45. Clapham Detached
23rd March 2026
For a period from the middle of the 18th century until the very first years of the 20th Clapham Parish extended as a salient into what was then Streatham Parish: stretching almost as far as Wandsworth Common. The extension appeared on maps as Clapham Detached: a part of Clapham not geographically attached to the remainder of Clapham Parish. Until the dawn of the 20th century parish boundaries were of significant importance in England, not least on account of the fact that parishioners listed as freeholders or tenants of various lands within those boundaries were taxed, or tithed, to maintain the parish clergy and church buildings[1]. Parish boundaries were marked out with posts to indicate to whom the tithe was due; and in those sparsely literate times the annual Beating of the Bounds[2] ceremonies demonstrated these borders for all to see.
In Tudor times, Balham Manor, the area South West of Clapham Common formed a part of the holdings of Bermondsey Abbey. The abbey’s interest in the land ceased in 1538 as a part of the dissolution of the monasteries, when it was surrendered to the crown, and broken up. For a period of two years after the abbey’s demise the manor of Balham, was granted to Thomas Cromwell by letters patent from Henry VIII. Cromwell however fell foul of the King’s pleasure, and was executed in 1540; at which point the lands again returned to the crown. In his book Balham a Short History, Graham Gower states that by the 1620s the area of woodland running down from what would later be called Nightingale Lane to the marshland beside the Falcon Brook, and its tributary Hydaburn, was called Cockings Wood. John Rocque’s[3] 1762 map of Surrey, published by his widow after Roque’s death that year, shows the small village of Clapham, Wandsworth Common, and through what appears to be woodland to the South West, “Ballam”. Clapham Common, in existence since the time of the Domesday Book, appears not to have warranted a mention. The late 1700s however were also a time of considerable change. Rocque’s map for example shows London Bridge as the single dry crossing of the Thames close to the capital, with no other bridge until Putney: nine miles further upstream. It was this lack of bridges that held back London’s already creeping urban sprawl from what was then rural Surrey on the South bank. In actuality this element of Rocque’s map had changed before its publication, as Westminster Bridge was opened in 1750, with Blackfriars following in 1769. Nearer to Clapham an Act of Parliament was obtained by Earl Spencer in 1766 for a new bridge at Battersea which opened in 1771.
This in turn offered great potential for the, until then, rural backwater. Lord Spencer’s newly accessible land holdings rose considerably in value; and Battersea, suddenly much closer to London, soon began to be developed as a residential suburb. The northern boundary of that part of Clapham ran along a part of the southern border of Battersea Parish, by then called Nightingale Lane. Cockings Wood appears to have been cleared sometime in the mid-18th century to become a farm, which by that time was owned by a family called Bellamy. The freeholder in the late 1700s would become known as John Bellamy the Elder (1746–1816). Mr Bellamy, however, wasn’t principally a farmer, but a wine merchant and businessman. He also ran a coffee house, perhaps better described as a restaurant, within the House of Commons,[4] and for a period had lodgings in two rooms on the floor above[5]; although as his business grew he acquired a house in Parliament Street, where he lived much of the time and from where he ran his business.
