Ansleigh Place, W11

Road in/near Notting Dale, existing between the 1870s and now.

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Road · Notting Dale · W11 ·
MARCH
14
2022
Ansleigh Place is an ex mews to the west of Notting Dale.

Originally the stable house accommodation for the main houses on Stoneleigh Street, the primary purpose of the Mews properties is now residential. When the London Poverty Maps were published in the late nineteenth century, the area was noted as having a mixture of normal living conditions and lower than the average household salary.

During the Second World War, a high explosive bomb fell onto Treadgold Street, north-east of the mews.

The 1987 film ‘Withnail & I’ used Ansleigh Place as a filming location.




Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence


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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY


Roy Batham   
Added: 7 Jan 2022 05:50 GMT   

Batham Family (1851 - 1921)
I start with William Batham 1786-1852 born in St.Martins Middlesex. From various sources I have found snippets of information concerning his early life. A soldier in 1814 he married Mary Champelovier of Huguenot descent By 1819 they were in Kensington where they raised 10 children. Apart from soldier his other occupations include whitesmith, bell hanger and pig breeder. I find my first record in the 1851 English sensus. No street address is given, just ’The Potteries’. He died 1853. Only one child at home then George Batham 1839-1923, my great grandfather. By 1861 he is living in Thomas St. Kensington with his mother. A bricklayer by trade 1871, married and still in Thomas St. 1881 finds him in 5,Martin St. Kensington. 1891 10,Manchester St. 1911, 44 Hunt St Hammersmith. Lastly 1921 Census 7, Mersey St. which has since been demolished.

Source: Batham/Wiseman - Family Tree

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Lived here
Tom Vague   
Added: 9 Sep 2020 14:02 GMT   

The Bedford family at 3 Acklam Road (1860 - 1965)
From the 19th century up until 1965, number 3 Acklam Road, near the Portobello Road junction, was occupied by the Bedford family.

When the Westway construction work began the Bedfords sold up and moved to south London. In the early 1970s the house was taken over by the North Kensington Amenity Trust and became the Notting Hill Carnival office before its eventual demolition.

Anne Bedford (now McSweeney) has fond memories of living there, although she recalls: ‘I now know that the conditions were far from ideal but then I knew no different. There was no running hot water, inside toilet or bath, apart from the tin bath we used once a week in the large kitchen/dining room. Any hot water needed was heated in a kettle. I wasn’t aware that there were people not far away who were a lot worse off than us, living in poverty in houses just like mine but families renting one room. We did have a toilet/bathroom installed in 1959, which was ‘luxury’.

‘When the plans for the Westway were coming to light, we were still living in the house whilst all the houses opposite became empty and boarded up one by one. We watched all this going on and decided that it was not going to be a good place to be once the builders moved in to demolish all the houses and start work on the elevated road. Dad sold the house for a fraction of what it should have been worth but it needed too much doing to it to bring it to a good living standard. We were not rich by any means but we were not poor. My grandmother used to do her washing in the basement once a week by lighting a fire in a big concrete copper to heat the water, which would have been there until demolition.

‘When we moved from number 3, I remember the upright piano that my grandparents used to play �’ and me of sorts �’ being lowered out of the top floor and taken away, presumably to be sold. I used to play with balls up on the wall of the chemist shop on the corner of Acklam and Portobello. We would mark numbers on the pavement slabs in a grid and play hopscotch. At the Portobello corner, on one side there was the Duke of Sussex pub, on the other corner, a chemist, later owned by a Mr Fish, which I thought was amusing. When I was very young I remember every evening a man peddling along Acklam Road with a long thin stick with which he lit the streetlights.’ Michelle Active who lived at number 33 remembers: ‘6 of us lived in a one-bed basement flat on Acklam Road. When they demolished it we moved to a 4-bed maisonette on Silchester Estate and I thought it was a palace, two toilets inside, a separate bathroom that was not in the kitchen, absolute heaven.’



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Born here
Susan Wright   
Added: 16 Sep 2017 22:42 GMT   

Ada Crowe, 9 Bramley Mews
My Great Grandmother Ada Crowe was born in 9 Bramley Mews in 1876.

