The first encroachment on the rural character of Notting Hill was the cutting of the Paddington Branch of the Grand Junction Canal. Several artificial waterways had already been constructed among the manufacturing towns in the north of England, and the canal system was being rapidly extended, when, in 1783, Parliamentary powers were obtained for the making of ” a Navigable Cut from the Grand Junction Canal in the precinct of Norwood, in the County of Middlesex to Paddington,” in order to connect the Midlands with the Metropolis. At the London end of its course this canal was to cross the northernmost part of Kensington, then, after skirting Harrow Road and curving through Westbourne Green, it was to become a huge basin covering much of what is now Praed Street and the Paddington Station of the Great Western Railway.
In the half-mile within the boundaries of Kensington parish the canal crossed a small portion of the Notting Barns farm-land, then called ” Smith’s Farm,” and the corner of a large farm owned by Mr. John Watkins, probably Red House Farm, shown in the map of 1833. Subsequently the Canal Company paid rates on this land.
The canal was opened for traffic on June 1, 1801 and on July 10th of the same year there was a public inauguration, and a barge with passengers from Uxbridge arrived at Paddington Basin amid the ringing of bells and firing of cannon. It is said that 20,000 persons gathered on this occasion ” to hurrah the mighty men ” who offered to the Londoner a new mode of transit for his goods. See illustration opposite. For the first few years the canal was an enormous success, but the carriage of goods was considerably reduced when the Regent’s Cana] was completed in 1820, and further reduced when railways were built. The traffic, however, on this ” silent highway ” was still considerable, and is so at the present time. In early days passenger boats went five times a week to Uxbridge, and pleasure trips, first by barge and later by steamboat, continued for many years ; whilst a generation ago row-boats could be hired near Carlton Bridge. Among ” Single Day Excursions from the Metropolis ” Mr. John Hassell, water-colour artist and engraver, in 1818 recommends a journey by water to Harrow-on-the-Hill, and gives charming descriptions of the scenery along the route.
This excursion was made on the Canal Accommodation Boat, a huge barge which was often uncomfortably crowded. Many drawings and caricatures of life on the canal by Rowlandson and others are in existence. A good selection may be seen at the London Museum. There are also pictures of ladies and gentlemen walking on the banks of the limpid stream where, from about 1840, the ” Flora Tea Gardens,” now No. 525 Harrow Road, formed a pleasant retreat for a summer afternoon.
The Canal Company supplied water for domestic use until the year 1811. In that year the Grand Junction Water Works Company was formed, and an engine house and reservoir were placed in the centre of Paddington. But this water, coming chiefly from the Colne and the Brent, proved unsatisfactory, and the Thames was reverted to for the source of supply.
By the year 1825 the works were at Kew Bridge and on Campden Hill. But the old name was retained and was used until 1904 ; thus showing the original connection between the Grand Junction Water Works and the Paddington Branch of the Grand Junction Canal.
The map of 1833 shows that the meadows north of St. John’s Hill were crossed by two brooks, tributaries of the ” Rivulet ” or boundary stream. This stream, after a course of four miles with a fall of 150 feet, discharged (and still discharges) itself into the Thames at Chelsea Creek. Further information can be obtained from a rare map of 1827 or earlier which is preserved at the Public Library.
One of the tributary brooks rose near the ”Plough” on Harrow Road, and passed south-west of Notting Barns Farm ; the other commenced close to Portobello Farm and, running in marshy ground at the foot of the north slope of St. John’s Hill, joined the main stream further to the south. The connection with the ditch on the eastern boundary of the parish, suggested in the map of 1833, may be a mistake.
The hill, originally Notting Wood, was now pasture land, divided into seven meadows. These are shown in a plan attached to a deed of 1840. The names of these meadows are most interesting. To the east of the footpath, now Ladbroke Grove, lay ” Pond Field,” on the site of Ladbroke Square, ” Middle Wood ” was round about Stanley Gardens, and ” North Wood ” on the northern slope of Kensington Park Road. On the other side of the footpath, from Hanover Terrace on the south to Cornwall Road on the north and extending as far west as Clarendon Road, were ” Ploughed Field,” ” Hilly Field,” ” Middle Field ” and the ” Eighteen Acre Field.”
