ny are gone." There was a satirical poem called
"Belsize House," published in 1722, showing that the house had earned a
bad reputation. Belsize Avenue, Park Gardens, and Buckland Crescent are
all built over the property. There is a tradition that the house was the
private residence of the Right Hon. Sir Spencer Perceval, when it ceased
to be a place of amusement in 1745. In 1841 the place was demolished,
and the site transformed as we now see it.

Belsize Lane is very old, being marked between hedges in Rocque's 1745
map, and shown as leading to the grounds of the manor-house. Baines says
that about 1839 "Belsize Lane was long, narrow, and lonesome; midway in
it was a very small farm, and near thereto the owner of Belsize House
erected a turnpike gate to demonstrate his rights of possession."

The lane at present boasts a few shops and modern red-brick houses, but
it is greatly bounded by high garden walls, and the gardens reaching
from the backs of the houses in Belsize Avenue.

Belsize Avenue is a park-like road, from which on the south side stretch
the meadows of Belsize Park. Large elm-trees of great age throw shade
across the road, and seats afford rest to those climbing the ascent to
Haverstock Hill. Up to 1835 a five-barred gate closed the east-end and
made the road private.

In Belsize Square stands the Church of St. Peter, with a square
pinnacled tower. This was consecrated in 1859, and the chancel added
some seventeen years later. It is in the decorated style of Gothic, and
has a row of picturesque gable-ends lining the north-east side.

Belsize and Buckland Crescents and Belsize Park Gardens are all in the
same pleasant villa-like style, with trees and bushes growing beside the
roadway, but their chief claim to interest lies in their association
with the old manor-house.

The southern part of this ward is still more modern than the above, the
greater part having been built over since 1851. Eton Avenue is lined by
prettily-built, moderate-sized houses of bright red brick alternating
with open spaces yet unbuilt on.

The north-eastern corner of the ward, including Eton Road, Provost Road,
Oppidans Road, College Road, and Fellows Road, is made up of medium
houses, many covered with rough stucco, and with a profusion of
flowering trees and bushes in the small gardens. This section of the
parish might well be part of some fashionable and fresh watering-place.
At No. 6, Eton Road lived Robertson, author of "