The Englishman's House: A Practical Guide for Selecting and Building a House

by C. J. Richardson

A few remarks may be made here on the great rise which takes place in the value of land in any fashionable neighbourhood of London required for the erection of buildings.

The Harrington estate at Kensington Gore, containing in the whole 93a. 3r. 27p., was the joint property of the Earl of Harrington and of the Baron de Villars, through the right of his wife, the Baroness de Graffenried Villars. Previous to 1848 it had been some time in Chancery. In that year Mr. John Gaunt Lye was appointed auditor and agent to the fifth Earl of Harrington for the whole of the property. The rental of the Kensington Gore estate amounted at this time to 2779l. 9s. per annum. Through Mr. Lye’s exertions, he having received a power of attorney for the purpose, the estate was taken out of Chancery, and a division took place on the 7th May, 1850, at Mr. Lye’s office in Lancaster Place. For the purpose of division, one portion—that charged with maintaining the Cromwell Almshouses—was valued at 41,996l., and the other at 40,552l. Cards representing each portion were placed in a hat, and the one representing the 41,996l., was taken out by the Baron.

In 1851 the Earl’s portion was let to Mr. W. Jackson on a building agreement for 99 years, at 100l. per acre, or 4600l. per annum. In 1852 the Baron de Villars sold his moiety to the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 for the sum of 153,793l. The Commissioners only wanted a small portion of the Earl’s property. The first offer made by Mr. Cubitt to the surveyor of the estate was 40,800l. for 17 acres, or at the rate of 2400l. per acre. This was declined, and after a little negotiation the sum of 54,716l. was obtained. The matter was settled on the 7th of March, 1853; Mr. Jackson the builder received 7964l. as compensation for the loss of so much of his building land.

More land was purchased by the Royal Commissioners to make up the site they required; in the very middle of the latter was a field which had only been used as a place for beating carpets. It belonged to the Smith Charity estate, and fetched a rent of about 40l. per annum; this field was obtained by giving in exchange an outlaying one on the Villars estate, the building value of which was estimated at 800l. per annum.

The Royal Commissioners, after squaring the site they required, and putting aside the portion now occupied by the Department of Science and Art, parcelled out the remaining outlying portion into three blocks, and let them on building leases. The first and most important of these was secured by the author for an employer, at a rental of 1500l. per annum, on condition that the fee of each house plot could be purchased within 6 years after the lease was granted; it contained about 2 acres. And these are now the only freeholds that can be obtained. This plot is now covered with buildings of the selling value, as leaseholds, of 250,000l., and it produces an improved ground rental. For the purchase of the whole fee, the sum to be paid was 46,500l., so that for a portion of this land which the author of this work, as surveyor of the property, sold in 1852 for little more than 3200l. per acre, the value had risen, in 1860, to no less than 23,250l. per acre.

It is only since Hyde Park has become almost the centre of the metropolis, instead of being in one of its rural districts, that attention has been paid to supply it with ornamental lodges and gates. The country was so long occupied with the importance of the war with France, which terminated so gloriously to the honour of our country, that the Royal Parks were left in a very neglected state; and the gates and lodges, particularly the entrance into London by Knightsbridge, were mean in character, and totally unworthy of the purpose.

Londoners of the present day have no notion of the wretched state of Hyde Park as it existed fifty years ago. The side next Park Lane, now a beautiful walk, adorned by the gardener’s utmost skill with several varieties of flowers and shrubs, was then a narrow sunken road, which for the most part continued, by the side of the boundary wall, all the way from Oxford Street to Piccadilly. This, when improvement commenced, was filled up, and laid down in grass; and a wide Mall, with two foot-paths, was formed on the higher ground, and enclosed by handsome iron posts and rails. Some extensive gravel pits existed in the middle of the park; these were filled up, one only being permitted to remain. The surface of the park was generally levelled and manured, by which the herbage has been greatly improved. Numerous seats were placed about the park, for the convenience of the public; clumps and avenues of trees were planted. The Serpentine was cleansed for the first time; it is just now recleansed. A new drive, nearly a mile in extent was made through the most distant and beautiful part of the park, to lead to Kensington Gardens; and generally, all the roads were macadamized, and enclosed with posts and rails. To connect the roads north and south of the Serpentine, a handsome bridge was erected, from the designs and under the superintendence of Messrs. Rennie. This has much conduced to the accommodation of pedestrians and horsemen.

About twenty years after these great improvements were effected, Queen Anne’s garden, at the extreme termination of Kensington Gardens, was thrown open to the public; the kitchen garden belonging to Kensington Palace was let out on building leases, and a road formed through it connecting the town of Kensington with Bayswater. This road, called the Queen’s Palace Gardens Road, is now covered from end to end with first-class mansions. The improvements continued, and are being still carried on.

The lodges and gates, at the chief entrances into the park, were put up at the expense of the nation. When any building operator required an entrance into the park, for some new outlying district, he bore the expense of the construction, working under the direction of Her Majesty’s Chief Commissioner of Works. The Government lodges at Cumberland Place cost 2151l. One of these has been lately removed to widen Park Lane.

The two first lodges, with gates opposite Stanhope Street, cost 5062l. The single lodge at the end of Grosvenor Street, with the iron gates, cost 2929l., and the fountain 340l.