Estates in Bloomsbury
1 Duke of Bedford
2 City of London Corporation
3 Capper Mortimer
4 Fitzroy (Duke of Grafton)
5 Somers
6 Skinners' (Tonbridge)
7 Battle Bridge
8 Lucas
9 Harrison
10 Foundling Hospital
11 Rugby
12 Bedford Charity (Harpur)
13 Doughty
14 Gray's Inn
15 Bainbridge–Dyott (Rookeries)
Area between the Foundling and Harrison estates: Church land
Grey areas: fragmented ownership and haphazard development; already built up by 1800
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About the Lucas Estate
This seven-acre estate in the north-east of Bloomsbury was originally part of the Peperfield area of the Harrison estate, but became separated from it in the eighteenth century (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)
Its owner at the beginning of the nineteenth century was Joseph Lucas, a tin plate worker, who decided in 1801 to develop the land (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)
The estate was a small strip with a curved top, stretching from the area of the Boot pub to Gray’s Inn Road
Its main street when developed was Cromer Street, which was begun in 1801, and known as Lucas Street after the landowner until 1834 (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)
The origin of other street names on the estate remains obscure
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Pindar Place
Also known as Pindar’s Place
Its listing in the 1841 census places it near Cromer Street, but it is not explicitly named on Horwood’s map of 1819 or Weller’s map of 1868 (the most detailed maps of the century), nor in Lockie’s or Elmes’ topographies of 1810 and 1831 respectively
It may have been one of the small terrraces along Gray’s Inn Road, or alternatively the small unnamed alley shown off Gray’s Inn Road between Cromer Street and Harrison Street on Weller’s map of 1868
It may have been associated with the Pindar of Wakefield pub on Gray’s Inn Road (the original location of the pub being on the west side of the road, just south of Cromer Street)
The 1841 census shows its inhabitants to have been mainly retailers: a cheesemonger, a greengrocer, a tobacconist
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