Westbourne Park Road, W11

Road in/near Westbourne Park, existing between the 1860s and now.

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Road · * · W11 ·
July
1
2016
Westbourne Park Road runs between Notting Hill and the Paddington area.

This part of the Ladbroke estate was the last to be developed. In 1847, a convent of the Poor Clares was established at the south-western end of what is now Westbourne Park Road, in its own large walled garden. At the time, the site was described by the journal Building News as a ‘dreary waste of mud and stunted trees’, apart from ‘a melancholy half-built church’ (All Saints in Talbot Road) and ‘a lonely public house’ (the Elgin). The street was at first called Cornwall Road though the section nearest to Ladbroke Grove, ’Somerset Road’.

For more than a decade, the convent and the pub remained alone. It was a period of financial crisis for developers, and it was not until the early 1860s that any other buildings were erected.

The first houses to be built on the southern side (apart from the convent) were Nos. 305-317 (odds), dating from around 1860, as the 1861 census records three occupied houses next to the Castle pub, and four of the seven are already shown on the 1863 Ordnance Survey map. The map shows no front gardens or front areas, and they were clearly built to have shopfronts on their ground floors. The builder was Paul Felthouse, who also built the Castle pub next door.

In 1863, a further terrace of residential houses was built on this side, between Kensington Park Road and the convent (175-207 odds Cornwall Road and then Nos. 319-351 odds Westbourne Park Road). This terrace and the convent were demolished in the 1970s to make room for the new Council estate on this side.

The northern side consists mainly of one long terrace of half-stucco houses with decorative coursing in the stucco. They all were all built with porches and have either flat or triangular architraves above their first floor windows. They stand three storeys high and have basements and front lightwells, with tiny front gardens.

Where there was a public house, the tendency was to start building next to the pub (which often served as a sort of office for the builders) and the first houses to be built on the northern side were the current Nos. 336-352 (evens), the present No. 354 being part of the pub. They appear on the 1863 Ordnance Survey map but not in the 1861 census, and a deed in Kensington Central Library (No. 26094) indicates that they been built around 1860-61. On completion they were let on 99-year leases for ground rents of 7-8 guineas. Between Nos. 316 and 318 there is an archway through to Elgin Mews.

This first part of the terrace forms a near symmetrical whole. The five houses nearest the pub (Nos. 344-352) and the last four houses (Nos. 316-322) stand slightly forward of the others, as “bookends”. They also have flat topped architraves above their first floor windows (although not all survive), whereas the intervening houses have triangular ones (although again most are missing). The rest of the terrace (Nos. 282-320) was probably built shortly afterwards. This was from the beginning a much less prosperous area than the streets further south. Already by 1871, most of the houses were accommodating two or three households and there were very few live-in servants.


Main source: Ladbroke Association
Further citations and sources


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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Comment
PETER FAIRCLOUGH   
Added: 10 May 2021 14:46 GMT   

We once lived here
My family resided at number 53 Brindley Street Paddington.
My grandparents George and Elizabeth Jenkinson (ne Fowler) had four children with my Mother Olive Fairclough (ne Jenkinson) being born in the house on 30/09/1935.
She died on 29/04/2021 aged 85 being the last surviving of the four siblings

Reply
Lived here
David Jones-Parry   
Added: 7 Sep 2017 12:13 GMT   

Mcgregor Road, W11 (1938 - 1957)
I was born n bred at 25 Mc Gregor Rd in 1938 and lived there until I joined the Royal Navy in 1957. It was a very interesting time what with air raid shelters,bombed houses,water tanks all sorts of areas for little boys to collect scrap and sell them on.no questions asked.A very happy boyhood -from there we could visit most areas of London by bus and tube and we did.

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Comment
charlie evans   
Added: 10 Apr 2021 18:51 GMT   

apollo pub 1950s
Ted Lengthorne was the landlord of the apollo in the 1950s. A local called darkie broom who lived at number 5 lancaster road used to be the potman,I remember being in the appollo at a street party that was moved inside the pub because of rain for the queens coronation . Not sure how long the lengthornes had the pub but remember teds daughter julie being landlady in the early 1970,s

