The Etons

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History

The Etons (Eton Hall, Eton Place and Eton Rise) was built in 1939 by Bell Properties Trust Limited though a Times newspaper report of 1946 says that Eton Hall was bought by Bell London and Provincial Properties in 1945.

The architects of The Etons were Tom & Partners of Park Street, Mayfair, who shared offices with Bell Properties and were specialists in mansions blocks.

As no Electoral Registers or Street Directories were kept during the Second World War (1939 - 1945) it is not known when the first residents of The three Eton blocks moved in. However many of the flats must have remained vacant during the war as there would not have been much incentive to move into a new accommodation while enemy bombing was taking place.

Like other areas Belsize Park suffered damage in the Second World War but, according to its 1946 general meeting, Bell London and Provincial Properties/Bell Properties Trust Limited (which included The Etons) suffered only a relatively small extent from enemy actions. This may have been helped by the large and deep underground air-raid shelter built in Belsize Park during the Second World War that would have accommodated and protected the local residents.

In 1946 the eleventh ordinary general meeting of the then owners of all of the Eton blocks, Bell London and Provincial Properties, took place in London. The company had eleven large estates in London comprising about 1,900 flats, all in blocks, together with 32 shops and 178 garages. The chairman, John Spencer, valued the company at £2,471,815 in 1939 and declared a dividend of 11% for 1946. Even though the company value was pre-war, given the very difficult circumstances that the housing market suffered immediately after the war obviously mansion blocks were doing very well.

Several modifications to the blocks had been made immediately before the war and several of the estates had amenities such as swimming pools, bowling greens, and club rooms. Most of them were leasehold with 999 year leases granted in 1934 or 1936. The ground rents were described as 'reasonable'.

Bell London and Provincial Properties Limited referred to Eton Place, Eton Hall and Eton Rise as all having 118 flats and all with 99 year leases starting in 1935, and with no shops attached to them.

As expected with Hampstead people The Eton's residents have been keen from early on to write letters to The Times on a variety of subjects.

In 1948 Evelyn Steel of 8 Eton Hall asked for information for her biography of her late father, Sir Bernard Spilsbury. Sir Spilsbury (1877 – 1947) was a British pathologist. His cases include the Brides in the Bath Murders, the Dr Crippen case, and the Brighton trunk murders. He also had a critical role in developing 'Operation Mincemeat' which was a highly successful British deception plan during the Second World War which convinced the German High Command that the Allies would invade the Balkans and Sardinia instead of the island of Sicily, the actual objective. Mincemeat's success lay in the unusual nature of the operation: decoy plans were attached to a corpse deliberately left to wash up on a Spanish beach. The story was subsequently told in a book and later film as The Man Who Never Was.

In 1954 was the disturbing event involving an explosion in a sixth floor flat in Eton Hall which killed a women and hurt eight men one of whom, a policeman, subsequently died in hospital from his injuries. The flat was wrecked and masonry fell 70 feet into courtyard below. One of the injured who survived the blast, James Rolfe, aged 53 and a window cleaner, was working in the block when he heard a strong smell of gas from the sixth floor flat. He and others broken open the door to the flat and found the woman, Mrs Elsie Murch, aged 50, unconscious on the floor. 'Then a terrific explosion shook the building and next thing I knew was that I was being treated for my injuries in the courtyard below' said James. Five other flats were damaged and doors and windows were blown in and furniture smashed by the explosion. The Coroner later commented about the tragedy of cases where suicides kill other people.

The mouth organ virtuosi, Larry Adler (Lawrence Cecil Ladler) (1914 - 2001), also lived in Eton Hall in the 1980s. Born in Baltimore, USA, he became the best-known mouth organist in the world, elevating the harmonica from being a playground toy to a serious concert hall instrument. His music for the classic film Genevieve in 1953 made him a wealthy man and famous in England, his adopted home. He played with everyone from Fred Astaire to Sir Elton John and counted kings and prime ministers among his friends. He collaborated with musicians such as George Gershwin, Humphrey Lyttleton, Kate Bush, and Sting, as well as the composer Vaughan Williams and the arranger Sir George Martin, but he also created his own virtuoso performances.

In 1947 in an indication of the nature of the residents of Eton Rise at the time there was a newspaper report on the theft of jewellery, furs and clothing £1,000 - a high amount for the time - that was stolen from a ground floor flat at Eton Rise.

In 1958 and 1959 there were advertisements for flats in The Etons describing them as 'modern unfurnished flats' in Eton College Road/Haverstock Hill, Hampstead. Reference in the advertisements to a show flat suggests that several flat were being re-let together. The flats were in 'modern blocks with central heating, constant hot water, lifts, porter' and other amenities. They were for five year leases and consisted of two rooms, with kitchen and bathroom, for a yearly rent (exclusive) of £298; three rooms for £368; and four rooms for £441.

In 1972 the resident of 32 Eton Rise was a 'consultant astrologer'. Two years later in 1974 Eileen O'Connor of 114 Eton Rise, had a spell of writing to The Times with complaints about banks and their systems. Later, in 1980, she had changed topic to write about the causes of crime and the following year she tackled proposals about 'Nationality'.

Eton Rise residents continued to write to The Times in the 1980s. In 1982 an occupier of 105 Eton Rise wrote on 'border issues' and in 1983 there was a letter from a psychologist at 25 Eton Rise called Zoom Hunter!

In 1985 a newspaper article wrote about the 'working-class' playwright, Alan Plater. The article stated that, having left his wife and his native Hull to run away to London 'to find true love' with Shirley, a social worker, he moved in with her into Eton Hall flat. According to the article the writer's 'street cred dipped since he moved in with her but not his career.' Born in Jarrow near Newcastle in 1935, Alan Plater is one of Britain's most prolific and enduring writers working for television, radio, theatre and the cinema, and writing six novels. He wrote episodes for popular drama series such as Dalziel and Pascoe and the Midsomer Murders. In recognition of his services to drama Alan Plater was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Year's Honours List.

In 2005 Camden planning authority offered no objection to the installation of telecommunications equipment incorporating three pole mounted antennas and an associated radio equipment cabinet to the roof of Eton Rise.

Eton College Road
Eton College Road was first just called College Road. Eton College Road was approved for the name of the road in 1936, and the change name came into force in 1937.

Eton College is formally called the 'College of the Blessed Mary of Eton besides Windsor'. The College was founded in 1440 by Henry VI who, eight years later, endowed the school with the manor of Chalcots (now known as Chalk Farm) which later comprised the Eton College Estate. The Estate covered 243 acres (98 hectares) between Swiss Cottage, Haverstock Hill, Avenue Road, Englands Lane, Eton Avenue, Primrose Hill, Regent Park Road and Chalk Farm station.

Belsize Park
Belsize Park means 'beautifully situated', from the original French Bel Assis, or Belassis. Over time the place was known as Bellasis, Belsyse (in 1593), Belseys, Belsis and Bellsize (in 1672) until it settled as Belsize in the early eighteenth century. The name comes from the original sixteenth century manor house and parkland which once stood on the site.

The first streets of Belsize were laid in the 1850s and the creation of Belsize occurred between 1850 and 1878 by which time the estate extended to Haverstock Hill. Due to Daniel Tidey, a builder and property developer, Belsize became Belsize Park in 1870 and from 1870 to 1900 the main roads developed. Most of the remaining large houses disappeared in the 1890s.

The main change in the development of Belsize Park came after the First World War with the growth of flats, both in the conversion of houses and in the building of blocks. The purpose-built blocks in Belsize Park started in 1884. In the early 1930s there was rush of flats which transformed Haverstock Hill and its vicinity.