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Title: The Kensington District
The Fascination of London
Author: Geraldine Edith Mitton
Editor: Walter Besant
Release Date: May 30, 2007 [EBook #21643]
Language: English
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THE FASCINATION
OF LONDON
THE KENSINGTON DISTRICT
_IN THIS SERIES._
Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net, each.
THE STRAND DISTRICT.
By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
WESTMINSTER.
By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
CHELSEA.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
KENSINGTON.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.
[Illustration: HOLLAND HOUSE.
_Herbert Railton_]
The Fascination of London
KENSINGTON
BY
G. E. MITTON
EDITED BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1903
PREFATORY NOTE
A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.
As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."
Sir Walter's idea was that two of the volumes of his survey should
contain a regular and systematic perambulation of London by different
persons, so that the history of each parish should be complete in
itself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one in
which he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of this
section to warrant its issue in the form originally intended, but in the
meantime it is proposed to select some of the most interesting of the
districts and publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to
the local inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the
interest and the history of London lie in these street associations.
The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history with
the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.
G. E. M.
KENSINGTON
When people speak of Kensington they generally mean a very small area
lying north and south of the High Street; to this some might add South
Kensington, the district bordering on the Cromwell and Brompton Roads,
and possibly a few would remember to mention West Kensington as a
far-away place, where there is an entrance to the Earl's Court
Exhibition. But Kensington as a borough is both more and less than the
above. It does not include all West Kensington, nor even the whole of
Kensington Gardens, but it stretches up to Kensal Green on the north,
taking in the cemetery, which is its extreme northerly limit.
If we draw a somewhat wavering line from the west side of the cemetery,
leaving outside the Roman Catholic cemetery, and continue from here to
Uxbridge Road Station, thence to Addison Road Station, and thence again
through West Brompton to Chelsea Station, we shall have traced roughly
the western boundary of the borough. It covers an immense area, and it
begins and ends in a cemetery, for at the south-western corner is the
West London, locally known as the Brompton, Cemetery. In shape the
borough is strikingly like a man's leg and foot in a top-boot. The
western line already traced is the back of the leg, the Brompton
Cemetery is the heel, the sole extends from here up Fulham Road and
Walton Street, and ends at Hooper's Court, west of Sloane Street. This,
it is true, makes a very much more pointed toe than is usual in a man's
boot, for the line turns back immediately down the Brompton Road. It
cuts across the back of Brompton Square and the Oratory, runs along
Imperial Institute Road, and up Queen's Gate to Kensington Gore. Thence
it goes westward to the Broad Walk, and follows it northward to the
Bayswater Road. Thus we leave outside Kensington those essentially
Kensington buildings the Imperial Institute and Albert Hall, and nearly
all of Kensington Gardens. But we shall not omit an account of these
places in our perambulation, which is guided by sense-limits rather than
by arbitrary lines.
The part left outside the borough, which is of Kensington, but not in
it, has belonged from time immemorial to Westminster (see same series,
_Westminster_, p. 2).
If we continue the boundary-line we find it after the Bayswater Road
very irregular, traversing Ossington Street, Chepstow Place, a bit of
Westbourne Grove, Ledbury Road, St. Luke's Road, and then curving round
on the south side of the canal for some distance before crossing it at
Ladbroke Grove, and continuing in the Harrow Road to the western end of
the cemetery from whence we started.
The borough is surrounded on the west, south, and east respectively by
Hammersmith, Chelsea, and Paddington, and the above boundaries, roughly
given as they are, will probably be detailed enough for the purpose.
The heart and core of Kensington is the district gathered around
Kensington Square; this is the most redolent of interesting memories,
from the days when the maids of honour lived in it to the present time,
and in itself has furnished material for many a book. Close by in Young
Street lived Thackeray, and the Square figures many times in his works.
Further northward the Palace and Gardens are closely associated with the
lives of our kings, from William III. onward. Northward above Notting
Hill is a very poor district, poor enough to rival many an East-End
parish. Associations cluster around Campden and Little Campden Houses,
and the still existing Holland House, where gathered many who were
notable for ability as well as high birth. To Campden House Queen Anne,
then Princess, brought her sickly little son as to a country house at
the "Gravel Pits," but the child never lived to inherit the throne. Not
far off lived Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest philosopher the world has
ever known, who also came to seek health in the fresh air of Kensington.
The southern part of the borough is comparatively new. Within the last
sixty years long lines of houses have sprung up, concealing beneath
unpromising exteriors, such as only London houses can show, comfort
enough and to spare. This is a favourite residential quarter, though we
now consider it in, not "conveniently near," town. Snipe were shot in
the marshes of Brompton, and nursery gardens spread themselves over the
area now devoted to the museums and institute. It is rather interesting
to read the summary of John Timbs, F.S.A., writing so late as 1867:
"Kensington, a mile and a half west of Hyde Park Corner, contains the
hamlets of Brompton, Earl's Court, the Gravel Pits, and part of Little
Chelsea, now West Brompton, but the Royal Palace and about twenty other
houses north of the road are in the parish of St. Margaret's,
Westminster." He adds that Brompton has long been frequented by invalids
on account of its genial air. Faulkner, the local historian of all
South-West London, speaks of the "delightful fruit-gardens of Brompton
and Earl's Court."
The origin of the name Kensington is obscure. In Domesday Book it is
called Chenesitum, and in other ancient records Kenesitune and
Kensintune, on which Lysons comments: "Cheneesi was a proper name. A
person of that name held the Manor of Huish in Somersetshire in the
reign of Edward the Confessor." This is apparently entirely without
foundation. Other writers have attempted to connect the name with
Kings-town, with equal ill-success. The true derivation seems to be from
the Saxon tribe of the Kensings or Kemsings, whose name also remains in
the little village of Kemsing in Kent.
HISTORY.
From Domesday Book we learn that the Manor of Kensington had belonged to
a certain Edward or Edwin, a thane, during the reign of Edward the
Confessor. It was granted by William I. to Geoffrey, Bishop of
Coutances, under whom it was held by Alberic or Aubrey de Ver or Vere.
The Bishop died in 1093, and Aubrey then held it directly from the
Crown.
Aubrey's son Godefrid or Geoffrey, being under obligations to the Abbot
of Abingdon, persuaded his father to grant a strip of Kensington to the
Abbot. This was done with the consent of the next heir. The strip thus
granted became a subordinate manor; it is described as containing "2
hides and a virgate" of land, or about 270 acres. This estate was cut
right out of the original manor, and formed a detached piece or island
lying within it.
The second Aubrey de Vere was made Great Chamberlain of England by King
Henry I. This office was made hereditary. The third Aubrey was created
Earl of Oxford by Queen Matilda, a purely honorary title, as he held no
possessions in Oxfordshire. The third Earl, Robert, was one of the
guardians of the Magna Charta. The fifth of the same name granted lands,
in 1284, to one Simon Downham, chaplain, and his heirs, at a rent of one
penny. This formed another manor in Kensington. This Robert and the
three succeeding Earls held high commands. The ninth Earl was one of the
favourites of Richard II., under whom he held many offices. He was made
Knight of the Garter, Marquis of Dublin (the first Marquis created in
England), and later on Duke of Ireland. His honours were forfeited at
Richard's fall. However, as he died without issue, this can have been no
great punishment. Eventually his uncle Aubrey was restored by Act of
Parliament to the earldom, and became the tenth Earl. Kensington had,
however, been settled on the widowed Duchess of Ireland, and at her
death in 1411 it went to the King. By a special gift in 1420 it was
restored to the twelfth Earl. In 1462 he was beheaded by King Edward
IV., and his eldest son with him. The thirteenth Earl was restored to
the family honours and estates under King Henry VII., but he was forced
to part with "Knotting Barnes or Knotting barnes, sometimes written
Notting or Nutting barns." This is said to have been more valuable than
the original manor itself. It formed the third subordinate manor in
Kensington. The thirteenth Earl was succeeded by his nephew, who died
young. The titles went to a collateral branch, and the Manor of
Kensington was settled on the two widowed Countesses, and later upon
three sisters, co-heiresses of the fourteenth Earl.
We have now to trace the histories of the secondary manors after their
severance from the main estate. The Abbot's manor still survives in the
name of St. Mary Abbots Church. About 1260 it was discovered that Aubrey
de Vere had not obtained the consent of the Archbishop of Canterbury or
the Bishop of London before granting the manor to the Abbot. Thereupon a
great dispute arose as to the Abbot's rights over the land in question,
and it was finally decided that the Abbot was to retain half the great
tithes, but that the vicarage was to be in the gift of the Bishop of
London. The Abbot's manor was leased to William Walwyn in the beginning
of the sixteenth century. It afterwards was held by the Grenvilles, who
had obtained the reversion. In 1564 the tithes and demesne lands were
separated from the manor and rectory, which were still held by the
Grenvilles. The tithes passed through the hands of many people in
succession, as did also the manor. In 1595 one Robert Horseman was the
lessee under the Crown. The Queen sold the estate to Walter (afterwards
Sir Walter) Cope, and a special agreement was made by which Robert
Horseman still retained his right to live in the manor house. This is
important, as it led to the foundation of Holland House by Cope, who had
no suitable residence as lord of the manor.
West Town, created out of lands known as the Groves, was granted by the
fifth Earl, as we have seen, to his chaplain Simon Downham. This grant
is described by Mr. Loftie thus: "It appears to have been that piece of
land which was intercepted between the Abbot's manor and the western
border of the parish, and would answer to Addison Road and the land on
either side of it." Robins, in his "History of Paddington," mentions an
inquisition taken in 1481, in which "The Groves, formerly only three
fields, had extended themselves out of Kensington into Brompton,
Chelsea, Tybourn, and Westbourne."
The manor passed later to William Essex. It was bought from him in 1570
by the Marquis of Winchester, Lord High Treasurer of England. He sold
it to William Dodington, who resold it to Christopher Barker, printer to
Queen Elizabeth, who was responsible for the "Breeches" Bible. It was
bought from him by Walter Cope for £1,300.
Knotting Barnes was sold by the thirteenth Earl, whose fortunes had been
impoverished by adhesion to the House of Lancaster. It was bought by Sir
Reginald Bray, who sold it to the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond,
mother of King Henry VII. This manor seems to have included lands lying
without the precincts of Kensington, for in an indenture entered into by
the Lady and the Abbot of Westminster in regard to the disposal of her
property we find mentioned "lands and tenements in Willesden, Padyngton,
Westburn, and Kensington, in the countie of Midd., which maners, lands,
and tenements the said Princes late purchased of Sir Reynolds Bray
knight." The Countess left the greater part of her property to the Abbey
at Westminster, and part to the two Universities at Oxford and
Cambridge. On the spoliation of the monasteries, King Henry VIII. became
possessed of the Westminster property; he took up the lease, granting
the lessee, Robert White, other lands in exchange, and added it to the
hunting-ground he purposed forming on the north and west of London. At
his death King Edward VI. inherited it, and leased it to Sir William
Paulet. In 1587 it was held by Lord Burghley. In 1599 it was sold to
Walter Cope.
