made two years after Anne, the only child of
Thomas Hassell, had married Charles Henry Talbot, grandson of William
Talbot, Bishop of Durham, at the Temple Church. He was created a baronet
in 1790 and died 10th January, 1798, in his 78th year, being buried in Old
St. Pancras Churchyard. He bequeathed his property in Gresse Street,
Gresse Street Mews, Black Horse Yard, Rathbone Place and Little Mortimer
Street to Dame Anne, (ref. 12) who died in 1810 aged 80 years and was buried with
him. The Gresse Estate was partitioned in 1817 (ref. 13) among the daughters of
Anne, Lady Talbot.
As stated above, the Hassell Estate was held by lease expiring in
1818, leaving the copyhold title to the reversion in the hands of John Dudley's
successors. In the absence of the court rolls for this period it is difficult to
trace the copyholders until the year 1751 when Catherine the wife of James
Whitehead of Newport, Isle of Wight, was admitted. (ref. 14) She died in 1800
leaving three daughters, one of whom, Fanny, married John Jones of Covent
Garden, who died in 1819, leaving his third share (106 messuages, 22
cottages, etc.) to his daughter Elizabeth Mary, (ref. 15) who married, firstly George
Tudor, M.P. for Barnstable, and secondly, in 1861, John Prendergast
(Vereker), 3rd Viscount Gort, who died 1865. She died 11th October, 1880,
in her 90th year. Under a private Act of Parliament, 42 George III, a
partition was made of the copyhold estate of the three daughters of Catherine
Whitehead.
We have already mentioned that the larger portion of Crab Tree and
Walnut Tree Fields, comprising (ref. 16) acres, was leased for 111 years in 1717 by
John Dudley to William Beresford, (ref. 16) yeoman. With it went 5 messuages,
one being called the Crab Tree Alehouse, occupied by James Kendrick.
The plan attached to this lease shows the "Crab Tree" near the southern
end, with four cottages adjoining. This must have been a little north of
Percy Street. The only other house on the land was one occupied by Charles
Badger farther northward. £400 was to be spent in building within three
years. The northern boundary of the estate ran westward from Tottenham
Court Road just north of Whitfield's Tabernacle, through Chitty Street,
formerly North Street to Cleveland Street on the south side of the old Workhouse belonging to the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden.
William Beresford died in 1718, leaving his property to his wife Ann,
who married John Goodge, carpenter, and the latter proceeded to carry out
the building development. The leasehold interest remained in the possession
of his family until the 19th-century. John Goodge died in 1748 (ref. 17) in his 58th
year, and was buried in Old St. Pancras Churchyard where his wife had
been buried in 1741, aged 68. He left his estate to his two nephews, Francis
Goodge and William Goodge.
An indication of the extent of building in 1758 (ref. 18) is shown in an
application then made by Francis and William Goodge to the Commissioners
of Sewers to make a sewer for their houses on the west side of Tottenham
Court Road and in Windmill Street for 10 acres intended for building, when
the surveyor reported that there were five houses on the west side of Tottenham Court Road and five in Windmill Street. They were allowed to extend
the sewer from the northern end of Mr. Hassell's sewer 430 feet to Windmill
Street, etc.
The building developments which followed led to an Act of Parliament in 1768 (12 George III, cap. 69) under which 17 Commissioners were
appointed to provide for paving, lighting, etc. and they were directed to hold
their first meeting at the Two Blue Posts, Tottenham Court Road. The
preamble states that "the pavements of the streets westward of Tottenham
Court Road are in a very bad state and in a continual want of repair, and the
parish is not duly lighted, cleansed and watched." They were empowered
to levy rates and directed to put up the names of streets, number the houses,
regulate stands for hackney coaches, put up lamps and erect watch houses.
Francis Goodge died in 1771, (ref. 19) leaving his estate to his brother
William, who died in 1778 (ref. 20) and devised the residue of his estate to his nephew
Samuel Foyster. This comprised 573 messuages, two chapels and 178 coachhouses and stables. Samuel Foyster died in 1805, (ref. 21) leaving two sons and five
daughters, among whom the estate was partitioned in 1805 under a private Act
of Parliament. It appears that the Goodge family had acquired the copyhold
estate in addition to the long leasehold, but when this was done is not known.
A considerable number of houses were sold by auction in 1827, (ref. 22) by
the trustee for the estate of Felix Vaughan, who died in 1799.
