Place Name
Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet (December 12, 1704 – November 21, 1789), was an Irish politician who, in the 1760s, inherited about 109 acres of land in Camberwell on the border with Lambeth. His father, also called Sir Edward was an MP who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1702 to 1705 and in the House of Commons of Great Britain variously between 1713 and 1730. Knatchbull married Grace Legge, second daughter of William Legge. They had five daughters and three sons. In 1770, the beginning of a major phase of redevelopment in the area, Knatchbull sold the land to a French merchant banker called Sir Hughes Minet. This street was laid out as part of the first stages of the development of Minet’s estate. It appears on an 1870 Ordnance Survey map but without any houses. Prior to its development the land had been market gardens famous for its strawberries and rhubarb, and before that it had been part of the ancient manor of Milkwell which belonged to the Hospital of St Thomas, Southwark.
