Editing St John's Wood (section)

==Origin==
The area was once part of the [[Forest of Middlesex]], an area with extensive woodland, though it was not the predominant land use.

The area's name originates, in the [[Lisson Grove#Manor of Lileston|Manor of Lileston]], one of the two manors (the other the [[Tyburn|Manor of Tyburn]]) served by the Parish of [[Marylebone]].

The Manor was taken from the [[Knights Templar]] on their suppression in 1312 and passed to the [[Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem|Knights of St John]], whose English headquarters was at [[Clerkenwell Priory]].<ref>London Encyclopaedia, Weinreb and Hibbert, 1983</ref>

The name of the knights was applied to a former wood within the area of the manor, which in turn gave its name to St John's Farm, the farmhouse of which was the site of [[St John's Wood Barracks]] on Ordnance Hill from 1804 to 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=St John's Wood Barracks 1804-1900 |url=https://www.stjohnswoodmemories.org.uk/content/places/st_johns_wood_barracks/st_johns_wood_barracks_1804-1900 |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=St John's Wood Memories |language=en}}</ref>

The Priory allocated the [[estate (land)|estate]] to agricultural tenants as a source of produce and income.<ref>''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Vol. 3'' "JOHN'S WOOD (ST.)", p.1067, 1870–72, [[John Marius Wilson]] [https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee03wils#page/1066/mode/2up archived]</ref> The estate remained Crown property until 21 March 1675 (1676 [[Old and New Style dates|New Style]]) when [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] granted the St John's Wood estate to Charles Henry Wotton.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Galinou, Mireille.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/639574771|title=Cottages and villas : the birth of the garden suburb|date=2010|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16726-9|location=New Haven|pages=33|oclc=639574771}}</ref> On 22 March 1732 (1733 New Style), city merchant Henry Samuel Eyre (1676–1754) acquired the majority of the estate, around 500 acres (200 hectares), 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 but is much reduced geographically.[[File:St Marylebone Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg|thumb|A map showing the St John's Wood ward of St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916.]]

A masterplan for the development of St John's Wood was prepared in 1794, but development did not start until 1804 when Henry Samuel Eyre II (1770–1851) and Walpole Eyre (1773–1856) held their first auction.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cottages and Villas: The Birth of the Garden Suburb|last=Galinou|publisher=Yale|year=2010|pages=61 & 88}}</ref> One of the first developers was [[James Burton (property developer)|James Burton]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/middlesex-london/news/celebrating-birth-july-1761-james-burton-founder-st-leonards-sea-and- |title=Celebrating the birth in July 1761 of James Burton, the founder of St Leonards-on-Sea and builder-developer in Bloomsbury |publisher=Victoria County History |date=29 July 2011 |access-date=7 June 2017}}</ref>