PLACE NAME
Like the adjoining Cecil Avenue, this is named after Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil (February 3, 1830 – August 22, 1903), 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times British prime minister, and whose family owned the estate upon which this street is laid out. Cecil was born at Hatfield House, he was a descendent of Lord Burghley and the 1st Earl of Salisbury, chief ministers of Elizabeth I. Known for his diplomacy and expertise in foreign matters, Cecil secured major gains in the so-called scramble for Africa as the European powers divided up the Continent for exploration. He led Britain to an expensive victory in the long, brutal Second Boer War in South Africa. He also oversaw the biggest expansion of the navy in peacetime, and in 1889 set up the London County Council, later allowing it to build houses, which is something he would come to regret. A few years later, he said: “[The LCC] is the place where collectivist and socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collects its arms.”