Earl's Court or Kensington Manor we traced to the three sisters of the
last Earl. One of these died childless, the other two married
respectively John Nevill, Lord Latimer; and Sir Anthony Wingfield.
Family arrangements were made to prevent the division of the estate,
which passed to Lucy Nevill, Lord Latimer's third daughter. She married
Sir W. Cornwallis, and left one daughter, Anne, who married Archibald,
Earl of Argyll, who joined with her in selling the manor to Sir Walter
Cope in 1609. Sir Walter Cope had thus held at one time or another the
whole of Kensington. He now possessed Earl's Court, West Town, and
Abbot's Manor, having sold Notting Barns some time before. His daughter
and heiress married Sir Henry Rich, younger son of the first Earl of
Warwick. Further details are given in the account of Holland House (p.
76).
PERAMBULATION.--We will begin at the extreme easterly point of the
borough, the toe of the boot which the general outline resembles. We are
here in Knightsbridge. The derivation of this word has been much
disputed. Many old writers, including Faulkner, have identified it with
Kingsbridge--that is to say, the bridge over the Westbourne in the
King's high-road. The Westbourne formed the boundary of Chelsea, and
flowed across the road opposite Albert Gate. The real King's bridge,
however, was not here, but further eastward over the Tyburn, and as far
back as Henry I.'s reign it is referred to as Cnightebriga. Another
derivation for Knightsbridge is therefore necessary. The old topographer
Norden writes: "Kingsbridge, commonly called Stone bridge, near Hyde
Park Corner, where I wish no true man to walk too late without good
guard, as did Sir H. Knyvett, Kt., who valiantly defended himself, being
assaulted, and slew the master-thief with his own hands." This, of
course, has reference to the more westerly bridge mentioned above, but
it seems to have served as a suggestion to later topographers, who have
founded upon it the tradition that two knights on their way to Fulham to
be blessed by the Bishop of London quarrelled and fought at the
Westbourne Bridge, and killed each other, and hence gave rise to the
name. This story may be dismissed as entirely baseless; the real
explanation is much less romantic. The word is probably connected with
the Manor of Neyt, which was adjacent to Westminster, and as
pronunciation rather than orthography was relied upon in early days,
this seems much the most likely explanation. Lysons says: "Adjoining to
Knightsbridge were two other ancient manors called Neyt and Hyde." We
still have the Hyde in Hyde Park, and Neyt is thus identified with
Knightsbridge.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century Knightsbridge was an outlying
hamlet. People started from Hyde Park Corner in bands for mutual
protection at regular intervals, and a bell was rung to warn pedestrians
when the party was about to start. In 1778, when Lady Elliot, after the
death of her husband, Sir Gilbert, came to Knightsbridge for fresh air,
she found it as "quiet as Teviotdale." About forty years before this the
Bristol mail was robbed by a man on foot near Knightsbridge. The place
has also been the scene of many riots. In 1556, at the time of Wyatt's
insurrection, the rebel and his followers arrived at the hamlet at
nightfall, and stayed there all night before advancing on London. As
already explained, the Borough of Kensington does not include
Knightsbridge, but only touches it, and the part we are now in belongs
to Westminster.
The Albert Gate leading into the park was erected in 1844-46, and was,
of course, called after Prince Albert. The stags on the piers were
modelled after prints by Bartolozzi, and were first set up at the
Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park. Part of the foundations of the old
bridge outside were unearthed at the building of the gate, and, besides
this bridge, there was another within the park. The French Embassy,
recently enlarged, stands on the east side of the gate--the house
formerly belonged to Mr. Hudson, the "railway king"--and to the west are
several large buildings, a bank, Hyde Park Court, etc., succeeded by a
row of houses. Here originally stood a famous old tavern, the Fox and
Bull, said to have been founded in the time of Queen Elizabeth; if so,
it must have retained its popularity uncommonly long, for it was noted
for its gay company in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It
is referred to in the _Tatler_ (No. 259), and was visited by Sir Joshua
Reynolds and George Morland, the former of whom painted the sign, which
hung until 1807. It is said that the Elizabethan house had wonderfully
carved ceilings and immense fire-dogs, still in use in 1799. The inn was
later the receiving office of the Royal Humane Society, and to it was
brought the body of Shelley's wife after she had drowned herself in the
Serpentine.
In the open space opposite is an equestrian statue of Hugh Rose--Lord
Strathnairn--by Onslow Ford, R.A. Close by is a little triangular strip
of green, which goes by the dignified name of Knightsbridge Green. It
has a dismal reminiscence, having been a burial-pit for those who died
of the plague. The last maypole was on the green in 1800, and the
pound-house remained until 1835.
The entrance to Tattersall's overlooks the green. This famous horse-mart
was founded by Richard Tattersall, who had been stud-groom to the last
Duke of Kingston. He started a horse market in 1766 at Hyde Park Corner,
and his son carried it on after him. Rooms were fitted up at the market
for the use of the Jockey Club, which held its meetings there for many
years. Charles James Fox was one of the most regular patrons of
Tattersall's sales. The establishment was moved to its present position
in 1864.
The cavalry barracks on the north side of Knightsbridge boast of having
the largest amount of cubic feet of air per horse of any stables in
London.
An old inn called Half-way House stood some distance beyond the barracks
in the middle of the roadway until well on into the nineteenth century,
and proved a great impediment to traffic. On the south side of the road,
eastward of Rutland Gate, is Kent House, which recalls by its name the
fact that the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, once lived here.
Not far off is Princes Skating Club, one of the most popular and
expensive of its kind in London. Rutland Gate takes its name from a
mansion of the Dukes of Rutland, which stood on the same site. The
neighbourhood is a good residential one, and the houses bordering the
roads have the advantage of looking out over the Gardens. There is
nothing else requiring comment until we reach the Albert Hall, so,
leaving this part for a time, we return to the Brompton Road. This road
was known up to 1856 as the Fulham Road, though a long row of houses on
the north side had been called Brompton Row much earlier.
Brompton signifies Broom Town, carrying suggestions of a wide and heathy
common. Brompton Square, a very quiet little place, a cul-de-sac, which
has also the great recommendation that no "street music" is allowed
within it, can boast of having had some distinguished residents. At No.
22, George Colman, junior, the dramatist, a witty and genial talker,
whose society was much sought after, lived for the ten years previous to
his death in 1836. The same house was in 1860 taken by Shirley Brooks,
editor of _Punch_. The list of former residents also includes the names
of John Liston, comedian, No. 40, and Frederick Yates, the actor, No.
57.
The associations of all of this district have been preserved by Crofton
Croker in his "Walk from London to Fulham," but his work suffers from
being too minute; names which are now as dead as their owners are
recorded, and the most trivial points noted. Opposite Brompton Square
there was once a street called Michael's Grove, after its builder,
Michael Novosielski, architect of the Royal Italian Opera House. In
1835 Douglas Jerrold, critic and dramatist, lived here, and whilst here
was visited by Dickens. Ovington Square covers the ground where once
stood Brompton Grove, where several well-known people had houses; among
them was the editor (William Jerdan) of the _Literary Gazette_, who was
visited by many literary men, and who held those informal conversation
parties, so popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
which must have been very delightful. Tom Hood was among the guests on
many occasions. Before being Brompton Grove, this part of the district
had been known as Flounder's Field, but why, tradition does not say.
The next opening on the north side is an avenue of young lime-trees
leading to Holy Trinity Church, the parish church of Brompton. It was
opened in 1829, and the exterior is as devoid of beauty as the date
would lead one to suppose. There are about 1,800 seats, and 700 are
free. The burial-ground behind the church is about 4½ acres in
extent, and was consecrated at the same time as the church. Croker
mentions that it was once a flower-garden. Northward are Ennismore
Gardens, named after the secondary title of the Earl of Listowel, who
lives in Kingston House. The house recalls the notorious Duchess of
Kingston, who occupied it for some time. The Duchess, who began life as
Elizabeth Chudleigh, must have had strong personal attractions. She was
appointed maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales, and after
several love-affairs was married secretly to the Hon. Augustus John
Hervey, brother of the Earl of Bristol. She continued to be a maid of
honour after this event, which remained a profound secret. Her husband
was a lieutenant in the navy, and on his return from his long absences
the couple quarrelled violently. It was not, however, until sixteen
years later that Mrs. Hervey began a connection with the Duke of
Kingston, which ended in a form of marriage. It was then that she
assumed the title, and caused Kingston House to be built for her
residence; fifteen years later her real husband succeeded to the title
of Earl of Bristol, and she was brought up to answer to the charge of
bigamy, on which she was proved guilty, but with extenuating
circumstances, and she seems to have got off scot-free. She afterwards
went abroad, and died in Paris in 1788, aged sixty-eight, after a life
of gaiety and dissipation. From the very beginning her behaviour seems
to have been scandalous, and she richly merited the epithet always
prefixed to her name. Sir George Warren and Lord Stair subsequently
occupied the house, and later the Marquis Wellesley, elder brother of
the famous Duke of Wellington. Intermediately it was occupied by the
Listowel family, to whom the freehold belongs.
All Saints' Church in Ennismore Gardens was built by Vulliamy, and is in
rather a striking Lombardian style, refreshing after the meaningless
"Gothic" of so many parish churches.
The Oratory of St. Philip Neri, near Brompton Church, is surmounted by a
great dome, on the summit of which is a golden cross. It is the
successor of a temporary oratory opened in 1854, and the present church
was opened thirty years later by Cardinal Manning. The oratory is built
of white stone, and the entrance is under a great portico. The style
followed throughout is that of the Renaissance, and all the fittings and
furniture are costly and beautifully finished, so that the whole
interior has an appearance of richness and elegance. A nave of immense
height and 51 feet in width is supported by pillars of Devonshire
marble, and there are many well-furnished chapels in the side aisles.
The floor of the sanctuary is of inlaid wood, and the stalls are after a
Renaissance Viennese model, and are inlaid with ivory; both of these
fittings were the gift of Anne, Duchess of Argyll. The central picture
is by Father Philpin de Rivière, of the London Oratory, and it is
surmounted by onyx panels in gilt frames. The two angels on each side of
a cartouche are of Italian workmanship, and were given by the late Sir
Edgar Boehm. The oratory is famous for its music, and the crowds that
gather here are by no means entirely of the Roman Catholic persuasion.
Near the church-house is a statue of Cardinal Newman.
Not far westward the new buildings of the South Kensington Museum are
rapidly rising. The laying of their foundation-stone was one of the last
public acts of Queen Victoria. Until these buildings were begun there
was a picturesque old house standing within the enclosure marked out for
their site, and some people imagined this was Cromwell House, which gave
its name to so many streets in the neighbourhood; this was, however, a
mistake. Cromwell House was further westward, near where the present
Queen's Gate is, and the site is now covered by the gardens of the
Natural History Museum.
