Norfolk Crescent Gardens

Land to the north of Hyde Park was for centuries farmland owned by the Church of England, the area known as Tyburnia after the river Tyburn that flows underground. It was at Tyburn Gallows at Marble Arch that public executions were held until 1783. The development of the Bishop of London's large Paddington Estate began after that, with an early masterplan drawn up by Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1754-1827), the estate surveyor, possibly begun in 1805 although little was built until the 1820s. Cockerell was succeeded as estate surveyor by George Gutch (c.1790-1874), who modified and intensified the layout, and drew up his 'Final Plan of Tyburnia' in 1838. Norfolk Crescent, Oxford Square and Cambridge Square (q.q.v.) were created on the site of the much larger Stanhope Square, which was laid out pre-1834. In 1928 the garden of Norfolk Crescent, still owned by the Paddington Estate Trustees, was provided for the use of residents of adjoining houses and was managed by a Committee of occupants. The expenses of maintenance were assessed proportionately on each house, although the Trustees had the power to undertake maintenance in cases of neglect. It was described in 1928 as 'surrounded by a sparse hedge and attractively laid out'.

In 1954 a 90-acre area of land within the Church Commissioners estate containing C19th terraces south of Sussex Gardens was consolidated as the Hyde Park Estate. Nowadays the form of the gardens are intact but the surrounding buildings were rebuilt from 1963 as part of a plan drawn up in 1957 by Anthony Minoprio of Minoprio & Spenceley with P W Macfarlane, with more detailed design by C H Elsom in 1965.

The cost of maintenance of the gardens is through an annual service charge to lessees who have exclusive rights to use the gardens.