Overstrand Village and Parish Council

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The growth of Poppy-land

By 1884 many of Clement Scott's friends had come from London to see this "Poppy-land" that Scott had written about. Many were famous in the theatrical, literary and art world - as critics, painters and poets including Ellen Terry, Sir Henry Irving, Swinburne, Beerbohm Trees and many other famous names of the time.

These visitors to Overstrand influenced London's intelligentsia and patrons of the arts. Cyril Flowers Liberal MP (later to become Lord Battersea and Overstrand) was among the first to choose the village to build their summer residence, and many others rapidly joined them: Lord Morley, Lord and Lady Hillingdon, Sir George Lewis, Lord Wolverhampton, Sir Edgar Speyer, Sir Frederick MacMillan and many others.

At this time, the 5th Lord Suffield and his Trustees had started his ambitious plans to develop his Overstrand Estates, constructing the first group of terraced houses in Harbord Road: "Seaview Terrace".

Walk along this road today (now part of Harbord Road) and nothing seems to have changed, apart from the cars.

The parts shown on the estate plan marked in blue, were already built and the ones marked in pink were all earmarked for retail shops, note the ones on what was to become Lord Battersea's private cricket ground. Numbers 100 & 101 described as two semi detached villas, had fourteen bedrooms and six reception rooms between them, these were the little ‘cottages' that Cyril Flower MP purchased together with most of the other land.

Who could have envisaged when they saw the beautiful gardens that the Battersea's later created, that less than 50 years on, much of the land would have been built on in a similar fashion to that planned by Lord Suffield.

On August 27th 1888, the London papers carried an advertisement for the sale of the freehold building land and 13 'modern built' villas and houses on the Overstrand Estate. A special train from Liverpool Street station was made available, offering free seats for potential purchasers to include a free luncheon at Overstrand and everything could be paid for in easy instalments.