Around 1786 John Bellamy built himself a country residence, Clapham House, on a portion of the family farm: a comfortable mansion facing onto Clapham Common from the space now occupied by the Clapham Mansions block of flats on Nightingale Lane. At that time the majority of residents of, yet to be named Clapham Detached, would have been the agricultural labourers: employed on the farm and living in cottages tied to their labour. In 1799 however, capitalising on the opportunities offered to him by the building of the new bridges across the Thames, John Bellamy seems to have made the decision to change the function of Clapham Detached, and measured out a series of sections to be leased to tenants wanting to build large residential properties similar to his own, with a smaller, also leased, farm continuing to operate in the middle of the property. What looks like the first plot, of around five bare acres in the south west corner, was leased in September 1799 to a 46 year old surgeon, William Lynn, and his wife Dorothy[6], for an annual ground rent of thirty-one pounds and ten shillings, paid quarterly. The lease, hand written on three substantial sheets of vellum, was recently discovered in the Lambeth Archive and reveals quite a bit about the area covered and the land surrounding it. Mr Lynn covenanted, at his own expense, to contain his new property within a series of walls, hedges, fences and rails. A 12 foot wide access strip was also included in the plot, along which the leaseholder was required to build a private roadway: wide enough to allow the passage of carriages from “the high road leading from Clapham Common to Wandsworth Common” later to be called Nightingale Lane. The lease required the entrance to be gated, and permission was granted for the building of an entrance lodge should Mr Lynn so desire. As for the house, the design was left in Mr Lynn’s hands other than to state it must cost a minimum of five hundred pounds to build, was to be kept in good order throughout his occupation, and in 1859 when the lease expired was to be “returned” to John Bellamy or his heirs in good condition “together with all such doors shutters locks keys bolts bars casements partitions wainscots and all other things” that might have been considered part of the demised premises. Woodland Cottage, a building considerably more grand in both size and style than its name might today imply, set in manicured gardens rather than woodland, became William and Dorothy Lynn’s home, where they lived the rest of their days.
In 1823 a new map of Surrey was published by George Pringle Jnr: alleged to be the imprint of “an actual survey” made by Christopher Greenwood (1786-1855) and his brother John (1791-1867). While not providing any real detail of Clapham Detached the woodland no longer features and the area apparently remains devoid of buildings. The western end of the map, on the Wandsworth Common side of Clapham Detached, is drawn split into 3 properties, the southernmost of which is labelled Nightingale Hall. While the boundary brook does not appear on this map and the entire area is but a small detail, the three properties seem to have been placed a little too near to Clapham Common. No other mention of a Nightingale Hall in that position has been found, and it looks like the house in question was in reality Fernside[7]: nearer to Wandsworth Common and never a part of Clapham Detached. Balham, however, had by then acquired its contemporary spelling, although the village seems to have been confined largely to the area today called Balham Hill. Clapham meanwhile, and Battersea, had grown in size, and Nightingale Lane[8] acquired its name. Early residents can be identified from electoral registers but this was a time when only small numbers of people were entitled to vote[9], so the listings against their names on the registers habitually only state the street in which they lived and offer no greater detail as to the location of their houses.
Around 1836 however, a more thorough schematic of Clapham was produced to identify the tithe plots, names of the freeholders and that of the occupiers, along with the type of property and acreage, as well as the amount of new monetary tithes now due. By that time 8 potential tithe payers lived in Clapham Detached, mostly along Nightingale Lane, with their wives, families, and servants.
In 1836 the nearest outlined tithe plots to Wandsworth Common, numbers 1 & 2, do not feature on the Tithe rents list, and would therefore one assumes have been labourers’ cottages tied to one or other of the principal residences. Plot numbers 3,4, & 5, were leased by Thomas Puckle: a merchant, proctor[10], eventual County Magistrate, and house proprietor, living with his wife Anna, née Broadhurst, and probably their four children Mary Catherine, aged 22, Thomas, aged 20, Emily, aged 18, and 16 year old Laura. The Puckles’ first child, Anna, had died, aged 22, in 1835. Next door to them, plot number 6 was the English residence of Henry James Albrecht, an East India merchant of Dutch descent, and his wife Helen, née Pirie. He was born in Colombo, in what was then called Ceylon, in 1792, and died, aged 54, in Kandy, Ceylon, on 14 July 1846, where he is buried in the British Garrison Cemetery. Plot number 7 was leased to Roger Potts: an attorney[11] based at 8 Serjeants Inn, Fleet Street. Plot 8 consisted of the strip included in William Lynn’s lease to form an entrance road to Woodland Cottage, whose lands were listed as plots 9, 10, 11 and 12. It seems from the tithe map, incidentally, that William Lynn did indeed exercise his right to build a lodge at the entrance to his property. Mr Lynn, however died, aged 84, in June 1837[12], leaving the lease on Woodland Cottage to his widow, Dorothy, who remained living in the property until her own death five years later, aged 80, in 1842. The Lynns, having no children of their own, left substantial sums to nieces and nephews, as a part of which legacies Dorothy’s will instructed her executors to sell the lease on her home[13].
