History

The Howard de Walden Estate from 1086 to the Present Day

The manor of Tyburn was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 where it had a value of 52 shillings and a population no greater than 50 people.

Leased to a succession of tenants until 1538, Henry VIII then created a Royal hunting park in the northern part of the manor - today this area is called Regent's Park.

In 1611 James I sold the rest of the manor for £829 3s 4d. Almost a century later John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, paid rather more - £17,500.

By the early 18th century, the village of Marylebone consisted of just a few houses near the line of the present High Street and took its name from the parish church of St Mary and the nearby Tyburn stream - hence St Mary by the Bourne.

In 1711, the Estate passed to the Duke of Newcastle's daughter, Henrietta Cavendish Holles. She married Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and realising the need for fashionable housing they commissioned the architect John Prince to draw a master plan with Cavendish Square as the focal point and a grid system of streets to north, east and west. To the south, the Estate was bounded by Oxford Street.

Upon the death of Edward Harley, the Estate passed to his daughter, Margaret Cavendish Harley who married the second Duke of Portland. Building continued and today's tall dignified Georgian houses began to emerge. Harley Street, Portland Place and Wimpole Street are perhaps the best known.

The majority of streets in the area take their names from members of the families, their titles or estates in their possession. The Dukes of Portland held the Estate for five generations until 1879 when the fifth Duke died without issue and the land passed through the female line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck, widow of the 6th Baron Howard de Walden. The Portland Estate then became the Howard de Walden Estate.

Considerable rebuilding and refurbishment work was carried out during the late Victorian and Edwardian period and in 1918 the first family Estate company was formed.

Today the estate covers more than 90 acres, and ownership and control remain within the Howard de Walden family.

The heart of Marylebone