The BAM Estate is one of the more interesting features of West Hampstead - indeed the whole mansion blocks of London are themselves pretty fascinating.
But here in West Hampstead we have the Buckingham, Alexandra and Marlborough Mansion blocks.
They were built on the Cock and Hoop field (named after the pub that stood on the site of the current Alexandra Mansions - demolished around 1900/01).
The story of the development is not unsurprisingly more complex and whilst they might now look like the scheme that made someone very rich in fact it is predictably less straightforward. the Centenary official Guide to the BAM Estate reads:
"The plan was to build four blocks of Avenue Mansions, Marlborough Mansions East and the first three blocks of Buckingham Mansions (1-25)...
"The conveyance was completed on 25th March 1897 and building began. (If you look up at the brickwork on the side of 25-34 Avenue Mansions you will see the date 1897.) By 1898 Cave [Edward Jarvis Cave] had successfully acquired enough land to build on the western side of Marlborough mansions. In 1899 Cave bought the Cock and Hoop and planned to extend Marlborough mansions round the corner of Cannon Hill down to the Green, but he appears to have finally overextended himself and was declared bankrupt in May 1900. The Cock and Hoop site was sold to another developer who build Alexandra Mansions in 1902."
READER CORRECTION: a helpful email from a resident points out that the "A" of BAM is in fact Avenue - in my enthusiasm I just assumed that Alexandra was the A and as I knew it was Buckingham and Marlborough etc etc - you see the error. Happy to stand corrected! :-)
So BAM is Buckingham, Avenue and Marlborough - Alexandra is just close by but separate.
I spotted this ages ago and love the simplicity and anonymity/personality of it.
Who was Gertrude and what happened in November 1897 - is this the start of a novel? Other than 1897 is of course the Jubilee of Victoria's accession to the throne...