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Fumblina   
Added: 27 Mar 2021 11:13 GMT   

St Jude’s Church, Lancefield Street
Saint Jude’s was constructed in 1878, while the parish was assigned in 1879 from the parish of Saint John, Kensal Green (P87/JNE2). The parish was united with the parishes of Saint Luke (P87/LUK1) and Saint Simon (P87/SIM) in 1952. The church was used as a chapel of ease for a few years, but in 1959 it was closed and later demolished.

The church is visible on the 1900 map for the street on the right hand side above the junction with Mozart Street.

Source: SAINT JUDE, KENSAL GREEN: LANCEFIELD STREET, WESTMINSTER | Londo

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Fumblina   
Added: 27 Mar 2021 11:08 GMT   

Wedding at St Jude’s Church
On 9th November 1884 Charles Selby and Johanna Hanlon got married in St Jude’s Church on Lancefield Street. They lived together close by at 103 Lancefield Street.
Charles was a Lather, so worked in construction. He was only 21 but was already a widower.
Johanna is not shown as having a profession but this is common in the records and elsewhere she is shown as being an Ironer or a Laundress. It is possible that she worked at the large laundry shown at the top of Lancefield Road on the 1900 map. She was also 21. She was not literate as her signature on the record is a cross.
The ceremony was carried out by William Hugh Wood and was witnessed by Charles H Hudson and Caroline Hudson.

Source: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1623/images/31280_197456-00100?pId=6694792

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Added: 17 May 2023 11:50 GMT   

Milson Road (1908 - 1954)
My grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents the Manley family lived at 33 Milson Road from 1908 to 1935. My grandad was born at 33 Milson Road. His parents George and Grace had all four of their chidren there. When his father Edward died his mother moved to 67 Milson in 1935 Road and lived there until 1954 (records found so far, it may be longer). Before that they lived in the Porten Road. I wonder if there is anyone that used to know them? My grandad was Charles ’Ted’ Manley, his parents were called George and Grace and George’s parents were called Edward and Bessie. George worked in a garage and Edward was a hairdresser.

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Joan Clarke   
Added: 2 Feb 2021 10:54 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens
My late aunt Ivy Clarke (nee Burridge) lived with her whole family at 19 Avondale Park Gardens, according to the 1911 census and she was still there in 1937.What was it like in those days, I wonder, if the housing was only built in 1920?


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Admin   
Added: 26 Aug 2022 12:17 GMT   

TV comes to Olympia
Over 7000 people queued to see the first high definition television pictures on sets at the Olympia Radio Show. The pictures were transmitted by the BBC from Alexandra Palace, introduced by Leslie Mitchell, their first announcer.

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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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Dave Fahey   
Added: 6 Jan 2021 02:40 GMT   

Bombing of the Jack O Newberry
My maternal grandfather, Archie Greatorex, was the licensee of the Earl of Warwick during the Second World War. My late mother Vera often told the story of the bombing of the Jack. The morning after the pub was bombed, the landlord’s son appeared at the Warwick with the pub’s till on an old pram; he asked my grandfather to pay the money into the bank for him. The poor soul was obviously in shock. The previous night, his parents had taken their baby down to the pub cellar to shelter from the air raids. The son, my mother never knew his name, opted to stay in his bedroom at the top of the building. He was the only survivor. I often wondered what became of him.

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Brenda Newton   
Added: 5 Jun 2021 07:17 GMT   

Hewer Street W10
John Nodes Undertakers Hewer Street W10

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Comment
   
Added: 30 Dec 2022 21:41 GMT   

Southam Street, W10
do any one remember J&A DEMOLITON at harrow rd kensal green my dad work for them in a aec 6 wheel tipper got a photo of him in it

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ken gaston   
Added: 16 Jan 2021 11:04 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens
My grandmother Hilda Baker and a large family lived in number 18 . It was a close community and that reflected in the coronation celebration held on the central green . I grew up in that square and went to school at Sirdar Road then St. Clements it was a great place to grow up with a local park and we would also trek to Holland Park or Kensington Gardens .Even then the area was considered deprived and a kindergarden for criminals . My generation were the first to escape to the new towns and became the overspill from London to get decent housing and living standards .

