34771
The Grade II Listed Barkham Street in Wainfleet an ancient port and market town in East Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
In 1847 Barkham Street, a 'London-style' terrace was commissioned by Bethlem Hospital and built to the design of Sydney Smirke and to similar specifications as other Bethlem terraces in Southwark, London. While Barkham Street would be quite unremarkable in Lambeth, for example, in Wainfleet, with its population of 2,000, it is astonishing. The 19 houses of Barkham Street have a romantic - and possibly fanciful - history. In the 18th century, much of Wainfleet, an agricultural town that was the hub for many farms, was owned by Sir Edward Barkham, of the East India Company, to whom there are local memorials.
On Sir Edward's death, his estates were transferred to the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, in London, to whose trustees tenants paid their rent. However, in the 1840s, some of the Wainfleet properties were in poor repair and the tenants asked to be rehoused. The consulting architect to the Bethlehem Hospital was the respected designer Sydney Smirke. Smirke, son of the celebrated illustrator Robert Smirke, had learnt his craft as a pupil of his famous brother Sir Robert Smirke.
Sir Robert, who moved in the most illustrious circles, is best remembered for the capital's General Post Office in St Martin's-le-Grand and for the British Museum, the façade of which was completed in 1847. It was in that year that his brother Sydney was asked by the Bethlehem trustees to attend to the needs of their tenants in distant Wainfleet.
It has been suggested, probably romantically, that the Bethlehem Estate Office drawer marked "W" was withdrawn, and instead of Wapping appearing, Wainfleet was mistakenly picked. What is more likely is that Sydney Smirke had never heard of Wainfleet and, imagining that land there was at as much of a premium as land in the capital, promptly designed a street to fit his normal Bethlehem briefs.
A firm of builders in Hull - Forman and Frow - was commissioned to build the street exactly to Smirke's plans, for £7,449. And so, to local amazement - which endures to this day- a London street identical to any on the Bethlehem Estates, was erected in deepest Lincolnshire.
After the First World War, the Bethlehem Hospital began to dispose of its Lincolnshire holdings. Barkham Street, as a whole, was bought by a local builder, J T Turner and Sons, a firm founded in 1870 which had, for many years, attended to the Bethlehem Hospital Estates' needs. The company still owns the entire street.
In the 1960s, the houses were given a much-needed facelift and, in the past four or five years, a total restoration has taken place. The splendid iron railings, which were removed during the Second World War in the drive for scrap metal, have been replaced in replica.
Information gained from www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/4811177/The-street-t...
34771
The Grade II Listed Barkham Street in Wainfleet an ancient port and market town in East Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
In 1847 Barkham Street, a 'London-style' terrace was commissioned by Bethlem Hospital and built to the design of Sydney Smirke and to similar specifications as other Bethlem terraces in Southwark, London. While Barkham Street would be quite unremarkable in Lambeth, for example, in Wainfleet, with its population of 2,000, it is astonishing. The 19 houses of Barkham Street have a romantic - and possibly fanciful - history. In the 18th century, much of Wainfleet, an agricultural town that was the hub for many farms, was owned by Sir Edward Barkham, of the East India Company, to whom there are local memorials.
On Sir Edward's death, his estates were transferred to the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, in London, to whose trustees tenants paid their rent. However, in the 1840s, some of the Wainfleet properties were in poor repair and the tenants asked to be rehoused. The consulting architect to the Bethlehem Hospital was the respected designer Sydney Smirke. Smirke, son of the celebrated illustrator Robert Smirke, had learnt his craft as a pupil of his famous brother Sir Robert Smirke.
Sir Robert, who moved in the most illustrious circles, is best remembered for the capital's General Post Office in St Martin's-le-Grand and for the British Museum, the façade of which was completed in 1847. It was in that year that his brother Sydney was asked by the Bethlehem trustees to attend to the needs of their tenants in distant Wainfleet.
It has been suggested, probably romantically, that the Bethlehem Estate Office drawer marked "W" was withdrawn, and instead of Wapping appearing, Wainfleet was mistakenly picked. What is more likely is that Sydney Smirke had never heard of Wainfleet and, imagining that land there was at as much of a premium as land in the capital, promptly designed a street to fit his normal Bethlehem briefs.
A firm of builders in Hull - Forman and Frow - was commissioned to build the street exactly to Smirke's plans, for £7,449. And so, to local amazement - which endures to this day- a London street identical to any on the Bethlehem Estates, was erected in deepest Lincolnshire.
After the First World War, the Bethlehem Hospital began to dispose of its Lincolnshire holdings. Barkham Street, as a whole, was bought by a local builder, J T Turner and Sons, a firm founded in 1870 which had, for many years, attended to the Bethlehem Hospital Estates' needs. The company still owns the entire street.
In the 1960s, the houses were given a much-needed facelift and, in the past four or five years, a total restoration has taken place. The splendid iron railings, which were removed during the Second World War in the drive for scrap metal, have been replaced in replica.
Information gained from www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/4811177/The-street-t...