On the west side of West End Lane, Charles Spain bought 5 acres and between 1829 and 1838 built York Villa.
Oaklands Hall was possibly built due to a sale of land behind York Villa in 1860:
To be sold, pursuant to a Decree of the High Court of Chancery, made in causes of Lance v. Aglionby, and Lance v. Elyard, with the approbation of the Master of the Rolls, by Messrs. Farebrother, Clark, and Lye, at Garraway's Coffee-house, Change-alley, Cornhill, on Tuesday, the 7th day of August, 1860, at twelve o'clock at noon : A. valuable freehold iuclosure of building land, situate in West-end-lane, Hampstead, about midway between the Edgware and Finchley Roads, sloping down from Westend-lane, to which it has a frontage of above 800 feet, and extending back for a depth of about 1056 feet to the rear of Royston Hall, Royston Lodge, and other residences and grounds in the Edgware-road and abutting on the grounds of York Villa and West End House, the whole containing 17A. SB. OF. The Hampstead and City Junction Railway passes close to the property.
London Gazette
During the 1860s, Oaklands Hall, an elaborate Gothic mansion, was occupying the site. Oaklands Hall was leased from Charles Spain from 1861 to 1872 by Donald Nicoll MP - owner of a gentlemen's outfitter's in Regent Street.
The three West Hampstead stations were in place by 1888. Nicoll owned portions of the Little Estate to the north and west, which together formed a 23 acre estate which he called West End Park.
Nicoll was a director of the Metropolitan and St John's Wood railway from 1864 to 1872 and, in anticipation of its plans, laid out a road (Sherriff, then called Nicoll, Road) on the line later taken by the railway, for which he received substantial compensation.
He then sold West End Park to the London Permanent Building Society, which was connected with Alexander Sherriff, a fellow MP and railway director, who gave his name to the northernmost road on the estate.
Oaklands Hall was occupied by Sir Charles Murray until 1878, when it was offered for sale, and in 1883 houses were built in Dynham and Cotleigh Roads on its site.
Builders, including A. Rathbone of Mill Lane and Julia Bursill, had erected 123 terraced houses there by 1893, in addition to completing the frontage on West End Lane. A library was built in Cotleigh Road in 1901.