Certain other field names are known. The ”Meads” and the ”Marshes” were important holdings in “Norland Row,” and may have covered Royal Crescent and part of Norland Town. ” Longlands ” and the ”Hooks” lay between Westbourne Grove and the south end of Portobello Lane. ”Barley Shotts”, a field on the site of Archer Street, has already been mentioned. Probably several small springs rose on the crest of the hill. Some of these springs still give trouble in the basements of houses in Kensington Park Road, Ladbroke Square and Ladbroke Grove, and there are traditions of others. But there is no foundation for the statement, occasionally met with, that a vast lake underlies the district.
At this time, as no doubt for centuries before this, the North Kensington fields were crossed by footpaths, forerunners of the principal cross roads of the present day. With the exception of Portobello Lane, all these paths were means of communication with the Manor Farm of Notting Barns, or connected Notting Barns with Portobello Farm.
Most of these paths, but not all of them, are shown on the map of 1833.
An ancient footpath ” from Kensale Green to Uxbridge Road ” started from Harrow Road, and was carried by a small bridge over the canal. This was the northern end of the ” public road ” which passed through the Manor farmyard and emerged on Uxbridge Road east of the Norlands estate. This cart-track has already been mentioned under various names. The northern portion has disappeared, but the southern end is now represented by Walmer Road and Pottery Lane. The footpath across Wormwood Scrubbs from Acton Wells, and another path which joined it from Willesden Green, have become merged in St. Quintin Avenue and St. Mark’s Road. Cambridge Gardens is practically along the line of the pathway, bordered with elm trees, which connected Notting Barns with Portobello Lane, and was continued east of the lane till it joined the road to Paddington, now known as Westbourne Grove.
Another path open to the public branched off at the present junction of St. Mark’s Road and Cambridge Gardens, and, continuing in a south-easterly direction, crossed the hill by the curve of Stanley Crescent and descended to Uxbridge Road by Ladbroke Place, as the north end of Ladbroke Grove was called in the year 1835. When Faulkner wrote his history in 1820 this ” public road ” led through the farmyard of Notting Hill Farm and communicated with Kensington by Lord Holland’s Lane. This was the path that was the cause of strife in 1837.
In 1833 North Kensington was absolutely rural, but a scheme was already formulated which would connect this district with the Metropolis. The rapid increase in the population of London and its suburbs during the eighteenth century had brought about the need for more space in which to bury the dead. Existing graveyards were terribly over-crowded, and burials within churches had become an abomination. The ” Act for Amending the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis ” was not passed until 1852, but over twenty years before this date a Company was founded by Mr. George Frederick Carden, and Parliamentary powers had been obtained, for the formation of the Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green. The plot of ground chosen by the General Cemetery Company for this pioneer enterprise lay between the canal and the north boundary of Kensington parish on the Harrow Road.
Here in 1832, fifty-six acres were enclosed by a stone wall, and in 1833 the Bishop of London, in spite of his former opposition to the scheme, consecrated thirty-nine acres of this land, fifteen acres being reserved for the burial of dissenters. A Nonconformist chapel, built in the classic style with Ionic columns, was placed at the cast end of the cemetery enclosure, and an Anglican chapel, flanked by colonnades with Doric columns, occupied the western extremity and stood on the highest ground in Kensington, 150 feet above sea level. These buildings, with the so-called catacombs and the imposing gateway, with its semicircle of Doric columns, on Harrow Road, all belong to 1832. The enormous entrance must have looked strangely out of place by the side of a country road, but the cemetery appealed to the taste of the period, and ” marble obelisks and urns began to rise among the cypresses in all the variety which heathen and classical allusions could suggest.”