Plots 13, and 14, a field or pasture behind it, were leased to John Samuel Schwenke, a goldsmith, and his wife Mary Ann, née Mather, who had married in 1803 and lived in Nightingale Lane until 1838 when they moved to Wimbledon[14]. The largest part of Clapham Detached in 1836, comprising plots 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, & 22: the approximately 50 acre, residue of the farm that until 1799 covered the entirety of Clapham Detached, was occupied by Richard Thornton Brown. Similarly however to John Bellamy both the Elder and his son John Bellamy the Younger, Richard Thornton Brown was principally a wealthy wine merchant[15] and it seems unlikely his land was turned to farming. Lot 15a, a small patch of land between the Schwenkes’ and the Lynns’ is listed as occupied by Lytton George Kier, which effectively means that lot was retained by the Bellamy family, although current research offers no reason for their doing so. Plot 23 became the residence, according to the tithe survey, of John Burner: in all likelihood in actuality a John Birnie, but to date nothing other than Mr Birnie’s name as a resident of Nightingale Lane has surfaced.
John Bellamy the Elder and his wife Elizabeth, very likely née Kier rather than Kew as it appears in the records, who died in 1800, had four children. Their eldest daughter, Ann, predeceased them both, aged 22 in 1798, and as a result isn’t mentioned in her father’s will, which wasn’t written until 1809. At the time of his wife’s death John Bellamy the Elder had three children still living: 28 year old Betty Kier, married to Lytton George Kier, the son of his business partner George Kier, 27 year old John Bellamy the Younger, married to Susan Maria, née Kier, the daughter of his business partner, and Mercy Mary, his 20 year old unmarried daughter, who seems likely to have been expected to step into her late mother’s shoes and run their Clapham house. John Bellamy the Elder died in 1816, and the tithe records identify the freeholders of Clapham Detached in 1836 to have been Mercy Mary Bellamy and Lytton George Kier. This however is incorrect, for neither Lytton George Kier, nor Mercy Mary Bellamy ever actually owned Clapham Detached. The true freeholders were the executors and trustees of the late John Bellamy the Elder: Edward Boodle, solicitor son of the founder of Boodle’s Club in St James’, John Clementson, Bellamy’s long-time friend who became Deputy Serjeant of the House of Commons, and George Bramwell another lawyer from Lincoln’s Inn Fields. For John Bellamy the Elder, cognisant of the times in which he lived, his daughters’ gender, and the resulting need to protect their interest, had written his will with that intention in mind. On his demise his estate was split three ways: between John Bellamy the Younger, who inherited the business, and the surviving daughters, who each inherited a half share of the income from his land holdings. The lands themselves however were held on their behalf by John Bellamy the Elder’s executors in order to protect them from the potential misdeeds or debts of any husbands to whom they might have become married. The will makes it clear the income from the lands was bequeathed to his daughters for their sole, absolute and exclusive use and, because they never actually owned the capital, it could not be called upon to settle debts incurred by any husband to whom they happened to be married. Each daughter was bequeathed the income from one moiety, or half part, of Bellamy’s property; and despite never themselves having owned the land, they also had the right to bequeath the property to whomsoever they chose at the time of their own passing. Neither daughter had children. Mercy Mary Bellamy died a spinster, aged 60, on 19 May 1840, bequeathing two small pensions to faithful servants and leaving her fifty percent of her father’s land to her older sister Betty Kier. Betty Kier’s husband, Lytton George, died five weeks later on 25 June, aged 65, and his widow continued to live at Clapham house until her own death, aged 74, on 25 July 1846. Betty Kier, also not having children, left her late father’s lands, to her brother John Bellamy the Younger, effectively reconstituting John Bellamy the Elder’s estate. John Bellamy the Younger however, by that time a widower, was not a well man and had resigned from his inherited post, of Deputy Housekeeper of the House of Commons, in favour of his son Edmund[16], on 31st March 1842. He died, aged 73, at his house in Woburn Square, five months after his sister Betty, on 17 Dec 1846.
