The Pettiward Estate is a privately owned set of reversions in the far edge of two inner boroughs of south-west London, England, now owned by a family trust of the family, who were from 1794 until 1935 of Finborough Hall, Suffolk. The family oversaw and took a direct involvement in much of the speculative development of these areas: parts of West Brompton and small parts of Putney.
The family trust's key landholdings are in Putney and West Brompton, London. Most of the houses were originally let for a large premium, to give long leases, archetypally 99 years. These have been gradually reduced in number by freehold enfranchisement, however value loss has been counteracted by a manifold increase in property prices in the capital over the last centuries, greater than all other British cities.
This part of the estate takes up what was the north-west corner of Chelsea, south of Earl's Court and north of World's End. Surviving records show the Pettiward family as landowners in south-west Kensington in the 1640s. Their West Brompton estate appears to have been acquired later, by Walter Pettiward (died 1749). The Pettiwards sold a small part of their estate [19] to James I Gunter (died 1819) in 1811, [13] a confectioner of Berkeley Square, whose son Robert I Gunter (d.1852) and grandsons Sir Robert Gunter, 1st Baronet (1831–1905) and James II Gunter developed much other land in the area, one of his main streets being Gunter Grove, the southern continuation of Finborough Road beyond the junction with Fulham Road. The estate was bounded to the west by the land of William Edwardes, 2nd Baron Kensington (1777–1852), 39 acres of which he sold before 1840 to form the Brompton Cemetery, opened in 1840. The eastern boundary was the east side of Redcliffe Gardens, the property of James Gunter. [20] The northern boundary was the back of the houses on Redcliffe Lane. The north–south extent thus comprised numbers 2 to 58 Redcliffe Gardens, west side. [21]
The estate bordered:
The highest-ceiling homes tend to draw on the South Kensington style, red but also frequently polychromatic (involving cream, yellow and dark shades of red/brown) brick terraces, many distinguished by rusticated quoins and other stone dressings, particularly light, multi-level cornices (at lower storeys often called plats/bands).
The Pettiward family owned farms in part of the area between the Lower and Upper Richmond Roads. Roger Astley (died 1780) by his will dated 15 February 1778 bequeathed to Roger Pettiward his "copyhold estate at Putney consisting of three tenements". [23] In 1893 on this agricultural land immediately east of Erpingham Road was built an athletic track and concrete cycling velodrome, the first of its type in the United Kingdom. In 1904 houses were built on the land, as to these key streets: [24]
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the sub-districts of South Kensington to the east, Chelsea to the south and Kensington to the northeast. It lent its name to the now defunct eponymous pleasure grounds opened in 1887 followed by the pre–World War II Earls Court Exhibition Centre, as one of the country's largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue, until its closure in 2014.
West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, including the area around Barons Court tube station, and is defined as the area between Lillie Road and Hammersmith Road to the west, Fulham Palace Road to the south, Hammersmith to the north and West Brompton and Earl's Court to the east. The area is bisected by the major London artery the A4, locally known as the Talgarth Road. Its main local thoroughfare is the North End Road.
Fulham Road is a street in London, England, which comprises the A304 and part of the A308.
Brompton, sometimes called Old Brompton, survives in name as a ward in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Until the latter half of the 19th century it was a scattered village made up mostly of market gardens in the county of Middlesex. It lay south-east of the village of Kensington, abutting the parish of St Margaret's, Westminster at the hamlet of Knightsbridge to the north-east, with Little Chelsea to the south. It was bisected by the Fulham Turnpike, the main road westward out of London to the ancient parish of Fulham and on to Putney and Surrey. It saw its first parish church, Holy Trinity Brompton, only in 1829. Today the village has been comprehensively eclipsed by segmentation due principally to railway development culminating in London Underground lines, and its imposition of station names, including Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Gloucester Road as the names of stops during accelerated urbanisation, but lacking any cogent reference to local history and usage or distinctions from neighbouring settlements.
West Brompton is an area of west London, England, that straddles the boundary between the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The centuries-old boundary was traced by Counter's Creek, now lost beneath the West London Line railway.
Queen's Gate is a street in South Kensington, London, England. It runs south from Kensington Gardens' Queen's Gate to Old Brompton Road, intersecting Cromwell Road.
Great Finborough is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England; about 3 miles (5 km) south west of Stowmarket and near one of the sources of the River Gipping. It has two schools, a pub and an active church. In 2001 the parish had a population of 755, increasing to 808 at the 2011 Census.
Finborough School is a co-educational independent school. It is situated in and around Finborough Hall, in the village of Great Finborough, near Stowmarket, Suffolk, England.
George Godwin FRS was an influential British architect, journalist, and editor of The Builder magazine.
Colonel William Wollaston was a British Member of Parliament for Ipswich between 1768 and 1784.
Finborough Hall is a Grade II listed stucco-faced Tuscan-style country house in Great Finborough, Suffolk, England.
The Boltons is a street and garden square of lens shape in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. The opposing sides of the street face the communal gardens with large expansive houses and gardens, in what is considered the second most expensive street in the country with an average house price of £23.1m. The elliptical central gardens of the Boltons are Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Redcliffe Gardens is a primary road, the A3220 located in the Chelsea area of southwest central London, England. It was a development dated from 1864 to 1878.
The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669. The Covent Garden property was sold for £2 million in 1913 by Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option to the Beecham family for £250,000; the sale was finalised in 1918.
James Gunter was an English confectioner, market gardener and property developer who laid the foundations for what became one of the great residential estates in West London, developed by his descendants, the "Redcliffe Estate" and The Boltons in Little Chelsea and West Brompton.
The Pettiward Family were a landed family prominent in Putney and Great Finborough, Suffolk who control the Pettiward Estate in Earl's Court, London.
Warwick Road is located in the Earl's Court district of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea in London. The road began to be laid out around 1822 and was gradually extended south to Old Brompton Road over a number of decades. It is a major north–south traffic route in west London.
The Princess Beatrice Hospital was a London hospital located in Earl's Court, which operated from 1887 to 1978, latterly as a maternity hospital.
Roger Pettiward (1754–1833) was an English businessman and antiquarian. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1788, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815.