Some sentences may be quoted from a pamphlet written in 1843. After describing the condition of existing graveyards, the writer continues : ” What an escape from the atmosphere of London burial-places to the air of Kensal Green. . . . The surrounding landscape, so rich in cultivation, in character so diversified, in extent so sweeping. . . . It is scarcely ten years since the sheep were driven from their pasture, and already have there been about six thousand interments within that noble and spacious enclosure.”
A farm-house and an ” Academy ” had stood close to the ” Plough ” on the south side of the Harrow Road. In making the cemetery these buildings were pulled down and the beginning of the ancient footpath from Kensal Green was lost. It had branched off from the road where the large entrance to the cemetery was placed. From the south end of the high bridge near the ” Plough,” now in Ladbroke Grove, a new path was made which joined the ancient path on land afterwards covered by the gasworks. The illustrations of the cemetery on these pages belong to about the year 1845.
The cemetery grounds were in process of being laid out when the question of bringing two railway lines into London was under discussion. About 1832 it had been suggested that a line from Bristol (the Great Western Railway) should join the London and Birmingham Railway (the London and North-Western Line) near Kensal Green, and that a joint terminus should be placed at Euston Grove. Royal assent for this project was granted on August 31, 1835 ; but the proposed junction of the lines was abandoned, and a site for the terminus of the Great Western Railway was chosen adjoining the basin of Paddington Canal. This change of plan necessitated making a tunnel under the extreme north-western corner of the cemetery for the ” London and Birmingham Railroad,” and running a double line of rails for the Great Western Railway right across the fields south of the canal.
On June 1, 1838, an experimental train carrying a large number of directors and their friends ran from Paddington to Maidenhead. A tiny Great Western train crossing Wormwood Scrubbs is included among drawings; it is taken from the back-ground of one of Henry Alken’s pictures of the Hippodrome, in 1841. A writer in the Mirror of April 28, 1838, speaking of the Birmingham railway which crosses ” the Harrow Road at the end of the village of Kensal Green,” contrasts ” the clear, yet chilling note of the Cemetery Chapel bell with the almost undescribable noise of the approaching engine and its train upon the railway many yards beneath.” He then turns to view a glorious sunset in order to reflect ” how puny arc the proudest triumphs of Art in comparison with the Majesty of Nature.”
From about 1836 to 1840 another railway line was in course of construction from Willesden Junction to what was known as the Basin of Kensington Canal. Subsequently it was extended as far as Chelsea. This line, called at first the Bristol, Birmingham and Thames Junction Railway, is now known as the ” West London Junction Railway.” It runs on an embankment along the course of the boundary ” rivulet,” just within the limits of Hammersmith parish. When this railway was built part of the boundary stream was shifted considerably to the east, so that it now runs in a straight line along Latimer Road, St. Ann’s Villas, and Holland Villas Road. See map of 1841 on page 76. Two openings were made in the embankment between Willesden Junction and Uxbridge Road, at those points where the old footpaths crossed from Wormwood Scrubbs to Notting Barns. For some unexplained reason this was known as Punch’s Line.
Houses stood in a solid line along the north side of Uxbridge Road, and a second row, called Weller Street, now Ladbroke Road, already contained some fair-sized houses with spacious gardens, when an attempt was made to establish a regular series of race-meetings and a training ground for horses ” on the slopes of Notting Hill and the meadows west of Westbourne Grove.”
The race-course existed only from 1837 to 1841, but it determined the future aspect of the whole district. The Hippodrome, as it was called, seems to have been the individual enterprise of Mr. John Whyte of Brace Cottage, Notting Hill. He was the ” projector,” although he associated with himself other gentlemen interested in this form of British sport.