Culver Meadow
This Field of 12 acres belonged to the Bedford Estate and lay immediately north of Crab Tree and Walnut Tree Fields, its northern boundary
lying just south of Maple (formerly London) Street. On the south it included
the site of the Workhouse of St. Paul, Covent Garden (now the Middlesex
Hospital Annexe) and the north side of Chitty (formerly North) Street, but
east of this the boundary turned north outside the site of Whitefield's Chapel
where there is a break in the alignment of the west frontage of Tottenham
Court Road.
Culver Meadow was part of the Bloomsbury Estate which had
originally contributed to the endowment of the pre-Reformation Charterhouse
and it came to the Russell family through the marriage in 1669 of William,
Lord Russell with Lady Rachel, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, fourth
Earl of Southampton. That it had formed part of the demesne land of the
manor of Tottenhall is proved by the Commonwealth survey of 1649 (ref. 23)
which shows the Earl of Southampton paying to the prebendary 2s. annual
rent for "12 acres called culverclose." Moreover the court rolls of the manor
record that Robert Palmer was admitted on the lord's grant, in 1776, to a
parcel of the waste in Tottenham Court Road adjoining Culver Meadow.
This strip of land had a frontage of 306 feet and a depth at the north of 30
feet 9 inches and on the south 22 feet. From a recital in 1825 we find that
it accommodated 13 houses, 10 to the south and 3 to the north of Howland
Street, now numbered 85 to 94 and 95 to 97 in Tottenham Court Road.
Robert Palmer was for many years the agent to the Duke of Bedford, who then
owned the whole field. The formality of admission was repeated when
Richard Palmer his son was admitted at his father's death in 1796 and
surrendered to Henry Jones of Bloomsbury in 1800. At his death in 1801
his son Henry Thomas Jones succeeded and when the latter died in 1810
the land went to his daughter Mary Ann Jones who married William Cartwright of Aynho, M.P. for Northants from 1754–1768.
The grant to Robert Palmer in 1776 evidently formed part of the
arrangements for the development of this property for in 1777 the Duchess
of Bedford granted to William Gowing, builder, a lease of 99 years, of the
site held in Palmer's name, and building then proceeded over the whole area,
to be completed by 1791.
Home Field (Southampton Estate)
North of Culver Meadow (the Bedford Estate) lay Home Field which
extended from the present Maple Street (formerly London Street) on the
south to Euston Road on the north. This was all part of the demesne land
of the manor of Tottenhall which reached from Chitty Street (North Street)
as far north as Park Street, Camden Town, and from the parish boundary in
Cleveland Street, etc. on the west to Tottenham Court Road and originally
no doubt farther to the east. As already noticed it included Culver Meadow.
In the time of Charles II the manor was held by Henry Benet, Earl
of Arlington, of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. It had for some time
previously been in the hands of the crown and the King granted Arlington
his reversionary interest. (ref. 24) Lord Arlington's daughter and heir Isabella was
married to the King's natural son Henry Fitzroy, first Duke of Grafton, when
she was five years old. She was Countess of Arlington, in her own right, and
is referred to under this title in the earlier volumes of this Survey. She
brought the St. Pancras property to the Fitzroy family and it was eventually
settled on her great-grandson Charles Fitzroy who was created Lord
Southampton (fn. *) in 1780. He lived at Fitzroy Farm near Highgate and
married Anne, daughter of Sir Peter Warren, vice-admiral of the red, after
whom Warren Street was named.
A private Act of Parliament was passed in 1768 which vested the
fee-simple of the manor (that is, the demesne lands and manorial dues) in
Charles Fitzroy and his wife subject to a perpetual rent-charge to Dr. Richard
Browne, the holder of the Tottenhall prebend in St. Paul's and his successors.
This gave the prebendal stall a firm income of £300 a year, in place of some
£46 (fn. *) which had hitherto been derived from the property, but at the same time
it enabled Lord Southampton to develop a valuable estate for his own profit.
This development depended to some extent on the project for what was at
first known as the New Road from Paddington to Islington, now the Euston
Road, the formation of which was strongly opposed by the Duke of Bedford.
Eventually an agreement was reached by which building between Bedford
House and the New Road was prohibited and this condition was included in
the Act of 1768. After the removal of Bedford House in 1800 the open land
was built over. (fn. †)