Place Name
A reference to the county where Pimlico landowner and royal gardener, Henry Wisebought property in the 18thCentury. It remained in the family until the late 19thCentury. Serving the successive monarchs William III, Queen Anne, and George , Wise managed to build a fortune and establish himself as a country squire when he retired in 1727. His celebrity status was secured when he wrote a best selling gardening book, which was even translated into French. This and several surrounding roads were initially laid out as gardens that Wise designed after buying several fields in Pimlico in 1713. By the the mid-19th Century the land had become so valuable that they were developed into streets which were named after the family’s Surrey and Warwickshire properties. Wise purchased the Warwickshire estate, which were originally lands belonging to St Sepulchre’s Priory in 1709. The estate included, besides the park lands immediately surrounding the Priory, the manor of Woodcote, and lands at Woodloes, Lillington, Bishop’s Tachbrook, and Leamington. The Wise family retained most of the property until the death of George Wise in 1888. The Grade II* listed Henry Wise House is nearby. Mews houses were built mainly between 1850 and 1900 to stable horses and their coaches with attending staff living above. They were essentially tacked on to the back of grand townhouses in a small cobbled lane or square. According to estate agency Lurot Brand, who specialise in mews properties in London, there are 600 streets in the capital that have original mews providing about 8,500 homes.
