Place Name
Horndean, near the South Downs, lies, like the Alton Estate itself, on the old London to Portsmouth road. The name most likely means the valley by a horn-shaped hill (the horn-shaped hill probably being Horndean Down). The village grew significantly in the 18th and 19th centuries as a key stop for stagecoaches traveling between the capital and the port town. Horndean’s historical inns and coaching houses, such as the still-standing Ship and Bell, reflect this past. Horndean also became known for brewing in the 19th century, thanks to the establishment of Gales in 1847; its HSB beer stands for Horndean Special Bitter. Gales was taken over by Fuller’s of Brentford in 2005. As for this street name, in 1951 the architect’s department at the London County Council selected this area of Roehampton as the site for one of the largest and most radical housing developments ever undertaken in London – the Alton Estate. At the time of its completion in 1958, Alton West was considered by many British architects to be the crowning glory of post-World War II social housing. The estate itself takes its name from Alton Lodge, an early-19thCentury villa on the Kingston Road, occupied by Dr Thomas Hake from around 1854 until 1872. Seizing on this as a naming opportunity, the local government chose to name almost all of the other roads on the Alton Estate after places in Hampshire. Scott MacRobert in A Brief History: Putney and Roehampton writes: “Dramatic change came to Roehampton after the war, when the London County Council built the massive Alton East and West Estates of the 1950s. It is, in reality, two housing estates. Alton East was created in the early 1950s and provided 744 dwellings on 28 acres; Alton West was formed later in the decade and provided 1867 dwellings on 100 acres. On Alton West, the LCC essentially retained the Georgian landscape and placed within it five ultra modern slab blocks, inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, and now listed buildings by English Heritage. While this change swept away a number of fine houses, it was seen as providing much needed better quality housing for many from the deprivation of inner London boroughs.”
