Thomas Cubitt

Famous Londoners -Thomas Cubitt…

by exploringlondon

A master builder and architect responsible for the development of key historic streets and squares in inner London during the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Cubitt’s legacy can still be seen in many places around London today.

Born in Buxton, near Norwich in Norfolk, on 25th February, 1788, Cubitt was the son of carpenter Jonathan Cubitt and his wife Agnes.

He took up his father’s trade at an early age and, drawing on those skills, journeyed to India as a ship’s carpenter, earning enough that he could start his own building firm around 1810. Joined by his brother William, they established themselves on Gray’s Inn Road in Holborn.

Statue of Thomas Cubitt by William Fawke. PICTURE: Canthusus at English Wikipedia (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0/image cropped).

Their first major job was the construction of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus in 1815 and they went on to work on speculative housing projects in Camden Town and in Highbury Park in Stoke Newington.

Cubitt’s approach to such housing developments was somewhat revolutionary – he was one of the first builders to employ people of various trades, meaning he could offer those who sought his services something of a one-stop shop.

It was around this time – 25th March, 1821 – that he married Mary Anne Warner at St Marylebone Church. They would go on to have at least 12 children (and his descendants reportedly include Queen Camilla – he’s her great-great-great grandfather).

Cubitt’s major works in the development of London came in the 1820s when he was commissioned to build housing on the Duke of Bedford’s estate in Bloomsbury and by Richard Grosvenor, later 2nd Marquess of Westminster, to build homes in Belgravia, centred on Belgrave and Eaton Squares.

He also built housing to the south of Belgravia in an area which become known as Pimlico, nicknamed “Mr Cubitt’s District”, and as part of that development built several hundred yards of the Thames Embankment.

Said to be called the “Emperor of the Building Trade” by some, Cubitt also undertook development in Clapham Park and was responsible for a large part of Kemp Town in Brighton.

In 1827, the partnership between Thomas and his brother William (which also included younger brother Lewis, an engineer) was dissolved. William, later a Lord Mayor of London, took over management of the Gray’s Inn Road business, while Thomas focused his attentions on other projects (Lewis, meanwhile, would late rejoin William in the business).

Thomas’ subsequent projects included working with Prince Albert on the design and construction of Osborn House on the Isle of Wight, and, between 1847-50, building extensions to Buckingham Palace (as part of that work, he was responsible for moving the Marble Arch from the palace to Hyde Park). Cubitt was also one of those behind plans to turn Battersea’s water-logged fields into a public park.

Later in life, Cubitt bought and built a mansion for himself, Denbies House near Dorking. It was there that he died on 20th December, 1855. He was buried at the West Norwood Cemetery in south London. He was survived by his wife, seven of his children and both William and Lewis. Queen Victoria was among those who paid tribute to his life and career.

A statue of him (pictured) in Denbigh Street, London – near some of his former workshops – was unveiled by Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, in 1995. It is the work of William Fawke and donated by the Sanctuary Housing Association. There is a second statue of him in Dorking.

An English Heritage Blue Plaque marks the site of his former workshop at 3 Lyall Street – known as Cubitt Lodge, the building was built by him in 1847 and remained his headquarters and workshop until his death.

10 London buildings that were relocated…1. Marble Arch…

by exploringlondon

It’s well known that John Rennie’s London Bridge was purchased from the City of London by American entrepreneur Robert P McCulloch and in 1967 relocated to Lake Havasu City in Arizona. But what other London buildings have been relocated from their original site, either to elsewhere in the city or further afield?

First up is Marble Arch, originally built as a grand entrance to Buckingham Palace. Designed by John Nash, the arch was constructed from 1827 and completed in 1833 (there was a break in construction as Nash was replaced by Edward Blore) on the east side of Buckingham Palace for a cost of some £10,000.

Inspired by the Arch of Constantine in Rome (and, it has to be said, some envy over the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, built to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories), the 45 foot high structure is clad in white Carrara marble and decorated with sculptural reliefs by Sir Richard Westmacott and Edward Hodges Baily.

