De Beauvoir Town

De Beauvoir Town forms an Inner London, mid-rise, rectangular residential area. Its housing stock mainly dates from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century and it is centred approximately north of the middle of the City of London ("the square mile") from which it is separated by Regents Canal and Shoreditch.BoundariesIts boundaries are defined by its highly geometric streets and a early 19th century canal. They are: Kingsland Road to the east, Regents Canal to the south, Southgate Road to the west and Balls Pond Road to the north; the middle of the last two roads marks the border of the London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington. The area enclosed by these roads is just over. Direct neighbours are Canonbury, Dalston and Shoreditch (the latter's Hoxton and Haggerston areas).History19th centuryUntil 1820 the area now covered by De Beauvoir Town was open country with a few grand houses. In 1821, stimulated by the opening of the Regent's Canal the previous year, developer and brick maker William Rhodes (1774-1843), a grandfather of Cecil Rhodes, secured a lease for 150acre of land from Peter de Beauvoir. Rhodes planned to build residences for the upper classes in a grid pattern, with four squares on diagonal streets intersecting at an octagon. However, work stopped in 1823 when Rhodes was found to have obtained his lease unfairly and after a court case spanning over 20 years the land reverted to the de Beauvoir family in 1834.