"The inter-war years proved difficult for the Berners Estate, as for other London landlords. Under John Anstruther Berners, head of the family from 1919 to 1934, small pieces of the estate were sold in 1920, and in 1923 the whole eastern end, comprising the east side of Newman Street and the adjoining properties between Oxford Street and Goodge Street, was put up for sale. Only a few lots including the Oxford Street frontage (Nos 70–86) failed to sell. After John Berners’ death, his son Geoffrey Hugh Berners (1893–1972) was advised to further realize assets. Sales promptly began, leaving the estate concentrated in the two blocks between Wells and Newman Streets. Berners Street, the most valuable remaining asset, was badly holed by bombing, further reducing its coherence. A drip of subsequent sales meant that with the valuable exception of Bourne & Hollingsworth, by 1966 almost all the properties still in Berners ownership were clustered north of Eastcastle Street and west of Newman Street.

Today the Berners interests are known as the Berners-Allsopp Estate, Geoffrey Berners’ only daughter Patricia Ann having married Michael Allsopp. The family’s scatter of Marylebone properties is managed in tandem with farms at Little Coxwell, Berkshire, which the family bought after Geoffrey Berners sold Woolverstone Park in 1937."

Some other ideas:

• the Agricultural Depression in the 1930s ....

• Geoffrey Berners liked fox-hunting, and Shotley Peninsula was not good hunting country, although I have seen a photo of the Woolverstone Otter Hounds from about 1900, but I guess you don’t go charging across the countryside after those!

• The inter- war years saw Death Duties rise.

• He only had one daughter as offspring – maybe wanted something a bit easier to manage and felt it was time to ‘downsize’.