View report page

185
The last named provision was struck out of the bill, to
which the Royal Assent was ultimately given, and which
remained operative until superseded by the Metropolis
Management Act of 1855.
Knightsbridge.
Allusion has been made in Part I. to the early
condition of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge.
Little can be gleaned from the parish books to indicate any
development or increase in the number of houses between
the date of the Reformation and the end of the seventeenth
century. Then it was that William III purchased of the
Earl of Nottingham the mansion subsequently enlarged by
Sir Christopher Wren and known as Kensington Palace.
The establishment of the Royal residence gradually
attracted the attention of some few of the nobility to the
locality, and led to the erection of houses according to their
individual tastes and requirements ; but besides the construction
of the Barracks in 1795, and the foundation of
the Floor Cloth manufactory, the number of buildings
increased very slowly until the present century ; indeed
the march of improvement in Knightsbridge, as elsewhere,
has only made great strides in recent years. Within the
recollection of many who would reluctantly consent to be
called old, the stream of the Westbourne was an open brook,
the paving and lighting of the place had scarcely been
taken in hand, and the eye still welcomed the haAvthorn
hedge as recently as 1844.
Maintenance
of the highways.
The high road which led through Knights,
bridge towards Kensington was two centuries
ago very badly kept and maintained, both as
regards its repair and the security of those who passed
along it.*
Ascribing the detective state of the footway to the
flowing of water from the Queen's estate, the Vestry
adopted the following petition in 1712:—
To the Rt Honblc Robert Earl of Orford & Earl Mortimer, Lord
High Trearer of Great Britain.
*Walford, Vol. v. p. 17.