Queen's Gate

Queen's Gate property

Here are some of the most important issues relating to Queen's Gate property.

  

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Queen's Gate property building boom

Queen's Gate property, with its streets and squares of imposing period houses, looks like it has been London’s residential heart forever. But in Jane Austen’s day, this would have been open fields. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars London did not extend out much further than Westminster. It was as the Industrial Revolution gathered steam (literally and metaphorically) in the Victorian 19th century that the residential Queen's Gate property we see today came into existence.

  

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Speculators in Queen's Gate property

Today it may seem as if Queen's Gate residential property was a sure-fire investment. In fact, it was highly speculative. Some builders of Queen's Gate residential property became rich men. But rather more Queen's Gate residential property developers were bankrupted. There were frequent booms and busts in the Queen's Gate residential property market. A builder who had constructed streets of properties on borrowed money went bust when the demand vanished.

  

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The estate owners as the winners in Queen's Gate property

The winners were the estate owners. They let the land on ground rents to builders. It was the Queen's Gate residential property builders who took on all the risk. When, after 50 years or more, the area was clearly established, the leases came to an end, all the Queen's Gate residential property reverted to the original landowner’s family who became incredibly rich. The Grosvenors, the Portmans and the Cadogans were originally either very minor nobility or just people who happened to own farm land in the right place at the right time.

 

  

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Railways as the engine for growth in Queen's Gate property

The construction of residential property west of Hyde Park or north of Oxford Street was considered highly dubious and speculative in the early 19th century because of the distance on foot from what was then Central London (the City and Westminster). It was the introduction of trains which allowed for the expansion of residential London. Queen's Gate residential property was not always a financial gold mine. Many of the builders who constructed Queen's Gate residential property bet their shirts and lost everything when periodic collapses in the Queen's Gate residential property market occurred.

  

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Much Queen's Gate property is still leasehold

Many of the original estates have almost vanished from memory because they were sold off piecemeal. The Grosvenors and the Cadogans were more longsighted and even today maintain close control over their Central London estates. Some Queen's Gate residential property in an original estate area may be leasehold. If you buy leasehold Queen's Gate property, recent legislation means you are entitled to extend your lease (for a price) and all the flat owners in a Queen's Gate residential property can club together to buy the freehold. Nonetheless, in many Queen's Gate residential property areas the estates still control the appearance of the streets, generally enforcing uniformity of paint colour.

 

  

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Basic designs for Queen's Gate property development

Most Victorian street developments of Queen's Gate residential property followed a similar pattern. Houses were built in rows, along streets or round specially constructed squares. A Queen's Gate residential property might have a small front area, but not a considerable front garden. Most squares of Queen's Gate residential property were constructed with the houses grouped round it and facing onto it. But later Victorian developers, constructed estates of Queen's Gate residential property with “hidden gardens” between the backs of the houses and to which the houses had rear access.

  

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Facades of Queen's Gate property

Generally all the attention went into the front façade of Queen's Gate property, with elaborate cornices and window decoration. The back of a Queen's Gate residential property was generally left as bare brick and barely decorated. This changed as the focus moved to gardens behind the properties in late Victorian times and then Queen's Gate residential property came to acquire similarly elaborate back facades.

  

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Queen's Gate property was built with mews for stabling

In Victorian England transport was by horse and cab and richer families had their own stables. Just as a modern development would not be complete without a row of private garages tucked away at the back, so Victorian development had mews properties in small rows behind the grander streets where the horses were kept, and where the stable hands lived in rooms above. This type of Queen's Gate residential property has now almost all been converted to individual homes.

  

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Maintaining and altering Queen's Gate property

A lot of Queen's Gate residential property is considered historic or of architectural importance and, as a result, is listed. If a Queen's Gate residential property is Grade I then even internal redecoration may require detailed supervision by the Council and English Heritage of materials and work. Most listed Queen's Gate is Grade II which means approval is needed for any alterations. Doing works to a listed Queen's Gate residential property without such approval is a criminal offence. Planning permission is needed for any external alterations (mansard roofs, altering windows, adding extensions) to a Queen's Gate residential property (even if it isn't listed) but not for most internal works. For Queen's Gate residential property which isn't listed at all, then you may still need building regulation consent - approval by the local council building surveyor that the works meet the necessary building standards - for most types of work beyond the purely cosmetic to Queen's Gate property.

  

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Queen's Gate property in the 21st century

There are three general categories of Queen's Gate residential property today. Most mews have been converted to houses. Then there has been new Queen's Gate residential property built in the last two decades, often in private 'gated' developments. This type of Queen's Gate residential property development relies on the continuing popularity of mews houses to some extent. Both these types provide Queen's Gate residential property of a size suitable for today's small families. Some original Victorian Queen's Gate property, originally built to be opulent houses, have survived as houses till the 21st century precisely because they were always the grandest houses from the start. Such Queen's Gate residential property is likely to be fairly enormous and therefore most suitable to a Middle Eastern prince or a Russian billionaire. Most Queen's Gate residential property which was constructed as houses has now been converted to flats.

  

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