Thomas Cubitt’s Clapham Developments

Thomas Cubitt’s Clapham Developments

[This page is an early draft and is in the process of being updated]

Cubitt’s long lease of Bleak Hall Farm in 1827

Cubitt leased Bleak Hall Farm, Clapham from the Bowyer family on 16th May 1827 [the date is stated in the 1844 private Act pg 799].

Clapham Master Basement Builder Thomas Cubitt
Recitation of the lease for Bleak Hall Farm, Clapham to Thomas Cubitt, contained in the 1844 private Act of Parliament

Cubitt’s further lease of Clapham land of 1837

Cubitt leased further Clapham lands from the Bowyer family lands on 29th December 1837 [the date is stated in the 1844 private Act pg 799].

Clapham Master Builder Restoration

 

[reference needed – estate papers are in Lambeth Archives – map plan could well be in LMA].

 

1844 Act of Parliament

It is possible that one of the reasons that the development of Clapham Common was so slow was the need for a private Act of Parliament to enable longer leases and freehold to be granted.

It could well be that development stalled once the areas that were both owned by the Boywer family and where they were Lords of the Manor were exhausted. This is because they needed to be both in order to grant the long leases that Cubitt preferred.

In 1844 a private act was passed [full text here]

Excerpt from the 1844 private Act of Parliament for the Bowyer family’s Clapham Estates Trustees, enabling them to grant long leases lands.

The Act contains a detailed schedule of who hold which pieces of land but strangely does not refer to a deposited map or plan.

[We are currently trying to match the schedule with any extant maps or plans from the era. It is possible that the related map/plan is contained within LMA LCC/CL/GEN/08/C/95/534-546]