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London: Bolingbroke Grove, Wandsworth Common, Battersea: survey of house for Benjamin Cole, 1792

1792
The following notes are taken from the Survey of London, English Heritage forthcoming volume on Battersea (courtesy of Colin Thom).

'Known by the nineteenth century as The Elms, the house occupied by Benjamin Cole ... was one of five large villas erected <i>c</i>.1776-7 along the road known as Bolingbroke Grove, in Battersea parish, facing west over Wandsworth Common. They gave the road its earlier, pre-Victorian name, of Five Houses Road or Lane.... It is likely that [Richard] Norris [the younger (d.1792)] designed some, if not all, of the Five Houses... Benjamin Cole was probably the first occupant of the house later known as The Elms; he was certainly there by the early 1780s. He was most likely the wealthy draper known as Benjamin Cole of Wandsworth and Bath (d.1816) .... Soane's involvement dates from the Spring and Summer of 1792, when Cole seems to have invited him to make alterations and improvements to the house. Though Soane visited the house on at least two occasions ... the commission seems not to have been carried out, as he charged no fees.'

Jill Lever, September 2012
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