All that great space lying between Queen's Gate and Exhibition Road, and
bounded north and south by Kensington Gore and the Cromwell Road, has
seen many changes. At first it was Brompton Park, a splendid estate,
which for some time belonged to the Percevals, ancestors of the Earls of
Egmont. A large part of it was cut off in 1675 to form a nursery garden,
the first of its kind in England, which naturally attracted much
attention, and formed a good strolling-ground for the idlers who came
out from town. Evelyn mentions this garden in his diary at some length,
and evidently admired it very much. It was succeeded by the gardens of
the Horticultural Society, and the Imperial Institute now stands on the
site. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (see p. 66) was followed by another
in 1862, which was not nearly so successful, and this was held on the
ground now occupied by the Natural History Museum; it in turn was
followed by smaller exhibitions held in the Horticultural Society's
grounds.
In an old map we see Hale or Cromwell House standing, as above
indicated, about the western end of the Museum gardens. Lysons gives
little credence to the story of its having been the residence of the
great Protector. He says that during Cromwell's time, and for many years
afterwards, it was the residence of the Methwold family, and adds: "If
there were any grounds for the tradition, it may be that Henry Cromwell
occupied it before he went out to Ireland the second time." This seems a
likely solution, for it is improbable that a name should have impressed
itself so persistently upon a district without some connection, and as
Henry Cromwell was married in Kensington parish church, there is nothing
improbable in the fact of his having lived in the parish. Faulkner
follows Lysons, and adds a detailed description of the house. He says:
"Over the mantelpiece there is a recess formed by the curve of the
chimney, in which it is said that the Protector used to conceal
himself when he visited the house, but why his Highness chose this
place for concealment the tradition has not condescended to inform
us."
In Faulkner's time the Earl of Harrington, who had come into possession
of the park estate by his marriage with its heiress, owned Cromwell
House; his name is preserved in Harrington Road close by. When the Manor
of Earl's Court was sold to Sir Walter Cope in 1609, Hale House, as it
was then called, and the 30 acres belonging to it, had been especially
excepted. In the eighteenth century the place was turned into a
tea-garden, and was well patronized, but never attained the celebrity of
Vauxhall or Ranelagh, and later was eclipsed altogether by Florida
Gardens further westward (see p. 32). The house was taken down in 1853.
The Natural History Museum is a branch of the British Museum, and,
though commonly called the South Kensington Museum, has no claim at all
to that title. The architect was A. Waterhouse, and the building rather
suggests a child's erection from a box of many coloured bricks. The
material is yellow terra-cotta with gray bands, and the ground-plan is
simple enough, consisting of a central hall and long straight galleries
running from it east and west. The mineralogical, botanical,
zoological, and geological collections are to be found here in
conformity with a resolution passed by the trustees of the British
Museum in 1860, though the building was not finished until twenty years
later. The collections are most popular, especially that of birds and
their nests in their natural surroundings; and as the Museum is open
free, it is well patronized, especially on wet Sunday afternoons. The
South Kensington Museum, that part of it already standing on the east
side of Exhibition Road, is the outcome of the Great Exhibition, and
began with a collection at Marlborough House. The first erection was a
hideous temporary structure of iron, which speedily became known as the
"Brompton Boilers," and this was handed over to the Science and Art
Department. In 1868 this building was taken down, and some of the
materials were used for the branch museum at Bethnal Green.
The buildings have now spread and are spreading over so much ground that
it is a matter of difficulty to enumerate them all. The elaborate
terra-cotta building facing Exhibition Road is the Royal College of
Science, under the control of the Board of Education, for the Museum is
quite as much for purposes of technical education as for mere
sightseeing. Behind this lie the older parts of the Museum, galleries,
etc., which are so much hidden away that it is difficult to get a
glimpse of them at all. Across the road, behind the Natural History
Museum, are the Southern Galleries, containing various models of
machinery actually working; northward of this, more red brick and
scaffolding proclaim an extension, which will face the Imperial
Institute Road, and parts have even run across the roads in both
directions north and westward. The whole is known officially as the
Victoria and Albert Museum, but generally goes by the name of the South
Kensington Museum. The galleries and library are well worth a visit, and
official catalogues can be had at the entrance.
From an architectural point of view, the Imperial Institute is much more
satisfactory than either of the above. It is of gray stone, with a high
tower called the Queen's Tower, rising to a height of 280 feet; in this
is a peal of bells, ten in number, called after members of the royal
family, and presented by an Australian lady. The Institute was the
national memorial for Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and was designed to
embody the colonial or Imperial idea by the collection of the native
products of the various colonies, but it has not been nearly so
successful as its fine idea entitled it to be. It was also formed into a
club for Fellows on a payment of a small subscription, but was never
very warmly supported. It is now partly converted to other uses. The
London University occupies the main entrance, great hall, central block,
and east wings (except the basement). There are located here the Senate
and Council rooms, Vice-Chancellor's rooms, Board-rooms, convocation
halls and offices, besides the rooms of the Principal, Registrars, and
other University officers. At the Institute are also the physiological
theatre and laboratories for special advanced lectures and research. The
rest of the building is now the property of the Board of Trade, under
whom the real Imperial Institute occupies the west wing and certain
other parts of the building.
The Horticultural Gardens, which the Imperial Institute superseded, were
taken by the Society in 1861, in addition to its then existing gardens
at Chiswick. They were laid out in a very artificial and formal style,
and were mocked in a contemporary article in the _Quarterly Review_: "So
the brave old trees which skirted the paddock of Gore House were felled,
little ramps were raised, and little slopes sliced off with a fiddling
nicety of touch which would have delighted the imperial grandeur of the
summer palace, and the tiny declivities thus manufactured were tortured
into curvilinear patterns, where sea-sand, chopped coal, and powdered
bricks atoned for the absence of flower or shrub." Every vestige of this
has, of course, now vanished, and a new road has been driven past the
front of the Institute.
The Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871, and, like the
other buildings already mentioned, is closely associated with the
earlier half of her reign. The idea was due to Prince Albert, who wished
to have a large hall for musical and oratorical performances. It is in
the form of a gigantic ellipse covered by a dome, and the external walls
are decorated by a frieze. The effect is hardly commendable, and the
whole has been compared to a huge bandbox. However, it answers the
purpose for which it was designed, having good acoustic properties, and
its concerts, especially the cheap ones on Sunday afternoons, are always
well attended. The organ is worked by steam, and is one of the largest
in the world, having close on 9,000 pipes. The hall stands on the site
of Gore House, in its time a rendezvous for all the men and women of
intellect and brilliancy in England. It was occupied by Wilberforce from
1808 to 1821. He came to it after his illness at Clapham, which had made
him feel the necessity of moving nearer to London, that he might
discharge his Parliamentary duties more easily. His Bill for the
Abolition of Slavery had become law shortly before, and he was at the
time a popular idol. His house was thronged with visitors, among whom
were his associates, Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay, and Romilly. What
charmed him most in his new residence was the garden "full of lilacs,
laburnum, nightingales, and swallows." He writes:
"We are just one mile from the turnpike at Hyde Park Corner, having
about 3 acres of pleasure-ground around our house, or rather behind
it, and several old trees, walnut and mulberry, of thick foliage. I
can sit and read under their shade with as much admiration of the
beauties of nature as if I were 200 miles from the great city."
In 1836 the clever and popular Lady Blessington came to Gore House, and
remained there just so long as Wilberforce had done--namely, thirteen
years. The house is thus described in "The Gorgeous Lady Blessington"
(Mr. Molloy):
"Lying back from the road, from which it was separated by high walls
and great gates, it was approached by a courtyard that led to a
spacious vestibule. The rooms were large and lofty, the hall wide
and stately, but the chiefest attraction of all were the beautiful
gardens stretching out at the back, with their wide terraces,
flower-beds, extensive lawns, and fine old trees."
Kensington Gore was then considered to be in the country, and spoken of
as a mile from London. Count D'Orsay, who had married Lady Blessington's
stepdaughter, rather in compliance with her father's wishes than his own
inclination, spent much of his time with his mother-in-law, and at her
receptions all the literary talent of the age was gathered
together--Bulwer Lytton, Disraeli, and Landor were frequent visitors,
and Prince Louis Napoleon made his way to Gore House when he escaped
from prison. Lady Blessington died in 1849. The house was used as a
restaurant during the 1851 Exhibition, and afterwards bought with the
estate by the Commissioners.
The name "gore" generally means a wedge-shaped insertion, and, if we
take it as being between the Kensington Gardens and Brompton and
Cromwell Roads, might be applicable here, but the explanation is
far-fetched. Leigh Hunt reminds us that the same word "gore" was
previously used for mud or dirt, and as the Kensington Road at this part
was formerly notorious for its mud, this may be the meaning of the name,
but there can be no certainty. Lowther Lodge, a picturesque red-brick
house, stands back behind a high wall; it was designed by Norman Shaw,
R.A. In the row of houses eastward of it facing the road, No. 2 was once
the residence of Wilkes, who at that time had also a house in Grosvenor
Square and another in the Isle of Wight. Croker says that the actor
Charles Mathews was once, with his wife, Madame Vestris, in Gore Lodge,
Brompton. He was certainly a friend of the Blessingtons, and stayed
abroad with them in Naples for a year, and may have been attracted to
their neighbourhood at the Gore.
Behind the Albert Hall are various buildings, such as Alexandra House
for ladies studying art and music, also large mansions and
_maisonnettes_ recently built. The Royal College of Music, successor of
the old College, which stood west of the Albert Hall, is in Prince
Consort Road. It was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, and opened in
1894. The cost was defrayed by Mr. Samson Fox, and in the building is a
curious collection of old musical instruments known as the Donaldson
Museum and open free daily. In the same road a prettily designed church,
to be called Holy Trinity, Kensington Gore, is rapidly rising. In the
northern part of Exhibition Road is the Technical Institute of the City
and Guilds in a large red and white building, and just south of it the
Royal School of Art Needlework for Ladies, founded by Princess
Christian.
Queen's Gate is very wide; in the southern part stands St. Augustine's
Church, opened for service in 1871, though the chancel was not completed
until five years later. The architect was Mr. Butterfield, and the
church is of brick of different colours, with a bell gable at the west
end. In Cromwell Place, near the underground station, Sir John Everett
Millais lived in No. 7; the fact is recorded on a tablet. Harrington
Road was formerly Cromwell Lane, and there is extant a letter of Leigh
Hunt's dated from this address in 1830. Pelham Crescent, behind the
station, formerly looked out upon tea-gardens. Guizot, the notable
French Minister, came to live here after the fall of Louis Philippe. He
was in No. 21, and Charles Mathews, the actor, lived for a time in No.
25. The curves of the old Brompton Road suggest that it was a lane at
one time, curving to avoid the fields or different properties on either
side.