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Lived here
Scott Hatton   
Added: 11 Sep 2020 15:38 GMT   

6 East Row (1960 - 1960)
We lived at 6 East Row just before it was demolished.

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danny currie   
Added: 30 Nov 2022 18:39 GMT   

dads yard
ron currie had a car breaking yard in millers yard back in the 60s good old days

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT


Matthew Proctor   
Added: 7 Dec 2023 17:36 GMT   

Blackheath Grove, SE3
Road was originally known as The Avenue, then became "The Grove" in 1942.

From 1864 there was Blackheath Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on this street until it was destroyed by a V2 in 1944

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Peter   
Added: 4 Dec 2023 07:05 GMT   

Gambia Street, SE1
Gambia Street was previously known as William Street.

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Eileen   
Added: 10 Nov 2023 09:42 GMT   

Brecknock Road Pleating Company
My great grandparents ran the Brecknock Road pleating Company around 1910 to 1920 and my Grandmother worked there as a pleater until she was 16. I should like to know more about this. I know they had a beautiful Victorian house in Islington as I have photos of it & of them in their garden.

Source: Family history

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Comment
   
Added: 6 Nov 2023 16:59 GMT   

061123
Why do Thames Water not collect the 15 . Three meter lengths of blue plastic fencing, and old pipes etc. They left here for the last TWO Years, these cause an obstruction,as they halfway lying in the road,as no footpath down this road, and the cars going and exiting the park are getting damaged, also the public are in Grave Danger when trying to avoid your rubbish and the danger of your fences.

Source: Squirrels Lane. Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9. I want some action ,now, not Excuses.MK.

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Christian   
Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT   

Cornwall Road, W11
Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road.

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Vik   
Added: 30 Oct 2023 18:48 GMT   

Old pub sign from the Rising Sun
Hi I have no connection to the area except that for the last 30+ years we’ve had an old pub sign hanging on our kitchen wall from the Rising Sun, Stanwell, which I believe was / is on the Oaks Rd. Happy to upload a photo if anyone can tell me how or where to do that!

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Phillip Martin   
Added: 16 Oct 2023 06:25 GMT   

16 Ashburnham Road
On 15 October 1874 George Frederick Martin was born in 16 Ashburnham Road Greenwich to George Henry Martin, a painter, and Mary Martin, formerly Southern.

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Lived here
Christine Bithrey   
Added: 15 Oct 2023 15:20 GMT   

The Hollies (1860 - 1900)
I lived in Holly Park Estate from 1969 I was 8 years old when we moved in until I left to get married, my mother still lives there now 84. I am wondering if there was ever a cemetery within The Hollies? And if so where? Was it near to the Blythwood Road end or much nearer to the old Methodist Church which is still standing although rather old looking. We spent most of our childhood playing along the old dis-used railway that run directly along Blythwood Road and opposite Holly Park Estate - top end which is where we live/ed. We now walk my mothers dog there twice a day. An elderly gentleman once told me when I was a child that there used to be a cemetery but I am not sure if he was trying to scare us children! I only thought about this recently when walking past the old Methodist Church and seeing the flag stone in the side of the wall with the inscription of when it was built late 1880

If anyone has any answers please email me [email protected]

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NEARBY LOCATIONS OF NOTE
Bangor Street (1911) Bangor Street was a street in Notting Dale which disappeared after the Second World War.
Bangor Street (turn of 20th century) The St Agnes soup kitchen was situated on the corner of Bangor Street that this photo was taken from.
Corner of Bangor Street and Sirdar Road The location became the Dolphin Pub.
Dimco Buildings The Dimco Buildings housed the earliest (extant) example of an electricity generating station built for the London Underground.
Earl of Zetland The Earl of Zetland - a pub in the Potteries
Kenilworth Castle The Kenilworth Castle was a post-war pub in Notting Dale.
Kensington Hippodrome The Kensington Hippodrome was a racecourse built in Notting Hill, London, in 1837, by entrepreneur John Whyte.
Mary Place Workhouse Notting Dale Workhouse stood on the site of what is now Avondale Park Gardens,
Notting Dale From Pigs and bricks to Posh and Becks...
Postcode This is a postcode centred at latitude 51.513, longitude -0.217
Ridler’s Tyre Yard Ridler’s Tyres was situated in a part of Blechynden Street which no longer exists
The Brittania The Brittania was situated on the corner of Clarendon Road and Portland Road, W11.
The Crown The Crown was situated at 57 Princedale Road.
White City bus station White City bus station serves the Westfield London shopping centre.

