History of Belsize Court
Reminiscences and history by Mary McKenzie
The following document was written by a former resident of Belsize Court, Mary McKenzie. She lived at flat 35 and in 1988 she set out her recollections which stretch back to before the second world war not long after the flats were constructed:
“Once upon a time, long ago, I used to travel on the North London line from
Hampstead Heath station via Willesden Junction to Olympia and so to school in Brook Green, Hammersmith. I varied my walk from Belsize Park Gardens to the station, sometimes going up Belsize Avenue to Haverstock Hill past a large garage where the Post House Hotel now stands and past the former Belsize Post Office, now the Weng Wah House restaurant.
On other days I would turn up Belsize Lane, one of the oldest roads on the Manor and pass what is now a listed building called Hunters Lodge. Across the road from the Lodge I clearly remember a high wall topped with broken glass and barbed wire in which there was a magnificent five barred gate leading into a beautiful garden with magnificent old trees and a very fine white house called Belsize Court. Little did I dream then that I would now be living and have lived for over forty-five years surrounded by those self-same trees.
It was when I saw recently the sale of lease of the house and gardens by the Church Commissioners to John Laing in 1937 that I thought it would be useful to find out something of the history of the Belsize Court Estate.
The Manor of Belsize
The existence of the Manor of Belsize, a sub-division of the Manor of Hampstead, was not recorded until 1317 when Sir Roger le Brabazon left 'this messuage and 57 acres of land in Hamstede' to the monks of Westminster Abbey in return for masses to be said for his soul. Over the centuries the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, who owned the H ampstead Manor let out parcels of land on lond leases mainly to merchants and members of the legal profession who built country mansions in the area.
On Weller's map of 1862, two houses with large grounds are shown north of Belsize Lane (map 1). Rosslyn House on the west side originated in Tudor times and was known until the beginning of the 19th century as Shelford Lodge, the home of the Chesterfields. The name was changed in 1801 when one of its most noteworthy occupants, Alexander Wedderburn a Scottish lawyer, retired there when as the 1st Earl of Rosslyn he gave up the Lord Chancellorship. Subsequently on his death the house was lived in by Robert Milligan the projector of the West India Docks whose statue can be seen in the London Docklands Museum. The house was demolished in 1896.
To the east of Rosslyn House was an early 18th Century house called variously the White House, Belsize House and Belsize Court.
In 1808 a Mr George Todd acquired the lease, demolished the existing house and by 1820 had built a splendid new mansion on what is now our estate at a cost of £15,000. This was the house behind the high wall which I saw on my way to school. The name was changed from Belsize House to Belsize Court in 1874.
In the early 19th century the Belsize Court Estate covered 14 acres. It extended south and west alond Belsize Lane and north up the old footpath which links the present village to Akenside Road. At the bottom of the gardens were the stables now converted into the mews known as Belsize Court Garages. Parts of the old high wall can still be seen below St Christophers School, in the mews and on our eastern boundary (map 2).
It was the same Mr Todd who provided a site on the sharp corner of Belsize Lane for a merchant, William Tate, to build in about 1812 a cottage in the Gothic style with little turrets, known as Hunters Lodge.
In 1857 the Dean and Chapter of the Abbey regained possession of the Belsize Court Estate from the then lessee Mr Basil Wood, a Bond Street brandy merchant. Over the years they sold it off for development except the 2.5 acres with the house which John Laing bought from the Church Commissioners in 1937 (map 3). Laing's decision to build five small blocks of flats rather than one large block, so preserving many of the old trees, meant that in order to provide access to the blocks, Wedderburn Road had to be extended eastwards to Belsize Lane. The new road joins Belsize Lane on the corner just where I remember seeing all those years ago, the old five barred gate (map 4).
Early in the second world war Laing built two underground shelters in the garden, fitted with long slatted wooden benches, to which tenants would go on nights when the bombing was particularly heavy. But we soon decided our own beds were more comfortable and trusted to the accuracy of the mobile gun which ran up and down Belsize Lane, for our safety. However one small bomb did fall in the garden between the block in Belsize Lane and the south block, blowing out windows and damaging the brickwork. Otherwise Belsize Court survived and I hope we shall continue to be good caretakers of an historic site.”
History of Belsize by Averil Nottage
Since Mary McKenzie wrote her account there have been further researches and in 2008 Averil Nottage (of the Belsize Residents Association) published her account of the history of Belsize adding additional details about the early years.
“Belsize, or Bel Assis in old French, means beautifully situated. The Manor of Belsize, a subdivision of the Manor of Hampstead, was left to the monks of Westminster in 1317. Henry Vlll returned the estate to the newly constituted Dean and Chapter of Westminster in 1542 after the dissolution of the monasteries. In modern terms the estate extended from the top of Rosslyn Hill to England's Lane and from College Crescent to Haverstock Hill.
By the middle of the 16th century the estate consisted of a number of farms and a manor house. Belsize House, which stood in an irregular five-sided park, had 24 rooms including a hall, long gallery and great chamber. It was the only 'aristocratic' house in the parish of Hampstead at that time.
By the early 18th century Belsize House was sublet and in 1720 it opened as a pleasure garden. From six in the morning until eight at night visitors could dine, drink, listen to music and dance or enjoy fishing, hunting and racing. In 1721 the Prince and Princess of Wales dined and hunted there. But in 1722 a satirical ballad was published exposing the 'scandalous, Lew'd House called Belsize House and the magistrates took action to prevent unlawful gaming and rioting. The fashionable set moved on. Despite protests from 'respectable' residents events continued in the park until 1745.
Belsize House was rebuilt in 1746 as a private residence with a further version completed in 1812. In 1808 the Belsize Estate was split into 8 leasehold estates to meet the increased demand for mansions set in parkland. One of these mansions, Hunters Lodge, a 'castellated Gothic house' built in 1810, remains at the upper end of Belsize Lane.
In 1937 John Laing, the construction firm, bought the house and grounds of Belsize House, extended Wedderburn Road eastward to Belsize Lane, and replaced the house with the five blocks of flats called Belsize Court.”
Fitzjohn's and Netherhall Conservation area
Wedderburn Road, Belsize Lane and Lyndhurst Gardens are included within the Fitzjohns and Netherhall conservation area, one of many such conservation areas in the Borough of Camden. The Camden website gives details of the key architectural and natural features in the area which designation as a conservation area is designed to protect. This means that most of the external features of the block, for example the style of windows, have to be preserved and if double glazing is installed they must be designed so that the appearance of the blocks is not altered. Belsize Court Ltd, our freehold company, must ensure that any application for a licence to alter meets the appropriate requirements. It also means they have to show good cause before any trees can be felled as these are protected by being within the conservation area.. Of course most of these requirements meet with general approval but it is as well to be aware of their existence.
Further information and references can also be found at
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp51-60
Map 1: Weller’s map of the area 1862
