PLACE NAME
Takes its name from developer James Burton’s estate, Mabledon Park, near Tonbridge Wells in Kent which he bought in 1804 and which was subsequently enlarged by his son Decimus, the architect behind the Greek revival much of which can be seen around Regents Park. Burton was an incredibly successful developer during the Regency and Georgian period and was largely responsible for the residential development of Bloomsbury. Prior to its development, the area was pastureland owned by City merchant and former Lord Mayor of London, Sir Andrew Judd who bought it in 1553 with the intention that the money from its rental would support the opening of a new school in his hometown of Tonbridge. Judd left the estate to the Skinners’ Company, who in the early 19thCentury decided to develop their property and granted many of the leases to Burton. The road does not appear on Horwood’s map of 1799, but is featured on his maps of 1807 and 1813, and fully numbered on his revised map of 1819. In the 1871 census it appears as Mabledon Row, but by the time the 1898 Ordnance Survey map was published, it was back to Mabledon Place. The naming of the street is a happy coincidence, the Skinners Company had already decided to name much of the locality after Kent place names in honour of Judd.
