CHAPTER VI - Campden Hill Square Area
Among the lands which were sold by
(Sir) Walter Cope to Robert Horseman
in 1599 (see page 25) was a twenty-acre
farm known by the name of Stonehills. In 1618
this farm, which was situated on steeply rising
ground to the south of the Uxbridge road (now
Holland Park Avenue), was conveyed by Horseman's
son to James Necton, who appears to have
been a cousin, and Thomas Bedingfield, both of
Gray's Inn. The transaction was probably in the
nature of a mortgage for Necton and Bedingfield
entered into a bond to sell back the land on
repayment with interest of the stated purchase
price of £455, but the bond was later cancelled
and Necton retained the property, Bedingfield
relinquishing his interest. (ref. 1) In 1642 John Halsey
of Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, purchased
the freehold reversion of the farm from Necton,
and the land remained in the ownership of the
Halsey family until it was bought by (Sir) Edward
Lloyd in 1750. (ref. 2) Lloyd, who came from Flintshire,
was then deputy to the Secretary-at-War. (ref. 3)
He was created a baronet in 1778. When he died
in 1795, he left his property to his wife for her
lifetime and then in an entailed line of descent
through his great-nephew Sir Edward Pryce
Lloyd, who was later created Baron Mostyn. (ref. 4)
By 1819 the Lloyds wished to dispose of their
property in Kensington, and to enable them to sell
it they set aside the entail in a series of transactions
whereby the land was conveyed to the joint use of
Sir Edward Pryce Lloyd and his son and heir,
Edward Mostyn Lloyd. (ref. 5) A small piece of copyhold
land in the north-east corner of their estate was
also freed from entail at the same time, (ref. 6) and a further
two and a half acres bordering the turnpike
road, which had been formerly part of the waste
of the manor of Abbots Kensington and were
held on lease from Lord Holland, were purchased
in fee simple in 1819. (ref. 7) (fn. a)
A substantial part of the land was sold in 1820,
but the largest portion, consisting of over thirteen
acres which was advertised for sale as building
ground in that year, (ref. 9) was not disposed of until
1823. It was originally contracted for by Edward
Pain, a wax chandler of Soho, but he did not
complete the purchase and, with his approval,
the land was sold to Joshua Flesher Hanson, a
property speculator, in March 1823. (ref. 10) The extent
of the Lloyd family's holdings and the various
purchasers are shown on fig. 11.
Aubrey House
Plate 42a, 42b
The first building on the site of Aubrey House,
and possibly still structurally the core of the present
building, was a house attached to a medicinal
spring which was discovered in the area and called
Kensington Wells. This was completed by 1698
under a fifty-year lease granted to John Wright, a
'Doctor in Physick', John Stone, an apothecary,
and two others. (ref. 11) Dr. Benjamin Alien's The
Natural History of the Chalybeat and Purging
Waters of England, published in 1699, contained
an analysis of the water from the spring on account
of its 'being made Illustrious by the Town, in
which his Majesty hath been pleased to fix his
Mansion Palace'. (ref. 12) John Bowack, writing in
1705, said the place was 'much esteem'd and
resorted to for its Medicinal Virtues'. (ref. 13) The
property passed through several hands until in the
1730's it was held by Jeffrey Gillingham the elder
of Hammersmith, a pinmaker. By this time it
consisted of various ancillary buildings besides
the main house, including a 'large room' and a
'Brew House', although whether still resorted to
for its health-giving waters is not known. The
elder Jeffrey Gillingham assigned the property to
Jeffrey Gillingham the younger, also a pinmaker. (ref. 14)
In 1744 the lease was assigned to (Sir)
Edward Lloyd, who six years later purchased the
freehold from Frederick Halsey together with the
rest of Halsey's property in the area. (ref. 15)
Figure 11:
Campden Hill Square area, showing the land by the Lloyd family in 1820 and its later sub-divisions. Based on
the Ordnance Survey of 1894–6
It was almost certainly Lloyd who transformed
the house into the mansion we recognize today.
The evidence of various editions of Rocque's
map of the environs of London and his map of
Middlesex indicates that wings were added between
1745 and 1754 and the present north
front appears to date from about the same period.
Although Lloyd was paying rates on the house in
1766 (ref. 16) he was no longer living there early in
1767, when the mansion was occupied by Richard,
Lord Grosvenor, later created first Earl
Grosvenor.
In June 1767 the house was taken by Lady
Mary Coke, the daughter of the second Duke of
Argyll, and she lived there until 1788. During her
occupancy several alterations were made, but
almost entirely to the interior. In 1767–9 a 'Mr.
Phillips', probably John Phillips, the master
carpenter, undertook several commissions here
and in 1774–5 'Mr. Wyatt', probably James
Wyatt, whose Pantheon Lady Mary much admired,
remodelled a room in the house. (ref. 17) (fn. b) Little,
if anything, has survived of these alterations.
After Lady Mary Coke the house was occupied
by a succession of tenants and was used for a time
as a school. (ref. 18) By 1819 it was empty and appears to
have remained so until 1823, when it was included
in the property purchased by Joshua Flesher
Hanson from the Lloyds. Hanson himself occupied
the house, then known as Notting Hill House,
for a short while, but by the end of 1824 he was
no longer living there. (ref. 16) In 1827 he sold the
house and grounds to Thomas Williams, a former
coachmaker, who already held substantial property
on the Phillimore estate on lease and had purchased
some land from the Lloyds. (ref. 19) Williams
paid £3,750 and, in view of Hanson's propensity
for building speculation, may have saved the house
from demolition. Williams did not live there himself
but let the house to Mary and Elizabeth
Shepheard, who used it as a boarding-school for
young ladies from 1830 until 1854. (ref. 20) He retained
the kitchen-garden, however, and built a house on
it called Wycombe Lodge (see page 99).
