Bayswater

Post to the north Westbourne Park - Royal Oak

      This post is not finished has not been checked or edited

Bark Place

Bayswater

An area originally known as Baynard Watering 1380 on the crossing of the Westbourne and Oxford Road.  Baynard family lived there.  One of William the Conqueror’s lot. ‘Bayard’s Watering Place’ 1380, ’Bayard’s Watering’ 1652, ‘Bayeswater ‘1659, probably "the watering place for horses', from Middle English 'bayard' - a 'bay chestnut horse' and watering. Alternatively, Bayard may be a surname (from the same word) bestowed as a nickname on an early landowner or even on some manorial officer who had charge of the watering place, which was where the road to Oxford crossed the Westbourne Brook

There were still only a few houses at this spot at the end of the 18th century. This was originally a village around Lancaster Gate but has expanded now to mean a wider area – Notting Hill/Westbourne Park/ Paddington/ Marble Arch.  Area developed by Edward Orme from 1809.

Bayswater Road

Swan

Chapel of the Ascension.

Guards Cemetery of St George’s

Bedford Gardens

One of a series that map out with textbook clarity the three main c19 building campaigns in Kensington. One of the first streets to be laid out in the area - by William Hall, age 20, in 1822.

4 Home of Frank Bridge 1879-1941. plaque says 'composer and musician, lived here’. 

Brunswick Gardens

Laid out in the grounds of Sheffield House.

Campden Hill Road

By 1837 established as an alternative thoroughfare to Church Street.

Airlie Gardens very tall gabled houses by Spencer Chad-wick, 1878, built to exploit the excellent views from the upper storeys.

The Mount, luxury flats by Douglas Stephen & Partners, 1961-4, 

18, West House, built in 1876 for George Henry Boughton by Shaw.  

Campden Street

One of a series that map out with text-book clarity the three main c19 building campaigns in Kensington

70 among the earlier house the later Victorian and Edwardian decades have left their mark.  Converted to flats in 1989-90, is the former Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting, 1910 by T. Phillips Figgis; 

Chepstow Place

Clanricade Gardens

Built by Goodwin and White on a 99-year lease on site of Campden Place, Pitts Cottages and Anderson's Cottages.  Belonged to Parochial Charities.

Denbigh Road

Notting Hill, the northern part of the Borough of Kensington with its Portobello Road street market and its annual carnival, is a colourful meeting-place for people from all over the world and a focal point of urban problems - run-down property intermingled with high-rise development, overcrowding, inadequate community facilities, racial tensions. Methodism's response to the racial disturbances of 1959 was a group ministry based on the church in Lancaster Road and the Denbigh Road Ecumenical Centre. The latter seeks to foster new approaches to the problems and pressures of urban life by providing a place where local people and groups can encounter one another and discuss their differences and common interests. Here, if anywhere, is the Church Relevant.

Hillgate Place

Densely packed terraces built in 1851 to house the servants in houses residents nearby.  They were soon in multi-occupation and became a slum. 

Hillgate Street

Inverness Terrace

Inverness Court Hotel.  Built as a private house. hides an Edwardian theatre by Mewes & Davis, c. 1905. 

Group Ministry and Methodist centre.  Earliest Methodist International House

Kensington Church Street

Gravel pits top end.  Silver Street/Camden Street junction site of tollgate.  Top end was called Silver Street

Buildings dominate from the L.C.C. redevelopment scheme of 1962 by Cotton, Bollard & Blow.

205 Kensington Place Restaurant. 

Vicarage Court 1934.

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Palace. so called from the early 18th century; the former Jacobean mansion, called The Park  House. 1664 and later Nottingham House from the 2nd Earl of Nottingham who lived here. completely reconstructed for William III and Queen Mary when they bought it in 1690.  Victoria born there in 1819 and became queen there in 1837.  Rebuilt by Wren.  London Museum for a bit. Stone lion and unicorn on the pillars on the Kensington Road entrance.  Hold the arms of William of Orange with an escutcheon of pretence for Orange.

Queen Victoria Statue done by her daughter Princess Louise.  1893 portrays Victoria at the time of her succession.

Sunken Dutch garden with lime trees.  three old lead cisterns.   

Orangery by Wren 1705, or possibly Vancruga for Queen Anne and a notable example of the brickwork of the period place. Grinling Gibbons carvings.

Millionaires Row.  And closed to commercial traffic in the 1940s.

Palace Green at the south end is modern.

Statue of William III presented by the Kaiser I. in the middle of the gravel walk leading up to the palace.  Bewigged and hatted King William III who, in the 1690s, commissioned Wren to build Kensington Palace (formerly Nottingham House) because he hated stuffy old Whitehall Palace down by the Thames in Westminster.

Churchill statue

Broad Walk was the boundary of the gardens but extended under Queen Anne.

Queen’s Gate entrance. Bronze group of does and fawns P.Rouillard 1919

Kensington Palace Gardens

12a Nepalese Embassy by Burton.  A Renaissance mansion 

13 Embassy of the Russian Federation.  built in 1851-4 it is one of the largest houses in the road. its odd appearance was created by the first owner, Lord Harrington, with the help of his estate surveyor,  C.J. Richardson.  It was originally topped with a Gothic belfry, removed in 1924.  