Onslow Square stands upon the site of a large lunatic asylum. In it is
St. Paul's Church, built in 1860, and well known for its evangelical
services. There is nothing remarkable in its architecture save that the
chancel is at the west end. The pulpit is of carved stone with inlaid
slabs of American onyx. Marochetti, an Italian sculptor, who is
responsible for many of the statues in London, including that of Prince
Albert on the Memorial, lived at No. 34 in the square in 1860. But its
proudest association is that Thackeray came to the house then No. 36,
from Young Street, in 1853. "The Newcomes" was at that time appearing in
parts, and continued to run until 1855, so that some of it was probably
written here. He published also while here "The Rose and the Ring," the
outcome of a visit to Rome with his daughters, and after "The Newcomes"
was completed he visited America for a second time on a tour of
lectures, subsequently embodied in a book, "The Four Georges." By his
move from Young Street he was nearer to his friends the Carlyles in
Chelsea, a fact doubtless much appreciated on both sides. He contested
Oxford in 1857, and in the following year began the publication of "The
Virginians," which was doubtless inspired by his American experiences.
In 1860 he was made editor of the _Cornhill_, from which his income came
to something like £4,000 a year, and on the strength of this accession
of fortune he began to build a house in Palace Green, to which he moved
when it was complete (p. 53).
It has been remarked that this is rather a dismal neighbourhood, with
the large hospitals for Cancer and Consumption facing each other across
the Fulham Road, and the Women's Hospital quite close at hand. It is
with the Consumption Hospital alone we have to do here, as the others
are in Chelsea. This hospital stands on part of the ground which
belonged to a famous botanical garden owned by William Curtis at the end
of the eighteenth century. The building is of red brick, faced with
white stone, and it is on a piece of ground about 3 acres in extent,
lined by small trees, under which are seats for the wan-faced patients.
The ground-plan of the building resembles the letter H, and the system
adopted inside is that of galleries used as day-rooms and filled with
chairs and couches. From these the bedrooms open off. The galleries
make a superior sort of ward, and are bright, with large windows, and
polished floors. There is a chapel attached to the hospital, which was
chiefly presented by the late Sir Henry Foulis, after whom one of the
galleries is named, and who is also recalled in the name of a
neighbouring terrace. The west wing of the hospital was added in 1852,
and towards it Jenny Lind, who was resident in Brompton, presented
£1,600, the proceeds of a concert for the cause. There is also an
extension building across the road. Here there is a compressed air-bath,
in which an enormous pressure of air can be put upon the patient, to the
relief of his lungs. This item, rendered expensive by its massive
structure and iron bolts and bars, cost £1,000, and is one of the only
two of the kind in existence, the other being in Paris. A Miss Read
bequeathed to the hospital the sum of £100,000, and in memory of her a
slab beneath a central window is inscribed: "In Memoriam Cordelia Read,
1879." It was due to her beneficence that the extension building was
added.
In Cranley Gardens, which takes its name from the secondary title of the
Earl of Onslow, is St. Peter's Church, founded in 1866. Cranley Gardens
run into Gloucester Road, which formerly bore the much less aristocratic
title of Hogmore Lane.
Just above the place where the Cromwell Road cuts Gloucester Road, about
the site of the National Provincial Branch Bank, once stood a rather
important house. It had been the Florida Tea-gardens, and having gained
a bad reputation was closed, and the place sold to Sophia, Duchess of
Gloucester, who built there a house on her own account, and called it
Orford Lodge, in honour of her own family, the Walpoles. She had married
privately William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III. The
marriage, which took place in 1766, was not revealed to King George II.
until six years had passed, and when it was the Duke and Duchess fell
under the displeasure of His Majesty. They travelled abroad for some
time, but in 1780 were reinstated in royal favour. The Duke died in
1805, and the Duchess two years later. After her death her daughter,
Princess Sophia, sold the house to the great statesman George Canning,
who renamed it Gloucester Lodge, and lived in it until his death
eighteen years later. It was to this house he was brought after his duel
with Lord Castlereagh, when he was badly wounded in the thigh. Crabbe,
the poet, visited him at Gloucester Lodge, and records the fact in his
journal, commenting on the gardens, and remarking that the place was
much secluded. Canning also received here the unhappy Queen Caroline,
whose cause he had warmly espoused. The house was pulled down about the
middle of last century, but its memory is kept alive in Gloucester Road.
Thistle Grove Lane is one of those quaint survivals which enable us to
reconstruct the past topographically, in the same way as the silent
letters in a word, apparently meaningless, enable us to reconstruct the
philological past. It is no longer a lane, but a narrow passage, and
about midway down is crossed by a little street called Priory Grove.
Faulkner makes mention of Friars' Grove in this position, and the two
names are probably identical. Brompton Heath lay east of this lane, and
westward was Little Chelsea, a small hamlet in fields, situated by
itself, quite detached from London, separated from it by the dreary
heath, that no man might cross with impunity after dark.
The Boltons is an oval piece of ground with St. Mary's Church in the
middle. The church was opened in 1851, and the interior is surprisingly
small in comparison with the exterior. It was fully restored about
twenty years after it had been built. The land had been for many years
the property of the Bolton family, whose name impressed itself on the
place.
Returning to the Fulham Road, and continuing westward, we pass the site
of an old manor-house, afterwards used as an orphanage; near it was an
additional building of the St. George's Union, which is opposite. There
is a tradition that Boyle, the philosopher, once occupied this
additional house, and was here visited by Locke. The present Union
stands on the site of Shaftesbury House, built about 1635, and bought by
the third Earl of Shaftesbury in 1699. Addison, who was a great friend
of the Earl's, often stayed with him in Shaftesbury House.
Redcliffe Gardens was formerly called Walnut-Tree Walk, another rural
reminiscence. At the eastern corner was Burleigh House, and an entry in
the Kensington registers, May 15, 1674, tells of the birth of "John
Cecill, son and heir of John, Lord Burleigh," in the parish. There is no
direct evidence to show that Lord Burleigh was then living in this
house, but the probability is that he was. To the east of this house
again was a row of others, with large gardens at the back; one was
Lochee's well-known military academy, and another, Heckfield Lodge, was
taken by the brothers of the Priory attached to the Roman Catholic
church, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, which faces the street. The greater
part of this church was built in 1876, but a very fine rectangular porch
with figures of saints in the niches, and a narthex in the same style,
were added later. The square tower with corner pinnacles is a
conspicuous object in the Fulham Road.
Among other important persons who lived at Little Chelsea in or about
Fulham Road were Sir Bartholomew Shower, a well-known lawyer, in 1693;
the Bishop of Gloucester (Edward Fowler), 1709; the Bishop of Chester
(Sir William Dawes), who afterwards became Archbishop of York; and Sir
Edward Ward, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in 1697. It is odd to read of
a highway murder occurring near Little Chelsea in 1765. The barbarity of
the time demanded that the murderers should be executed on the spot
where their crime was committed, so that the two men implicated were
hanged, the one at the end of Redcliffe Gardens, and the other near
Stamford Bridge, Chelsea Station. These men were Chelsea pensioners, and
must have been active for their years to make such an attempt. The
gibbet stood at the end of the present Redcliffe Gardens for very many
years.
Ifield Road was once Honey Lane. To the west are the entrance gates of
the cemetery, which is about 800 yards in extreme length by 300 in the
broadest part. The graves are thickly clustered together at the southern
end, with hardly two inches between the stones, which are of every
variety. The cemetery was opened for burial in June, 1840. Sir Roderick
Murchison, the geologist, is among those who lie here. In the centre of
the southern part of the cemetery is a chapel; two colonnades and a
central building stand over the catacombs, which are not now used. At
the northern end is a Dissenters' chapel. Having thus come to the
extreme limits of the district, we turn to the neighbourhood of Earl's
Court.
Earl's Court can show good cause why it should hold both its names, for
here the lords of the manor, the Earls of Oxford, held their courts. The
earlier maps of Kensington are all of the nineteenth century. Before
that time the old topographers doubtless thought there was nothing out
of which to make a map, for except by the sides of the high-road, and in
the detached villages of Brompton, Earl's Court, and Little Chelsea,
there were only fields. Faulkner's 1820 map is very slight and sketchy.
He says: "In speaking of this part, proceeding down Earl's Court Lane
[Road], we arrive at the village of Earl's Court." The 1837 Survey shows
a considerable increase in the number of houses, though Earl's Court is
still a village, connected with Kensington by a lane. Daw's map of 1846
for some reason shows fewer houses, but his 1858 map gives a decided
increase.
Near where the underground station now is stood the old court-house of
Earl's Court. From 1789 to 1875 another building superseded it, but the
older house was standing until 1878. There was a medicinal spring at
Earl's Court in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Beside these
two facts, there is very little that is interesting to note. John
Hunter, the celebrated anatomist, founder of the Hunterian Museum, lived
here in a house he had built for himself. He had a passion for animals,
particularly strange beasts, and gathered an odd collection round him,
somewhat to the dismay of his neighbours.
The popular Earl's Court Exhibition is partly in Kensington and partly
in Fulham; it is the largest exhibition open in London, and is
patronized as much because it is one of the few places to which the
Londoner can go to sit out of doors and hear a band after dinner, as for
its more varied entertainments.
One of the comparatively old houses of the neighbourhood of Earl's
Court, that has only recently been demolished, was Coleherne Court, at
the corner of Redcliffe Gardens and the Brompton Road. It is now
replaced by residential flats. This was possibly the same house as that
mentioned by Bowack (1705): "The Hon. Col. Grey has a fine seat at
Earl's Court; it is but lately built, after the modern manner, and
standing upon a plain, where nothing can intercept the sight, looks very
stately at a distance. The gardens are very good." The house was later
occupied by the widow of General Ponsonby, who fell in the Battle of
Waterloo. Its companion, Hereford House, further eastward, was used as
the headquarters of a cycling club before its demolition.
The rest of the district eastward to Gloucester Road has no old
association. St. Jude's Church, in Courtfield Gardens, was built in
1870. The reredos is of red-stained alabaster, coloured marble, and
mosaics by Salviati. St. Stephen's, in Gloucester Road, is a smaller
church, founded in 1866. Beyond it Gloucester Road runs into Victoria
Road, once Love Lane. General Gordon was at No. 8, Victoria Grove, in
1881. Returning again to Earl's Court Road, we see St. Stephen's,
another of the numerous modern churches in which the district abounds;
it was built partly at the expense of the Rev. D. Claxton, and was
opened in 1858. In Warwick Gardens, westward, is St. Mathias, which
rivals St. Cuthbert's, in Philbeach Gardens, in the ritualism of its
services. Both churches are very highly decorated. In St. Cuthbert's the
interior is of great height, and the walls ornamentally worked in stone;
there is a handsome oak screen, and a very fine statue of the Virgin and
Child by Sir Edgar Boehm in the Lady Chapel; in both churches the seats
are all free.
