Edward Moxhay

Initially Edward followed his father's profession of shoemaker, completing his training in London and, after working for some of the best shoe and bootmakers, around 1810 he took the position of foreman with the firm of Walter and Gresham, leather cutters of Cannon Street.

[1] Through hard work and perseverance he prospered, particularly by exporting to the West Indies, and the family was able to move their residence from Threadneedle Street to a substantial house and grounds in Stamford Hill, now a suburb of London, but then in the countryside.

When Moxhay bought the gardens in 1839 he was an established speculative builder, so clearly had development in mind, and being unable to remove this restrictive covenant chose to ignore it.

Moxhay immediately started felling the square's trees and in October 1848 Charles Augustus Tulk, whose folly in selling the garden for £210 forty years earlier was the main cause of this deplorable state of affairs, sought an injunction in Chancery to restrain Moxhay from despoiling the square or building on the garden.

Its striking frieze by the sculptor Musgrave Watson (1804-1847), best known for his bas-reliefs around the base of Nelson's Column was saved and relocated to Battishill Street Gardens, Islington, where it can be seen to this day.

[a] The death of his son Charles at Torquay in 1847, combined with his heavy losses from the failure of the Hall of Commerce, blighted the final years of Moxhay's life and it was said that he would spend many hours wandering in Epping Forest dreaming up unrealisable, grandiose schemes.