Paddington: Past and Present

by William Robins

The patronage of the Church of Paddington was reserved to the Bishop. The trustees were to stand possessed of the new lease on leases to be granted by the Bishop, in trust, one half for the person and persons, &c. to whom the same ought to go or belong by virtue of the Indenture of Release of the fifth of July, 1782; the other half in trust for the person and persons, &c. entitled by virtue of the Indenture, dated fourth of March, 1783; certain new provisions having been necessary in consequence of the change of interests.

The trustees were not to make any leases under the authority of this Act, without the consent in writing of Sir John and Lady Morshead, and Mr. and Mrs. Thistlethwayte.

And this Act was not to prevent the Bishop and his Lessees from treating with the Grand Junction Canal Proprietors “for such part or parts of the said premises, over and above the number of acres hereinbefore limited for building on;” neither did it do so; for by “An Act for making a Navigable Cut from the Grand Junction Canal, in the precinct of Norwood, in the county of Middlesex, to Paddington, in the said county,” passed in the same year as the preceding, the 35th Geo. III, cap. 43, we find that although the cut was not to be made through the Paddington Estate without the consent of owners yet that consent had already been given as to certain lands at Westbourn-green; and in 1798, by an Act for confirming and carrying into execution certain articles of Agreement made and entered into between Beilby, Lord Bishop of London, the Lessees of the Paddington Estate, and the Company of Proprietors of the Grand Junction Canal, “and for other purposes therein mentioned”—the 38th Geo. III, cap. 33.—we find that the said Company had then entered into a covenant with the said Lord Bishop, and his lessees, for certain other Pieces or Parcels of Land lying in the Parish of Paddington, amounting in the whole to “Forty Acres, Two Roods and Thirty-seven Perches,” at a yearly rent of £814 12s. 6d. being at the rate of twenty pounds per annum per acre; also certain other Pieces or Parcels, all in the aforesaid Act particularly set forth, [83] amounting in the whole to “Seven Acres and Two Roods,” at a yearly rent of thirty-nine pounds, seven shillings and six-pence, being after the rate of five pounds per acre per annum: in addition to which the Company agreed to pay a further rent of thirty pounds per annum, in respect of Buildings standing on the ground agreed to be demised: and this annual sum of £884 was agreed to be paid “by the said Company of Proprietors, their successors and assigns, free and clear of all manner of taxes, and from all other deductions and outgoings whatsoever:” one-third part to be paid to the said Lord Bishop and his successors, and the remaining two-thirds to the trustees, as lessees of the said estate. What good and valuable consideration, over and above the rent specified, was given to the Bishop and his lessees to induce them to consent to lease this land for ninety-nine years, bating one day; and to agree, for themselves and their successors, to renew the lease every fifty years for the same term, on the tender of a fine of twenty shillings, I cannot tell. These holders of the land, in all probability, had a less exalted notion of its value than their successors have had, but still it is very probable some compensation was given to induce them to part with it at such a rent.

Nine years after the passing of the Bishop’s first Building Act, it was found that it required “altering and amending,” and the 44th Geo. III. cap. 63, was passed for that purpose; “and for granting further powers, the better to carry into execution the purposes of the said Act.”

By this Act, two new trustees, Frederick Treise Morshead, eldest son of Sir John and Lady Morshead, and Henry Frederick Thistlethwayte, son of Sir Robert and Selina Thistlethwayte, were appointed in the place of Thomas Wood, deceased. And we are informed that those parts of the first Act which limited the letting to public auction only, and required, in the leases for twenty-one years, the insertion of a notice that the occupancy might be terminated after any six months thereof, were “found to be very prejudicial to the interests of the parties interested in the said estate, and a great check to the future improvement thereof,” and it was thought that it would “tend greatly to the advantage of the See of London, and the other parties interested in the said estate,” if further powers were given. These clauses of the aforesaid Act were, therefore, repealed, and in lieu thereof, the lessees or lessee of the Bishop, with his previous consent first had and obtained in writing, were allowed to treat, by private contract, or otherwise, with any person or persons, willing to build on this land, for the whole or any part of the two hundred acres in the previous Act mentioned to be let for building upon, for any term not exceeding ninety-nine years.

The previous Act limited the use of the brick-clay, gravel, &c. which were dug out of this estate, to the improvement of the premises whereon these were found, but to no other purpose; but it was now declared, that “for as much as it will tend greatly to the Improvement of the said Estate, to raise a Fund for the purpose of making main drains, forming and paving streets, forming and gravelling roads, making bridges, and erecting bridge ways for the improvement of the said estate,” it should now be enacted, that these materials might be sold to form a fund for carrying out these objects, “and for the general improvement of the said estate.” [85a]

Provision was made by this Act for the redemption of the land tax, which was charged at £132 per annum, the consideration for which is stated to have been £4,840 capital stock in the three per cents. This was bought for £3,075 0s. 10d., by the sale of 4A. 1R. 36½P. which brought in £3,653 4s. 5d., the expenses thereon being £64 11s. 10d. [85b]

In 1805, another Act of Parliament relative to the Paddington estate, the 45th Geo. III. cap. 113, became the law of the land, and “all judges, justices, and others” were directed to admit, as evidence, printed copies thereof; but as this Act can be obtained in the usual way, my notice of it will be very brief. It recites in part the two preceding Acts; states that “considerable progress has been made for carrying into execution the said Acts;” and attempts to remove “doubts which have arisen whether the trustees of the original lease for the time being, though with the consent of the said Lord Bishop, (Beilby, still bishop of London), or his successors, have a power under the said Acts, or either of them, to enter into contracts for granting building leases at a rent to be specified in the contract, payable for the whole ground agreed to be demised; and afterwards, as the houses or buildings shall be completed or covered in, to grant separate leases of such houses or buildings, at separate rents, amounting in the whole to the rent originally contracted for.” Which mode of contracting, we are told, “is by experience found to be a necessary preliminary to the granting of any such Lease.”

The Act therefore declares that the lessees or lessee of the Bishop for the time being, with his consent, may contract and agree, to demise, lease, or grant any part of the premises to be let, (but not exceeding the two hundred acres agreed to be let by the first Act,) and afterwards grant separate leases under certain conditions; one of which is that if the ground-rent of any one house exceed “an equal proportion of the original rent agreed to be reserved for the whole of the land or ground comprised in the contract,” it shall “not exceed one-seventh part of the clear yearly rack-rent or value of the land and buildings to be by such lease demised, [86a] so that the yearly rent to be reserved by any Lease to be granted in pursuance of this Act, be not in any case less than Forty Shillings:” “the Bishop of London for the time being to be a party to all such Leases.”

The second clause of this Act provides that a memorial of every lease, and also of every contract, shall be registered at the public Office for registering Deeds and Conveyances, as prescribed by the seventh of Anne; and that every such memorial shall contain a full description of the land, the term of years for which it was let, and the yearly rent or rents reserved thereon. [86b]