By this Act we learn that the Grand Junction Water Works Company, having erected other works and reservoirs near Kew Bridge and at Camden Hill, were desirous of using their land in Paddington for building-ground, as it had become much more valuable for that purpose than for the purposes for which it was originally leased. To enable them to do this the Company had to apply to the Bishop of London, and the trustees for their consent; and this consent was granted, upon condition “that the said sites, as well the freehold as the leasehold parts thereof, shall be laid out and built on by such class and description of buildings as approved by the surveyor of the Paddington estate.” “And also upon condition that the said Company shall give up and relinquish, for the site of an intended hospital,” a plot of ground two hundred feet from north to south, and one hundred and eighty feet from east to west; and also give up and relinquish another plot, seventy feet by one hundred feet, “for the site of an intended new church.”
By this Act the Grand Junction Canal Company are for ever released and discharged from all covenants, agreements, and undertakings, relating to the powers and privileges of supplying with water the inhabitants of this parish; and the Grand Junction Water Works Company take upon themselves their liabilities in this respect: the bishop, and trustees, agreeing to lease the land, already occupied by this Company, with the exception of the plots mentioned, “at the yearly rent of a peppercorn.” The expences of this Act were to be wholly borne by the Company, and the Company are bound by it to provide the inhabitants of Paddington, and parishes and streets adjacent, with water as heretofore. The tenants of the Paddington estate, “including the inhabitants of the houses proposed to be built on the sites of the said present reservoirs and other works of the said Company,” to be supplied with water at the reduced rate of ten pounds per cent., as provided for by previous Acts.
We have already seen how preceding Acts direct that “no fine, premium, or foregift, or any thing in the nature of a fine” should be taken on letting any portion of the land which Parliament permitted to be let for building; excepting at the end of the terms for which the first leases were granted; but this arrangement extended only to four hundred acres, and as the situation of these acres was nowhere defined in these Acts, the Great Western Railway Company, when they wanted thirty-nine acres of land belonging to this estate for the completion of their line and terminus, obtained the same at a rent of sixty pounds, thirteen shillings, and seven-pence three-farthings per annum, per acre, [96] upon paying the present bishop and the lessees of the estate £30,000.
Since this bargain was struck the bishop and his lessees have sold other parcels, though at a less famous figure.
On the nineteenth of February, 1841, a special meeting of the Vestry of Paddington was called to receive and take into consideration a communication from the Lord Bishop of London, respecting a piece of ground west of the church-yard. It was feared this breathing spot was about to be purchased by the insatiable builders. So, besides the “cordial thanks of the vestry for his kind and timely communication,” an offer of £3500 was made to the bishop and his lessees for this little lot. Four thousand pounds, however, was the lowest sum they would take for this portion of the old green; and the vestry were obliged to be content with the southern portion; for which the parish paid £2000. The northern portion was sold to one of the much-dreaded builders; and is now covered with houses; while on that portion purchased by the parish the new Vestry-hall is being built; to lay, if possible, the ghosts which are said to have haunted it.
On the first of April, 1845, the Vestry received a letter from Messrs. Budd and Hayes, stating that the portion of “The Upper Readings,” found by the recent admeasurement of Mr. Gutch to be 5a. 2r. 27p., may be secured by the Vestry for the purposes of building a workhouse thereon; “provided that the powers of the local Act are sufficient to enable his lordship and the trustees to effect such sale;” and that £5,700 be given for the same.
Another portion of “The Upper Readings” was sold to the trustees of the Lock Hospital. Subsequently to these purchases, some mutual exchanges took place, which have reduced the workhouse plot to 5¼ acres, and the cost of the land to £5,168 15s.
Other facts relative to this estate, will be found in the next part of this Work, and after perusing them, in conjunction with those I have collected in this, I think my readers will conclude, with me, that the inhabitants of Paddington—who have to pay the owners of the Paddington Estate most exorbitant prices for the privilege of living on their land—owe but little gratitude to these lords of the soil for the small favours they have given, in return for the enormous wealth the industry of others is placing in their hands.