Place Name
Charles Pelham Villiers (January 3, 1802 – January 16, 1898) was a lawyer and politician from the aristocratic Villiers family. He sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament (as a Liberal) and he holds the distinction of being the oldest candidate to win a parliamentary seat, at 93. He was a radical and tireless reformer who collaboration with John Bright as members of the Anti-Corn Law League, which heavily taxed the import of cheap corn to benefit Tory landholders who could charge much more without foreign competition, brought about its repeal in 1846. He was Poor Law Board between 1859 and 1866. Building developments on the Birkbeck Estate began in the 1870s and many of the roads were named after people who were associated with the Freehold Land Society or supported its values, such as Villiers. This road was laid out in 1908.