An equestrian statue of King George IV was designed for the top by Francis Leggatt Chantrey but it was never put there (instead, it ended up in Trafalgar Square). The bronze gates which bear the lion of England, cypher of King George IV and image of St George and the Dragon – were designed by Samuel Parker.

The arch, said to be on the initiative of Nash’s former pupil, Decimus Burton, was dismantled and rebuilt, apparently by Thomas Cubitt, in its present location on the north-east corner of Hyde Park, close to Speaker’s Corner, in 1851.

There’s a popular story that the arch was relocated after it was found to be too narrow for the wide new coaches – this seems highly unlikely as the Gold State Coach passed under it during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1952. Actually, it was moved to create room for Buckingham Palace’s new east facade (meaning the palace’s famous balcony, where the Royal Family gather to wave, now stands where the arch once did).

Whatever the reasons, it replaced Cumberland Gate as the new ornamental entrance to Hyde Park, complementing the arch Decimus Burton had designed for Hyde Park Corner in the park’s south-east.

Subsequent roadworks left the arch in its current position on a traffic island. It stands close to where the notorious gallows known as the “Tyburn Tree” once stood.

The rebuilt, now Grade I-listed, arch contains three small rooms which, until the middle of the 20th century, housed what has been described as “one of the smallest police stations in the world”. Only senior members of the Royal family and the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery are permitted to pass through the central gates.

PICTURES: Top – Marble Arch in its current location and; Middle – and an 1837 engraving showing the arch outside Buckingham Palace.

What’s in a name?…Belgravia

by exploringlondon

This well-to-do district of west London owes its name to the family of Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster and owner of the Grosvenor Estate, the land upon which Belgravia is located.

The country estate of the duke’s family – the Grosvenors – is known as Eaton Hall and it lies just to the south of Chester. Various names related to the estate appear on the London map. Among them is Belgravia.

Belgravia take its name from the tiny village of Belgrave which lies within the estate’s boundary (the word Belgrave, incidentally, comes from the Old French for “beautiful wood”).

The London residential area now known as Belgravia, meanwhile, was formerly known as Five Fields and used for grazing. The Westbourne River meandered through it, crossed by “Bloody Bridge”, so-called because it was a known haunt of robbers.

It later became the site of market gardens and houses began to appear in the area following King George III’s move to what was then Buckingham House but development of the area didn’t begin in earnest until the 1820s when Robert Grosvenor, later the first Marquess of Westminster (pictured here in a statue in Belgrave Square), began developing the estate with the aid of builder Thomas Cubitt.

Designed with Belgrave Square at its centre, the new development immediately became associated with the more affluent end of society, a connection which continues to this day.

As well as Belgrave Square, the district, which straddles both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, includes Eaton, Chester and Lowndes Squares (the first two names associated with the duke’s country estate; the third named after William Lowndes, a politician and Secretary to the Treasury under King William III and Queen Anne.

Palatial terraced houses aside, landmarks include the Grade II-listed St Peter’s Church, located at the east end of Eaton Square, which was first built in the 1820s and rebuilt in the 1830s. The area is also home to numerous embassies and consulates including those of Norway, Spain, Malaysia and Egypt, and, in keeping with the international feel, also boasts several statues of notable foreigners including Simon Bolivar and Christopher Columbus.

Famous residents have included former Prime Ministers Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Margaret Thatcher (the first two lived in Eaton Square; Thatcher in Chester Square), Louis Mountbatten, who lived in Wilton Crescent, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who lived in Upper Belgrave Street, as did Lord Lucan who mysteriously disappeared in 1974 after his children’s nanny was found murdered.

PICTURES: Top – Terraced homes in Grosvenor Crescent, which runs off Belgrave Square (Google Maps); Right – Statue of Lord Robert Grosvenor, first Marquess of Westminster (David Adams).