A NOTABLE LONDON PROPERTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 12

A NOTABLE LONDON PROPERTY

FOUNDLING ESTATE PURCHASED ■ ; - - £1,650,000 .INVOLVED. . (From; Oub Own Correspondent.) t ‘X... LONDON, April 13. Since .1924 the Bloomsbury property known as the Foundling Estate has been the subject of mimerdus negotiations. After 1924 the charitable institution founded by Captain Coram found tempbrary quarters at Redhill, its permanent new home now being on the Ashlyns estate at Berkhamsted. _ The governors of the Foundling Hospital sold the hospital and the estate of 56 acres for £1,650,000 to the Foundling Estates, Ltd., and since then several transactions have been carried out iu order to save the hospital site as an open space and a playground for children. When the estate came into the market in 1929 Lord Rothemere, in order to prevent it from being built over, secured an option on it for £50,000. . This gave public authorities and others interested an Opportunity to jjnake efforts to save it' as an open space.' , These efforts were not successful, but in 1931 Lord Rothermere purchased onequarter of the area for £118,750, stating that it was his intention to reserve the area purchased as a playground tor children in memory of his two sons who were killed iu the war. In December, 1931, he -decided to extend his purchase, and bought another eighth of the site -the total price for the three-eighths being £170,000. Since then the Appeal Council formed to save another part of the grounds as* an open space and the building as a child welfare centre has bought for £118,750 an area equal to about, onequarter of the total. , RETAINED AS AN OPEN SPACE. It is now announced that the controlling interests in the estate have been acquired by Sir H. Mallaby-Deeley, Bart., of Mitcham Court, Surrey. ■ The _ total purchase price is understood to be in the neighbourhood of £1,750,000. The Appeal Council have an option to buy for £186,000 the remaining threeeighths of the hospital- grounds. . ,Sir Harry has intimated'that- he'is in complete sympathy with its preservation as an open space and its use as a-child welfjire centre. ■ , •*,. The estate was bought as a whole in 1741, from Lord Salisbury, for £6500. About 50 years afterwards the governors began laying out the land for building development, and they formed Mecklenburgh square and Brunswick square as the Hanks of the much-discussed.'central area of" nine acres, whereoi) they placed the institution. To-day . there areV; about 700 shops and licensed and other; premises on the estate, which! includes a considerable part of Guilford street, • Bernard street, Coram street, Compton street,.Handel street, Marchmont street, Hunter street, ’ Tavistock place, Heathcote street, Milhnim street, and Mecklenburgh street. • V ■ The whole purchase is one of the greatest importance.-in '"the history i.of- inner London, "as the area concerned, is not only of high value, but also is likely to become of even higher value in the future. A SPECTACULAR FINANCIER.

Sir H. Mallaby-Deeley has for 25 years been one of the most striking figures m London finance. In 1909 he bought for £500,000 the Piccadilly Hotel, including the shops in Regent street and Piccadilly. In 1910 he bought for £250 ; 000 St. James s Court, Buckingham Gate. S.W. Then came a £2,000,000 transaction over the Duke of Bedford’s_ Covent Garden estate, Sir Harry agreeing later to sell to Sir Joseph Beecham his contract with the duke. ■ _ During the war Sir Harry gave spectacular assistance to the Government in its efforts to raise money by offering to buy national war bonds to the amounts of various local subscriptions during a given period... Thus when Will.esden raised £150,000 during “War Weapons Week he made personal purchase of war bonds to the same amount, and so with Leyton, Shrewsbury, Poplar, and other areas, in 1920 he became a leader in cheap tailoring on mass production lines, and when he handed over that business in JjLJ he had a marked influence in reducing the price of men’s suits. In 1927 he bought Call Boy, the Derby winner, for the record price of £60,000. . , Sir Harry is the proprietor-of Princes golf course. Sandwich, and in 1924 handed over to the public Prince’s Golf Club, Mitcham. He has given large amounts to charity..