Edwardes Square, with its houses on the north side bordering Kensington
Road, is peculiarly attractive, with a large garden in the centre, and
an old-world air about its houses, which are mostly small. Leigh Hunt
says that it was (traditionally) built by a Frenchman at the time of the
threatened French invasion, and that so confident was this good patriot
of the issue of the war that he built the square, with its large garden
and small houses, to suit the promenading tastes and poorly-furnished
pockets of Napoleon's officers. The name was taken from the family name
of Lord Kensington.
Mrs. Inchbald stayed as a boarder at No. 4 in the square when she was
sixty-five. She seems to have chosen the life for the sake of company
rather than by reason of lack of means, for she was not badly off,
having been always extraordinarily well paid for her work. She is
described as having been above the middle height, of a freckled
complexion, and with sandy hair, but nevertheless good-looking. Leigh
Hunt himself was at No. 32 for some years before 1853, when he removed
to Hammersmith. He mentions, on hearsay, that Coleridge once stayed in
the square, but this was probably only on the occasion of a visit to
friends. In recent times Walter Pater was a resident here.
Leaving aside for a time Holland House, standing in beautiful grounds,
which line the northern side of the road, and turning eastward, we find
the Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral, almost hidden behind houses. It is of
dark-red brick, and was designed by Mr. Goldie, but the effect of the
north porch is lost, owing to the buildings which hem it in; this defect
will doubtless be remedied in time as leases expire. The interior of the
cathedral is of great height, and the light stone arches are supported
by pillars of polished Aberdeen granite.
After Abingdon Road comes Allen Street, in which there is the Kensington
Independent Chapel, a great square building with an imposing portico,
built in 1854, "for the worshippers in the Hornton Street Chapel." The
houses at the northern end of Allen Street are called Phillimore
Terrace, and here Sir David Wilkie came in the autumn of 1824, having
for the previous thirteen years lived in Lower Phillimore Place. His
life in Kensington was quiet and regular. He says: "I dine at two
o'clock, paint two hours in the forenoon and two hours in the afternoon,
and take a short walk in the Park or through the fields twice a day."
His mother and sister lived with him, and though he was a bachelor, his
domestic affections were very strong. The time in Phillimore Terrace was
far from bright; it was while he lived here that his mother died, also
two of his brothers and his sister's _fiancé_; and many other troubles,
including money worries, came upon him. He eventually moved, though not
far, only to Vicarage Gardens (then Place), near Church Street.
In Kensington Road, beyond Allen Street, was an ancient inn, the Adam
and Eve, in which it is said that Sheridan used to stop for a drink on
the way to and from Holland House, and where he ran up a bill which he
coolly left to be settled by his friend Lord Holland. The inn is now
replaced by a modern public-house of the same name. Between this and
Wright's Lane the aspect of the place has been entirely changed in the
last few years by the erection of huge red-brick flats. On the other
side of Wright's Lane the enlarged premises of Messrs. Ponting have
covered up the site of Scarsdale House, which only disappeared to make
way for them. Scarsdale House is supposed to have been built by one of
the Earls of Scarsdale (first creation), the second of whom married Lady
Frances Rich, eldest daughter of the Earl of Warwick and Holland, but
there is not much evidence to support this conjecture. At the same time,
the house was evidently much older than the date of the second Scarsdale
creation--namely, 1761. The difficulty is surmounted by Mr. Loftie, who
says: "John Curzon, who founded it, and called it after the home of his
ancestors in Derbyshire, had bought the land for the purpose of building
on it."
At the end of this lane is the Home for Crippled Boys, established in
Woolsthorpe House. The house was evidently named after the home of Sir
Isaac Newton at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham. But apparently he never
lived in it. His only connection with this part is that here stood "a
batch of good old family houses, one of which belonged to Sir Isaac
Newton." It is possible that the name was given by an enthusiastic
admirer, moved thereto by the fact that Newton had lived in Bullingham
House, Church Street, not so far distant.
In the 1837 map of the district Woolsthorpe is marked "Carmaerthen
House." The front and the entrance are old, and in one of the rooms
there is decorative moulding on the ceiling and a carved mantelpiece,
but the schoolrooms and workshops built out at the back are all modern.
The home had a very small beginning, being founded in 1866 by Dr. Bibby,
who rented one room, and took in three crippled boys.
In Marloes Road, further south, are the workhouse and infirmary.
Returning to the High Street, the Free Library and the Town Hall attract
attention. The latter is nearly on the site of the old free schools,
which were built by Sir John Vanbrugh with all the solidity
characteristic of his style; and Leigh Hunt opined, if suffered to
remain, they would probably outlast the whole of Kensington. However, no
such misfortune occurred, and the only relics of them remaining are the
figures of the charity children of Queen Anne's period, which now stand
above the doorway of the new schools at the back of the Town Hall.
William Cobbett, "essayist, politician, agriculturist," lived in a house
on the site of some of the great shops on the south side of the High
Street, opposite the Town Hall. His grounds bordered on those of
Scarsdale House, and he established in them a seed garden in which to
carry out his practical experiments in agriculture. His pugnacity and
sharp tongue led him into many a quarrel, and he was never a favourite
with those who were his neighbours. He advocated Queen Caroline's cause
with warmth, and was the real author of her famous letter to the King.
But he will always be remembered best by his _Weekly Register_, a potent
political weapon.
The parish church of St. Mary Abbots, with its high spire, forms a very
striking object on the north side of the road. There is a stone porch
over the entrance to the churchyard, and a picturesque cloistered
passage leading round the south side. Within the cloister is a tablet
commemorating the fact that it was partly built by Rev. E. C. Glyn and
his wife in memory of his mother, who died in 1892. A little further on,
immediately facing the south door, is another tablet, stating that the
porch at the entrance to the cloister was erected by the widow of James
Liddle Fairless in memory of her husband, who died in 1891. Within the
church the walls are thickly covered with memorial tablets, and on the
north and south walls are rows of them set in coloured marble. The
reredos is a representation of the four evangelists in mosaic work in
four panels, enclosed in a Gothic canopy of marble. On the north side of
the chancel is a fresco painting enclosed in marble, presented by the
Archbishop of York on leaving the parish. On the south side there is
also a small fresco painting, but the greater part of the wall is
occupied by the sedilia. The transept on the south side of the nave
contains numerous memorial tablets and two brasses: nearly all of these
belong to the eighteenth century. The monument of the Rich family is
against the west wall in this transept, and is a conspicuous object. A
large marble slab against the wall bears the name of Edward Rich, last
Earl of Warwick and Holland (died 1759), his wife Mary, who survived him
ten years, and their only child Charlotte, who died unmarried. Above are
the names of the Rich family, and below is the statue of the young Earl
of Warwick and Holland, the stepson of Addison, who died in 1721, aged
twenty-four. He is in Roman dress, life-size, and is represented seated
with his right elbow resting on an urn.
On the further side of the south door we have a curious old white marble
monument to the memory of Mr. Colin Campbell (died 1708). This was in
the old church, and was placed in its present position by a descendant
of the Campbell family. The font, a handsome marble basin, stands in the
north aisle. Near it is a marble bust of Dr. Rennell, a former vicar of
Kensington, by Chantrey. In the north chapel there is a large marble
tablet to the memory of William Murray, third son of the Earl of
Dunmore. The pulpit is of dark carved oak, and stood in the old church.
The west porch is very handsomely ornamented with stonework. In the
churchyard are buried several persons of note, including Mrs. Inchbald,
the authoress; and a son of George Canning, whose monument is by
Chantrey.
Among other entries in the registers may be noticed the marriage of
Henry Cromwell, already mentioned. There are many records of the Hicks
(Campden) family, also of the Winchilsea and Nottingham, Lawrence,
Cecil, Boyle, Howard of Effingham, Brydges, Dukes of Chandos,
Molesworth, and Godolphin families. The plate belonging to the church is
very valuable. The oldest piece is a cup dating from 1599, and a silver
tankard is of the year 1619. A full description of the plate was given
by Mr. Cripps in the parish magazine in 1879.
The church owes its additional name of Abbots to the fact of its having
belonged to the Abbot and convent of Abingdon, as set forth in the
history of the parish. Bowack says: "It does not appear that this church
was ever dedicated to any saint, nor can we find, after a very strict
search, by whom it was founded, though we have traced its vicars up to
the year 1260."
It has already been explained that Aubrey de Vere made a present to the
Abbot of the slice of land on which the church stands, and that this
formed a secondary manor in Kensington. This transfer had been made with
the consent of Pope Alexander, but without the consent of the Bishop of
London or the Archbishop. In consequence of this omission the title of
the Abbey to the land was disputed, and it was at length settled that
the patronage of the vicarage should be vested in the Bishop. This was
in 1260. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbot's
portion became vested in the Crown, from which it passed to various
persons; and when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor a special arrangement
had to be made with Robert Horseman, who was then in possession.
So much for the history. The actual fabric has been subject to much
change, and has been rebuilt many times. It is known that a church was
standing on this site in 1102, but how old it was then is only matter
for conjecture; in 1370 it was wholly or partly rebuilt. And this church
was pulled down about 1694, with the exception of the tower, and again
rebuilt; but in seven years the new building began to crack, and in 1704
the roof was taken off, and the north and south walls once more rebuilt.
After this Bowack describes it as "of brick and handsomely finished; but
what it was formerly may be guessed by the old tower now standing, which
has some appearance of antiquity, and looks like the architecture of the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries." In his encomium he probably spoke more
in accordance with convention than with real approbation, for this
church has been described by many other independent persons as an
unsightly building, with no architectural beauty whatever; and as far as
may be gathered from the prints still extant this is the true judgment.
In 1811 it showed signs of decay, and underwent thorough restoration;
and in 1869 it was entirely demolished, and the present church built
from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott. The spire, added a few years
later, is only exceeded by two in England--namely, those of Salisbury
and Norwich Cathedrals.
There are many parish charities, which it would be out of place to
enumerate here, and among them are several bequests for the cleansing
and repair of tombs.
The fine shops on the south side of the street inherit a more ancient
title than might be supposed. Bowack, writing in 1705, speaks of the
"abundance of shopkeepers and all sorts of artificers" along the
high-road, "which makes it appear rather like a part of London than a
country village."
Leaving aside for the time Church Street and all the interesting
district on the north, we turn to Kensington Square, which was begun
about the end of James II.'s reign, and from the very first was a
notably fashionable place, and more especially so after the Court was
established at Kensington Palace. In Queen Anne's reign, "for beauty of
buildings and worthy inhabitants," it "exceeds several noted squares in
London." The eminent inhabitants have indeed been so numerous that it is
difficult to prevent any account of them from degenerating into a mere
catalogue. "In the time of George II. the demand for lodgings was so
great that an Ambassador, a Bishop, and a physician were known to occupy
apartments in the same house" (Faulkner).