NEARBY STREETS
Ariel Way, W12 Ariel Way connects White City bus station with Shephard’s Bush.
Arthur Court, W10 Arthur Court is a block on Silchester Road.
Avondale Park Gardens, W11 Avondale Park Gardens, unlike other roads in the area, was developed in the 1920s when it was laid out on the former workhouse site.
Avondale Park Road, W11 Avondale Park Road is a street in Notting Hill.
Bangor Street, W11 Bangor Street, W11 was situated on the site of the modern Henry Dickens Court.
Barandon Street, W11 Barandon Street connected Lancaster Road with Latimer Road station.
Bard Road, W10 Bard Road lies in the area of London W10 near to Latimer Road station.
Blechynden Mews, W10 Blechynden Mews is a former side street in London W11.
Blechynden Street, W10 Blechynden Street is now a tiny street in the vicinity of Latimer Road station, W10
Bomore Road, W11 Bomore Road survived post-war redevelopment with a slight change in alignment.
Boxmoor House, W11 Boxmoor House is a block on Queensdale Crescent.
Bramley Mews, W10 Bramley Mews become part of a redelevopment of the area north of Latimer Road station in the 1960s.
Bramley Road, W11 Bramley Road is the street in which Latimer Road station is situated.
Bramley Road, W11 Bramley Road is a street in Notting Hill.
Camelford Walk, W11 Camelford Walk is a street in Notting Hill.
Centre House, W12 Centre House is a block on Wood Lane.
Charlotte Mews, W10 Charlotte Mews is one of London W10's newer thoroughfares.
Clarendon Cross, W11 Clarendon Cross is a street in Notting Hill.
Clarendon Road, W11 Clarendon Road is one of the W11’s longest streets, running from Holland Park Avenue in the south to Dulford Street in the north.
Clarendon Walk, W11 Clarendon Walk is a walkway in a recent Notting Dale development.
Cornwall Crescent, W11 Cornwall Crescent belongs to the third and final period of building on the Ladbroke estate.
Dale Row, W11 Dale Row is a street in Notting Hill.
Darfield Way, W10 Darfield Way, in the Latimer Road area, was built over a number of older streets as the Westway was built.
Darnley Terrace, W11 Darnley Terrace is a street in Notting Hill.
Depot Road, W12 Depot Road is a road in the W12 postcode area
Dixon House, W10 Dixon House is a block on Darfield Way.
Dulford Street, W11 Dulford Street survived the mass demolitions of the late 1960s.
East Mews, W10 East Mews was lost when the Westway was built. It lies partially under the modern Darfield Way.
Elgin Crescent, W11 Elgin Crescent runs from Portobello Road west across Ladbroke Grove and then curls round to the south to join Clarendon Road.
Evesham Street, W11 Evesham Street now runs west from Freston Road.
Fountain Park Way, W12 Fountain Park Way is a location in London.
Fowell Street, W11 Fowell Street, W10 was redeveloped in the 1970s.
Frederick Dobson House, W11 Frederick Dobson House is a block on Cowling Close.
Freston Road, W10 Freston Road is a street with quite a history.
Freston Road, W11 The southern end of Freston Road stretches over into the W11 postcode.
Frinstead House, W10 Frinstead House is a block on Freston Road.
Gorham Place, W11 Gorham Place is a street in Notting Hill.
Grenfell Road, W11 Grenfell Road follows the line of an old road: St Clement’s Road.
Grenfell Tower, W11 Grenfell Tower is a residential block in North Kensington.
Heathfield Street, W11 Heathfield Street was a side turning off of Portland Road.
Hesketh Place, W11 Hesketh Place runs between Walmer Road and Avondale Park Road.
Hippodrome Mews, W11 Hippodrome Mews is a turning off Portland Road, commemorating a lost racecourse.
Hippodrome Place, W11 Hippodrome Place was named after a lost racecourse of London.
Hunt Close, W11 Hunt Close is a street in Notting Hill.
Hurstway Street, W10 Hurstway Street ran from Barandon Street to Blechynden Street.
Hurstway Walk, W11 This is a street in the W11 postcode area
Kenilworth Street, W11 Kenilworth Street was demolished just after the Second World War.
Kenley Street, W11 Kenley Street, W11 was originally William Street before it disappeared.
Kenley Walk, W11 Kenley Walk is a street in Notting Hill.
Lansdowne Rise, W11 Lansdowne Rise, W11 was originally called Montpelier Road.
Latimer Road, W10 Latimer Road was named after Edward Latymer who endowed land for the funding of Hammersmith’s Latymer school in the early 17th century.
Lockton Street, W11 Lockton Street, just south of Latimer Road station is so insignificant that nary a soul know’s it’s there...