Williams died in 1852 and by his will (ref. 21) ordered
that a large part of his property including Notting
Hill House should be sold. His executors carried
out his wishes in 1859 when James Malcolmson,
who lived in Moray Lodge to the south, bought
the house for £5,400. (ref. 22) Malcolmson's aim in
securing the property seems to have been solely
to add part of the garden to that of Moray Lodge
and shortly afterwards he let the house, with its
grounds somewhat truncated, to Peter Alfred
Taylor, M.P. (ref. 23) By this time the mansion was
known as Aubrey House, no doubt after Aubrey de
Vere, who held the manor of Kensington at the
time of the Domesday survey. In 1863, Malcolmson
having died, Taylor purchased the house
from the trustees of his estate with the appropriated
pieces of garden restored. (ref. 24)
Peter Alfred Taylor was M.P. for Leicester
from 1862 until 1884 and was a noted champion
of radical causes. His wife Clementia was also
famous as a philanthropist and champion of
women's rights. They were closely involved in the
movement for Italian liberation and Mazzini was
a frequent visitor to Aubrey House. (ref. 25) In 1873
Taylor sold the house to William Cleverley
Alexander, an art collector and patron of Whistler. (ref. 26) <Whistler advised Alexander on the redecorating of the three inter-communicating rooms along the south front of the house in 1873 (see Linda Merrill, The Peacock Room, 1998, pp.151-3).>
During the nineteenth century many alterations
were made to the house and the interior was
considerably remodelled. The wings were altered
and extended and at one time a heavy Victorian
doorcase was inserted into the north front, now
happily replaced with the more appropriate
pedimented doorcase which can be seen today. (fn. c)
Campden Hill Square
Joshua Flesher Hanson, who purchased the largest
share of the former Lloyd estate (see fig. 11), was
involved in several developments in Kensington.
Besides the Campden Hill Square area, he was also
active on the Ladbroke estate, in Peel Street, and
at Hyde Park Gate. Before moving to Kensington
he had promoted the building of Regency Square,
Brighton, which was begun in 1818. (ref. 28) No
doubt it was this precedent which prompted him
to make a similar square the central feature of his
plans for the land he had bought from the
Lloyds, and many of the techniques he used in
Brighton were repeated.
In 1826 a plan showing the layout of an intended
square to be called Notting Hill Square
was submitted on behalf of Hanson to the Westminster
Commission of Sewers by George
Edward Valintine, an architect and surveyor
with an address at Furnival's Inn. (ref. 29) The basic
features of the plan appear to have been derived
from Regency Square. In both cases terraced
houses were ranged round three sides of a rectangular
garden enclosure with a north-south
axis, the open side in Brighton being the southern,
or sea, end and in Kensington the northern, or
turnpike road, end. Similarly, the row of houses
on the side opposite to the open end was extended
in each case to east and west beyond the building
lines of the long north-south sides. These comparable
features suggest that the basic concept of
Campden Hill Square (its name was changed from
Notting Hill Square in 1893) was Hanson's.
Little is known about Valintine besides the
fact that he exhibited paintings at the Royal
Academy in 1819–21, and the extent of his role
in the development of Campden Hill Square is
uncertain. He made the application to build the
main sewers and submitted the initial requests to
lay drains from individual houses in 1826. (ref. 30) He
may also have provided designs for some of the
first houses to be erected, in particular Nos. 2 and
52, the only double-fronted houses in the square
(fig. 12). The first occupant of No. 2 was
Hanson himself, who lived there from 1828 until
1830 when he sold the house. (ref. 31) No. 52 was not
tenanted until 1831, when Hanson let it on a
twenty-one-year lease at a rack rent of £84,
but it was apparently originally intended to be
let to Valintine, who as early as 1825 had obtained
a mortgage on the security of an agreement for a
lease of a house which other transactions suggest
was to be No. 52; for some reason the lease was
never executed. (ref. 32)
Hanson granted some long-term leases, but
he also used methods which were less typical of
speculations in London. The first houses to be
erected were apparently built under contract,
and some of these were sold freehold as soon as
they had been completed. Many sites were sold
before building had commenced, and in these cases
the conveyances were accompanied by agreements
and covenants binding the purchasers to
observe certain stipulations. In this way the sites
of Nos. 16–20 were sold in 1826 to Thomas
Williams, the coachmaker who was soon to buy
Aubrey House, and two years later Williams also
purchased the sites of Nos. 15 and 23. (ref. 33) In 1830
all of the sites which had not yet been built on
(and some finished houses) were sold to Rice Ives
of St. Marylebone, a wine merchant. (ref. 34) After this
date the active prosecution of the development
passed to Williams and Ives, and Hanson disposed
of his remaining interest in Campden Hill
Square in 1839 to settle a mortgage debt of
£5,000. (ref. 35)
The exact stipulations imposed by Hanson
when selling undeveloped parts of the square are
not now known, but the gist of them can be deduced
from subsequent deeds. An area twenty-five
feet deep in front of each house built was to be
reserved as a garden, and no shrubs or trees were
to be planted there which would grow to a height
of more than three feet above the ground floor,
nor were any fences to be erected above a similar
height. Bow windows were allowed to be built on
to the houses provided that they did not project
more than three feet beyond the general building
line. Above the ground floor the brickwork of the
façades was to be left exposed and not covered
with stucco or composition. Hanson, on his part,
agreed to lay out the garden enclosure, and the
owners and occupiers of the houses in the square
together with their friends and servants were to
have the right to use it on payment of a proportion
of the costs of upkeep (see below). There
was also reference in several of Ives's subsequent
leases to the existence of a 'plan or ground plot'
of the square according to which houses were to be
built. (ref. 36) These stipulations are similar in many
respects to those which accompanied conveyances
of houses in Regency Square. (ref. 28)
Rice Ives died in 1832 and left his property in
trust for his infant son, also named Rice Ives. (ref. 37) He
had taken out a mortgage for £3,000 on his
property in Campden Hill Square and by assignment
this was vested in John Murdoch and
Joseph Venables, hat manufacturers. (ref. 38) By his
will, Ives's trustees were empowered to sell any
part of his property to settle his debts and they proceeded
to sell most of the house sites in the square.