The two houses, Nos. 10 and 11, in the eastern corner on the south side
are the two oldest that look on to the square. They were reserved for
the maids of honour when the Court was at Kensington, and the wainscoted
rooms and little powdering closets speak volumes as to their bygone
days; these two were originally one house, as the exterior shows. Next
door is the women's department of King's College. J. R. Green, the
historian, lived at No. 14 until his death, and in No. 18 John S. Mill
was living in 1839. Three Bishops at least are known to have been
domiciled in the square: Bishop Mawson of Ely, who died here in 1770;
Bishop Herring of Bangor, a very notable prelate, who was afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury; and in the south-western corner Bishop Hough
of Oxford, Lichfield, and Worcester had a fine old house until 1732. The
Convent of the Assumption now covers the same ground in Nos. 20 to 24.
The original object of the convent was prayer for the conversion of
England to the Roman Catholic faith, but the sisters now devote
themselves to the work of teaching; they have a pleasant garden, more
than an acre in extent, stretching out at the back of the house. In the
chapel there is a fresco painting by Westlake.
No. 26 is the Kensington Foundation Grammar School. Talleyrand lived in
Nos. 36 and 37, formerly one house. He succeeded Bishop Herring in the
occupancy, after a lapse of fifty years, and the man who had abandoned
the vocation of the Church to follow diplomacy was thus sheltered by the
same roof that had sheltered a Churchman by vocation, if ever there were
one. Many foreign ambassadors patronized the square at various times.
The Duchess of Mazarin, already mentioned in the volume on Chelsea, was
here in 1692, and six years later moved to her Chelsea home, where she
died; but her day was over many years before she came here. Joseph
Addison lodged in the square for a time, four or five years before his
marriage with the Countess of Warwick. At No. 41 Sir Edward Burne-Jones
lived for three years, subsequently removing to West Kensington, but the
association which has most glorified the square is its proximity to
Young Street, so long the home of Thackeray. He came to No. 16, then 13,
in 1846, aged only thirty-five, but with the romance of his life behind
him. A tablet marks the window in which he used to work. Six years
previously his wife, whom he had tenderly loved, had developed
melancholia, and, soon becoming a confirmed invalid, had had to be
placed permanently under medical care. Their married life had been very
short, only four or five years, but Thackeray had three little daughters
to remind him of it. He had passed through many vicissitudes, from the
comparatively opulent days of youth and the University to the time when
he had lost all his patrimony and been forced to support himself
precariously by pen and pencil. Yearly he had become better known, and
by the time he came to Young Street he was sufficiently removed from
money troubles to be without that worst form of worry, anxiety for the
future. He had contributed to the _Times_, _Frazer's Magazine_, and
_Punch_. It is rather odd to read that at the time when _Punch_ was
started one of Thackeray's friends was rather sorry that he should
become a contributor, fearing that it would lower his status in the
literary world! It was in _Punch_, nevertheless, that his first real
triumph was won. The "Snob Papers" attracted universal attention, and
were still running when he moved to Young Street. Here he began more
serious work, and scarcely a year later "Vanity Fair" was brought out in
numbers, according to the fashion made popular by Dickens. It did not
prove an instantaneous success, but by the time it had run its course
its author's position was assured. In spite of the sorrow that
overshadowed his domestic life--and he had by this time for many years
given up any hope of communicating with his wife--the time he spent in
this house cannot have been unhappy. He had congenial work, many
friends, among whom were numbered his fellow contributor Leech, also G.
F. Watts, Herman Merivale, the Theodore Martins, Monckton Milnes,
Kinglake, and others. He had also his daughters, and he was a loving and
sympathetic father, realizing that children need brightness in their
lives as well as mere care, and taking his little family about whenever
he could to parties and shows; and he had a growing reputation in the
literary world. "Pendennis" was published in 1848, and before it had
finished running Thackeray suffered from a severe illness, that left its
mark on all his succeeding life.
It was after this that Miss Brontë came to dine with him in Young
Street. She had admired "Vanity Fair" immensely, and was ready to offer
hero-worship; but the sensitive, dull little governess did not reveal in
society the fire that had made her books live, and we are told that
Thackeray, although her host, found the dinner so dull that he slipped
away to his club before she left. He had now a good income from his
books, and added to it by lecturing. "Esmond" appeared in 1852, and the
references to my Lady Castlewood's house in Kensington Square and the
Greyhound tavern (the name of the inn opposite to Thackeray's own house)
will be remembered by everyone. The novelist visited America shortly
after, and then went with his children to Switzerland, and it was in
Switzerland that the idea for "The Newcomes" came to him. Young Street
can only claim a part of that book, for in 1853 he moved to Onslow
Square, and the last number of "The Newcomes" did not appear until 1855.
However, this was not his last connection with this part of Kensington,
for in 1861 he built himself a house in Palace Green, but he only
occupied it for two years, when his death occurred at the early age of
fifty-two.
The houses in Kensington Court, near by, are elaborately decorated with
ornamental terra-cotta mouldings. They stand just about the place where
once was Kensington House, which had something of a history. It was for
a while the residence of the Duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de
Querouaille), and later was the school of Dr. Elphinstone, referred to
in Boswell's "Life of Johnson," and supposed, on the very slightest
grounds, to have been the original of one of Smollett's brutal
schoolmasters in "Roderick Random"; though the driest of pedagogues,
Elphinstone was the reverse of brutal. The house was subsequently a
Roman Catholic seminary, and then a boarding-house, where Mrs. Inchbald
lodged, and in which she died in 1821.
Close by was another old house, made notorious by its owner's
miserliness; this man, Sir Thomas Colby, died intestate, and his fortune
of £200,000 was divided among six or seven day labourers, who were his
next of kin. A new Kensington House was built on the site of these two,
and is said to have cost £250,000, but its owner got into difficulties,
and eventually the costly house was pulled down, and its fittings sold
for a twentieth part of their value. Near at hand are De Vere Gardens,
to which Robert Browning came in June, 1887, from Warwick Crescent.
Further eastward we come to Palace Gate. Some of this property belongs
to the local charities. It is known as Butts Field Estate, and was so
called from the fact that the butts for archery practice were once set
up here.
KENSINGTON GARDENS AND PALACE.
The Gardens are so intimately connected with the Palace that it is
impossible to touch upon the one without the other, and though Leigh
Hunt caustically remarked that a criticism might be made on Kensington
that it has "a Palace which is no palace, Gardens which are no gardens,
and a river called the Serpentine which is neither serpentine nor a
river," yet in spite of this the Palace, the Gardens, and the river
annually give pleasure to thousands, and possess attractions of their
own by no means despicable. The flower-beds in the gardens nearest to
Kensington Road are beautiful enough in themselves to justify the title
of gardens. This is the quarter most patronized by nursemaids and their
charges. There are shady narrow paths, also the Broad Walk, with its
leafy overarching boughs resembling one of Nature's aisles, and the
Round Pond, pleasant in spite of its primness. The Gardens were not
always open to the public, but partly belonged to the palace of
time-soiled bricks to which the public is now also admitted.
The first house on this site of which we have any reliable detail is
that built by Sir Heneage Finch, the second of the name, who was Lord
Chancellor under Charles I. and was created Earl of Nottingham in 1681,
though it is probable that there had been some building on or near the
same place before, possibly the manor-house of the Abbot. The first Earl
of Nottingham had bought the estate from his younger brother, Sir John,
and it was from his successor, the second earl, that William III. bought
Nottingham House, as it was then called.
William suffered much from asthma, and the gravel pits of Kensington
were then considered very healthy, and combined the advantages of not
being very far from town with the pure air of the country. Of course,
the house had to be enlarged in order to be suitable for a royal
residence, but it was not altogether demolished, and there are parts of
the original Nottingham House still standing, probably the south side of
the courtyard, where the brick is of a deeper shade than the rest. King
William's taste in the matter of architecture knew no deviation; his
model was Versailles, and as he had commissioned Wren to transform the
Tudor building of Hampton into a palace resembling Versailles, so he
directed him to repeat the experiment here. The long, low red walls,
with their neat exactitude, speak still of William's orders; a building
of heterogeneous growth, with a tower here and an angle there, would
have disgusted him: his ideal would have found its fulfilment in a
modern barrack. Wren's taste, later aided by the lapse of time, softened
down the hard angularity of the building, but it can in no sense be
considered admirable. Thus Kensington Palace was built, and its walls
and its park like gardens were to be as closely associated with the
Hanoverian Sovereigns as the building and park of St. James's had been
associated with the Stuarts whom William had supplanted.
The Palace was not finished when Queen Mary was seized with small-pox
and died within its walls, leaving a husband who, though narrow and
austere, had really loved her. He himself died at Kensington eight years
later. Good-hearted Queen Anne, whose last surviving child had died two
years before, took up her residence at the Palace, of which she was
always extremely fond. The death of her husband in 1708 left her to a
lonely reign, and she seems to have solaced herself with her garden,
superintending the laying out of the grounds. She had no taste, and
everything she ordered was dull and formal; yet she could not spoil the
natural beauty of the situation, and she still had Wren to direct her
in architectural matters. The great orangery which goes by her name, and
now stands empty and forlorn, is seen on nearing the public entrance to
the state apartments of the Palace, and is in itself a wonderful example
of Wren's genius for proportion. The private gardens of the Palace must
not be confounded with the larger grounds, which stretched up to Hyde
Park. The whole place had a very different aspect at that time: there
were King William's gardens, with formal flower-beds and walks in the
Dutch style, and northward lay Queen Anne's additional gardens, very
much in the same style. The rest was comparatively uncared-for and
waste. Queen Anne died at Kensington from apoplexy, brought on by
over-eating, and was succeeded by the first George, who spent so much of
his time in visiting his Hanoverian dominions that he had not much left
for performing the merely necessary Court duties at St. James's, and
none to spare for any lengthy visits to Kensington. However, he admired
the place, and caused alterations to be made. It was in his reign that
the ugly annexe on the east side, bearing unmistakably a Georgian
origin, was added, under the superintendence of William Kent, who had
supplanted Wren. George's daughter-in-law, "Caroline the Illustrious,"
loved Kensington, and has left her impress on it more than any other
occupant. When her husband came to the throne, she spent much of her
time, during his long absences abroad, at the Palace. She employed Kent
to do away with William's formal flower-beds, and she added much ground
to the Gardens, taking for the purpose 100 acres from Hyde Park, and
dividing the two parks by the Serpentine River, formed from the pools in
the bed of the Westbourne. There were eleven pools altogether, but in
later days, when the Westbourne stream had become a mere sewer, in which
form it still flows underground and empties itself into the Thames near
Chelsea Bridge, the Chelsea waterworks supplied the running water. The
elaborate terrace, with its fountains at the north end, is a favourite
place with children. The statue of Sir William Jenner stands near; it
was brought from Trafalgar Square. In winter, when frozen over, the
Serpentine affords skating-room for hundreds of persons, and at other
times bathing is permitted in the early morning.
