Place Name
Alfred Waddilove was the son of Marylebone stonemason and builder John Waddilove and his wife Hannah. John, formerly of Tottenham Court Road (where he was insured in 1792) but at his death living in the Edgware Road, built this street and presumably Alfred Mews around the same time in 1806. When he died sometime about 1811 he left property rated at around £40,000, from which Alfred was still collecting profits many years later. This area remained undeveloped until the beginning of the 19thCentury. It was part of a small estate which had been owned by the City of London Corporation since the 17thCentury. In 1900 The Times reported on plans by the Corporation to change the layout of the estate when most of its leases expired in 1902. These plans involved renaming North and South Crescent, which were described as “quite out of date,” and extending Alfred Place northwards to Alfred Mews, which was to be widened, and southwards to a new, also wide street, running into Tottenham Court Road. Although the plans were approved by the old St Giles District Board of Works and the new London County Council, and the resistance of some of the leaseholders was futile given that the leases were about to expire, for some reason, they were never carried out.
