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.
| Mortlock's Name Act 1749 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to enable Roger Mortlock Doctor in Divinity, now called Roger Pettiward, and the Heirs of his Body, to take and use the Surname and Arms of Pettiward. |
| Citation | 23 Geo. 2. c. 8Pr. |
| Territorial extent | Great Britain |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 March 1750 |
| Commencement | 16 November 1749 [a] |
Status: Current legislation | |
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]
