Facts about St Johns Wood
St Johns Wood History
Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, from 1238 it was, as St. Johns Wood Farm, a property of St John’s Priory, Clerkenwell. This area was equivalent to what was then the north part of Marylebone. The Priory allocated the estate to agricultural tenants as a source of produce and income.
On 22 March 1732 City merchant Henry Samuel Eyre acquired the majority of the estate, around 500 acres, from Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. The St John’s Wood estate came to be known as the Eyre estate in the 19th century after it was developed by the Eyre brothers. The estate still exists much reduced geographically.
General Info
St John’s Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, North West London, lying about 2.5 miles northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from Regent’s Park to the Edgware Road, with the Swiss Cottage area of Hampstead lying to the north.
The area is best known for Lord’s Cricket Ground, home of Marylebone Cricket Club, Middlesex CCC, and a regular international Test Cricket venue. It also includes the Abbey Road Studios, well known through its association with the Beatles. The King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery was formerly based at St John’s Wood Barracks.