Reply
Lived here
   
Added: 22 Aug 2023 12:31 GMT   

Hampden Street, W2
My great great grandparents William and Hannah Playford lived at 60 Hampden Street from the mid 1880s when they moved from rural poverty in Norfolk to inner city hardship in Paddington and where all their children were born. My great grandfather was a road sweeper and sold cat meat. They had seven children in all, of whom five survived infancy: three boys who all volunteered for the army at the outbreak of WW1 and miraculously returned via Salonika, France and a German POW camp; and two daughters, the eldest of whom was my great grandmother, Annie Playford b 1888. She had an illegitimate daughter in 1910, my grandmother Hilda Sarah Catherine. She brought her up singlehandedly and assumed a false married name to conceal her (then socially unacceptable) status as a single mother. In fact she never married and would never tell my grandmother anything about her father. Because of her longevity (she died in 1986) I remember Annie very well. As a child I perceived her as grumpy, uncommunicative, unsocial and a voracious eater. Of course as an adult I realised this was borne from pride loneliness, ill health, a grim determination to survive, and hunger. Somehow she did survive on her own as a single parent, despite lack of family support and serious deprivation. She worked three back breaking menial cleaning jobs over many years to make ends meet. With the advent of DNA I now know the identity of my grandmother’s father which she always dearly wished to know herself. She used to ask her mother if she loved her. The answer: "I kept you, didn’t I?" In the context of the times, I think that says it all. I only wish nanny was still here so that I could tell her all about her father.

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Tony Whipple   
Added: 16 Apr 2024 21:35 GMT   

Frank Whipple Place, E14
Frank was my great-uncle, I’d often be ’babysat’ by Peggy while Nan and Dad went to the pub. Peggy was a marvel, so full of life. My Dad and Frank didn’t agree on most politics but everyone in the family is proud of him. A genuinely nice, knowledgable bloke. One of a kind.

Reply
Comment
Theresa Penney   
Added: 16 Apr 2024 18:08 GMT   

1 Whites Row
My 2 x great grandparents and his family lived here according to the 1841 census. They were Dutch Ashkenazi Jews born in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 19th century but all their children were born in Spitalfields.

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Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

Reply

Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply



LOCAL PHOTOS
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Notting Hill
TUM image id: 1510169244
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Pembridge Road (1900s)
TUM image id: 1556889569
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Bosworth Road, W10
TUM image id: 1453369722
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

Click an image below for a better view...
Children of Ruston Close This road was the renaming of Rillington Place. Even after renaming, this street, where notorious murders had taken place, proved too much to avoid subsequent demolition.
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The Tabernacle is a Grade II*-listed building in Powis Square, W11 built in 1887 as a church. Photographed here in 2010.
Credit: Asteuartw
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Duke of Cornwall, Ledbury Road W11, around 1990. Later the Ledbury restaurant, holder of two Michelin Stars
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St Peter's Notting Hill
Credit: Asteuartw
Licence: CC BY 2.0


SARM Studios, a recording studio, was established by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. They were originally known as Basing Street Studios. It has also been known in the past as Island Studios. SARM is an aconym of Sound and Recording Mobiles. At the studios, built inside a former church that had been deconsecrated, Blackwell recorded a number of artists there for Island Records, such as Iron Maiden, Bob Marley, Steve Winwood, Free, Bad Company, Robert Palmer, Jimmy Cliff, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, John Martyn, Mott the Hoople, Quintessence, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Sparks, Cat Stevens, Spooky Tooth, Traffic, If, Jethro Tull, the Average White Band, and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
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Arundel Gardens
Credit: Barbara Avis
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Chippenham Mews (1959) This photo was taken by a Swiss maid who worked in the area during the late 1950s. Chippenham Mews lies behind Harrow Road running from Chippenham Road to Marylands Road. Building had been begun in the 1860s with substantial terraces near Harrow Road. The area did not attract the upper classes that were expected and parts of the area came to suffer from cramped layouts and houses.
Credit: Gregoire Ming
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Great Western Road (1959) Great Western Road, which runs past Westbourne Park station, replaced a lane called Green Lane. The bridge over the railway, pictured here, was known as Green Lane Bridge until the 1860s - maybe later.
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People gather to hear speakers urge the people of Portobello Road to resist the 1957 Rent Act. This is on the corner with Blenheim Crescent which has seen little major change to the buildings between then and now. https://jamesrmacdonald.wordpress.com
Credit: Alisdair Macdonald
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The Cabbie’s Hut at the end of Kensington Park Road near the junction with Pembridge Road. From approximately this point, the footpath to the short-lived Kensington Hippodrome (1837-1840) led to the racecourse
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