The Story of the South Villa, Albion Road Selling off the
Estates By 1810 the Earl of Darlington From the start of the
Eighteenth Century London started moving slowly northwards.
Before 1741, when John Rocque mapped it, Newington Green had
become an elegant square. The route to Stoke Newington was still
along Green Lanes to the Clissold Park end of Stoke Newington
Church Street. Clearly there was room for a new road to connect
the two villages of Newington Green and Stoke Newington. By the
end of the Eighteenth Century, the parts of the Stoke Newington
and Brownswood estates south of Church Street had become the
property of the Earl of Darlington and he decided to sell. His
land would make a greater return if he could attract speculative
builders to his land. He would be the Ground Landlord. They
would build houses and roads and sell them or lease them as soon
as they could. AS the Ground Landlord, the Earl of Darlington
would charge the new householders ground rents for living on his
land for ever and ever.I