Estates in Bloomsbury

1 Duke of Bedford
2 City of London Corporation
3 Capper Mortimer
4 Fitzroy (Duke of Grafton)
5 Somers
6 Skinners' (Tonbridge)
7 Battle Bridge
8 Lucas
9 Harrison
10 Foundling Hospital
11 Rugby
12 Bedford Charity (Harpur)
13 Doughty
14 Gray's Inn
15 Bainbridge–Dyott (Rookeries)

Area between the Foundling and Harrison estates: Church land

Grey areas: fragmented ownership and haphazard development; already built up by 1800

About the Doughty Estate

The Doughty estate in the south-east of Bloomsbury was part of extensive lands owned by the Doughty and Tichborne families, mainly outside London (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

Its proximity to the Foundling Estate meant that in the late eighteenth century it was involved in exchanges of land to enable the Foundling Estate to connect its new residential developments with the rest of London (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

This also prompted the Doughty estate owners to begin developing their land (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

The estate is sometimes also known as the Brownlow–Doughty estate, after William Brownlow, who built the streets in the late seventeenth century, and Elizabeth Brownlow, who had married into the Doughty family

In 1867 the estate was embroiled in the celebrated Tichborne case, when a claimant came forward asserting his identity as Sir Roger Charles Doughty-Tichborne, which would have entitled him to the Doughty estate in Bloomsbury along with other property (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for Tichborne claimant)

Sir Edward Doughty, né Tichborne, came into possession of the Doughty estate in 1826 from his cousin, Mrs Elizabeth Doughty, daughter of George Brownlow-Doughty and granddaughter of the fourth Baronet Tichborne; he changed his name to Doughty as a condition of the settlement (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 193, May 1853)

Prior to this, it was Henry Doughty who had been negotiating land deals with the Foundling Estate on behalf of the Doughty Estate (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

The entire estate was sold off in 1921; Joseph Henry Bernard Doughty Tichborne, The Doughty Estate, Holborn (1921) has details and plans of the property included in the sale

John Street

Not to be confused with John Street, now Whitfield Street, west of Tottenham Court Road, where the Chartist John Street Institute was situated

It is in the south-east of Bloomsbury, originally running north from King’s Road to Little James Street

Its upper west side had been developed by 1760 (nos 34–36 survive from this earliest development); the remainder was slowly completed by around 1800

Horwood’s map of 1799 shows development as far as Little James Street; his maps of 1807 and 1813 suggest that the street will be continued north under the same name to connect with Doughty Street at Little James Street, but his 1819 map shows a full complement of houses (and the John Street Chapel) on this middle section between Little James Street and Henry Street, which is now named as Upper John Street

It was named after John Blagrave, carpenter to the Doughty family (David Hayes, East of Bloomsbury, 1998)

Horwood’s maps all show the same numbering system: on the east side, consecutive numbers from 2 (sic) to 10, running from south to north, and on the west side, consecutive numbers from 10 (sic) to 18, running from north to south

It was an upmarket development designed for the wealthy

No. 35 was the home of William Mackworth Praed (1756–1835), chairman of the Audit Office, and his wife, Elizabeth Winthrop, daughter of the Governor of the Bank of England; their son, poet and Tory politician Winthrop Mackworth Praed was born here in 1802

“In the Victorian period its fine ‘first rate’ houses, built for affluent Georgian families, were converted into offices for charities and trade associations; for solicitors, accountants, quantity surveyors, and the occasional publisher” (David Hayes, East of Bloomsbury, 1998)

No. 30 was the home from 1847 of the Ladies’ Charity School (founded 1702), which trained poor girls for domestic service, until it moved to Queen Square in 1858

No. 19 became (and still remains) the home of the Open Air Mission, founded here in 1853

No. 10 was the home of Holborn’s first public library from 1891

In the twentieth century no. 3 was the home of the Africa Inland Mission

No. 11 became the home of the Royal Oak Benefit Society by about 1907

No. 28 was the London workshop of Lancaster stained glass window manufacturers Shrigley & Hunt until the partnership was dissolved in 1913 (London Gazette, 24 January 1913)

The John Street Chapel was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War S