15 Stables.  Now a separate house.  Set back also by Knowles.  Sir Alfred Beit

15A is by David Brandon, 1852-4.  Nigerian High Commission

Kensington Mall

Mall Chambers, a five-storey block of flats in a Venetian Gothic style, built in 1865-8 by James Murray as 'model dwellings' for respectable women with small incomes, 

Kensington Place

Densely packed terraces built in 1851 to house those employed by wealthy residents nearby.  

13/14 West.  Ledbury Garage, l866/1910.  LGOC horse bus depot.  Thackeray added a brick garage with entrance over the archway from Ledbury Mews West and Lampton Place.  1977 Motor Co. private buses, 1930s Skylark Motor Garage Co., Green Line etc. taxi 1977.

Lansdowne Road

Ledbury Mews

Mall

Leinster Square

Attributed to George Wyatt.  1856-9, contemporary with similar developments in neighbouring North Kensington.  Terraces of the back-to-front type, opening on to the communal garden.

Linden Gardens

Pleasant Retreat

Moscow Court flats

Moscow Road

The name may be merely commemorative, recalling a visit by Tsar Alexander I in 1814, but there seems to be an even closer connexion between the area and at least one of the Russian cities, as gravel from the pits nearby is said to have been exported soon afterwards, to be used in the building of roads in St Petersburg. 

The Greek Cathedral Church of Aghia Sophia. Orthodox Cathedral of Western Europe.since 1932.  1877 Byzantine tradition.  Since very earliest Greek Orthodox tradition 1667.  

Notting Hill Gate

This refers to the main Uxbridge Road and to the toll gate on it at Notting Hill and beside the Kensington Gravel Pits. and was known as such and marked thus on the  Ordnance Survey map of 1822, earlier the ‘Gravilpits 1654, Kinsington’. The toll gate itself was set up in the mid 18^th and was at the corner of Pembridge Road, then Portobello Lane and was rebuilt twice during its existence. Cottages and other buildings began to be replaced by shops once the railway was opened. In the late 1950s road widening destroyed much of the area. 

Cabmen’s shelter

Nottinghill Gate Station. 1^st October 1868. Between Holland Park and Queensway on the Central Line, and between High Street Kensington and Bayswater on the Circle and District Lines. Opened  by the Metropolitan Railway when they opened a junction at Edgware Road and Paddington to take trains down to Kensington and a junction with the District at South Kensington. In 1900 the Station took trains on the Central London Railway . In 1959 the two stations were rebuilt as one and linked together via a subway – originally they were on either side of the road. Westbound Central Line platform is above the eastbound platform because of the narrowness of the roads above, have to stay along the roads for cheapness and no property owners above.  This station at the greatest depth in the line 110'.  Electric substation at the bottom of the lift shaft and this was unsuitable equipment at the time was not ok.  Fed current to track 550V.  Rebuilt in 1950s. The District and Central were linked together in 1959. 

The Harp.  'Best modern pub in London' classically simple, splendid back bar.  

Czechoslovak Centre 1969.  

26-55 terrace of 1824 now obscured by projecting shop- fronts.  Built as workers' housing when this area was still intensely dug for gravel

All Saints.  William Wilson architect.  Tower four stages, bombed 2WW.

Flats - comprehensively redeveloped in 1962 for the L.C.C. by Cotton Bollard & Blow, 

Notting Hill Coronet, A lonely survivor opened in 1898 and converted for cinema use in 1916.  It was designed by W.G.R.  Sprague and is one of the few suburban theatres to survive relatively untouched.  Exterior with loose classical detail with Baroque swags and pilasters; well-preserved interior with excellent plasterwork.  Features in films 'Notting Hill’.

Keillers Marmalade Ad painted on a wall

Notting Hill

Aubrey House. Owned by the family that started Alexander's Discount Bank in the City in the last century.  In the eighteenth century when it had its own farm, Aubrey House was the home of the eccentric Lady Mary Coke.  The farm and most of the extensive grounds have now been built on, but there is still a huge secret walled garden, completely invisible Orchards and nice,

Notting Hill Carnival is one of the biggest, brightest, and noisiest carnivals in London.  The streets are full of people dancing and singing.  Everyone dresses up for the occasion in amazing costumes and there are bands, floats, side- shows and lots, lots more.  It's held on the three days over August Bank Holiday and it's great fun to join in

Wells House and moved as an 18th retreat. 

Nottinghill House.  1612 was Knotting Barns.

Notting Hill High Street

Racecourse Nottinghill Station opposite 1837-41 grassy knolls for the sightseers which the church is now on.

Widened bit at the top of Kensington Church Street Kensington Gravel pits

Orme Square

Called after Mr. Orme a print seller who owned the land and who instigated local development.  Made money selling Kensington gravel to the Tsar.  Built all these Russian named roads.  Laid out c. 1818, earlier than anything else in Bayswater. 

1 Sir Rowland Hill 1795-1879  'Postal reformer and originator of the Penny Post. lived here' Hill lived at Orme Square from 1839 to 1844 and in Hampstead from 1849 to 1879. 

