Place Name
Laid out as part of the slum clearance scheme made law under the Strand Improvement Act of 1829, which swept away the old congested alleys on the site making it easier to get around Charing Cross. The work had started under George Agar Ellis First Commissioner of Woods and Forests (note not the first ever) but when he died in office in 1833 – aged 36 – he was succeeded by John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough (August 31, 1781 – May 16, 1847), known as Viscount Duncannon from 1793 to 1844. Ponsonby a Whig politician held the role between 1831 and 1834. He went on to serve as Home Secretary in 1834 and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1846 and 1847, the first years of the Great Famine. The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues were established in 1810 by merging the former offices of Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown into a three-man commission. The name of the commission was changed in 1832 to the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. It was in this remit that he was responsible for improvements and developments taking part in London at the time (which incidentally included the designs of the Houses of Parliament).
