19 November

A friend visited this afternoon to have a look round and professed himself shocked by what he saw. He is the third person to react like that, which frankly, I find upsetting. I thought I had described what was going on, but if people keep coming and looking and saying, oh God, and How awful, and so on and so forth I shall lose all confidence in my powers of description. I am also almost inclined to leap to the defence of my not-quite-falling-down flat. I mean, if your flat/house/bungalow/mansion/tent were to be stripped back to its bones it too might look a tad down in the mouth….Although, come to think of it, your flat/house/bungalow/mansion/tent’s mouth might have a more complete set of teeth than this place has. Patience, I counsel: teeth shall be provided. I profoundly hope.

20 November

Stasis. The Italian engineer has sent in his drawings and specifications but all of a sudden red tape is winding its way out of the depths with the intent of choking off all progress. I have an agreement with my neighbours on the side most likely to be affected that I will pay for making good any damage my builders might cause to our joint wall but I hadn’t taken into account that although they own their flat, Camden Council owns are the freehold so its planning bods needs to sign off on the project too. My experience of dealing with the local authority over this flat hasn’t been encouraging. It took them four weeks even to register a planning application I had put in along with my co-freeholders and the deadline for a decision has been and gone – and before you ask, yes, I have done the required yelling at them.

So while I wait I have been running round the internet to try and find out more about the history of this road, and how come Christ Church College Oxford used to own so much of this area. When it comes to the actual house I will go back to the local studies archive in Holborn on another day, maybe when (if) the builders return and the noise is too much. Census records, rate books, war records…they should all throw something up.

Meanwhile I have read, in a blog by a couple who now live in Canada but used to live in the next road up, Caversham Road, that “In 1955 the freehold of our house, along with 300 other residential properties, 18 main road shops, 2 banks, 2 blocks of post-war flats and 3 pubs is auctioned by Jones, Lang, Wootton and Sons. The freehold is transferred from Christ Church College Oxford to the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras.”

The obvious next step is to talk to Jones, Lang, Wootton and Sons Auctioneers. They have changed their name, it turns out, to JLL. I ring them. They have extremely irritating electronic putting-you-on-hold music, and their phone line is ghastly. In the end, my question about the wholesale auctioning of entire streets in Kentish Town in the 1950s having flummoxed serial young women, I leave a message on the voicemail of the senior secretary from whom I do not expect to hear.

Next up is the archivist at Christ College Oxford. Now she is nice. And forthcoming. This what she tells me…first time round. “Christ Church’s land in Kentish Town was bequeathed by Robert South (who has an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography) in the early part of the 18the century when it was still open farmland.  The development of the estate began in earnest in the 1830s, and the streets were given names which reflected Christ Church’s and South’s history.  Islip is a local parish where South was a vicar; Caversham was another estate which South left to Christ Church; Peckwater is the name of one of the quads here; Gaisford was dean when the development began; Wolsey, of course, was the founder of Cardinal College, Christ Church’s predecessor.  The majority of the residential estate was sold in 1955, with the commercial estate following in the early 1970s.”

(I had already discovered a bit about these names, and that the Peckwater quad  - Kentish Towners will know this as a post-war council estate -  has, ironically, been a favourite for Bullingdon Clubbers to go to do a bit of trashing.)

But what the archivist hasn’t told me is why the streets were all suddenly sold off. I email her again. Back she comes, still nice. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the committee papers which explain the reasoning behind the sale of Kentish Town specifically… I suspect that most of the houses had been constructed by independent builders who took out leases on plots of land which required them to build to a certain quality.  The builders would then have the benefit of the rent from the properties until the leases terminated when the properties would revert to Christ Church.  This was quite normal for Victorian developments.  However, when the leases fell back in, some or all of the properties would have been in dire need of upgrading and, in London, probably needed a lot of repairs from bomb damage.  And so a decision would have to have been made whether or not to invest heavily for future returns or to sell off the estate entirely.  Evidently, if I am right in this supposition, this was the choice made!   I can dig a bit deeper and see if I can confirm this.”

Poor lady. I have asked her if she wouldn’t mind awfully….