Charles Henry Blake (1794–1872) was a British

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

planter and industrialist in India, who became a property developer and railway company director in London.

Early life

He was the son of Benjamin Blake, a sea captain turned indigo planter in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. He spent time in the United Kingdom in the 1820s. From around 1830 to the early 1840s, he prospered as a sugar and

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

manufacturer in India.

Property developer

During the 1850s, Blake was involved in developing the

Ladbroke Estate The Ladbroke Estate was a substantial estate of land owned by the Ladbroke family in Notting Hill, London, England, in the early 19th century that was gradually developed and turned into housing during the middle years of the century, as London ...

, where he bought speculatively into land holdings from 1850, later acquiring other land on

Lansdowne Hill Charlcombe is a civil parish and small village just north of Bath in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 422 in 2011, and includes the villages of Woolley and Langridge and the ha ...

. In 1852 he was living at 15 Devonshire Place, and was a director of the Portsmouth Railway Company. The solicitor Richard Roy was active in legal work on the Estate. Blake had Samuel Walker as partner. Employing capital from his Indian ventures, Blake bought land in London's

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...

neighbourhood. He survived financial overstretch to build extensively there, in the Kensington Park area. Over the period 1850 to 1853, the area east of

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

was developed quickly for housing by a group including Blake and Walker, Roy acting for them, Felix Ladbroke and the architect

Thomas Allom Thomas Allom (13 March 1804 – 21 October 1872) was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many buildings in London, i ...

. Blake and Allom were responsible for the houses (now consecutive nos. 24 to 33) on the north side of

Kensington Park Gardens Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Gar ...

, Blake himself living at no. 24 during most of the 1850s. Blake made little or nothing on his initial property investments, handled to begin with through his solicitor; and he took losses on railway speculation in 1854–5. He survived the property market upheavals of the late 1850s, though selling his Kensington Park Gardens house to tide himself over. He ultimately prospered in the 1860s by exploiting the opportunity of the new

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fin ...

, in which he invested and acted as a director. Questionable land dealings saw him pushed out of the railway company, but from 1864 his developer activities between the railway and Kensal Green thrived.

Family

Blake's widow Frances ran the Estate for some years after his death, to her own death in 1876. They had two sons and two daughters: *Charles Henry Blake (1835–1895), the elder son, a barrister, married in 1862 Josephine, daughter of Edward Amos Chaplin, and lived at Glendelvine,

Dunkeld Dunkeld (, sco, Dunkell, from gd, Dùn Chailleann, "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to t ...

. He took over the management of the Estate. *George Denis Blake (born 1839). *Fanny Georgina, who married in 1852 Thomas Pearce. * Emma, the younger daughter, married in 1853

Allan Macpherson Allan Macpherson (24 October 1818 – 6 November 1891) was a squatter, pastoralist and politician in the colony of New South Wales, a member of the Legislative Assembly. Early life Macpherson was born at Blairgowrie, Scotland. He went to ...

of Blairgowrie. She is known as a watercolour artist, for landscapes painted in Australia during a year-long visit by the couple, some three years after the marriage.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Charles Henry 1794 births 1872 deaths 19th-century British businesspeople