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

North Mews

Not to be confused with North Mews, North (now Chitty) Street, west of Tottenham Court Road

It is in the east of Bloomsbury, on the Brownlow–Doughty estate, running north from Little James Street to Henry Street, continuing the line of King’s Mews to its south

It was developed around the beginning of the nineteenth century; it appears only as a pencilled trackway on Horwood’s map of 1799, but with many buildings by his maps of 1807 through 1819

This area appears as mostly undeveloped fields, with some scattered buildings, on Rocque’s map of 1746

It was presumably named as a continuation of King’s Mews to its south

Its buildings are shown as non-residential and unnumbered on Horwood’s map of 1819

In the early nineteenth century it was a typical Mews; Garwood’s Commission Stables were based there in the 1830s (The Times, 11 July 1836)

There were still stables here in the middle of the century (The Times, 16 April 1856)

It became a centre for car garages in the early twentieth century; later it was redeveloped but retained a mixture of workshop-style premises and converted living accommodation