Markland House, W10 Markland House can be found on Darfield Way.
Martin Street, W10 Martin Street disappeared as the Latimer Road area was redeveloped.
Mary Place, W11 Mary Place connects Walmer Road with Sirdar Road.
Mersey Street, W10 Mersey Street - now demolished - was once Manchester Street.
Mortimer House, W11 Mortimer House is located on Rifle Place.
Mortimer Square, W11 Mortimer Square is a street in Notting Hill.
Nicholas Road, W11 This is a street in the W11 postcode area
Olaf Street, W11 Olaf Street was once part of ’Frestonia’
Penzance Place, W11 Penzance Place is a street in Notting Hill.
Pickwick House, W11 Pickwick House can be found on St Anns Road.
Portland Road, W11 Portland Road is a street in Notting Hill, rich at one end and poor at the other.
Pottery Lane, W11 Pottery Lane takes its name from the brickfields which were situated at the northern end of the street.
Poynter House, W11 Poynter House is sited on Swanscombe Road.
Princedale Road, W11 Princedale Road was formerly Princes Road.
Princes Place, W11 Princes Place is a street in Notting Hill.
Pring Street, W10 The unusually-named Pring Street was situated between Bard Road and Latimer Road.
Queensdale Crescent, W11 Queensdale Crescent is a street in Notting Hill.
Relay Road, W12 Relay Road is a road in the W12 postcode area
Rifle Place, W11 Rifle Place is a road in the W11 postcode area
Romilly House, W11 Romilly House is located on Wilsham Street.
Rosmead Road, W11 Rosmead Road, W11 was originally called Chichester Road.
Runcorn Place, W11 Runcorn Place was once Thomas Place, and before even that ’The Mews’.
Samuels Close, W12 Samuels Close is a road in the W6 postcode area
Shalfleet Drive, W10 Shalfleet Drive is a newer road in the Latimer Road area of W10
Silchester Road, W10 Silchester Road crosses the border between London W10 and London W11.
Silchester Terrace, W10 Silchester Terrace was lost to W10 in the 1960s.
Silver Road, W12 Silver Road is a road in the W12 postcode area
Sirdar Road, W11 Sirdar Road is a street in Notting Hill.
St Ann’s Road, W11 St Ann’s Road, along with St Ann’s Villas, runs north from Royal Crescent.
St James’s Gardens, W11 St James’s Gardens is an attractive garden square with St James Church in the middle of the communal garden.
St Mark’s Close, W11 St Mark’s Close runs off St Mark’s Road.
Stable Way, W10 Stable Way is a street in North Kensington, London W10
Station Walk, W10 Station Walk is one of the streets of London in the W10 postal area.
Stebbing House, W11 Stebbing House is sited on Queensdale Crescent.
Stoneleigh Place, W11 Stoneleigh Place, formerly called Abbey Road, was built across a brickfield in Notting Dale.
Stoneleigh Street, W11 Stoneleigh Street runs between Treadgold Street and Stoneleigh Place.
Swanscombe House, W11 Residential block
Swanscombe Road, W11 Swanscombe Road is a street in Notting Hill.
Talbot Mews, W11 Talbot Mews seems to have disappeared just after the Second Worid War.
Testerton Street, W11 Testerton Street did not survive the bulldozer in the late 1960s.
Testerton Walk, W11 Testerton Walk is a street in Notting Hill.
The Network, W12 The Network is a road in the W12 postcode area
The White Building, W11 The White Building is sited on Evesham Street.
The Yellow Building, W11 The Yellow Building is sited on Nicholas Road.
Threshers Place, W11 Threshers Place is a quiet street with a long story.
Treadgold Street, W11 Treadgold Street is part of the Avondale Park Gardens Conservation Area.
Verity Close, W11 Verity Close is a street in W11
Walmer Road, W11 Walmer Road is the oldest street in the area, dating from the eighteenth century or before.
Waterden Court, W11 Waterden Court is located on Waterden Court.
Waynflete Square, W10 Waynflete Square is one of the newer roads in the vicinity of Latimer Road station.
West Cross Route, W11 The West Cross Route is a 1.21 km-long dual carriageway running north-south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of Westway (A40) and the southern Holland Park Roundabout.
Westfield London Shopping Centre, W12 Westfield London Shopping Centre is a location in London.
Westfield Way, W12 Westfield Way is a road in the W12 postcode area
Whitchurch Road, W11 Whitchurch Road connects Bramley Road with Treadgold Street.
Wilsham Street, W11 Wilsham Street was formerly known as St Katherine’s Road.
Wilton Yard, W11 Wilton Yard once ran off Latimer Road.

