Belsize Park History
Renowned for evading the public, Belsize Park was a historical secret until 1317 when Edward II’s Lord Chief Justice left 57 acres of land to the monks of Westminster. During these times Belsize was a sub-division of the manor of Hampstead and the church let out parcels of land to those who wanted to build country mansions.
During the early 1800s, Lord of the impressive Belsize Manor, William Wadd wrote a letter to a friend complaining of the increasing popularity of Belsize Park. Apparently the plague epidemic in the city was encouraging Londoners to escape the chaos and move to greener pastures. “Divers come out of the town”, he wrote “and dy under Hedges in fields” even recommending unsuccessfully that these refugees be fined. (Belsize, 2000).
The first streets of Belsize were laid in the 1850s and from 1870 to 1900 many of the surviving stretches of greenery eroded as main thoroughfares developed. The diverse building styles evident in Belsize Park today are due to two factors. Firstly, the parcels of land that became available at varying times during the late 19th century, and secondly the ever changing house styles and fashions during this period.
Thanks to the efforts of Daniel Tidey, a builder and property developer, Belsize became Belsize Park in 1870. Tidey was responsible for many houses within Belsize Park including homes in College Crescent, Buckland Crescent, Belsize Park, Belsize Square and Belsize Park Gardens. During an early stage of his building., Tidey also built the Belsize Tavern and the Washington Hotel. Through marvellous coincedence, two hopeful young men applied at the Washington looking for work in 1978. Though their names were Terry and William Tidey, they did not know that it was their great great great grandfather who had built the pub back in the 1870s.
While Belsize Park remained an “in between area”, set between the hustling heart of the city and the smaller nucleus of Hampstead, it was during the late 1800s that an influx of the “comfortably-off conferred upon this area of London an identity of a kind, and a repute among the inner suburbs, inferior perhaps only to Kensington and St John’s Wood”. (Saint, A. 2000). The district’s public buildings and shops also helped define Belsize Park with the erection of the Hampstead Vestry Hall (later Hampstead Town Hall) and St Stephen’s Church.
The name Belsize – first applied in the 18th Century – was adapted from the French term Bel Assis, meaning “beautifully situated”. Two hundred years later and the name is more appropriate than ever.