Can a lease which is void at law be enforced in Equity?

In a line of cases commencing with Parker v. Taswell (1858), 2 DeG. & J. 559 (L.C.) it has been consistently held that a lease which is void at law can be treated in a court of equity as an agreement to grant a lease and specifically enforced on that basis. In Parker, the provisions of the Real Property Act 1845 (U.K.) had provided that a lease exceeding three years made otherwise than by a deed was void “at law”. The Lord Chancellor stated: The legislature appears to have been very cautious and guarded in language, for it uses the expression "shall be void at law". If the legislature had intended to deprive such a document of all efficacy, it would have said that the instrument should "be void to all intents and purposes". There are no such words in the Act. I think it would be too strong to say that because it is void at law as a lease, it cannot be used as an agreement enforceable in Equity, the intention of the parties having been that there should be a lease, and the aid of Equity being only invoked to carry that intention in to effect.