Giving us a flavour of BelSoc’s autumn guided walk, Averil Nottage writes:
When you see the stuccoed houses of Belsize Park, or St Peter’s Church, or the shops in England’s Lane, do you ever wonder who made the decisions that shaped our area?
From the end of the 15th century Belsize House and Park was a country estate for the gentry. But in the early 1850s, when London was edging northwards, the leaseholder decided to pull Belsize House down and replace it with an exclusive estate within the old park walls. The main builder was Daniel Tidey and, because he took the financial risks, he decided what houses to build and where.
When Tidey came to Belsize in 1856 he had already built Italianate houses in Chelsea and North Kensington. Although by then Classical styles were out of fashion, Tidey was convinced that his large ornate stuccoed houses would still appeal to the wealthy middle classes. He added his trademark curved rear bay windows using the latest glass technology. The reception rooms were especially impressive with lavish plaster ceiling decorations and massive doors that could accommodate wide crinolines.
Tidey started building in Buckland Crescent and moved on to Belsize Park, Belsize Square and Belsize Terrace. He offered to build a public garden by Buckland Villas but as residents wouldn’t agree to maintain it, he decided against creating a public garden in Belsize Square. When Tidey got approval to build on fields to the south-east of the park, he pulled down the old walls to create Belsize Park Gardens and Lambolle Road. In total he built about 250 classical stuccoed houses.
No respectable estate was complete without a church. St Peter’s Church was consecrated in 1859 and its first vicar, the Rev Francis Tremlett, made a significant contribution to its cost. A man of strong convictions, he was a passionate supporter of the Confederates in the American Civil War, believing that slaves and their masters lived in harmony. He strongly opposed vivisection, Socialism, Atheism and all sorts of depravity. He attracted such a large congregation that the church was extended in 1875. He preached for the last time in 1913 aged 92.
The respectable middle classes didn’t want their estates sullied by lower class people, so shops and mews were confined to their boundaries. From the mid-1860s Tidey built a pub and a row of shops on Belsize estate land on the north side of England’s Lane and Samuel Cuming built shops on Chalcots estate land opposite them. At that time both estates were still quite separate, but as more houses were built, they merged together with the shops as a focal point.
Local shops were important because before refrigeration perishable goods had to be bought daily. Middle-class customers could be very demanding as they expected high levels of service but sometimes used credit to live beyond their means. The first shopkeepers appeared to flourish. By the late 1880s Thomas Gurney Randall, the butcher, was a purveyor of meat to Her Majesty the Queen. Barratts still trade from the butchers’ shop that Randall opened, although there is no longer an abattoir in the mews behind. Tesco is in a shop that has been a grocer for over 150 years.
In the late 1860s Daniel Tidey struggled to sell his classical Italianate houses and went bankrupt. Other builders stepped in, the most influential being William Willett and his son. Already established in Kensington, in 1876 Willett started building houses in Belsize Crescent and shops in Belsize Terrace. He donated land to create a village green where the pedestrianised area is now.
From the early 1880s the Willetts built substantial red brick houses in Lyndhurst Gardens, Eton Avenue and Strathray Gardens. With a reputation for comfort and elegance, each house was unique, drawing on an eclectic range of architectural styles. By the late 1890s the Willetts were competing with developers in more spacious suburbs. They responded by building houses that were wider and lower, with horizontal windows, large halls, fine timber staircases, elegant rooms, and separate and well-equipped domestic facilities. They also had front gardens with privet hedges. These houses can be seen in the middle of Eton Avenue and in Elsworthy Road and Wadhurst Gardens.
Two other significant local builders were Thomas Batterbury and W.F Huxley who identified a demand for artists’ studios. The Mall Studios off Parkhill Road and Steele’s Studios off Haverstock Hill were single story workspaces for artists. At 35-39 Steele’s Road they built grand houses with north facing studios for eminent painters. We owe our local artistic heritage to them.
If you are interested in finding out more about Victorians who shaped Belsize, Averil will be leading a local history walk on 29 September at 11.00 am and again at 2.30 pm. Tickets are available from Eventbrite, links are on our website.