1868-1869 PORTOBELLO ROAD / PORTOBELLO ESTATE, LONDON - 62 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT INDENTURES with PLAT MAPS
SIXTY-TWO (62) ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT INDENTURES relating to the PORTOBELLO ESTATE / PORTOBELLO ROAD AREA in NOTTING HILL, LONDON, accompanied with 62 HAND DRAWN COLOR PLAT MAPS, a CONVEYANCE and LEASE SCHEDULES. ALL are SIGNED by various notable individuals. These important real estate transactions took place in 1868 and 1869. Bound in hard covers.
The main SELLER of the properties was CHARLES HENRY BLAKE and the main BUYERS were THE FREEHOLD SECURITIES COMPANY LIMITED, JOHN PARSON, and THE LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENT SOCIETY. Sixty-one of the 62 indentures were transactions where C. H. Blake was the seller. Other individuals named in the indentures and conveyance include HENRY BESSEMER, Henry Hyde, William Honeywood, William Burchell the Younger, and other wealthy, movers and shakers of the day. Frank Richardson, Solicitor for both The Freehold Securities Company and The Land And House Investment Society, signed many of the indentures as a witness.
The indentures and conveyance are bound in a book that was presumably made to hold them. Hardcovers, textured cloth covered boards with leather spine and corners, five raised spine bands, gilt title "PORTOBELLO ESTATE" on the front cover, 10x15 inches (25x38 cm), 147 pages (74 leaves). The indentures are all printed on watermarked laid paper.
The first item is a long manuscript CONVEYANCE titled: "PORTOBELLO ESTATE In the parish of Saint Mary Abbott Kensington in the County of Middlesex - Copy of the CONVEYANCE of the above property to HENRY BESSEMER ESQUIRE and of the LEASES for which said property is subject". The INDENTURE that is part of the Conveyance is dated the 16th day of December 1869. It is 21 pages long and includes a FULL PAGE HAND COLORED PLAT MAP showing the properties on Golbourne (Golborne) Road between Portobello Road and Wornington Road, and a LEASE SCHEDULE that fully describes each parcel. Numerous signatures at the end of the Indenture / Conveyance.
The subsequent 61 INDENTURES are between CHARLES HENRY BLAKE of Stanley Crescent, Notting Hill, in the County of Middlesex, and either JOHN PARSON, or THE FREEHOLD SECURITIES COMPANY LIMITED, or THE LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENT SOCIETY. Nineteen are dated in 1868, the others in 1869.
Each Indenture has a hand drawn plat map of the property in question, all presumably part of the Portobello Estate. Most of the indentures are 2 pages long, some longer.
Condition: The covers have some old water staining / shorelining, scrapes, rubs, and general wear; the gilt title "Portobello Estate" is rubbed; else the covers are solid and doing their job well. The front and rear endpapers are recent. The bound in indentures have gray and brown stains, substantial on many of the pages, present on all the pages. Perhaps these are ink blotter stains, or offsetting from where these indentures were originally stored, or simply caused by unstable ink and colors, I do not know. The good news is that the manuscript writing is FULLY VISIBLE AND LEGIBLE beneath all the stains. The first two leaves have a 2x2.5 inch (5x7 cm) area of tearing, mostly in the blank spine gutter area but affecting some text words. The tears could be archivally repaired. The first two leaves, and a couple other pages, have a pea size hole that affects some letters. There is 1/2 inch (1 cm) of worming to the bottom blank margin of the last 3 leaves. The last leaf has a quarter (the U.S. coin) size hole in its center affecting some words. This last leaf is blank on the verso, so the affected words are only on the recto.
An incredible group of important historic indentures with plat maps showing the Victorian Era property sales of the PORTOBELLO ESTATE that led to the development of the fashionable PORTOBELLO ROAD / NOTTING HILL region of London that we know today.
This archive of PORTOBELLO ROAD indentures belongs in a museum, imho.