[ 700AD-1800 | 1801-1830 | 1830s-1950 | 1950-1970 | 1970s-present ]
1830s-1950
The rise and fall
The economic climate of the mid 19th Century and the building of the Hippodrome racecourse in 1837 caused house building slowed to a standstill. The idea was for the Hippodrome run around the hill, while spectators would watch from a central point at the top. The racecourse failed, however, because it became waterlogged and the Hippodrome closed in 1841 after the Final Grand Steeplechase. It was still in use for some time as a training ground for horses. Eventually Blenheim, Elgin, Stanley, Cornwall and Landsdowne Crescent were built along the courses of the tracks.
While large, the housing were initially occupied by the upper middle classes rather than the super rich who on the whole preferred to live closer to the city.
Development continued until the First World War. Many streets have the year in which they were built embossed into plaques in the brickwork of one of the end houses (mine, for example, says “1906″). But after the war the trend away from employing servants became the norm and the middle classes migrated further out of town, many following the North Westward expansion of the Metropolitan railway line. By the end of the Second World War, houses were split into flats, which were split into single room occupancies under the ownership of ruthless landlords1.
1 Not all landlords were corrupt racketeers. My grandparents’ was by all accounts a nice man who didn’t charge a penny in rent from the day my grandfather died onwards, despite the fact that it was quite some months till my parents an I cleared the flat of his and my grandmother’s belongings.
Loading ...