Wyld's Great Globe - Disposal

Disposal

Wyld's deal with the Tulks had included a promise to restore the gardens, but he showed no signs of making good on the agreement. Stripped of the buildings, the gardens quickly reverted to their former dilapidated state. Even before the globe was dismantled, the building and gardens had deteriorated to such a degree that, speaking in Parliament in July 1861, Lord Overstone commented that "in addition to the unsightliness of the structure that had been created in the centre, and the accumulation of everything that was filthy, unseemly, and improper which existed in the enclosure, scenes took place there at a late hour which were most discreditable to the Metropolis". The statue of George I was dug up and re-erected, but it had suffered from its ten years underground. The rider may have already been stolen and sold for scrap, and the horse quickly became a target for vandalism; the legs were removed and body was painted with black and white spots.

John Augustus Tulk, who had exercised his right to buy half the gardens, was keen to build on the land and proposed creating a covered market to encompass the square and the buildings he owned around it, but the judgement the Tulks had earlier won against Moxhay proved troublesome because it stipulated that the space must be kept as either a garden or a pleasure garden. Popular feeling was that the gardens should be preserved as an open space, and the bill put before Parliament for the establishment of "Regent Market" was rejected. Tulk attempted to sell his interest in the gardens to a speculator, J. L. Tabberner, but the long negotiations fell through when Tabberner's plans for the garden were rejected and he realized that the other half of the gardens were still owned by Wyld.

In January 1865, the Metropolitan Board of Works attempted to seize the gardens under the Town Gardens Protection Act 1863 in order to carry out remedial works. Despite the bill having been proposed precisely for the case of Leicester Square gardens, the attempted seizure was found to be unlawful, and the Board failed to get the decision reversed on appeal.

There were seven descendants of the other branch of the Tulk family that each had been entitled to buy a seventh share of Wyld's remaining half of the garden, and, although the option had expired in 1862, in August 1868 Wyld disposed of his share to them for £1,000. In 1869, Webb, not realising that Wyld had divested himself of his share, attempted to get an injunction to force Tulk and Wyld to restore the gardens, but his request was not granted. The fate of the gardens was finally resolved in 1874 when MP Albert Grant bought the square for £11,060, had it redesigned and donated it to the City of London.