Portman Estate area remained largely residential, attracting the prosperous middle class who wanted to live near the centre of London. There were also mews for tradesmen and servants. At the southwest corner of the Estate, where Marble Arch now stands, was the Tyburn gallows, London’s principal place of public execution until 1783. Development of the area north of the Marylebone Road around Dorset Square continued after 1815, and to the North West in Lisson Green, workers’ cottages were built from 1820 to 1840. Many of the original Georgian houses north of Portman Square were redeveloped as mansion blocks, which were let on
Execution of the Romanov family the Popov House that night. Yurovsky saw no reason to kill him and wanted him removed before the execution took place. Around midnight on 17 July, Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of The House of Special Purpose, ordered the Romanovs' physician, Dr. Eugene Botkin, to awaken the sleeping family and ask them to put on their clothes, under the pretext that the family would be moved to a safe location due to impending chaos in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were then ordered into a semi-basement room. Nicholas asked if Yurovsky could bring two chairs, on which Tsarevich Alexei and Alexandra sat. Yurovsky's