In her gardens the fair Queen walked with her bevy of maids of honour,
that bevy which has always been renowned for its beauty, herself the
fairest of all. These fascinating, light-hearted girls grew up in an age
of coarseness and vice, and were surrounded by temptation, which all,
alas! did not resist, in spite of their royal mistress's example and
courage. It was an age of meaningless gallantry and real brutality; the
high-flown compliment and pretended adoration covered cynical intention
and unabashed effrontery. Caroline herself preserved an untainted name,
and her influence must have been a rock of salvation to the giddy,
laughing girls. Leigh Hunt, quoting from the "Suffolk Correspondence,"
thus summarizes these maids: "There is Miss Hobart, the sweet tempered
and sincere (now become Mrs. Howard, afterwards Lady Suffolk); Miss
Howe, the giddiest of the giddy (which she lived to lament); Margaret
Bellenden, who vied in height with her royal mistress; the beautiful
Mary Bellenden, her sister, who became Duchess of Argyll; Mary Lepel,
the lovely, who became Lady Hervey; and Anne Pitt, sister of the future
Lord Chatham, and as 'like him as two drops of fire.'"
Caroline's devotion to her insignificant little lord and master, and the
eagerness with which she hastened on foot to meet him, running across
the Gardens, on his return from the Continent, have been made the
subject of satire. She was generally accompanied by her five daughters,
a pathetic little band, cramped in the fetters of royalty, so stringent
toward their sex. Portraits of two of them may be seen in the Palace.
Caroline did not die at Kensington, though her husband did, after having
survived her more than twenty years, and having in the meantime
discovered her inestimable worth. At this time the Gardens were open to
the public on Saturdays by Queen Caroline's orders, and were a favourite
parade, though, as everyone was requested to appear in "full dress," the
numbers must have been limited. The principal promenade was the Broad
Walk, which Caroline herself had caused to be made. We can picture these
ghosts of the past, with their gay silks and satins, the silver-buckled
shoes with coloured heels, the men in their long waistcoats, heavily
skirted coats, and three-cornered hats--very fine beaux, indeed; and the
women stiffly encased in the most uncomfortable garments that ever the
wit of mortal devised, holding their heads erect, lest the marvellous
pyramids, built up with such expenditure of time and money, should
topple over, and, in spite of all disadvantages, looking pretty and
piquant. It was a crowd not so far removed from us by time, so that we
can attribute to the men and women who composed it the same feelings and
sensibilities as our own. And yet they were very far removed from us in
their surroundings, for many of the things that are to us commonplace
would have been to them miraculous, so that they seem more different
from us of a hundred years later than from those who preceded them by
many hundreds of years. It is this mingling of a life we can
understand, with circumstances so different, that gives the eighteenth
century its predominant and never-dying charm.
In 1798 we hear of a man being accidentally shot while the keepers were
hunting (presumably shooting) foxes in Kensington Gardens.
In the Palace itself the state apartments are now open to the public
every day of the week except Wednesdays. This admittance was granted by
Queen Victoria in commemoration of her eightieth year. Previously to
this time the Palace had been allowed to fall into decay, and it needed
a large grant from Parliament to put it into repair again. The state
rooms, which are on the second floor, are well worth a visit, and the
names of each, such as "Queen Mary's Gallery," "Queen Caroline's
Drawing-room," and "King's Privy Chamber," are above the doors, as at
Hampton Court. These rooms are nearly all liberally supplied with
pictures, many of which were restored from Hampton Court after having
been previously taken there. We see here the winsome face of the poor
little Duke of Gloucester (p. 72), handsome Queen Caroline, sardonic
William, and the family group of the children of Frederick, Prince of
Wales. The selection has been made with judgment, and every picture
speaks to us of the reigns most closely connected with the Palace. It is
well to note the view eastward from the King's Drawing-room, which
comes as a surprise. The outlook is over the Round Pond and down a vista
of trees to the Serpentine, and gives a surprising effect of distance.
The rooms that will always attract most attention, however, are those
which were occupied by Queen Victoria as a child.
When the Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Kensington Palace seven months
after their marriage, the fact that a child of theirs might occupy the
English throne was a possibility, but a remote one. George III. was then
on the throne; the daughter and only child of his eldest son, Princess
Charlotte, had died a year previously, and it was natural that after
this event the succession should be considered in a new light. The next
son, William, Duke of Clarence, had carried on a lifelong connection
with Mrs. Jordan, by whom he had ten children, and when the death of his
elder brother's only child made him heir to the throne, it was necessary
for him to contract a more suitable alliance, so with great reluctance
he married Adelaide, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen, in
1818. Frederick, Duke of York, the next in age, had been married for
many years, but his union had proved childless. He is the Duke
commemorated in the column in Waterloo Place, and also in the
soldier-boys' school at Chelsea.
Therefore the birth of a daughter to the Duke of Kent, the fourth son,
at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, was an event of no small
importance. The room in which the Princess was born was one on the first
floor, just below the King's Privy Chamber, and it is marked by a brass
plate. This is not among the state apartments shown to the public, but
the little room called the Nursery, in which the young Princess played,
and her small bedroom adjoining, lie in the regular circuit made by
visitors through the rooms.
The Duke died less than a year after his daughter's birth, so there were
no small brothers or sisters to share the Princess's childhood; but her
stepsister, Princess Feodore, her mother's child, was much attached to
her, and might often be seen walking or driving with her in the Gardens.
The Nursery has a secondary association, for the Duke and Duchess of
Teck lived for some time at Kensington Palace, and it was in this room
that their daughter, the present Princess of Wales, was born.
The chief objects in the room are the dolls' house and other toys, all
of the plainest description, with which Princess Victoria played as a
child. There was no extravagance in her bringing up. Her mother was the
wisest of women, and made no attempt to force the young intellect to
tasks beyond its powers, nor did she spoil the child by undue
indulgence. Early rising, morning walks, simple dinner, and games,
constituted the days that passed rapidly in the seclusion of Kensington.
When the young Princess had turned the age of five, her lessons began
under the superintendence of Fräulein Lehzen, the governess of Princess
Feodore, who was afterwards raised to the peerage as Baroness Lehzen.
Though the second of the children of the Duke of Clarence had died
before Victoria was three years old, and thus her chance of the throne
was greatly increased, she was not made aware of her prospects until
much later. The Princess Sophia, daughter of George III., lived in
Church Street close by, at York House, and the Duke of Sussex, a younger
son of George III., lived with his morganatic wife, called the Duchess
of Inverness, in a set of apartments in the Palace. The rooms they
occupied are those now tenanted by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll; thus
aunts and an uncle were constantly sharing the simple pleasures of the
little family circle.
The singularly plain little bedroom near to the Nursery in the Palace is
that which Princess Victoria occupied during all her happy childhood,
and it was here that she was awakened to meet the Archbishop and
Minister who brought her the news that her great inheritance had come
upon her. The death of the Duke of York had already cleared the way to
the throne, and as the years went by and the Duke of Clarence had no
more children, it was seen that the little girl who played at Kensington
must, if she lived, be Queen of England. When George IV. died, when she
was eleven years old, her prospects were assured, and since that time
she had been prepared for her future position. William IV.'s short reign
of only seven years seated her on the throne when she had just passed
her eighteenth year. The account of her being awakened in the early
morning by messengers bearing a message of such tremendous import, her
hasty rising, and stepping through into the Long Gallery with her hair
falling over her shoulders, and only a shawl thrown around her, is well
known to everyone.
The room in which her first Council took place is below the Cube Room.
No wonder that Queen Victoria had always a tender memory of Kensington
Palace.
Her favourite daughter, Princess Beatrice of Battenberg, occupies a
suite of rooms at the Palace, besides Princess Louise, Duchess of
Argyll; and there are several other occupants--widows, retired army men,
and those who have some claim on the private generosity of the
Crown--who live here in sets of apartments, in the same way as others
live at Hampton Court.
The somewhat untidy forcing-beds which now stand in the immediate
proximity to the Palace, and which supply the royal parks, are shortly
to be cleared away--a decided improvement.
Queen Victoria's connection with Kensington did not cease at her
accession. At Prince Albert's suggestion a great Exhibition was held in
1851, and the huge palace of glass and iron, which was to house it,
sprang up in the Gardens at the spot where the Albert Memorial now
stands. Foreigners from all parts of the world visited the Exhibition,
and the buildings were crowded. Very different was that crowd from that
which had promenaded in the Gardens in the reigns of the Georges. Women
wore coalscuttle bonnets and three-cornered shawls, with the points
hanging down in the centre of their backs, and crinolines that gave them
the appearance of inverted tops. Their beauty must have been very potent
to shine through such a disguise! The profits of the Exhibition amounted
to £150,000, which was invested in land in South Kensington. The Crystal
Palace exactly suited the taste of the age, and when it had fulfilled
the function for which it was primarily intended, the difficulty was to
know what to do with it; it was not possible to leave it in the Gardens,
so it was finally transported to Sydenham, where it still annually
delights thousands.
The Albert Memorial took twenty years to complete, and cost more than
£130,000. The four groups representing the continents of the world are
fine both in execution and idea, also the bas-reliefs, in which every
figure depicts some real person, and the smaller groups of Commerce,
Manufactures, Agriculture, and Engineering. As much, unfortunately,
cannot be said for the tawdry statue in its canopy.
It has been necessary to linger long over the Gardens and the Palace,
but we must now turn northward up Church Street to complete our
perambulation of the district. In Church Street is the Carmelite Church,
designed by Pugin, and though very simple in style, not pleasing. It was
built in 1865. The organ is an especially fine one, and the singing is
famous. There is a relic of St. Simon Stock beneath the altar, which is
very highly prized. The monastery extends along the side of Duke's Lane
at the back of the church. It is rather an ornamental building, with
stone pinnacles and carved stonework over the doorway. It opens upon the
corner where Duke's Lane meets Pitt Street, and close by stood
Bullingham House, where Sir Isaac Newton lived. It has now disappeared,
and red-brick mansions have risen upon the site.
Mr. Loftie, writing in 1888, says: "When we enter the garden from Pitt
Street we see there are two distinct houses. One of them to the north
appears slightly the older of the two, and has an eastward wing,
slightly projecting from which a passage opened on Church Street. The
adjoining, or southern, house has greater architectural pretensions, and
within is of more solid construction. Both have been much pulled about
and altered at various times, and are now thrown together by passages
through the walls. A chamber is traditionally pointed out as that in
which Sir Isaac Newton died."
Sir Isaac at the time he came to Kensington was at the height of his
fame and reputation, and held the office of Master at the Mint, after
having been previously Deputy-Master. He had come to London from
Cambridge, and settled in Leicester Square (see _The Strand_, same
series), but finding his health suffer in consequence of the dirt and
smoke, he moved "out of London" to Kensington. He remained here two
years consecutively, and returned shortly before his death.
