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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Riley Street
Also known as Loxham Street
Not to be confused with Riley Street, Bermondsey, or Riley Street, Chelsea
It is named on both the 1867–1870 Ordnance Survey map and Weller’s map of 1868
It appears but is not named on Cruchley’s map of 1827
This area was largely undeveloped and agricultural land until 1801
The origin of both names is unknown
The 1841 census shows its inhabitants to be mainly working-class and semi-skilled: labourers, brushmakers, paperhangers, shoemakers, carpenters, coach painters and coachmen, artificial flower makers, a laundress, a tailor, a porter, a mason, and a butcher
Later in the century it become a slum; in the 1890s the slums were cleared and the East End Dwellings Co. built new blocks of flats here
In the twentieth century it was renamed Loxham Street
Its flats became part of the Hillview Estate, owned by a local community housing association
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