The intriguing history of London houses
Wander down one of the stuccoed streets of Belgravia and all you see is facades – fine, elegant house fronts, tall windows, handsome doors with steps leading up. But what’s behind the facade? What stories do these houses have to tell?
Typical Belgravia - stucco fronts and firmly closed doors
One site that has some of the answers is. Chesterton Humberts estate agents have their own house historian, Melanie Backe-Hansen, who posts on her blog about interesting houses she’s looked at.
For instance, one house in Ovington Square was occupied by French emigré royalty – then later by the illegitimate grandson of an English king. Another house has a connection to the ‘White Mischief’ murder case.
Most of these stories, though, aren’t so spectacular. But they open a rich vein of history about local people’s lives; the artist who lived in Talgarth Road, and designed many of Britain’s coins; the ‘Captain’s Houses’ built on the estate of Admiral Nelson’s great-niece; the Surrey smallholdings scheme that offered servicemen returning from the First World War the chance to start their lives over again.
There’s also some superb information on the almost unknown architects who made much of modern the city it is today – men such as George Basevi and Charles Freake, who designed the Wellcome Trust estate in Kensington. The brochure that Melanie developed has some amazing illustrations – artists’ drawings of typical house fronts, maps of the area before it was developed, old photos. I know this area – when I first moved to I lived not far away and had friends living in some of these streets – but I realised, when I started reading the brochure, that I knew almost nothing about its history.
What Melanie doesn’t tell you though is Basevi’s fate. He was Sir John Soane’s favourite pupil, and Disraeli’s cousin; he designed the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, and worked on the restoration of Ely Cathedral. And it was there, in 1845, that he went up the western tower to inspect the works – and fell to his death through a hole in the floor. (His medieval style monumental brass can still be seen in the cathedral.)
Undoubtedly the House Historian site has a commercial purpose – it’s there to sell expensive houses, and that’s what pays for the work. And not every house has a history worth knowing. But I found it a fascinating place to browse – and there are links to still more sites which I’m going to have to check out later.
Photo by Amanda BH Slater on
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