Abingdon Villas runs between Earls Court Road and Marloes Road.
The eastern section of the street consists of red-brick five-storey mansion blocks and the south side of three-storey white stucco houses.
The western end has a mixture of three-storey houses, some of which are partially stuccoed and others only stuccoed up to first floor level. Most of the houses have off-street parking.
Nos. 80-82 Abingdon Villas was built by Francis Attfield in 1851 as part of his development of houses on the adjoining Earls Court Road.
The sites for Nos. 65-85 (odd) Abingdon Villas backed onto the Cope Place sites and they were built at about the same time in 1852-4. A variety of builders were involved: Nos. 65-67, Edward Good, a carpenter from Kensington; Nos. 69-71, Jackson Frow, a carpenter from Caledonian Road; Nos. 73-75, Thomas Methias, a carpenter; Nos. 77-85, Joseph Liddiatt, a builder from St Marylebone.
In 1851 Barnabas Jennings and William Stevenson, who were involved in other parts of the Abingdon Villas and Scarsdale Villas area, built a terrace of houses at Nos. 72-78 (even) Abingdon Villas on the south side near Earls Court Road.
On the south side of Abingdon Villas, a short terrace west from Allen Street, Nos. 46-52 (even), were built by John Turner and Robert Sharpen of Bayswater in 1856. No. 54 was built by Edmond Perfect, a Notting Hill builder in 1862, and the terrace as far as Abingdon Road was completed with Nos. 56-64 by Thomas Sealey Welshman in 1862-4.
On the other side of Abingdon Road, Temple and Forster built Nos. 66-68 and John Hillier built No. 70, all in 1862, to fill up the gap to the existing Nos. 72-82.
The plots on the north side of Abingdon Villas was similarly built up piecemeal. George Butt built Nos. 45 and 47 in 1862, as well as No. 53. Nos. 49 and 51 were built by Edmond Perfect in 1862. Nos. 55-63 were built in 1862 by John Beale.
The stretch between Marloes Road and Allen Street was ultimately taken over largely by flat developments. In 1893-4 the builder, C.F. Kearley, built a block of flats on the site of 1-7 Abingdon Villas, which is now No. 47-60 Cheniston Gardens. Nos. 9 and 11 were demolished to make way for a roadway into Iverna Gardens. The whole of the space between the roadway and Allen Street on the north side of Abingdon Villas was then taken up by Abingdon Court, a block of flats built in about 1901-4. The land was owned by Henry Labouchere, and his agent, W.J. Blow employed the building firm of A.J. Thompson and Company to build the flats. Most of them were designed by Paul Grave & Company, architects in Victoria Street, although the eastern third was designed by Sydney Newcombe of Pembroke Road.
On the opposite side of Abingdon Villas, another block of flats was built called Abingdon Gardens. Sydney Newcombe was the architect.
This forms part of a guide to Kensington Streets which first appeared on the, now defunct, Kensington Living website.
All rights and copyright to the original material is retained by that website.