The Ampthill Square Estate, also known as the Ampthill Estate, is a

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

in London, England. The estate is located in the Somers Town district, on the south side of Harrington Square, east side of Hampstead Road, and west side of Eversholt Street. The estate was built in the 1960s to replace dilapidated Victorian housing in the area. It is composed of eight 6-storey blocks on its east side and three distinctive 21-storey high rises on the west side, which dominate the local skyline. In total, the estate has 366 flats and maisonettes: 240 of which are in the towers. The estate was reclad in the 1980s. Its cladding was found in 2017 to be solid aluminium, after fears it might be the same ACM cladding as

Grenfell Tower Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in West London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. Most of the tower was destroyed in a Grenfell T ...

. It received a further £20m in investment in 2005. The site was formerly known as Fig Mead. It was developed as a

garden suburb The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, an ...

by the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 for Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of Fran ...

, as part of the

Bedford Estate The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669.Ampthill Ampthill () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It lies between Bedford, Bedfordshire, Bedford and Luton. At the 2021 census it had a population of 8,825. Histor ...

, the Bedfordshire town where the Dukes of Bedford owned

Houghton House Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building, positioned above the surrounding countryside, and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that th ...

. Half of the square itself was soon bought by the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

for its tracks into

Euston station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...

. In this time,

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

bought his mistress Ellen Lawless Ternan a house at 2 Houghton Place, Ampthill Square. However, it fell into disrepair, including being directly hit by a bomb in the Second World War, and the estate was built on the site. While Ampthill Square previously had two bridges that crossed the railways that fed into Euston, the rebuilt estate is separated from the western side of the railway. There was a fatal stabbing on the estate in 2017.

References

Housing estates in the London Borough of Camden Squares in the London Borough of Camden Bedford Estate {{London-geo-stub