In 1869 the Gravel Pits Estate was let on a building lease for ninety-nine years at a rent of £1,040 per annum, when Clanricarde Gardens, and Nos. 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12, High Street, Notting Hill, were erected thereon. And advantageous leases of the remaining land were made at greatly increased rentals from time to time as opportunity occurred.
Such being the case, and the trustees being hampered by that curious order of the Court of December, 1852, it was clear that the time had arrived when the affairs of the charity should be placed upon a footing consonant with its increased income and the greater population of the parish. Accordingly, application was made to the Charity Commissioners, who have been provided by the legislature with powers in that respect, and in 1879 that body made an order vesting the lands in the official trustee of charity lands, and approved a scheme prepared under their superintendence, altering the qualification for the office of trustee of the charity, defining the duties and powers of the trustees, and directing the application of the income of the charity. That scheme, which has since been the subject of some further orders, is practically, but not without some important modifications, the same as the one now in force, which I will state at length presently.
But at the time it was objected to considerably, and at a meeting of ratepayers held on the 3rd August, 1879, at the Vestry Hall, it was resolved to petition the Court against it, on the grounds principally that it limited the amounts payable in pensions and to be applied for apprenticing poor boys, and that it abrogated the order of the Court of the 23rd December, 1852, apportioning the distribution of the funds among the districts of the various churches; and a petition against the scheme was presented to the Court. Vice-Chancellor Hall was impressed by the arguments for the petitioners, and set aside the scheme, but the Charity Commissioners appealed, and the Court of Appeal, presided over by the late Master of the Rolls, confirmed the order of the Charity Commission, and, in his judgment, made some remarks of so generally interesting and important a character that I regret time does not permit me to read them to you. You will, however, find them recorded in vol. 45 of the “Law Times Reports,” at page 158.
The decision was given on, the 27th May, 1881, and accordingly the affairs of the charity were, up to the 4th of March, 1890, regulated by that order.
But on the 4th March, 1890, the Charity Commissioners, on the application of the trustees of the charity, made another order, which is the one now in force. It is practically the same, with some important additions, as that approved by the Court of Appeal in 1881. I now state it fully, so that you all may learn how the affairs of the charity are regulated.
The charity is managed by eighteen competent persons as trustees, viz.:—Three ex-officio, six representative, nine co-optative.
The three ex-officio trustees are the Vicar and Churchwardens for the time being of the parish of Kensington.
The six representative trustees are elected—two by the Vestry of Kensington; two by the Board of Guardians of the poor of the parish; two by the members of the School Board for London for the Division of Chelsea.
The co-optative trustees must be persons residing or carrying on business in the parish of Kensington, and are to be provisionally appointed by the trustees, which appointment must be approved by the Charity Commissioners before it is valid.
The representative trustees are appointed for five years, and the co-optative trustees for seven years.