Place name
This street, which takes its name after the former cathedral city of Elgin in Moray, is like many built by Archibald Cameron Corbett on land which was once part of the Downshall estate named after a Scottish theme. It was laid out in 1897. One of the most prolific house builders in late Victorian/Edwardian England, Corbett was responsible for the development of many suburbs of Greater London. Indeed, in 1902, the vice-chair of Ilford Town council, said: “The impetus to Ilford was given by Mr Corbett.” A young Corbett and his family moved from Glasgow to London in the late 1860s, where they remained for the rest of their lives. He never forgot his homeland however, remembering many of its town and cities in the street names he developed. The former manor of Downshall was a free tenement held by Barking abbey until about 1250, when it became part of the abbey’s demesne. In 1546 after the abbey’s dissolution the estate was granted by the Crown, along with nearby Newbury and Aldborough Hatch, to Sir Richard Gresham who subsequently took it into private ownership until Corbett acquired it. The origin of the name Elgin is likely to be Celtic. It may derive from Aille literally signifying beauty, but in topography a beautiful place or valley.