Perhaps unsurprisingly Clapham Detached seems to have changed relatively little under the care of Bellamy the Elder’s trustees, whose responsibility was principally to gather and retain the income from the land on behalf of Mercy Mary Bellamy and Betty Kier. John Bellamy the Younger, however, had five children to whom his estate was left and his will as a result instructed his executors to sell his land holdings in order that the moneys arising could be distributed among his children. So in 1847 Winstanley Auctioneers were instructed to sell the property as a series of 24 residential building plots, along with the freeholds of several substantial houses already existing on parts of the land, all apparently exonerated from the Land Tax[17].
Several lots in the auction catalogue, being freeholds leased to tenants, offered only ground rent with no actual possession for a number of years. In their descriptions however they present a detailed picture of the physical state of Clapham Detached in 1847. Lot 1 appears to be the Bellamy residence, Clapham House, a four storied detached residence in several acres of paddocks and grounds, including a one and a half acre walled kitchen garden and numerous outbuildings, which was available with immediate vacant possession. Lot 2, however, “a capital stucco-fronted and slate detached residence” set in 4 acres, 3 roods and 8 perches of land[18], and again including all the outbuildings and stabling that would be expected for such a house, was leased to John Lee Hills[19] Esquire for a term of 21 years, and at the time of the auction was occupied by Richard Thomas Thornton Brown Esquire, with a period of six and a half years of the lease left to run at a reserved ground rent of £95 per annum. Lot 3, positioned in front of Lot 2 directly onto Nightingale Lane, was a stucco-fronted and part rough cast substantial “cottage” leased to a Mr M. E. Impey until 1859 at an annual ground rent of £50, and at the time of the auction occupied by a Mrs Hearn. Lots 4, 5, & 6, were listed as plots of freehold building land each having just over 150 feet of frontage onto Nightingale Lane between Clapham House and Lot 3; while Lot 7 was a freehold meadow to the rear of them which came with a right of way intended to be a road immediately to the side of Lot 3, that in the future would become Badminton Road. Plots 13 to 16, all of just over a single acre with a slightly reduced frontage of about 100 feet onto Nightingale Lane, were bare land building plots, offering vacant possession and requiring each purchaser to build and maintain a boundary fence down the side nearest to Clapham Common. Lot 17, listed on the 1836 Tithe map as plots 13 and 14, was by this time a brick built four bedroomed detached house with all the expected gardens, a paddock, yard, and stabling along with three two roomed cottages. In 1836 the property had been occupied, and in all likelihood built, by John Samuel Schwenk, a goldsmith who had by 1839 moved to Wimbledon. The auction document states the property was in 1847 leased, on an annual ground rent of £50, to an Anthony Assereti[20], an auctioneer, for a period of 58 years of which 24 would be unexpired at the time of the auction. The occupier in 1847 however was a William Winder Esquire. Immediately west of Lot 17 came the carriageway William Lynn had been required to build back in 1799 along with its gate and entrance lodge, on the other side of which was Lot 18. This plot had originally been leased for a term of 60 years, at a ground rent of £40 per annum, to Roger Potts, the attorney based at 8 Serjeant’s Inn mentioned above, who had died in early 1847 and was buried at the nonconformist burial ground in Bunhill Fields on 8 May that year. In 1847 Lot 18, and Lot 19 next door: another villa, this one with a domed centre and wings, were leased for a period of 60 years to a John Strongitharm Esquire, at a combined ground rent of £100 per annum, of which 19 years remained in 1847. It seems Mr Strongitharm occupied Lot 18 and let the grander property, Lot 19, to a Reverend Twycross. Lot 20, the last house included in the sale to have frontage on Nightingale Lane and the nearest to Wandsworth Common, was described as a neat white fronted villa sitting on about 2 acres of land. The property had been leased to a David Maclean Esquire for 54 years at a ground rent of £48 per annum, and 12 years and 10 months remained on the lease at the time of the auction. The occupier was Benjamin Stevens Bovill Esquire, the corn factor nephew of William Bovill: freeholder of large tracts of land immediately to the south and west of the Bellamy estate. Benjamin was married to Emily Rose Bovill, William Bovill’s daughter: his first cousin. Lot 21 was the “cottage” in the south west corner of the Bellamy estate, originally built by William Lynn and occupied by his widow Dorothy until her own death in 1842. Accessed via the carriageway between lots 17 and 18, in 1847 the property sat on close to 6 acres, and contained two servants cottages and a number of other outbuildings, as well as the entrance lodge, which the catalogue reveals to have been brick built with a thatched roof. In 1847 12 years remained on the lease, originally granted to William Lynn, and the property was occupied by a Thomas Copeland Esquire.
