Page 9: Impetus for change

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Two events were to radically alter the area, transforming the rural landscape of farms, nurseries, market gardens and orchards into a prosperous metropolitan district of bricks and mortar.

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in Hyde Park, was opened by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851. The brainchild of her husband and consort Prince Albert, it was a team of engineers, administrators and entrepreneurs spearheaded by Sir Henry Cole that made it a reality. It was an outstanding success, attracting some 6 million visitors and making a profit of £186,000 by the time it closed on 15 October 1851. Joseph Paxton’s ‘Crystal Palace’ was then taken down and transferred to Sydenham. With the profits the 1851 Commissioners purchased 87 acres in what is now called Albertropolis to create what has become a major cultural and scientific centre.

Access was seen as the major problem for people visiting the exhibitions but this was soon remedied by the extension of the District and Metropolitan railway westwards. By 1871 the whole area from Sloane Square to West Brompton and from Kensington High Street to Notting Hill was served by the new rail routes. The lines in the east served existing communities, while those in the west acted as an impetus for developing new ones.

For corporate and family landowners it was now more profitable to lease land to speculative builders than for agricultural purposes and so a great wave of expansion began spreading from east to west.