Fenelon Road, SW5

Road in/near Earl’s Court, existed between the 1850s and the 1960s.

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August
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2023
Fenelon Road - at first Alma Road - was created in the 1850s but disappeared during the 1960s.

Residential development south of the Kensington Canal basin began shortly after the 1851 Great Exhibition when local resident Henry Benjamin Kent constructed two model cottages inspired by Prince Albert’s Exhibition housing. Each cottage contained four flats in a simplified version of the royal designs. Built around 1852 and partially occupied by 1854, Kent named the cottages "Shaftesbury" after philanthropist Earl Anthony Ashley Cooper. Situated on the newly created Shaftesbury Road (later Fenelon Place), the cottages had garden plots in front and back. In 1856, Lord Kensington leased the land to Kent for 82 years at £12 annual rent.

At the time, Kent lived with his stepson, builder Frederick Durrant, on Holland Place. The 1851 census listed Kent as a 42-year-old retired coal merchant. Durrant likely built the Shaftesbury Cottages, using some of the land for brick making.

The cottages were informally arranged with the second Lord Kensington. Kent soon started constructing more houses nearby before signing a building agreement with the third Lord Kensington in May 1855. This agreement aimed to develop the entire area south to the planned West Cromwell Road extension. Houses were to line the north side of the new Alma Road (later Fenelon Road) and west side of Warwick Road. The cottage model would extend north and south, while smaller canal-side houses called Ashley Cottages would front a narrow parallel road. Despite the inclusion of the existing cottages, the total ground rent was only £80 annually, costs Kent offloaded to other builders.

The houses along Warwick Road were titled Shaftesbury Terrace. In 1855-56, Durrant built and leased the first eight from Lord Kensington per Kent’s direction. Durrant also subleased a house on Alma Road, but other builders mainly subleased from Kent in the late 1850s and early 1860s, with construction proceeding slowly. After 1863, Kent subleased to confectioner Henry Kingham who built terraced houses around the cottages on Shaftesbury Road and small houses on Alma Road, directly leased from Lord Kensington. The last seven houses went to William Kingham in 1870, likely a relative who took over building. The Ashley Cottages were constructed for Kent in the 1860s once the railway was installed along the old canal.

Kent retired to Dulwich and died in 1887, leaving an estate of over £10,500, including any retained leaseholds.

The 1871 census reveals occupancy patterns in this working-class enclave. The 120 inhabited houses south of the railway housed 967 people in 243 households, averaging eight per house. Two houses had 17 residents across three or four households, including railway workers and tradesmen. The flats in Shaftesbury Cottages mostly housed single families, unlike the cramped Ashley Cottages. Laborers were most common, along with building and railway workers and coal porters. Several piano makers and polishers likely worked at the nearby Erard’s factory.

In 1886, poet Jules Laforgue married Leah Lee at her home, 3 Shaftesbury Terrace. He arrived from Paris that morning and wed Leah with her landlady present.

Before the Second World War, houses on both sides of Fenelon Road were demolished to widen the railway bridge approach for the West Cromwell extension. Prefab houses temporarily filled the north side after the war. By the 1950s, Shaftesbury Cottages were still considered quaint, but within five years the whole area was declared unfit for habitation and cleared by the 1960s, erasing the dense housing but leaving some small industrial buildings along Warwick Road.


Main source: Survey of London | British History Online
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Lived here
Former Philbeach Gardens Resident   
Added: 14 Jul 2021 00:44 GMT   

Philbeach Gardens Resident (Al Stewart)
Al Stewart, who had huts in the 70s with the sings ’Year of the Cat’ and ’On The Borders’, lived in Philbeach Gdns for a while and referenced Earl’s Court in a couple of his songs.
I lived in Philbeach Gardens from a child until my late teens. For a few years, on one evening in the midst of Summer, you could hear Al Stewart songs ringing out across Philbeach Gardens, particularly from his album ’Time Passages". I don’t think Al was living there at the time but perhaps he came back to see some pals. Or perhaps the broadcasters were just his fans,like me.
Either way, it was a wonderful treat to hear!

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

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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.

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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

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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

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Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

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

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NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

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

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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.

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Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

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Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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Abingdon Arms Pub, Abingdon Road.
TUM image id: 1489943648
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Marloes Road, W8
TUM image id: 1530121229
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In the neighbourhood...

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St Cuthbert’s, Philbeach Gardens is a Grade I listed Anglican church in Earls Court. It was built between 1884 and 1887, designed by the architect Hugh Roumieu Gough (1843–1904) and hailed as a jewel of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Credit: Wiki Commons/Trearddur72
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The Holland Arms on Kensington High Street, drawn by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. The writer Joseph Addison was a frequent customer.
Credit: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
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Abingdon Arms Pub, Abingdon Road.
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Allen Street
Credit: GoArt/The Underground Map
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Tower House, Melbury Road, Kensington Constructed between 1876 and 1881, Tower House has an unique medieval design by fantasist and architect William Burges. Every room was decorated in accordance with a unique theme drawn from nature with rooms dedicated to themes such as the Sea, Animals, astronomy and astrology. In 1969, Richard Harris acquired the house and then in 1973 Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin outbid David Bowie and purchased it for £350 000. Page welcomed the cult filmmaker Kenneth Anger to move into his basement and complete the post-production of his movie Lucifer Rising. However, Anger soon grew weary of living in what he described as Page’s "evil fantasy house".
Credit: Geograph/Jim Osley
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St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Allen Street (2008) Seen from the northwest at the junction with Scarsdale Villas
Credit: Wiki Commons/R Sones
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This view shows Tyler the chemists during the 1960s on the corner of Abingdon Road and Scarsdale Villas. St Mark’s Coptic church is in the background.
Credit: Wellcome Foundation
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Kensington Crescent (early 1900s) This was an unsuccessful development in the Warwick Gardens area. This picture depicts numbers 1-14 Kensington Crescent. Kenneth Grahame, author of ’Wind in the Willows’ lived for five years at number 5.
Old London postcard
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