NEARBY PUBS

Earl of Zetland The Earl of Zetland - a pub in the Potteries
Kenilworth Castle The Kenilworth Castle was a post-war pub in Notting Dale.
Latimer Arms The Latimer Arms was situated at 79 Norland Road.
The Brittania The Brittania was situated on the corner of Clarendon Road and Portland Road, W11.
The Crown The Crown was situated at 57 Princedale Road.


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Notting Dale

From Pigs and bricks to Posh and Becks...

As houses were springing up all over the rest of northern Kensington, one corner of the borough was developing into a slum whose notoriety was probably unsurpassed throughout London

It lay at the foot of the hill on which the Ladbroke estate was laid out, directly north of Pottery Lane, on badly draining clay soil between the Norland Estate and Notting Barns Farm.

Its first occupants were to give it two infamous names: the brick makers, who seemed to have arrived in the late lath century, and the pig-keepers, who moved there in the early l9th century.

To make bricks and tiles involved large excavations, which soon filled with stagnant water. The keeping of pigs entailed collecting refuse and offal from the kitchens of hotels and private houses, feeding most of it to pigs and boiling down the fat.

The combination of both bricks and pigs spelt disaster for the area.

Samuel Lake of Tottenham Court Road, a scavenger and chimney sweep by occupation was the first to keep pigs here and he was soon joined by the pig keepers of the Marble Arch area who had been forced out of their area by building development. The colony was at first sufficiently isolated to be able to go about their business unfettered; and by the time streets were being built nearby, the piggeries were so well established that developers simply steered clear.

Shacks sprang up wherever convenient for there was no building control in London at that time, and inevitably they were jumbled together with the pigs and the ponds: indeed often the three were combined, with humans sharing their roofs with animals and living directly over stagnant water: the animals at one stage outnumbered people by three to one.

The area’s unsanitary conditions had become so notorious that Charles Dickens ran a special feature on it in the first edition issue of his magazine Household Words.

The Piggeries and Brickyards were far from the sight and concern of the Vestry and its duties were taken up by charities, both religious and secular. But it was Kensington’s first Medical Officer of Health, Dr Francis Goodrich, who was given the formidable task of cleaning up the area. Goodrich stated that it was one of the most deplorable
spots not only in Kensington but in the whole of the metropolis.

Rather than manufacturing bricks, locals started to concentrate more on the making of pottery, mostly drainpipes, tiles and flower pots to supply the local building boom. This trade, however, gradually declined and business ceased by 1863, the same time as when the stagnant ’Ocean’ was filled in.

As far as the Piggeries were concerned strong opposition to a clean up came from the pig keepers themselves, as that was their only livelihood. And perversely the Vestry did not want them to lose the pigs because the families then could become a charge on the poor rate.

By 1878 Goodrich’s successor Dr Dudfield managed, however, to gradually reduce the number of pigs but it was not until the 1890’s that the last pig was banished.

