Named for Kingswood House, built by William Vizard in 1811-12 in the middle of an estate of 75 acres, for which he paid £300 rent a year. In 1892 John Lawson Johnston (‘Mr Bovril) was granted a lease of it, and after World War One the Vestey family took over, remaining there until after World War Two. The estate, or what had not already been built on at its fringes, was taken over by the local authority, and in 1956 Kingswood House was re-opened as the new Kingswood Centre. The various blocks of flats on the estate take their names from men associated with the old College foundation before 1858. Kingswood Drive itself was named in 1891.
