Paddington: Past and Present

by William Robins

After setting forth the title of those claiming the Paddington Estate at this time, (1824,) the Act renders it lawful for William (Howley) Bishop of London, and his successors, and their lessees, and further requires and directs him and them to ratify and confirm to the said Company all the parcels of land mentioned in the said articles of agreement.

This Act informs us, too, of a field called “Lower Field,” containing ten acres thirty-eight perches, which was purchased or agreed to be purchased, by the Grand Junction Canal Company, of James Crompton, esq., in 1801, but which was forfeited to his Majesty in consequence of not having been used for the purposes of the said Canal; which forfeiture, however, his Majesty was graciously pleased to remit: and by the third section of this Act, the said field is “discharged of all forfeiture to his said Majesty, his heirs and successors, under any Statutes of Mortmain.” These Statutes are also dispensed with by the tenth clause for other lands conveyed; and the Company indemnify the bishop and his lessees from the rent-charge of £349 15s., payable to the aforesaid James Crompton, his heirs and assigns. The twentieth section confirms the leases already granted to this Company; and the twenty-first, enacts that all future leases shall be conformable to the one already granted. A plan, but on a smaller scale, similar to the one attached to the preceding Act, is also appended to this.

But the great Act relative to the Paddington estate—that which was intended to give an epitome of preceding Acts, to bind and cement the whole, and put the key-stone into this expansive legislative arch—is the forty-fifth chapter in the sixth year of the reign of George the fourth, anno 1825, entitled—

“An Act to enlarge the powers of several Acts passed in thirty-fifth, forty-fourth, forty-fifth, and forty-eighth years of the reign of his Majesty King George the third, for enabling the Lord Bishop of London to grant a lease, with powers of renewal, of lands in the parish of Paddington, in the county of Middlesex, for the purpose of building upon, and to appoint new trustees, and for other purposes relating thereto.”

In 1824, the rate-payers of Paddington were seduced, in a manner hereafter to be mentioned, to resign into the hands of the wealthy proprietors, and a certain number of vestry-men, elected under the detestable principles of Sturges Bourne’s Act, those inherent rights which their predecessors had protected, with more or less determination, for centuries; and the next year saw the official representatives of this select body, and the curate of the parish, joining the Bishop of London and his lessees, in beseeching his Majesty that the several objects contained in the aforesaid Act, might be accomplished. One object was, to increase the quantity of land to four hundred acres, for which building leases might be granted; and another, to exclude the “Curates of Paddington, the said Churchwardens and their successors” from “all estates, right, title, interest, benefit, claim, or demand whatsoever of, into, out of and upon the lands and hereditaments comprised in or which are or may be subjected to” “the lease granted by Bishop Porteus, in 1795; excepting in so far as is expressed in this Act.” And in consideration of this wholesale surrender of all the interest, benefit, &c. which the inhabitants of Paddington ought at this time to receive out of the Rectory and other lands, William (Howley) Bishop of London, and his lessees were graciously pleased to consent, that it may be enacted, “that the Curate’s former stipend of £120 a-year shall be increased to £200 per annum;” that ground may be granted for the site of the said Curate’s residence, “not exceeding one acre;” and “that any quantity of the said estate not exceeding four acres may be conveyed by deed to trustees or commissioners, appointed under Church Building Acts.”

Having already analysed preceding Acts, it only remains for me to notice here, that this ponderous piece of private legislation, which occupies no less than seventy-three pages of the statute book, is chiefly a resume of that which had been before enacted. It provides, however, as we have seen, for double the number of houses, and therefore for a vast increase in the revenues of this estate; it provides for the increase of a curate’s stipend, by eighty pounds per annum; and it grants sites for churches—“if at any time hereafter it should on account of the increase of the population, or on any other account, be found necessary or convenient to erect and build the same.” It also provides for the appointment of new trustees both at the present, and any future period; for altering the conditions in the covenants in under-leases; and for raising an additional twenty thousand pounds by mortgage.

It further informs us that the previous mortgage of ten thousand pounds was settled on Dame Morshead; and it enacts that the former sum, as well as this, shall be paid off by fines on the renewal of the present building leases; the Bishop of London for the time being, to be answerable for one-third of the interest on these sums, and the trustees for the other two-thirds. The sum permitted to be borrowed by this Act is to be used in improving the estate, as well as all monies received for the sale of gravel, &c., and any sum that may arise from selling or letting the waters, springs, &c, purchased of the corporation of London; which by this Act the Bishop and his lessees are empowered to let or sell for that purpose.

There are two schedules annexed to this Act, both bearing the signature, J. H. Budd. The first is a description of the several pieces and parcels of land composing “the Paddington Estate,” amounting in the whole, it is here stated, to six hundred and eleven acres and a half. The second contains an account of sums received and paid on account of the same property. By this account we learn that twelve acres, three roods, and fifteen perches and a half of land belonging to this estate had been sold under the Land-tax Redemption Act, and the 52nd George III; for which, it is stated, £6573 0s. 11d. was received. £2000 was also received for two acres, three roods, and twenty-eight perches, “used by the Regent’s Canal Company.” £10,256 12s. 3d. “by sale of brick earth, gravel and sand.” And £1140 18s. 2d. by sale of old materials, water pipes, &c. Making with the £10,000 borrowed, a sum of £29,970 11s. 4d. The payments being £27,857 6s. 2d. including the small item of £4,530 17s. 11d. for law expences.

In these Acts and Deeds will be found the true history of “the Paddington Estate;” the few finishing touches which have been given to it, during the possession of the See of London by the present Bishop, being comparatively unimportant. But Dr. Blomfield has derived more personal benefit from the policy of his predecessors than those who assisted in establishing it could have contemplated would ever fall to the lot of any one bishop. What have been the actual receipts from this estate for the last twenty years, few men can tell; but if we were to calculate the average for that period at £5,000 per annum, I think we should not over-rate the bishop’s receipts from this “little farm;” and one hundred thousand pounds in twenty years from one estate is not so bad.

With the exception of the Great Western Railway Bills there has been, so far as I know, only one Act of Parliament passed since the great Act of 1825, having especial reference to the Paddington estate. This was “an Act for confirming and carrying into execution certain articles of agreement made and entered into between Charles James, Lord Bishop of London, the Trustees of the Paddington estate, the Grand Junction Canal, and the Grand Junction Water Works Companies, and for other purposes therein mentioned.”