Thomas Puckle had moved to Lavender Sweep by 1841, although he would later return to Clapham Common. As stated above Henry James Albrecht died in Ceylon in July 1846; Roger Potts died in early 1847, and John Samuel Schwenk had moved to Wimbledon in 1839.
Richard Thornton Brown, who never married, remained living on Nightingale Lane in 1847, and may have been the purchaser of Lot 2 at the Winstanley auction, where the catalogue states he was already living. He was clearly however a close friend of the Bellamy family, and latterly served as one of the executors of the will of Mary Ann Bellamy, née Regan, widow of Edmund: the last Bellamy to hold the title Deputy Housekeeper of the House of Commons[21]. Detailed records of the buyers at the Winstanley auction appear to have been lost, but another map of Clapham Detached was drawn in 1849, by the surveyors A & R Bland, suggesting little change happened immediately after the sale. The Bland map looks in many ways remarkably similar to the 1836 tithe map; although five of the leased houses appear by that time to have had their gardens formally laid out. By 1857 however Richard Thornton Brown had become the owner and resident of Clapham House, which he appears to have bought from the estate of Mary Ann Bellamy. He was still resident in 1861, but by 1863 had moved to the house he had long owned in Brighton, where he died, aged 65, on 2 August 1865[22].
Change however was on the way, and by 1869, when the area was surveyed by a Colonel Bayly for the Ordnance Survey, Nightingale Lane had become a fashionable retreat for the wealthy. Ten, apparently grand, new houses lined the South side of Nightingale Lane, each of which had a driveway to the front, with formally laid out grounds and gardens to the rear. Coach houses and ancillary buildings at the backs of most of the properties were accessed from Temperley Road, which runs parallel with Nightingale Lane. The period between the building of these houses and the mid 1890s can be suggested to have been Nightingale Lane’s golden age.
The lane however, wasn’t restricted to grand houses, as a small service industry sprang up around the wealthier residents. The Nightingale Pub opened between the 1851 and 1855, with landlord Thomas Wallis at the helm. Mr Wallis, who prior to becoming a licensed victualler had worked as a gardener in Kensington, would remain in charge for more than forty years. He and his wife Georgiana, née Harding, who married at St George Hanover Square in 1849, had four children: Georgiana, born in 1852 who would help her father run the business, Harriet, born 1855[23], Emily, born 1857, and Thomas, born 1860 who would grow up to become a builder. In 1870 George Jennings[24], who lived at Ferndale on Nightingale Lane, built Clifton Terrace, the row of eight shops next to the Nightingale Inn. Clifton Terrace isn’t mentioned on the 1871 census, but was properly established by 1881 when the shops were fully occupied. George Arrowsmith, a chemist and dentist, occupied No 1, followed in order by Josiah Brown, a linen draper, John Paul, a grocer, George Hinchcliff, a fruiterer, Elizabeth Hutchings, a stationer, James Young, a fishmonger, Ebenezer Kidman, a baker[25], and next to the Nightingale, the butcher, Edward Stretton[26]. Around 1890, a second row of shops, with residential accommodation above, was built a little closer to Clapham Common on the corner of Nightingale Lane and Blandfield Road[27]. Nightingale Parade included a tailor, as well as separate boot maker and boot repairers shops, conveniently next door to each other. Also in business on Nightingale Parade, in this time prior to estate agents becoming ubiquitous, were a fancy draper[28], a decorator, a laundry receiving office, a general sweet shop, a fishmonger, a dressmaker, and a gentleman’s hosiers.