The sites for Nos. 9–12 and 42–47 were divided
between Murdoch, Venables and their solicitor,
Thomas Randall of Holborn. They, in turn,
granted conventional long-term building leases of
the houses to Christopher Howey, a local builder. (ref. 39)
Mortgages entered into by Howey (ref. 40) show
that a substantial part of the money for their construction
was provided by Murdoch, Venables
and Randall themselves. The site of No. 13 and
the ground on the south side to the east of No. 15
were purchased by Thomas Williams, (ref. 41) so that
when Rice Ives the younger came into his inheritance
in 1845 the only parts of the square
which remained in his hands were the south side
to the west of No. 23, mostly still undeveloped,
and two older houses, Nos. 1 and 3, which had
also been purchased by his father from Hanson.
The division of the freehold complicated the
building history of the square and its development
was slow and uneven, spanning a period of twenty-five
years from the reign of George IV to that
of Victoria. According to the ratebooks fifteen
houses (Nos. 1–5, 8, 16–19 and 49–53) had
probably been completed by 1830. Five years
later Nos. 6–7, I 5 and 20–25 had been added.
The remaining houses on the east side (Nos.
9–13) were all occupied by 1840 and those on the
west side (Nos. 42–47) by 1842. On the south
side No. 14 had been finished by 1841. Nos. 26,
27 and 28 were built after 1845, and a lease of
No. 28, which was the last house to be completed
before later rebuildings, was not granted until
1851. (ref. 42) No. 18 was rebuilt in 1887–8 to the
designs of J. T. Newman, (ref. 43) and Nos. 24–28
were rebuilt after the war of 1939–45 as a result
of war damage, at which time Nos. 29 and 30
were added. No. 41, which faces Aubrey Road,
although it is numbered in Campden Hill Square,
was designed by T. P. Figgis in 1929. (ref. 44) Several
of the original houses have been substantially altered.
The system of numbering employed for the
square is puzzling. The high numbers for houses
on the west side were settled by 1835 (ref. 16) but it is
difficult to see how a total of fifty-three house
sites could have been fitted into the three sides
even with the extended south side. In the event,
for all of the nineteenth century and part of the
twentieth there were no houses to which numbers
between 28 and 42 could be assigned.
Although it is not possible to determine the
builder of each house in the square, for several
were built under contracts which have not survived,
the main builder was evidently Christopher
Howey. His name can be definitely connected
with twenty-one houses (Nos. 5, 6, 9–12,
15, 19, 23–28 and 42–48) and he probably built
others; his activity spans the whole building history of the square, for he was involved in the
initial building activity in the 1820's and he took a
building lease of No. 28 in 1851. (ref. 45) Other builders
whose names are known were William Jones and
Son of High Street, Kensington (Nos. 4 and 7)
and John Robert Butler of Uxbridge Street
(No. 20). (ref. 46)
Even the houses with which Howey was associated
show considerable variations in detail, and
the present somewhat unsatisfactory appearance
of the square as an architectural unit is not entirely
the result of subsequent alterations. It is difficult
to estimate how far Hanson originally planned a
uniform composition, for even in Regency
Square, Brighton, which presents superficially a
more unified treatment, there are differences in
detail between groups of houses. The surviving
pilasters on the much altered Nos. 19 and 20 in
the centre of the south side of Campden Hill
Square suggest that, together with the now rebuilt
No. 18, the façades of these houses may have been
treated as one architectural unit similar to that in
the centre of the north side of Regency Square.
The sites for these houses were sold by Hanson
before building began, however, and they were not
all by the same builder, or, apparently, completed
at the same time, which suggests that they may
have been built to an existing design. There is also
a suggestion of symmetry in the comparison of
Nos. 1 and 2 on the east side with Nos. 52 and 53
on the west, but the remaining houses vary widely
and reflect the long period over which the square
was built and the lack of central control which the
dispersal of the freehold made inevitable, despite
the covenants insisted on by Hanson. It may be
significant that the square was begun at a time of
financial depression for the building industry,
and the difficulty of securing capital was probably
a factor in preventing the rapid completion of the
development.
Such homogeneity as does exist is achieved by
similar materials, proportions and scale. The
houses are generally of three storeys with, in some
cases, basements, and have stock-brick façades,
mostly rendered on the ground floors, rising to
simple stone or stucco copings on the parapets.
