Charles James Freake

[citation needed] In the 1820s, he took a lease of the Royal Oak public house in Elizabeth Street, Belgravia (a mainstay of the blossoming Grosvenor Estate), Westminster.

So, when a new tract of land became available for development in 1843 when the lease of Thomas Gibbs’ nursery expired, Basevi used his influence to obtain the contract for Freake.

This charitable act earned him a baronetcy (the title of Sir which can be passed down the male line) in 1882, with formal (seldom used) territorial designation: of Cromwell House and of Fulwell Park and which died out in 1951.

He famously only allowed straight chimneys in his buildings after his solicitor William Pulteney Scott [3] told him about soot wart — a form of cancer of the scrotum prevalent in child sweeps.

His second wife, Eliza Pudsey, died 26 November 1900 at 11 Cranley Gardens, South Kensington[6] In 1885 and 1900 probate calendars confirm she lived also in one of the couple's additional homes, Fulwell Park in Twickenham.