Negotiations were entered into with Mr. James Weller Ladbroke, who owned the property, and nearly 200 acres of meadow land were surrounded by a wooden paling, seven feet high. This enclosure was bounded on the east by Portobello Lane, on the north by a line between the present Cornwall and Lancaster Roads, apparently along the course of the brook from Portobello Farm, on the west by the ” public way ” from Notting Barns, and on the south by the line of the present houses in Ladbroke Square, continued in Hanover Terrace.
Three tracks, the steeplechase course, the race-course and the exercise course, encircled the enclosed ground. The chief public entrance was situated in Portobello Lane, at the point where Kensington Park Road now joins Pembridge Road, but subscribers and pedestrians might use a gate at the end of Ladbroke Terrace, corresponding with the present gate into Ladbroke Square Garden.
The saddling paddock and stabling for seventy-five horses occupied the south-west corner of the ground. Here horses could be hired for riding, or hunters might be trained.
Even ” ponies and donkeys ” were provided for the use of invalids and children. The space inside the race-courses was to be used for training purposes and riding exercise, or it might be let on non-racing days for revels and public amusements, such as archery, ” shooting with bow and arrow at the popinjay, cricketting, etc., etc.” In the centre the grassy mound ” a sort of natural grand-stand,” now crowned by St. John’s Church, was railed in as a hill for pedestrians.
The scheme was quaintly advertised in the Sporting Magazine, early in 1837, as ” a racing emporium more extensive and attractive than Ascot or Epsom. . . . An enterprise which must prosper. . . . It is without competitor, and it is open to the fertilization of many sources of profit. . . . A necessary of London life, of the absolute need of which we were not aware until the possession of it taught us its permanent value.” It is stated to be eminently suitable for horse exercise especially ” for females,” for whom ” it is without the danger or exposure of the parks,” whilst the view from the centre is ” as spacious and enchanting as that from Richmond Hill, and where almost the only thing that you cannot see is London.”
In spite of opposition from all classes of residents in the locality, opposition based on various points of view, the project was successfully carried out.
The opening ceremony on June 3, 1837, was attended by a brilliant company. There were ” splendid equi-pages ” and ” gay marquees with all their flaunting accompaniments ” ; but there were ” no drinking or gambling booths,” and the prices charged were strictly moderate. Prizes of ‘so and imo were competed for, and among the stewards were such ” dandies ” and leaders of society as Lord Chesterfield and Count D’Orsay.
But the race-course had been planned without taking into consideration the footpath from north to south across the hill. It is evident that persons on foot avoided crossing ” Kensington Potteries,” and that the path over the hill was being more and more used. About this time Pottery Lane was nicknamed Cut Throat Lane, and it was possible, and sometimes advisable, to hide in the ditch beside the track.
Indeed on a plan of 1837, preserved at the Kensington Public Library, it is stated that there was ” no thoroughfare ” along the old public way to Notting Barns Farm.
The stoppage of the hill path was, therefore, a serious matter, and already had been strongly criticised. Early on the morning of the day of opening a party of the claimants for the right of way, ” with hatchets and saws ” broke down the strong paling at Ladbroke Place, where Ladbroke Square crosses to Hanover Terrace, and fairly made their way over the course. Of the 12.,000 to 14,000 persons said to have been present on that day ” some thousands thus obtained gratuitous admission.” During the following days Mr. Whyte tried to block the path with loads of clay and turf. So, on June 17th, local inhabitants and labourers, led by the parochial surveyor and accompanied by the police, cleared away these obstructions and made wide apertures in the palissading on the north as well as on the south side of the hill.
Before leaving they halted on the summit and gave three deafening cheers for ” the Parish of Kensington.” The footpath people ” seem as a rule to have been orderly enough, but gipsies, prigs (thieves) and hawkers did not neglect the opportunity of mingling with the nobility and gentry.”
A year later the pathway was fenced off by an iron railing, and, before the beginning of the season of 1839, Mr. Whyte gave up the contest and renounced the eastern half of ” Hippodrome Park,” thus releasing the disputed pathway. Meanwhile local feeling ran very high. Petitions were prepared,and the whole question of the race-course was discussed by the Court of King’s Bench and also before Parliament.