Some houses have cast-iron balconies set above
the top string of the rendering, and there are
fanlights over the doors, especially elegant in
Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6 and 15. On the west side some
attempts were made by the introduction of stucco
architraves around the window openings to provide
fashionable Italianate detail. No. 52 is perhaps
the most architecturally distinguished individual
house. It is double-fronted with slightly projecting
bays and a Doric porch. The same bay design,
an unusual rectangular projection with curved
corners set back, is also found at No. 2, the other
double-fronted house, and at Nos. 50 and 51,
which are single-fronted. Despite the lack of
architectural unity in the square, an exceedingly
picturesque effect is created by the combination
of the mature trees, the mellow brickwork of the
house fronts stepping sharply down the hill and
the attractive ironwork in the railings and gates
of the central garden (Plate 42c, 42d).
Figure 12:
No. 52 Campden Hill Square, elevation and plans
For the upkeep of the garden enclosure in the
centre, Hanson established a five-man committee,
consisting of four members who were to be elected
by residents of the square and he himself as a life-member.
All lessees or purchasers of houses were
required to pay a proportionate share of the expenses.
One of the prominent early members of the
committee and for many years its treasurer was
Stephen Garrard, a lawyer who lived at No. 18
from 1828 until 1853 and who was professionally
involved in several of the property transactions
of both Hanson and Thomas Williams. He was
subsequently concerned in the development of
Pembridge Square and Pembridge Gardens (see
page 262). Hanson appears to have taken no part
in the committee's proceedings after 1832, and
until the 1860's it only consisted of four persons. (ref. 47)
Nos. 11–27 (odd) Holland Park Avenue
The site on which No. 11 Holland Park Avenue
(Linton House) stands was at the eastern edge of
the property Hanson purchased from the Lloyds.
In 1830 he sold the plot to the Reverend Hibbert
Binney of Paddington, (ref. 48) who built a detached
house on it known as Mound House. In 1877 a
preparatory school called Linton House School
was established there, the house itself being used
as the headmaster's residence and new school
buildings erected in the garden at the rear. (ref. 49) The
present Linton House, a block of flats designed
by T. P. Bennett and Son, replaced the school
in c. 1936. (ref. 50)
The remaining frontage of Hanson's property
along the turnpike road was developed in conjunction
with Campden Hill Square. Two terraces
of four houses each were built, forming in effect
short return wings to the square. Both were substantially
completed by 1830, (ref. 16) although many
of the houses have since undergone considerable
alterations or possibly rebuildings.
Nos. 23–27 (odd) Holland Park Avenue
(Plate 43a) form an architectural group similar to
Nos. 2–6 (even) and 24–28 (even) on the north
side of the street, which were built as part of
Hanson's development on the Ladbroke estate.
The main differences are that the group consisting
of Nos. 23–27 is nine windows wide rather than
seven, the giant unfluted tetrastyle Doric order
of the central house (No. 25) is not in antis, and
the columns are slightly more slender. There is
also a difference in the treatment of the attic
storey and the crowning pediment. A ninety-nine-year
lease of Nos. 23–27 was granted by
Hanson to James Clift, a solicitor, in 1827, (ref. 51) and
the date 1829 inscribed in Roman letters on the
entablature of No. 25 probably indicates the year
in which the fa¸ades were completed; all three
houses were occupied by 1831. (ref. 16) Robert Cantwell,
who was later surveyor to the Norland estate,
is associated with the two groups on the north side
of the road (see page 197), and it is significant that
he was living in the house which is now numbered
21 Holland Park Avenue in 1830–1. (ref. 16)
Aubrey Road and No. 29 Holland Park
Avenue
Aubrey Road (Plate 43c) was laid out primarily
as a service road for the houses on the west side
of Campden Hill Square and was not given its
name until the 1840's. In 1826 Hanson granted
a ninety-nine-year lease of a 'cottage' on the west
side of the road (now No. 7 Aubrey Road) to
Richard Lovekin of Cold Bath Square, a victualler, (ref. 52) (fn. d)
but the remaining land between the
cottage and Aubrey House (or Notting Hill House
as it was then called) remained undeveloped until
it was sold by Hanson in 1841 to James Hora, a
surgeon. (ref. 53) This was the last piece to remain in
Hanson's hands of all the property he had purchased
from the Lloyd family in 1823.
Hora died shortly afterwards and his wife and
eldest son, as trustees under his will, (ref. 54) employed
Henry Wyatt, an architect, (fn. e) to develop the
property. A plot to the north of the front garden
of Notting Hill House was already on lease to
Mary and Elizabeth Shepheard, the lessees of the
mansion, and could not be used immediately, but on
the remaining land Wyatt built six 'Gothic' villas
between 1843 and 1847 under ninety-nine-year
leases. (ref. 56) Now Nos. 1–6 (consec.) Aubrey Road,
these were originally called Aubrey Villas. No. 4
is the best preserved, although No. 6 has an ornate
bargeboard and No. 2 still has some Perpendicular windows. The rest have been considerably
altered and No. I was refronted in c. 1913. (ref. 57)
No. 6A was added in the 1960's. Aubrey Lodge
was built in 1861–3 by George Drew of Rosedale
Villas, Notting Hill, (ref. 58) on the piece of ground
formerly let to the Shepheard sisters, but it has
since been substantially altered and has lost the
cornices and stringcourses from the front elevation.
The most remarkable house in Aubrey Road
was Tower Cressy, built in 1852–3 for Thomas
Page, the engineer who designed Westminster
Bridge. The site was part of the property Hanson
had sold to Rice Ives in 1830 and was purchased
by Page in 1854, after his house had been erected,
together with the freeholds of Nos. 24–28
Campden Hill Square, from Rice Ives the
younger. The tall structure dominated its surroundings
until it was damaged during the war
of 1939–45 and demolished shortly afterwards.
