Place Name
Originally named Fergusson Road, after a local developer and temperance campaigner called Edward Fergusson Taylor (1849 – March 21, 1905). Taylor, who built the Lytton Road Assembly Rooms, which were to serve for many years as a cinema and later bingo hall, developed the suburb following the coming of the railway. Alas, as a result of booze or not, the road, which was mostly made up of maisonettes, inexplicably became a mini-slum. In 1928, the local council decided to take action, and it was renamed. The new name was taken from Welbeck Abbey, the Nottinghamshire home of the Dukes of Portland; the word had upper-class connotations, which is presumably why it was chosen – as an added bonus, Welbeck was accessible from London via the main railway line through New Barnet. Welbeck Abbey is a large historic estate, with origins dating back to its founding as a Premonstratensian monastery in the mid-12thCentury. Following the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, the property passed into private hands and was eventually transformed into a stately home. Over the centuries, it became associated with the Dukes of Portland, who significantly expanded and altered the building.