Progress on both sides of Nightingale Lane, or perhaps the lack thereof, would however interrupt the longevity or further development of the area as an up market suburb. To the South side of Nightingale Lane, as increasing numbers of residential properties were developed, further new throughfares, such as Alderbrook Road, Bellamy Street, Malwood Road, Picketts Street and Balham Grove would come into being. Oldridge Road, apparently following the bed of Hydaburn, the brook that originally bordered the Bellamy farm, was built in the mid-1880s. Hundreds of new houses sprouted up in the area: providing badly need homes for London’s ever expanding workforce. To the rear of the Battersea side of Nightingale Lane, meanwhile, great houses and their gardens had given way to rows of terraced homes, most of which would in the colder months have been heated with fires in four rooms, as well as open fired ranges in the kitchens, all of which expelled smoke and soot from their chimneys. Electricity, the new miracle fuel for domestic homes, would not arrive in Clapham and Battersea until the opening of the power stations along the river around 1926. Domestic electricity was however available for some of London’s satellite towns much earlier: arriving in Reigate around 1901, Epsom in 1902, and then Dorking in 1903.
The railways, which connected London’s satellite towns with the capital, had arrived in the mid-19th century. In the case of Dorking by 1869 there were 10 daily trains into London, while by 1904 Epsom had 22 London trains per day. Commuting, for those working what might be termed gentlemen’s hours, was suddenly possible; and a combination of these factors led to a complete change in the population of Nightingale Lane. By the late 1890s a diaspora of the wealthy residents had begun: their grand detached villas in several cases being transformed into educational or religious institutions, homes for the elderly or infirm, and in some cases becoming houses of multiple occupancy. One of the last to leave was Major General Phillip Harrison LeGeyt, a retired Indian Army staff officer who had returned “home”, as was the custom, at the end of his military career. Home, however, must have been an interesting concept to General LeGeyt; for despite hailing from a long established Jersey family he had in fact been born in Dharwar, Maharastra, India and only ever visited England on a small number of occasions, such as the time in 1868 he came to get married. Being a military man however he appears to have planned meticulously for his new life. The 1891 census lists a Casimiro DeSouza, among his resident servants: the Indian or Portuguese cook he had brought with him to produce the sort of food he wasn’t certain English servants would know how to prepare. General LeGeyt, a comparatively late arrival, would occupy his home, The Brackens, on Nightingale Lane for about 20 years until 1912, at which point he, and his neighbour, 53 year old publishing company secretary George Cole Boroughs at The Oaks, sold their properties to developers. Edwin Evans and Sons would demolish the two houses to make way for Bracken Avenue, and the two pairs of Arts and Crafts style semis today known as 47 and 47a, and 49 and 49a Nightingale Lane, on the site[29].
In conclusion it appears the origins of Clapham Detached are in part revealed by John Rocque’s Surrey map. While records haven’t presently been found to seal its story in concrete, it seems reasonable to suggest the freehold of Cocking’s Wood, shown as woodland on Rocque’s map, was bought by the Bellamy family and cleared for farming in the second half of the 18th century. Land likely until that time not to have attracted a tithe due to its lack of productivity, on becoming a farm paid its tithe to Clapham Holy Trinity: the parish in which the Bellamy family worshiped. By 1836, the time of the composition of the tithe map, the land then transforming into an up market residential area had been known for many years as the Bellamy farm: an accepted part of Clapham Parish. The Bellamy family left the area in the mid-19th century: disposing of their land at the Winstanley auction, which accelerated its transformation from agricultural to residential use. Formal separation from Clapham Parish took place in 1884; when Ascension Church on Malwood Road, built to minister to the growing residential suburb surrounding it, became an ecclesiastical parish[30]. Then on 1 April 1904 Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting Graveney, and Wandsworth ceased to be individual civil parishes[31]: instead being merged to form Wandsworth Borough, which encompassed the same geographical space as the Metropolitan Borough[32] of Wandsworth created under the 1899 London Government Act.