The builder was John Cowland of Portland
Road. (ref. 59)
The site on which No. 29 Holland Park
Avenue stands had never formed part of the
Lloyd family's property but consisted of a small
triangular piece of land to the east of Holland
Walk which was part of the Holland estate (see
fig. 15). This accounts for both the irregular
shape of the house and the constricted entrance to
Aubrey Road. For several years the ground was
let to the occupant of No. 7 Aubrey Road for use
as a garden, but in 1851 Lord Holland granted a
ninety-year lease to Nathaniel Dando of No. 6
Aubrey Road which allowed him to build a house
to the value of £800. The house, which was not,
in fact, erected until 1863, is double-fronted with
segmental bays that rise from the basement to
second-floor level and are enriched with balustrades
of stucco. The upper three floors are of
brick, with stucco quoins and a modillioned
cornice. The builder was George Drew. (ref. 60)
Aubrey Walk
Formerly an approach road to Aubrey House,
Aubrey Walk was originally called Notting Hill
Grove and was given its present name in 1893.
When Campden Hill Square was laid out the sites
of the houses on the south side of the square extended
as far as Aubrey Walk and several coach-houses
and stables were built on the north side of
the road. Towards the end of the century most of
these were converted into, or replaced by, studio
residences. Of these, No. 26 is a four-storey
composition of eclectic elements having open stairs,
arcades of red brick and large studio windows.
It was originally built in 1888 to the designs of
J. T. Newman (ref. 43) as a stable and coach-house combined
with a studio at the rear of the rebuilt No
18 Campden Hill Square, but has since undergone
some alterations.
Nos. 2–6 (even) Aubrey Walk, which are
three-storey Georgian houses of stock brick with
stuccoed ground storeys, were built on land
purchased by Hanson. No. 6 was the first to be
completed under a ninety-nine-year lease granted
by Hanson to John Edward Cowmeadow, a coal
merchant, in 1826. Cowmeadow took the house
for his own occupation and was living there by
1827. He was also the lessee of Nos. 2 and 4,
for which Hanson granted him a similar lease in
1829; they were finished by the following year. (ref. 61)
Cowmeadow's venture into the field of property
was clearly not made from a position of financial
security for in 1831 he was excused from paying
rates 'on Account of numerous Family and his
wife now Lying-in'; later in the year the rate
collector noted 'Family in great distress'. (ref. 16)
Hillsleigh Road
Hillsleigh Road (known as New Road until 1910)
was formed on the east side of Campden Hill
Square partly to serve the same function as Aubrey
Road on the west, i.e. to provide access to
stables and coach-houses at the rear of houses in
the square (Plate 43d). A strip of land about fifty-five
feet wide was, however, left between the
eastern side of the road and the boundary of
Hanson's land, and on this three houses were built
under leases granted to John Ogle, esquire, in
1829. (ref. 62) Two of these, No. 19 (Ness Cottage)
and the much-altered No. 20, have survived. The
site of the third is now occupied by Nos. 17 and
18, originally built as one house in 1897–8. (ref. 63)
An addition made to No. 20 in 1902 to the
designs of W. Hargreaves Raffles recalls the work
of C. F. A. Voysey in its white rendered exterior,
low casements, and canopied entrance door in
Campden Hill Place. (ref. 64)
Although numbered in Hillsleigh Road, Hill
Lodge (No. 14) is really situated on the south side
of Campden Hill Square. Its site was purchased
by Thomas Williams in 1839 (see page 91) and
the house was completed by 1842. The builder
was John Brunning of Gray's Inn Road. (ref. 65) The
house has been much altered, but still possesses
stucco pilaster strips, at the top of which brackets
carry wide eaves. The north front is symmetrical,
with a central segmental bow front and moulded
architraves.
Campden Hill Place and
Nos. 1–9 (odd) Holland Park Avenue
Thomas Brace, who paid £1,200 for the property
which he purchased from the Lloyds in 1820
(see fig. 11), (ref. 66) was a partner in the legal firm of
Brace and Selby of Surrey Street, Strand. Two
houses were standing on the land, one, which he
took for his own occupation, on the site of No. 3
Campden Hill Place, and the other on the site of
No. 1 Holland Park Avenue. The latter appears
to have been rebuilt in 1820–1 and called Rose
Bank, while another house, No. 3 Holland Park
Avenue (originally called Ivy Bank), was erected
at the same time. (ref. 16) (fn. f)
Brace died in 1836 or 1837 and by his will
instructed that his property in Kensington should
be sold whenever his trustees 'shall think fit' and
the proceeds divided between his four children. (ref. 67)
His trustees and executors were his two eldest
sons, George and Thomas, who carried on their
father's business, and Robert Hodson of Oxford
Street, gentleman. They decided to develop the
property and by 1843 the house Brace had occupied
had been demolished and plans drawn up by
Mortimore Timpson, a St. Pancras builder, who
was also involved in the development of the Norland
estate. (ref. 68) Three houses facing the Uxbridge
road and a terrace of nine houses on the east side
of a private cul-de-sac were envisaged. Timpson
built the houses facing the Uxbridge road, now
Nos. 5–9 (odd) Holland Park Avenue, under
leases granted in December 1843, (ref. 69) but, apart
from the formation of the private road, the rest of
the development was not carried out.
