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Lady Audley’s Secret published in 1862 was Victorian literary superstar Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s best selling novel. It has been described as “the most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels. And sensational it was indeed, centring on an accidental bigamist who “deserts her child, pushes husband number one down a well, thinks about poisoning husband number two and sets fire to a hotel in which her other male acquaintances are residing”. Braddon was wife of publisher John Maxwell who was also a member of the vestry (a prototype parish council) and property speculator. In 1865 George Robinson’s extensive estate was sold at auction for “Residences of a superior Class”. Maxwell bought several plots and named three streets in her honour. Her son confirmed in 1930 that the road was named after the novel. It was first developed in the 1880s and was extended in 1892 to link Princes Road with Kings Road .
