PLACE NAME
Sir Francis Walsingham (about 1532 – April 6, 1590), principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I from 1573 until his death. After returning to England from a brief spell in exile on the Continent where he, like many wealthy Protestants, had fled to upon the ascension of the Roman Catholic Mary I, Walsingham embarked on a career in politics. He first served in parliament in 1559 and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of a small coterie of men responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Elizabethan state. England was emerging as a maritime power with intercontinental trading ties, and Walsingham’s foreign policy supported exploration and colonisation, the use of the Navy and the plantation of Ireland. His operations to penetrate Spanish military preparation, gather intelligence from across Europe, and disrupt a range of plots against Elizabeth earnt him a reputation as the queen’s “spymaster”. This is one of a cluster of New Addington streets, built from around 1934 by the First National Housing Trust, that were named after Tudor worthies in reference to the fact that Henry VIII used to own a hunting lodge on what became the grounds of Addington Palace. The driving force behind the Trust was its chairman, Charles Boot, which explains why the earliest part of New Addington estate is sometimes referred to as The Boot Estate.