Brace's third son, Edward, who was a captain
in the service of the East India Company,
eventually acquired Campden Hill Place from
his father's trustees (ref. 70) and had three detached
houses built on the east side instead of the nine
originally planned. No. 1 (South Bank Lodge) was
begun in 1851 for Frederick Wehnert, an
architect who was shortly to enter into a flourishing
partnership with John Ashdown. (ref. 71) Wehnert
was granted an eighty-five-year lease by Edward
Brace in 1852, and presumably designed his own
house, (fn. g) which is an asymmetrical Gothic villa
consisting of two storeys over a basement. The
builders were Messrs. Thomas and Son of Bloomsbury. (ref. 73)
Nos. 2 and 3 Campden Hill Place (Plate
43b), which are two-storeyed double-fronted
villas in an Italianate style, were not built until
1862, when Edward Brace granted leases for
seventy-five and three-quarter years (to bring
their terms into line with that for No. 1) to the
local builder George Drew; Thomas Brace the
younger was Drew's mortgagee. (ref. 74)
Campden Hill Gardens, Nos.
101–111 (odd) Campden Hill
Road and Nos. 147–155 (odd)
Notting Hill Gate
Evan Evans, who bought the second largest share
of the Lloyd estate (see fig. 11), was formerly a
grocer in New Bond Street but had lived for some
years in a house standing on copyhold land at the
north-west corner of Plough Lane (now Campden
Hill Road). His purchase included a large house
with extensive grounds called Wycombe House,
which appears to have dated back to at least the
mid eighteenth century and may have originally
been the farmhouse of Stonehills farm. (ref. 75)
Evan Evans died in 1825 and left his property
in trust for his great-nephew Robert Evans, whose
father was carrying on the family grocery business.
When Robert Evans came into his inheritance in
1828 he was also described as a grocer of New
Bond Street. (ref. 76)
Apart from the sale of the site of St. George's
Church to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in
1863 (see below) Robert Evans did not exploit the
potential value of his land as a site for speculative
building until 1869. What may have prompted
him then, besides the existence of the newly built
church, was a decision by the Kensington Vestry
to widen Plough Lane. This necessitated the
demolition of Evan Evans's former house and
opened up the opportunity for building along the
frontages of the newly widened road and High
Street, Notting Hill. By August 1869 plans had
also been drawn up for building on the site of
Wycombe House (fn. h) and grounds. (ref. 77) In May 1870
Evans secured the enfranchisement of his copyhold
from Lady Holland (ref. 78) and building proceeded
rapidly.
The house plot at the corner of Campden Hill
Road (the name was changed as soon as road widening
had been completed) and High Street, Notting
Hill was sold to Richard Swain, the occupant of
the house which had been demolished. (fn. i) The
present building comprising No. 111 Campden
Hill Road and No. 147 Notting Hill Gate (the
name was changed from High Street, Notting
Hill in 1935) was erected there in 1870. Although
the firm of Temple and Foster was involved
in its construction, (ref. 80) the building is similar
to Nos. 149–159 (odd) Notting Hill Gate, which
were built under ninety-nine-year leases granted
by Evans in September 1870 to John Reeves of
Kensington Park Road and George Butt of
Ladbroke Road, both builders. Reeves was the
lessee of Nos. 149–153 and Butt of Nos. 155–159,
but the houses were built by them in partnership. (ref. 81)
At £25 per annum, the ground rent for
each house was somewhat high, no doubt reflecting
the fact that shops were provided on the
ground floors. These were the only houses built
under direct lease from Evans. Nos. 157 and 159
have been demolished as a result of war damage.
In 1871, when building was under way both
on the west side of Campden Hill Road and in
Campden Hill Gardens, Evans sold the freehold
of the rest of his property. (ref. 82) Reeves and Butt were
consenting parties to all of the transactions involved
and had probably initially contracted with
Evans to undertake the whole speculation. The
short terrace on the west side of Campden Hill
Road, Nos. 101–109 (odd), was sold to George
Butt together with Nos. 1 and 2 Campden Hill
Gardens; all seven houses were already under
construction. Butt was also the purchaser of the
sites of Nos. 22–26 (even) Campden Hill
Gardens.
Nos. 4–18 (even) Campden Hill Gardens
were sold jointly to William Childerhouse of
Paddington, a builder, and Jonathan Pearson of
High Street, Notting Hill, a wholesale ironmonger,
who were acting in partnership as
builders of these houses. (ref. 63) The site of No. 20
was originally purchased by Butt, who later conveyed
it to Childerhouse and Pearson. (ref. 83) They had
originally planned to use the site for the erection
of the end house of a terraced range of five and
had begun building operations there as early as
1870, but they were forced to stop when the
owner of Ness Cottage in Hillsleigh Road brought
a successful action against them for loss of light
and air. Eventually a low building containing two
studios was built c. 1895. (ref. 84)
The remaining ground in Campden Hill
Gardens, as yet unbuilt on, was sold to Jeremiah
Little, the builder who had been responsible for
several developments in Kensington. Little, who
died in 1873, left the actual building operations to
his son Alfred James Little, who, between 1871
and 1874, completed Campden Hill Gardens by
the erection of sixteen double-fronted houses, Nos.
28–36 (even) and Nos. 5–25 (odd), mostly
under ninety-year leases granted by his father. (ref. 85)
Nos. 32 and 34 have since been demolished as a
result of war damage.
The double-fronted houses in Campden Hill
Gardens built by Alfred James Little are of three
storeys over basements, symmetrically composed,
with three-sided bay windows of ornamental stucco.
They have dentilled cornices of stucco over
what are essentially brick fa¸ades, with urns
surmounting the party walls above the entablatures.
Apart from these houses Campden Hill
Gardens consists of tall terraces of stock brick with
much stucco enrichment, including richly moulded
cornices and stucco bay windows, all somewhat
coarsely proportioned and detailed.
