“That’s who owns the property where you live,” said my friend, Susan, in response to my question, “What is the Portman Estate?” My curiosity had been aroused by the arrival and my subsequent perusal of this magazine in my mail slot: http://www.portmanestate.co.uk/magazine/2009-autumn.pdfI asked Susan whether she got the magazine in her mail slot. She said she hadn't – that the Estate didn’t own her house, even though she only lives about a block away from me.
I had remembered that (at least in large part) property in London is leased, not owned, but I assumed that the government let the leases. Not so. Apparently, the aristocracy owns much of the property. A little investigation revealed that the 999th Viscount Portman (number really slightly lower) owns the property I rent from my landlord. The Estate is 110 acres of prime London real estate in “W1,” the prefix for my post code which is a much more upscale area than I could afford to live did I not receive a nice housing allowance.
A number of other “Estates” also hold significant sections of London; although a large part of their property consists of amazing public parks (Regents, Hyde, etc), the Crown (yes, the monarchy) Estate is one of the largest in London.
For
Just in case this isn’t all you ever wanted to know about the London leasehold system, start here for more info:
http://www.richest-people.co.uk/who-owns-london/
http://www.portmanestate.co.uk/
http://www.portmanestate.co.uk/directory/maps.html
Hi Gloria
ReplyDeleteWelcome to London. Wonderful place, as you say. Look forward to reading more of your posts over the coming months.
Yes, the issue of leasehold and renting from 'aristocratic' families is indeed interesting. But there may be a little of the 'old England' in there somewhere. London, as you will have noted, is a strongly multicultural society. South Asians, for example, make up about 23% of the London population. But you will be hard pressed to find any at all among the residents of the Portman Estate!
The 'ideal of aristocracy' is perhaps not such a great ideal after all!