1700s

1708

Orchard Portman

Bryanston

Sir William Portman married three times but had no direct heirs. On his death in 1690 he bequeathed his estate to Henry Seymour (c1640-1728), a first cousin, on condition that he took the name Portman. Henry Seymour began life as a soldier and from 1679 to 1715 acted as MP successively for St Mawes, Totnes, Taunton and Wells. A wealthy man with London houses in Piccadilly and Leicester Square, in 1720 he also built Sherborne House, reputedly as a halfway house between his Dorset and his Somerset estates. It has been described as the most distinguished house in Sherborne, with fine decorative murals painted by Sir James Thornhill. And it was probably Henry Seymour himself who commissioned the engravings of Orchard Portman and Bryanston that were made in 1708 by Johannes Kip after paintings by Leonard Knyf. A particular feature of both these engravings are the lavish new gardens Henry had created at both his west country homes. Despite two marriages Henry Seymour also left no children and when he died in 1728 the estate passed to another cousin, William Berkeley, under Sir William’s will. He did have a son, Henry William Berkeley Portman, who was born in 1707, and it is from him that the present Portman family are all descended. Because of this link most members of the family have always added the name Berkeley to their surname.

For two hundred years the 11 fields in Marylebone remained farmland. However, in 1755 Henry William Berkeley Portman began to develop the London Estate, granting a lease to William Baker which enabled him to issue the first building leases. William Baker – Baker Street is named after him – began building in Orchard Street and Portman Street, which were named after the family’s original home in Somerset. The map of 1769 shows how quickly the new Estate grew.

1756

The New Road (Marylebone Road) is opened

The New Road opened in 1756. Renamed Marylebone Road 100 years later, it was designed as a bypass to Oxford Street for cattle on their way to Smithfield Market and to enable the army to move swiftly to defend London from an invader – hence its width. (Oxford Street was crowded even in the 1750s). It is likely that the move to build it was a major reason for Henry William Portman’s decision to develop his London Estate.

Building begins at Portman Square

Lisson Green

By 1769, less than 15 years after building had begun on the Estate, this extract from a later edition of John Rocque’s 1745 map of London and its environs shows how rapidly development was progressing. The New Road, opened in 1756, is clearly marked and Portman Square and the streets around it are already well established.

Manchester Square

Home House at 20 Portman Square was completed in 1777 for the Countess of Home by the great architect Robert Adam. James Wyatt, another famous architect, was also partially responsible for its design.

Bryanston House rebuilt by James Wyatt

Montagu House completed. Mrs Elizabeth Montagu is particularly associated with Portman Square. She called it the ‘Montpelier of England’, and said she ‘never enjoyed such health as since she came to live in it.’ She was an enigmatic and cultured woman and her home became the meeting place for some of London’s most enlightened thinkers. She became a power in the literary world, and a founder of the Blue-Stocking Club, so named because of the informal blue stockings that many of the group wore. One of the rooms in her magnificent house was truly unconventional in that, instead of wallpaper, it was decorated with ostrich feathers. In addition to her sponsorship of the arts, Mrs Montagu also had a reputation for philanthropy. On May 1st each year she put on an annual feast for all the chimney sweeps in London. She did this because a child of a family member had been kidnapped by chimney sweeps and was restored to the family by accident when discovered working in her own mansion. 

Tyburn Gallows moved to Newgate Prison

Thomas Lord’s first cricket ground opened

The St Marylebone Volunteers formed