Clapham Detached, until the mid-18th century an anonymous wooded hillside to the south of Clapham Common divided from the farmlands of Balham by a brook and marsh, first cleared for farmland and later developed for residential use, seems to have been in a state of slow, but relatively constant, change for close to 150 years prior to its administrative demise in 1904. In the following 100 years it, and its residents, would weather two world wars and numerous further developments as its journey continued.
© Simon James, March 2026
[1] Historically a tithe was one‑tenth of the yearly agricultural produce: grain, hay, livestock, milk, wool, eggs, and similar outputs. By the early part of the 19th century payment of tithes in the form of produce was considered archaic and the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act ended the majority of “in kind” payments replacing them with a monetary Tithe Rent Charge.
[2] By tradition parishes “beat their bounds” on Rogation Day, in the fifth week after Easter. Parish boundaries, which in Clapham still take the form of metal marker posts, were beaten with sticks to clearly demonstrate their borders and thus to which parish the tithe was due.
[3] John Rocque (born Jean Rocque, ~1704–1705) was a, French‑born, British land surveyor and cartographer, best known for his large‑scale, highly detailed maps of London and its surroundings published in 1746.
[4] Bellamy’s, the restaurant in today’s Portcullis House is so named in memory of John Bellamy the Elder.
[5] John Bellamy the Younger is thought to have been born in Bellamy the Elder’s rooms in the House of Commons
[6] The Lynns married at St Margaret’s Westminster on 27 December 1782, where John Bellamy the Elder also worshiped, so in all probability they knew each other, and may have met through the church. Dorothy Lynn, who was the youngest child of the then late Sir Robert Bewicke, High Sheriff of Northumberland, appears to have been living in Clapham for some time and to have been, at the very least, comfortably off. It’s possible however the Lynn’s connection was originally made in the North East as there was also a respected medical family named Lynn resident in Newcastle upon Tyne.
[7] Fernside House was built in 1812 and for many years was the home of Joseph Kaye (Balham a Brief History, Grahm Gower). In the late 1890s the house and grounds were sold and the Fernside Estate was built on the plot, designed by the architect William Newton Dunn. Building, by Williamm Darnell and James Harbour, began in 1900 with Calbourne, Fernside, Gosberton and Mayford Roads completed by 1912.
[8] Nightingale Lane is thought to be named after the bird rather than Florence Nightingale, acquiring its name around twenty years before the famous nurse left for the Crimea.
[9] The Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867, further extended in 1884 and1885, by the Representation of the People Act, would considerably extend the franchise
[10] A proctor was a legal professional licensed to represent clients in the Ecclesiastical and admiralty courts.
[11] In 1825 London, an “attorney” referred to a legal professional who handled preparatory work like drafting documents, managing client affairs, and representing parties in common law courts, distinct from but overlapping with solicitors and barristers. Attorneys focused on common law matters, solicitors on equity (Chancery) cases, and proctors on ecclesiastical or admiralty courts; these roles often merged in practice by the early 19th century.
[12] The Tithe records state the occupant of Woodland Cottage to be Mrs Lynn, suggesting that the tithe surveyors didn’t arrive in Clapham Detached until after the death of William Lynn in June 1837.
[13] The freehold to Woodland Cottage is included in the 1847 sale of Clapham Detached; at which time the lease, which had 24 years unexpired, was owned by Anthony Assereti, a Westminster based auctioneer, and let to a William Winder Esq.