Monument with an eagle on a double Tuscan column. Purpose has never been elucidated. May commemorate the visit of Czar Alexander I 1814 but it is not a Russian eagle.

Palace Court

The most interesting corner of Paddington for late Victorian domestic architecture. The street was a favourite address for aesthetes and collectors c. 1890.

Red House. The first house to set the tone. demolished. 

10-12 the most notable remaining buildings are a pair by J. M. McLaren, who died young in 1890. It was commissioned by the shipping magnate Sir Donald Currie for his two married daughters, 

8, the Yellow House. Now Westmorland Hotel and much altered inside. 1892 by George & Peto for Percy MacQuoid, the furniture expert and Collector. Terracotta-faced; rather reticent detail.

47 Built  for Wilfred Meynell by Leonard Stokes, in 1889. Plaque to Alice Meynell. 1847-1922)  Alice nee Thompson, born in Barnes, London was a minor poet of the day.she started a rehabilitation scheme for poets and writers suffering from alcohol and drug abuse. Amongst these was the poet Francis Thompson, her cousin. Plaque erected 1948.

Palace Gardens Terrace

Laid out in the grounds of Sheffield House.

61 home of Percy Wyndham Lewis. 1882-1957.  

Palace Green

2 Thackeray

Peel Street

One of a series that map out with textbook clarity the three main c19 building campaigns in Kensington.  Some exquisite preserved terraces from the 1820s.  Pretty.

Pembridge Square

Built 19th by Jenkins from Herts - local name from there.

Pembridge Villas

7 Frith artist

8/7 duplex apartment with central enclosed garden on three levels with retractable skylight within an 1820s villa. Gianni Botsford 2006

Pembridge Court Hotel Heath sadistic murders l946.

Porchester Hall.

Paddington Baths 1929.  Rebuilt baths when part became Whitleys.

Portobello farm.  1739.

Porchester Gardens

Rookes Crompton house early electrical illumination.  1879

Prince’ Square

1856-9, contemporary with similar developments in neighbouring North Kensington. Terraces of the back-to-front type, opening on to the communal garden.

Bayswater nee Edward. ??? Grade II listed pub owned by Hall & Woodhouse. The island bar is surrunded by a comfortably carpeted saloon with old prints and flock wallpaper.

Queensway

Used to be a country lane called Queens Road.  Called Blackman Lane. Named in honour of Queen Victoria.  Apparently she used to ride along it on a horse when she was a child!  The main shopping street further

Coburg Court Hotel above the underground.  Bombed.

134 First launderette - Britain's first coin-operate opened on 9th May 1949.  In classic bed sitter land at the north end of Queensway opposite Whitley’s premises operated by Brookford Launderettes. 

162 British Railways Office. Demolished.  This was a pre-war British Railways which was a consortium of railway companies.  This was a walk in booking and parcels office. 

Parkston Hotel.  Was next door.  Bombed flat

Princess Court

Queens Court on site of cottages pulled down in the 1920s.  Ice rink there.

Queensway Station. 30^th July 1900. Between Notting Hill Gate and Lancaster Gate on the Central Line. The Station was opened on the Central London Railway as ‘Queens Road’ at the junction of Bayswater Road and Queensway. Station design by Harry Bell Measures. In 1946 it was renamed ‘Queensway’

Whitley’s.  a shopping precinct created in 1985-9 by the Building Design Partnership within the shell of 'the universal provider', the famous store established by William Whiteley on site until 1981. Whiteley founded his shop on Westbourne Grove in 1863 and was to buy up 15 other shops in the street. Already by 1867 it had expanded to seventeen departments. By 1900 when he employed a staff of 6,000 there were frontages also to Queensway. It also had a laundry at Hammersmith and a market garden at Hanworth. Whitley himself was shot by his illegitimate son in January 1903.  There was a major rebuilding in 1908-12 by Belcher & Joass although the older buildings remained behind the frontage until the 1980s. Thus was a metropolitan design never fully at ease in the neighbourhood. A steel frame was fronted in granite frontage with tiers of columns And a circular recessed entrance. The store was bombed in one of the last rocket attacks of the Second World War. In  1927 it was bought by Selfridges and 1939 the John Lewis Partnership. 

Porchester baths . On the corner of Porchester Terrace from 1874.  Burnt down 1887 and couldn't get reinsured.

Bayswater Station. 1^st October 1868. Opened by the Metropolitan railway on a line intended to take trains down to Kensington. 

Salem Road,

10 is a warehouse transformed into offices and flats by CZWG, 1975-6, an early example of modern bravado. A cheerfully vulgar exterior of pink brickwork jazzed up by eclectic trimmings - pantiled roofs, ironwork

St.Petersburg Place

Built by Orme to commemorate visit of the Allied Sovereigns in 1814.  

Terrace later c19 red brick terrace in Arts and Crafts style reflecting the mood of Palace Court.

St.Matthew's Church was the Bayswater Chapel

New West End Synagogue.High Victorian style by Audsley,  lighting by George Aitcheson.

The Mall?

Model dwellings 1868 by Morton Peto