William Berners (10 July 1709 - 13 September 1783) was an English property developer and slave owner in the 18th century. He is particularly associated with the development of the Fitzrovia area north of Oxford Street in central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

;

Berners Street Berners Street is a thoroughfare located to the north of Oxford Street in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, originally developed as a residential street in the mid-18th century by property developer William Berners (property de ...

was named after him.

Life

William Berners was born in 1709, a son of William Berners and Elizabeth Rawworth, in Much Hadham,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. William Berners snr was a grandson of Josias Berners, a

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

resident and lawyer who had interests in the New River Company and bought land in a district then known as Newlands west of the City of London. Josias' son James and William snr (who died in 1712, when William jnr was an infant) undertook some development of the area during the late 17th century. Once William Berners came of age, he was able to start developing land which had hitherto been used for gardening. In 1738 he made an agreement with a Thomas Huddle to develop an area measuring 655 ft long by 100 ft deep fronting on to Oxford Street. Initially, three streets -

Newman Newman is a surname of English origin and may refer to many people: The surname Newman is widespread in the core Anglosphere. A *Abram Newman (1736–1799), British grocer *Adrian Newman (disambiguation), multiple people *Al Newman (born 1960) ...

, Berners and

Wells Street Wells Street is a street in the City of Westminster. It runs from Riding House Street in the north to Oxford Street in the south. It is crossed by Mortimer Street and Eastcastle Street. It is joined on its western side by Marylebone Passage a ...

s - were created. After earlier piecemeal development, Berners undertook systematic development of what is now Fitzrovia between 1758 and 1772. Concerted development of the Berners estate included the creation of Charles and Suffolk (now Nassau) Streets and various mews between the main north–south streets. Through his marriage to Mary Bendysh, he became a co-owner of the Wagwater estate in

St Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in 1760. Berners acquired extensive landholdings on the Shotley Peninsula south of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

and commissioned Leicestershire architect John Johnson to design a fashionable gentleman's country residence,

Woolverstone Hall Woolverstone Hall is a large country house, now in use as a school and available at times as a function venue, located south of the centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, England. It is set in on the banks of the River Orwell. Built in 1776 for William Be ...

, in 1776.Woolverstone Hall: History
Retrieved: 12 February 2020 Johnson had previously designed various buildings for Berners in London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berners, William 1709 births 1783 deaths English businesspeople