Bedford Estate

The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London, owned by the Russell family who possess the peerage of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669. The Covent Garden property was sold for £2 million in 1913, by Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option to the Beecham family for £250,000; the sale being finalised in 1918.

In 1669, the Bloomsbury Estate came into ownership of the Russell family when William, son of William Russell, 1st Duke and 5th Earl of Bedford (1616–1700), married Lady Rachel Vaughan, one of the daughters of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1607–1667). She had recently inherited the agricultural fields now known as Bloomsbury from her father.

Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (1765–1802) came of age in 1786. He was a spendthrift gambler, with an interest in farming on the Woburn estate. However, he was not interested in Bedford House in Bloomsbury, instead living in the West End. In 1800, the contents of Bedford House were put up for auction and the house was demolished. It was replaced by a wide avenue, Bedford Place, leading north to the large Russell Square, with Montague Street running parallel to the west. Francis Russell commissioned James Burton (1761–1837) to develop the land into a residential area with Russell Square forming the focal point, landscaped by Humphrey Repton after the success of his work for Francis Russell on his Woburn estate.

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