The Church of St. George,
Aubrey Walk
Plate 17, figs. 13–14
In 1862 Archdeacon Sinclair, the vicar of St.
Mary Abbots, sought the general approval of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Bishop of
London for a new ecclesiastical district, to be
formed partly out of the district assigned to St.
Mary Abbots and partly out of that of St. John's,
Notting Hill. In this he had the support of the
Reverend J. P. Gell, the incumbent of St. John's.
One of the principal considerations Sinclair put
forward in support of his contention that a new
church was needed was that large-scale building
operations were being undertaken by William
and Francis Radford at the north end of Holland
Park. His first choice for a site was close to this
development but the Radfords and Lady Holland
could not agree on a location, and early in 1863 he
entered into negotiations for the purchase of the
land on which the church now stands. This was on
the property of Robert Evans, whose great-uncle
had purchased it from the Lloyd family (see fig.
11), and was then part of the garden of Wycombe
(Wickham) House. A formal conveyance of a
piece of ground measuring 130 feet by 90 feet
was made to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on
8 December 1863. £455 was paid to Robert
Evans for the freehold and £350 for the existing
leasehold interest. (ref. 84)
The church was built at the expense of John
Bennett of Westbourne Park Villas, evidently to
provide a living for his son George, who was the
first incumbent. The first stone was laid in February
1864. E. Bassett Keeling was the architect,
and the general contractors were George Myers
and Sons of Lambeth. The extensive ornamental
ironwork was made by Hart and Sons of Wych
Street. The Building News estimated that the total
cost, including the fittings and the architect's
fee of £500, was about £9,000. (ref. 87) <The architectural sculpture was by James Frampton and William Williamson.>
The new church, which had been designed to
seat 1,200, was consecrated on 23 November
1864. The consolidated chapelry which was assigned
to it in May 1865 stretched from the newly
built villas of the Radfords on the west to the
artisans' houses on either side of the northern
end of Kensington Church Street on the east.
The patronage was originally vested in John
Bennett and was transferred to the Bishop of
London in 1907. (ref. 88)
St. George's is orientated north-south, so that
the tower is on the south-east corner of the building.
The exterior of the church, like that of St.
Mark's, Notting Hill, is strange and wilful, in a
style which The Building News called 'continental
Gothic, freely treated'. In the centre of the
gabled 'west' front is a large pointed arch. Within
this is a circular opening, containing a deeply
recessed quatrefoil window, above two lancet
arches, each containing two lancet lights surmounted
by a small quatrefoil light. The stonework
between the openings is embellished with
carved capitals and mouldings. This complex
central feature is flanked by side windows, partly
concealed by the roof of the large cloistered porch
which provides the principal entrance to the
church. Five steeply pointed arched openings,
with massive dwarf columns and carved capitals,
pierce the south wall of the porch, entry to which
is gained through pointed arches at its east and
west ends. The roof was originally of blue slates
and red tiles in bands.
The tower, until recently surmounted by a
spire, is the sole survivor of the trio which
originally stood on Campden Hill, the other two
being the water tower and Tower Cressy, both
now demolished. It has no buttresses, and is faced
with stone in random courses, Bath stone quoins
and dressings, and bands of red sandstone. It is
lighted by stepped lancets on the lowest stage which
clearly indicate the presence of the gallery stair
within the tower-a device much favoured by
Bassett Keeling. There are triple lancets with
columns and foliated capitals on the second stage,
somewhat similar to those of St. Mark's, Notting
Hill, and paired lancets on the top stage, again
with columns and carved capitals. The original
broach spire, which was covered with slate in
bands and ornamented with lucarnes, was removed
as a result of damage sustained in the war
of 1939–45 and replaced by a pyramidal copper
cap in 1949 under the direction of Milner and
Craze. (ref. 89)
Figure 13:
St. George's Church, Aubrey Walk, plan
The external cloistered porch gives access to
three doors that open into the nave. The plan of
the church (fig. 13) is cruciform, with nave,
aisles, transepts, and originally a doubly recessed
apsidal chancel. The chapel on the liturgical south
side of the chancel was connected with the transept.
The vestry was on the liturgical north side
of the chancel with the organ chamber above. The
gallery stretched round from the 'south' to the
'north' transept, leaving an open space around the
organ and pulpit. There was much contemporary
objection to galleries, as they were thought to
detract from the architectural effect, so Bassett
Keeling gave special consideration to the form
of the open framing of the fronts (fig. 14). To the
contemporary writer, William Pepperell, who
thought the interior of the church was 'exceedingly
beautiful and original', the gallery was 'suggestive
of a conventional ship's side with the ports complete',
not an adverse criticism if we consider the
elegance of a nineteenth-century wooden ship.
The gallery fronts were regarded as being 'very
graceful', and yet 'sufficiently angular to be quite
in keeping with the style of the church', (ref. 90) but they
have been removed except for the portion in the
'west' end of the church. The framing of the
ceilings formed by the gallery floors was stained
and varnished, dividing the plastering into panels
the width of the pews above, so expressing the
disposition of seats.
The nave arcading, built with stone springers,
keys and corbels, has arches of red and black brick
voussoirs, notched at the arrises, carried on castiron
columns formerly exposed and decorated in
strong poly chrome. The interior of the church was
faced with yellow stocks relieved with blue, red
and black bricks, and Bath and red Mansfield
stone. The seventeen-foot-high columns rested
on brick and stone bases, and the gallery principals
were attached to them, about half way up, by
wrought-iron bands carried on cast-iron haunches.
