South Kensington Living
The Broadwood Estate
Launceston Place and Grenville Place, which run through Cornwall Gardens, mark the route of the ancient footpath, Love Lane. The piece of land on the east, known as Church Close, and a larger section on the west, known at Long Mead, came into the Broadwood family in 1803. The Broadwoods had a piano making business in St James. In the 1860’s, Thomas Broadwood and his brother John Broadwood enlisted the help of the architect, Thomas Cundy III to help lay out a small estate here. (Cundy’s main claim to fame is as one of the family of Cundys who were the estate surveyors of the Belgravia Estate). Cundy designed two parallel roads with houses facing each other across a central ornamental garden.
The development was going to be called Gloucester Gardens. But in the end the Broadwoods (in good social-climbing fashion) named it for the Prince of Wales - one of whose titles was Duke of Cornwall - whose 21st birthday was in November 1862.
Cornwall Gardens and adjoining mews were constructed in the 1860s and 1870s.
Thomas Broadwood died in 1881. He left no children, so the estate was taken over by his nephew, Walter George King. When King died in 1905 the freeholds were gradually sold off.