[14] John Samuel Schwenke died, aged 81, at 14 Canterbury Road, Brixton. Mary Ann née Mather lived till the age of 95 in 1865.
[15] In what seems unlikely to be a coincidence on the other side of Nightingale Lane opposite the entrance to Clapham Mansions lived a third wealthy wine merchant: William Urwick; although anu connection between the three remains at this time unknown.
[16] Edmund Bellamy was the third, and last, Bellamy to be Deputy Housekeeper of the House of Commons. Similarly to his father, John Bellamy the Younger, he mentions his “long illness” in his will. He died, just over 2 years after his father, apparently at Clapham House, on 13 February 1849.
[17] Exoneration from the land tax, a government raised tax which should not be confused with the ecclesiastical tithes, occurred through a redemption process established by the Land Tax Redemption Act of 1798. Property owners with the means paid a lump sum, equivalent to 15 years of annual tax or by purchasing government stock, to permanently free their land from future liability.
[18] A rood was a quarter of an acre, and perch was primarily a measurement of length. There were 40 square perches in a rood.
[19] John Lee Hills (1802-1870) had a local connection: having married Sarah Ann Morton in Tooting on 25 June 1833. The Hills family lived in Charlton. In 1836 the tithe documents state Mr Brown was the tenant of Mercy Mary Bellamy and her brother-in-law Lytton George Kier, although in actuality he had been the tenant of the trustees of John Bellamy the Elder until 1834 when his property, his tenancy on the house apparently unaffected, had been leased to John Lee Hills. The tithe document implies that in 1836 the remaining farmland was a part of this tenancy, although by the 1847 auction the attached land had reduced to just over 4 acres, thus allowing for the creation of the building plots along Nightingale Lane
[20] In 1840 Anthony Assereti was also a Church Warden of St Margaret’s Westminster, the Parliamentary Church. Lytton George Kier was Treasurer of the parish and the two men were at the least known to each other.
[21] Mary Ann Bellamy, the last member of the family to reside at Clapham House, died there on 6 February 1852. By the time of the 1861 Census Richard Thornton Brown had become the owner and resident of Clapham House. He died, aged 65, in Brighton on 2 Aug 1865, probably at his house, 13 Cavendish Place
[22] Probate was listed for Richard Thornton Brown as “under £70,000” which would have equated in December 2026 to approximately £7,700,000.
[23] Harriet Wallis married recently widowed grocer Walter Wildish, 41, at St James, Kennington, on 12 September 1876 when she was 23.
[24] George Jennings is principally remembered as a sanitary engineer.
[25] Ebenezer Kidman was married to Martha Ann née Duncombe in Great Barford, Bedford, in 1858. She predeceased him and he re-married as a 70 year old in 1902.
[26] Edward Stretton, the butcher was born in Hatton Derbyshire but was apprenticed to his cousin to learn his trade
[27] Nightingale Parade was occupied from at least 1894, for that year an architect, Christopher William, gave number 17a as his home address to the RIBA Kalendar.
[28] The Fancy Draper’s was located at 7 Nightingale Parade, and for the period February to October 1901 the flat above was occupied by the poet Edward Thomas and his wife Helen. Thomas was killed in action at Arras soon after he arrived in France during WW1 on 9 April 1917.
[29] General LeGeyt moved to Eastbourne where he spent his final years. George Boroughs was married to Laura Lilian Neustadt, an American national, and the couple emigrated to California: setting up home in the Napa Valley.
[30] Mary Ann Wallis, daughter of the publican Thomas Wallis married Francois Albert Basten at Ascension Church Balham on 23 May 1888. Previously the Wallis family had been parishioners of Holy Trinity Clapham on the other side of the Common.
[31] Civil parishes looked after local functions such as registration of births marriages and deaths, poor relief and local highways.
[32] Metropolitan Boroughs had responsibility for sanitation, education, public health, street lighting, and other “higher tier” municipal functions