The Racks

The land now bounded by Notting Hill Gate, Kensington Church Street, Campden Hill Road and Sheffield Terrace was known as the Racks in olden days. It was part of the lands of Campden House in the early 18th Century. It was then bought by the Phillimore family. In 1774 Robert Phillimore gave the property to his younger son, Joseph Phillimore, a vicar in Leicestershire. In 1808 Joseph sold the Racks by auction for £6,790.

Ten and a half acres were bought by John Jones of Harley Street. In 1810 John Jones sold his land to John Johnson, a builder from Westminster who used the land as a brick field to service developments in the surrounding area. In 1829 he transferred most of his land to his sons John Johnson and William Johnson, who carried on the family building business. In 1839 the Johnsons leased their brickfield to Benjamin and Joseph Clutterbuck, who were professional brickmakers.

John Johnson the younger died in 1848 and his estate was inherited by his brother William. He started selling off plots to repay debts. He also granted Joseph Clutterbuck, who had taken over the business on his own, building leases in part of the area. Clutterbuck, or builders appointed by him, were responsible for the construction of Farm Place (formerly Earnest Street), Calcott Street (formerly William Street), Hillgate Street (formerly Johnson Street), Farmer Street (formerly Farm Street), Jameson Street (formerly St James or James Street) and Hillgate Place (formerly Dartmoor Street).

Clutterbuck died in about 1851. Over 200 houses were built in the following decade, with a large number of individual builders constructing a few houses each. Most of the houses in this area were put in multiple occupation and it was really close to being a slum.

The other portion of the Racks sold by auction by Joseph Phillimore In 1808 – fourteen and a half acres – were bought by Alexander Ramsay Robinson, a local developer. He sold some off to the West Middlesex Waterworks Company where Edge Street was later built. in 1822 he sold the rest to Henry Chandless, a speculator.
Chandless sold half the land he had bought on to two Marylebone builders, John Punter and William Ward. (Chandless made a good profit. But it then turned out that he was under 21, so the buyers had to wait until he reached adulthood before he could sign the documents to give them ownership).

Punter and Ward ended up with the land on which they laid out Peel Street and Campden Street. Punter took Peel Street for development and Ward took Campden Street.
Chandless sold the remainder of the land he’d bought from Robinson to another Marylebone builder, William Hall, On the land he had bought, Hall constructed Bedford Garden (known as Bedford Place at the time). These had rather deeper plots than Punter and Wards’ houses in Peel Street and Campden Street, some of which are less than 50 feet in depth.


This article first appeared on the now defunct Kensington Living website. All rights and copyright to the original material is retained by that website which appeared at: http://www.kensingtonliving.co.uk 

Leave a Reply