'A GREAT BUILDER AND A GOOD MAN'

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bourhood, he might well be prepared to assist in the Government's purchase of one piece of land which would convey prestige on the ground round about, but might find a conflict of interest in helping to buy all the available land for the Commission.

The land at South Kensington was in several large estates. The land

Fig 26 South Kensington in 1856, showing purchases made by Exhibition Commission, and roads laid out by Thomas Cubitt

under consideration which the Government had at this period was the Gore House Estate, some twenty-one acres with a long frontage on to the Kensington Road and Hyde Park, belonging to a Mr John Aldridge. Gore House had formerly been the residence of Lady Blessington, friend of the Comte d'Orsay, and one of the most celebrated literary and society hostesses of the day. On Lady Blessington's enforced 'retirement' with a load of unpaid debts to Paris in 1840, M. Soveré