A group of three columns takes the thrust of the
large transept arches, the springing blocks being
received in cast-iron dishes forming the now concealed
abaci of the capitals. William Pepperell
could think of no church where iron was better
treated, for the detail was 'sharp and clean', and
the columns, somewhat Moorish in appearance,
did not seem so slender as to look 'unequal to their
task of supporting the brick arches and clerestorey'.
He particularly admired the nave roof with its
'saw-tooth cut and intersecting ribs'. His comments
show how necessary the gallery was as an
aesthetic and structural tie between the columns of
the nave.
Contemporary critics noted Bassett Keeling's
originality, and some approved of the picturesque
effects. The Building News pronounced St.
George's to be one of the most successful attempts
of the 'modern school of Eclectic Gothic, and
though perhaps a little free in treatment, evidences
an appreciation of . . . continental Gothic which
is not too common'.
In 1885 a richly sculptured reredos was erected,
occupying three sides of the apse which had been
newly decorated. The reredos itself, by Forsyth,
was thirteen feet high in the centre, and had three
cusped Gothic arches enclosing representations
of the Crucifixion, St. Michael and St. George
(Plate 17b). (ref. 91)
Figure 14:
St. George's Church, Aubrey Walk, gallery front
St. George's, like St. Mark's, Notting Hill, is
an expression of that aggressive and somewhat
barbarous style which Bassett Keeling evolved.
The originality of thought which is very evident
in his work is especially apparent in his use of
colour, and the bold polychrome must once have
been a tour de force of interior design.
As a result of a series of alterations beginning
in the late nineteenth century, the highly personal
character of the church has been lost, although
its remains may just be discerned in what
is left. The brickwork has been whitened, and
the black and blue bricks have been painted over;
the cast-iron columns have been cased-in to make
them resemble stone piers, and the apse, which had
glass by Lavers and Barraud (Plate 17b), has
been demolished. The nave arcades, the jagged
saw-toothed nave principals, and the west gallery
front are the only surviving parts with Bassett
Keeling's personal style still discernible.
Grand Junction Water Works
Company Site
Thomas Williams and Sir James McGrigor,
who in 1820 bought the two adjoining parcels of
land indicated on fig. 11, (ref. 92) were both living in
large houses which had recently been erected on
the Phillimore estate immediately to the south
(see page 70). In each case the plots which
they purchased from the Lloyds were used as
extensions to the grounds of those houses. When
Williams also acquired Aubrey House in 1827
he separated off its kitchen garden, which lay
immediately to the west of the piece of land he
had secured from the Lloyds and to the north of
part of his leasehold holdings on the Phillimore
estate. On the site he built a substantial house
called Wycombe Lodge, which was completed
by 1829 when the first occupant, the Dowager
Marchioness of Lansdowne, took up residence. (ref. 16)
In 1843 Sir James McGrigor, who had moved
to Harley Street, wanted to sell his property, and
the Grand Junction Water Works Company,
which was looking for a high-level site for a reservoir,
agreed to purchase it for £6,500. Although
only the freehold part of McGrigor's land was
needed for a reservior, the company also had to
acquire his leasehold house and garden on the
Phillimore estate. From 1859 until 1877 this
was occupied by Alexander Fraser, who was firstly
assistant engineer and later engineer to the company.
The reservior, which was completed by
1845, is no longer in use and its site is now (1972)
being built over. (ref. 93)
Under the provisions of the Metropolis Water
Act of 1852 all reservoirs within five miles of
St. Paul's Cathedral had to be covered, and when
the company undertook the necessary work at
Campden Hill in 1857–8 it also expanded its
facilities by building a pumping station and tower
(Plate 36a). The contractor for the work was
John Aird of Southwark and the designs were
provided by Alexander Fraser. Although Joseph
Quick, who was consulting engineer to the company,
was given the credit for the designs in the
journals of the day, his role seems to have been
confined to supervising the work of Fraser. (ref. 94) the
brick-built tower with its spare Italianate ornament
was a conspicuous feature of the district for
over a century, and even when first built it was
well received. The Companion to the Almanac for
1858 thought that the works of the Grand Junction
Water Works Company were especially
worthy of notice 'from their having added a
conspicuous architectural feature. . . in the shape
of a not inelegant tower'. The Building News
thought that all the buildings 'admirably express
the massive solidity of purpose for which they are
specially adapted'. (ref. 95) . The tower was demolished
in 1970.
In 1868 the company extended its premises to
the west by purchasing the land which Thomas
Williams had bought from the Lloyd family and
the former kitchen garden of Aubrey House on
which Wycombe Lodge then stood. Both plots
were owned by Charles Magniac, who had purchased
them from Williams's executors in 1866.
As in the case of the land which it had secured in
1843, the company had to take an assignment of
some leasehold land on the Phillimore estate.
This was a plot which had been leased to Williams
in 1817 and was used as an extensive garden for
Wycombe Lodge. The company paid Magniac
£12,000 and also had to pay another £4,500 to
buy out the current occupants who held the property
under leases granted by Williams. Wycombe
Lodge was demolished and additional covered
reservoirs were built by John Aird and Sons on the
newly acquired freehold land in 1868–9. (ref. 96) The
covered top of the reservoir is now used as tennis
courts and the leasehold property, which the
company was unable to use for permanent works,
was added to the garden of Moray Lodge and now
forms part of the site of Holland Park School.
In 1904 the freehold property of the Grand
Junction Water Works Company was acquired
by the Metropolitan Water Board when it took
over the company's undertakings.