In order to pacify opposition Mr. Whyte and his friends promised to reform certain evils on the premises, and to admit the public free on Sundays, and for a charge of twopence on certain holidays. This was considered by many as a desecra-tion of the Sabbath. It was also pointed out that restrictions on gaming and drinking within the Hippodrome would not ” prevent these evils in the purlieus . . . where already gambling houses, gin-shops, beerhouses, etc.,” had increased in number ; and it was maintained that ” the scum and offal of London assembled in the peaceful hamlet of Notting Hill.”
As a result of the opposition the ” Notting Hill Enclosure Bill ” was quietly dropped in September 1838, and, as already stated, a large piece of the ground was given up. To make good this deficiency the race-course was extended to the north-west, just avoiding the footpath from Wormwood Scrubbs, now St. Quintin Avenue. Hippodrome Park thus became a huge bulb-shaped piece of land which reached as far as Latimer Road, and the race-course formed a loop on the western side of the training ground. The arrangement will be best understood by comparing the plan from the Sporting News with the other on page 80.33
Portobello Lane was now connected by road with a new entrance on the top of the hill. (Part of this road was unearthed when a potato patch was made in Ladbroke Square Garden in 1916.) In thus ” remodelling the Establishment ” the old public way from Notting Barns to Uxbridge Road seems to have been cut through and done away with without any protest. But the question of the footpath over the hill was only one of the difficulties which beset this ” spirited enterprise.”
The second race-meeting in June 1837 had to be suddenly relinquished on account of the death of William IV. The sale of the royal stud after the king’s death was a serious blow to horse-racing in general, but ” Meetings ” took place in September and November 1837 and at intervals during 1838. The Hippodrome was then renamed after the youthful Queen, and became Victoria Park, Bayswater. In order to pay for the extensive alterations the charges for admission had to be doubled. Pedestrians paid two and sixpence instead of one shilling, and a four-wheeled carriage cost ten shillings instead of five. A still more important objection to the place consisted in its deep, strong clay soil, and this drawback could not be got over. It was found that the training ground was only serviceable at certain periods of the year, and leading jockeys soon refused to ride. In 1839 a group of foreign notabilities ” condescended to visit the London Epsom.” On this occasion a gold cup was offered by the Grand Duke of Russia. The attendance was very large. Only two race-meetings, however, are recorded in 1839, and already there were signs of failure. It is true that a successful steeplechase was held on June 2, 1841, commemorated in four large coloured prints by Henry Alken, Junior. Two of these prints are shown on page 88.
But the end was approaching. In May 1842, Mr. John Whyte, who had lost heavily over the scheme, announced that it would be impossible to run the races advertised for that year : the land having been taken possession of by mortgagees for building purposes. So the gates closed, and the summit of the hill for pedestrians quickly reverted to open country. For several years the piece of ground which had been added on in 1839 seems to have been used for ” schooling hunters in jumping.”
But to this day signs of the existence of the race-course arc not wanting. Houses built in the village of Notting Hill between the years 1837 and 1841 have a large amount of stabling accommodation. Especially is this the case with the hostelries of the period ; ” Prince Albert Tavern ” at Notting Hill Gate, the ” Ladbroke Arms ” with its tall sign-post in Ladbroke Road, and others. St. John’s on the Hill was long known as the Hippodrome Church, and a small turning connecting Port-land Road with Pottery Lane is Hippodrome Place, though locally it is called ” the Posteses,” because, until recently, posts prevented the passing of vehicles. The mews off Hippodrome Place is still ” the Racing Stables.” But above all, there is the laying out of the whole area in one plan with a remarkable succession of fifteen or sixteen common gardens, the houses having also private gardens of their own : a beautiful example of an early Garden Town Planning Scheme.
Chapter 4 of the book "Notting Hill in Bygone Days" by Florence Gladstone (1924)