The area nevertheless remained notorious. Instead of pig keeping the men turned to living off what their women could earn as laundresses, initially at home (especially in
the Stoneleigh Street area) and later in small laundries. A local saying in this area declared that ’to marry an ironer is as good as a fortune’

But change was coming.

The 1860s at last witnessed the opening of schools, (such as one in Sirdar Road), the paving of streets and the construction of proper sewers. But it was not until 1888 were public baths and washhouses provided at the junction of Silchester and Lancaster Roads.

In 1889 the Rev C E Roberts of St Clements Church and the Rev Dr Thornton of St Johns appealed in a letter to the Times for an open space for the children of this area. As a result the old brickfield and the area of the ’Ocean’ became the start of Avondale Park opened in 1892 and named in memory of the recently deceased Duke of Clarence and Avondale.

But even then, a year after the park was opened that the Daily News described the area adjacent to the park as ’Avernus’ (the fabled gateway to hell!). The article identified Wilsham Street, Kenley Street, another two streets now replaced by Henry Dickens Court and part of Sirdar Road as ’hopelessly degraded and abandoned’.

The dense rows of artisan houses in these streets were massively over-occupied or else were the most primitive lodging houses in which a bed on the floor cost a few pennies per night. Local residents made a living as best they could but it was a close knit community who seemed to scrape together enough money to pay for visits to the music hall and for summer day trips.

By 1904 new low cost tenements were built and the Improved Tenements Association bought 64 year leases of four houses in Walmer Road in 1900, and these were modernised and divided into two room tenements to accommodate 13 families for rents of 5 shillings a week. Other housing associations followed such as the Wilsham Trust formed by Ladies- in-waiting at Kensington Palace.

The poverty and hardship of the Potteries and Piggeries is very much a thing of the past. Now the neighbourhood is an attractive, leafy, peaceful backwater made up of rows of well kept two and three storey Victorian brick terraced houses and cottages, in the shadow of the graceful golden weather vane and clock of St Clements Church.

The area has come a long way.

Sources:
The Notting Hill & Holland Park Book by Richard Tames
Kensington & Chelsea by Annabel Walker with Peter Jackson
Notting Hill and Holland Park Past by Barbara Denny
Survey of London: Northern Kensington: Vol:XXXVII for the Greater London Council


LOCAL PHOTOS
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Kensington Park Hotel
TUM image id: 1453375720
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Chesterton Road, W10
TUM image id: 1563717983
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Oxford Gardens, W10
Old London postcard
TUM image id: 1563716750
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

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The St Agnes soup kitchen was situated on the corner of Bangor Street, W11 that this photo was taken from. Bangor Street disappeared from the streetscene of Notting Dale after the Second World War.
Credit: Bishopsgate Institute
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HM Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother, with Lady Petrie, opening Henry Dickens Court, W11 (1953) The Queen Mother is greeted by large crowds and is accompanied by Lady Petrie, Mayor of Kensington. Henry Dickens Court was built by the Council on a bomb site as part of the borough’s post war redevelopment plan. It was named after Henry Dickens, grandson of Charles Dickens, an Alderman on the Council and an active advocate of municipal housing.
Credit: Kensington Libraries
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Kensington Park Hotel
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Corner of Bangor Street and Sirdar Road, W11 (1911) This became the Dolphin Pub. The location was demolished to make way for the Henry Dickens Estate.
Credit: London City Mission magazine
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London West Ten
Credit: The Underground Map
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Cambridge Gardens (Oxford Mews on the left here is now Malton Mews)
Credit: Kensington Libraries
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Local resident Trevor who grew tomatoes in compost made from Frestonian residents’ waste. Frestonia was the name adopted by the residents of Freston Road, London W11, when they attempted to secede from the United Kingdom in 1977 to form the Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia. Many residents eventually set up a housing co-op in negotiation with Notting Hill Housing Trust, and included artists, musicians, writers, actors and activists. Actor David Rappaport was the Frestonia Foreign Minister while playwright Heathcote Williams served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
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Martin Street, looking west (1960s) Martin Street disappeared from the map as the Latimer Road area was redeveloped in the late 1960s
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Guy Fawkes and friends in Addison Avenue, W11 (around 1960)
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Addison Place
Credit: Google Maps
Licence: CC BY 2.0


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