Holly Lodge Estate

The estate lands included Traitor's Hill, reputedly where members of the Gunpowder Plot had met to watch the Palace of Westminster blow up, although the rumour is now known to be false.

This "villa", a term then used for a compact country house easily accessible to London, was later to be known as The Holly Lodge and in 1809 a young actress, Harriot Mellon, took over the lease on the property.

Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts married late in life, and after her death her husband put the property on the market.

Finally, in March 1923, the remaining portion of the estate, which was then always known as the Holly Lodge Estate, was sold for £45,000 and later resold to London Garden Suburbs Limited for the same price, with construction on the first street of homes, on Bromwich Avenue, beginning later that same year by the Central London Building Company Limited.

Initially, the plan was to build houses on the entire estate, creating a new housing estate, but due to slow sales and the need for drainage from the higher ground, the land to the east of the new central road was instead acquired by Lady Workers' Homes Limited to build blocks of rooms for single women moving to London in order to work as secretaries and clerks.

The local alderman and others involved in the project are commemorated in an inscription on the ornamental pond in the central garden area.

Between 2004 and 2006 Sprunt Architects were responsible for a comprehensive programme of refurbishment works with the residents in occupation in which the exteriors of all the mansion blocks were renovated.

The blocks are four or five stories in height and are united by timber details, gable roofs with finials, red tiles and casement windows usually with south-facing balconies.