Our founder, Robert Andrews, worked for the Grosvenor family in
the county of Cheshire in 1722 and soon followed them to London to
advise them on the development and management of their London
estates. The firm continued to advise the Grosvenor family
throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on the
development of the Mayfair and Belgravia estates which saw them
transform from countryside to the elegant streets and squares we
see today.
Our London office is located in the heart of Mayfair to this day
from which we now provide legal advice to clients from all over the
world.
Key dates
1722 - Robert Andrews, aged 18, works as a legal
clerk and estate manager for the Grosvenor
family.
1730 - following an Act of Parliament
reforming the legal profession, Andrews is admitted as an attorney
and then as a solicitor in London.
1750-1800 - the firm gains new clients,
including other aristocratic families with landed estates. By 1800
there are over one hundred clients.
1767 - Edward Boodle, aged 15, is taken on
as an articled clerk. He is the nephew of another Edward Boodle,
who established and owned Boodle's, still one of London's most
distinguished gentlemen's clubs.
1820s - partner John Boodle becomes
the first clerk of the Grosvenor Place trustees, involved in a
massive programme of house building which transformed London's
Pimlico and Belgravia.
1836 - our Brook Street offices are sold to the
hotelier James Mivart, to become part of the hotel later known as
Claridge's. The firm moves to 53 Davies Street.
1849-50 - the firm is involved on behalf of
various major land-owning clients in sales of land to several
regional railway companies as the rail network spreads across the
country.
1898 - George Frederick Hatfield, a
solicitor at Freshfields, joins the firm which becomes Boodle,
Hatfield & Co.
1931 - the death of senior partner Walter
Boodle ends the family's 164 year continuous association with the
firm.
1939-45 - part of the office is converted
into an air raid shelter but the offices survive the London
Blitz.
1986 - the firm changes its name to Boodle
Hatfield.
1998 - the firm celebrates its 275th
anniversary with a party at London's Wallace Collection.
2004 - the firm moves into its present
offices in London at 89 New Bond Street
2012 - the firm becomes Boodle Hatfield
LLP.