He may have been attracted to Kensington by its vicinity to the Palace.
Queen Caroline, even as Princess of Wales, had always shown an
inclination for the society of learned men, and in particular had showed
favour to Sir Isaac. His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller hangs in one of
the state apartments at the Palace.
Bullingham House was probably called after John Bullingham, Bishop of
Gloucester and Bristol, who died at Kensington in 1598. Later,
Bullingham House was known at one time as Orbell's buildings, for
Stephen Pitt, after whom the street is named, had married the daughter
of Orbell. The house was subsequently used as a boarding-school.
On the eastern side of Church Street are the barracks and one or two
large houses. In Maitland House lived James Mill, author of the "History
of India," and father of the better known J. S. Mill. There is a tablet
to his memory on one of the pillars in the church. York House was, as
has been said, the home of Princess Sophia, who died here in 1848. This
house is now to be demolished.
Church Street sweeps to the west a little further on, and at the corner
stands a Roman Catholic orphanage, where fifty or sixty girls are
provided for. There is a chapel within the walls, and night-schools are
held, which are attended by children from outside. The continuation of
the road northward, which becomes Brunswick Gardens, was made in 1877,
and as the old vicarage stood right in the way it had to be pulled down.
Bowack says that the vicarage was "valued yearly in the Queen's [Queen
Anne's] Book at £18 18s. 4d., but is supposed to be worth near £400 per
annum." In Vicarage Gate northward is a small church (St. Paul's) served
by the clergy of St. Mary Abbots. The origin of the name Mall in this
part of Kensington is not definitely ascertained. It of course refers to
the game so popular in the reign of the Stuarts, and there may have been
a ground here, but there is no reference to it in contemporary records.
In the Mall there is New Jerusalem Church, with an imposing portico. It
was formerly a Baptist Church, and was bought by the Swedenborgians in
1872. A bright red-brick church of the Unitarians is a little further
on. Behind the Mall is Kensington Palace Gardens--really a slice of the
Gardens--a wide road with immense houses, correctly designated mansions,
standing back in their own grounds. This road is only open to ordinary
traffic on sufferance, and is liable to be closed at any time.
The part of Kensington lying to the west of Church Street and extending
to Notting Hill Gate was that formerly known as the Gravel Pits, and
considered particularly healthy on account of its dry soil and bracing
air. Bowack says that here there are "several handsome new-built houses,
and of late years has been discovered a chalybeate spring." Swift had
lodgings at the Gravel Pits between 1712 and 1713, and Anne Pitt, sister
of Lord Chatham, one of the bright bevy of Queen Caroline's maids of
honour, is reported to have died at her house at the Gravel Pits in
1780.
The most celebrated house here was Campden House, completely rebuilt
fifty years ago, and entirely demolished within the last two years. Old
Campden House was called after Sir Baptist Hicks, created Viscount
Campden. It is said that he won the land on which it stands from Sir
Walter Cope at a game, and thereupon built the house. This is the
generally accepted version of the affair, but it is probable that there
was some sort of a house standing here already. Bowack says: "Two
houses, called Holland and Campden Houses, were built ... by Mr. Cope
... erected before the death of Queen Elizabeth." And, again (quoting
from the Rev. C. Seward), "The second seat called Campden House was
purchased or won at some sort of game of Sir Walter Cope by Sir Baptist
Hicks." He adds that it was a "very noble Pile and finished with all the
art the Architects of that time were capable of." The mere fact of such
a prize being won at a game of chance was likely enough in the days when
gaming ran high. Lysons, on the other hand, distinctly says that the
house "was built about 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks, whose arms with that
date and those of his sons-in-law, Edward, Lord Noel, and Sir Charles
Morrison, are in a large bay-window in the front." It is most probable
that Sir Baptist, on taking over the estate and the house then existing,
so restored it as to amount to an almost complete rebuilding. He was
created Viscount Campden in 1628, with remainder to Lord Noel, who
succeeded him. Lord Noel's son, Baptist, the third Viscount, had
Royalist tendencies, for which he was mulcted in the sum of £9,000
during the Rebellion. He married for his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter
of the Earl of Lindsey, and the Earl himself died at Campden House. The
title went to Viscount Campden's eldest son Edward, who was created Earl
of Gainsborough, and in default of male issue it afterwards reverted to
his younger brother. The house itself had been settled on another son,
Henry, who died before his father, leaving a daughter, who married
Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. Previous to this Queen (then
Princess) Anne had taken the house for five years on account of her only
surviving child, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. There are few
stories in history more pathetic than that of this poor little Prince,
the only one of Anne's seventeen children who survived infancy. With his
unnaturally large head and rickety legs, he would in these days have
been kept from all intellectual effort, and been obliged to lie down the
greater part of his time. But in that age drastic treatment was in
favour, and the already precocious child was crammed with knowledge,
while his sickly little frame was compelled to undergo rigorous
discipline. He was a boy of no small degree of character, and with
martial tastes touching in one so feeble. He died at the age of eleven
of small-pox, not at Kensington, and perhaps it was as well for him
that, with such inordinate sensibility and such a constitution, he did
not live to inherit his mother's throne. His servant Lewis, who was
devotedly attached to him, wrote a little biography of him, which is one
of the curiosities of literature.
In 1704 the Dowager-Countess of Burlington came here with her son
Richard, then only a boy, afterwards famous as an architect and art
lover. In 1719 the house was sold, and came into possession of the
Lechmere family. It did not remain with them long, but was purchased by
Stephen Pitt, who let it as a school. In 1862 it was partially destroyed
by fire. It was then bought by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who
rebuilt it, and let it to tenants. Later on a charmingly-built row of
houses and mansions rose up on its grounds to face Sheffield Terrace.
The appearance of the later house was very different from that of the
old one, and the arms mentioned by Lysons as being over a front window
had quite disappeared.
Little Campden House, on the western side, was built for the suite of
the Princess Anne, and Stephen Pitt occupied this himself when he let
Campden House. It was latterly divided into two houses; one was called
Lancaster Lodge, and the other, after being renovated and redecorated,
was taken by Vicat Cole, R.A., until his death.
Gloucester Walk, on the south side, is, of course, called after the poor
little Duke. Sheffield Gardens and Terrace, as well as Berkeley Gardens,
stand on the site of old Sheffield House. Leigh Hunt says that the house
was owned by Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, but he adduces no fact
in support of his assertion; in any case, there are no historical
associations connected with it.
In Observatory Gardens Sir James South, the astronomer, had a house,
where there was a large observatory. He mounted an equatorial telescope
in the grounds, by the use of which, some years previously, he and Sir
J. Herschel had made a catalogue of 380 binary stars. He strenuously
resisted any opening up of the district by road or rail, lest the
vibrations of traffic should interfere with his delicate observations
and render them useless. He died here in 1867. On the south side of
Campden Hill Gardens are a number of houses standing in their own
grounds, and, from the rank of their residents, this part has gained the
name of the "Dukeries." Holly Lodge was named Airlie Lodge for a few
years when tenanted by the Earl of Airlie, but reverted to the older
name afterwards. Airlie Gardens is a reminiscence of the interlude.
Lord Macaulay lived for the three years preceding his death in Holly
Lodge.
Holland Lane is a shady footpath running right over the hill from
Kensington Road to Notting Hill Gate; it passes the wall of Aubrey
House, once the manor-house of Notting Hill. Though the name is a
comparatively new one, the house is old and, to use the favourite word
of older writers, much "secluded"; it is shut in from observation by its
high wall and by the shady trees surrounding it. The building is very
picturesque and the garden charming, yet many people pass it daily and
never know of its existence.
St. George's Church, Campden Hill Road, dates from 1864; the interior is
spoilt by painted columns and heavy galleries, but the stained glass at
the east end is very richly coloured, and there is a carved stone
reredos. The tower is high, but it is dwarfed by the tower of the Grand
Junction Waterworks near at hand. Across Campden Hill Road is the
reservoir of the West Middlesex Water Company, which, from its
commanding elevation, supplies a large district by the power of
gravitation.
Holland Park is a great irregular oblong, extending from Kensington Road
on the south very nearly to Holland Park Road on the north. Its average
length is little more than a mile, and it varies from five-eighths of a
mile in its widest part to a quarter of a mile in the narrowest.
In the summary of the history of Kensington, at the beginning of the
book, it was mentioned that when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor at the
end of the sixteenth century, Robert Horseman had the lease of the
Abbot's manor-house, and being unwilling to part with it, he made a
compromise by which he was to be still permitted to live there. Sir
Walter Cope had, therefore, no suitable manor-house, so in 1607 he built
Holland House, which at first went by the name of Cope Castle. He died
seven years later, leaving his widow in possession, but on her
re-marriage, in another seven years, the house came to Cope's daughter
Isabel, who had married Sir Henry Rich. He was created Lord Kensington a
year later, and in 1624 made Earl of Holland. He added considerably to
the house, which was henceforth known by his name. Holland was a younger
son of the Earl of Warwick, and after his execution for having taken
arms in the cause of Charles I., this title descended, through lack of
heirs in the elder branch, to his son, as well as that of Earl of
Holland.
The house was seized by the Commonwealth, and the Parliamentary
Generals, Fairfax and Lambert, lived there. Timbs quotes from the
_Perfect Diurnal_, July 9 to 16, 1649: "The Lord-General Fairfax is
removed from Queen Street to the late Earl of Holland's house at
Kensington, where he intends to reside." The house was restored to its
rightful owners at the Restoration. The widowed Countess seems later to
have let it, for there were several notable tenants, among whom was Sir
Charles Chardin, the traveller, who went to Persia with the avowed
intention of seeking a fortune, which he certainly gained, in addition
to unexpected celebrity. He died in 1735, and is buried at Chiswick.
Afterwards, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a tenant of
Holland House; the name of Van Dyck has also been mentioned in this
connection, but there is not sufficient evidence to make it more than a
tradition.
Joseph Addison married the widow of the sixth Earl of Holland and
Warwick in 1716. He was an old family friend and had known her long, yet
the experiment did not turn out satisfactorily. The Countess was
something of a termagant, and it is said that to escape from her he
often went to the White Horse inn at the corner of Lord Holland's Lane
and there enjoyed "his favourite dish--a fillet of veal--his bottle, and
perhaps a friend." His married life was of very short duration, only
three years, but his brief residence at Holland House has added to its
associations more richly than all the names of preceding times. Addison
had attempted from the first to influence the young Earl, whose
stepfather he became, and some of his letters to the youth are
singularly charming, but his care seems to have been ill-requited, and
the famous death-bed scene, in which the man of letters sent for the
dissolute young Earl to "see how a Christian can die," was as much in
the nature of a rebuke as a warning. Addison left only one daughter, who
died unmarried. The last earl died in 1759, leaving no male heir, and
the title became extinct.
Through an Elizabeth Rich, who had married Francis Edwardes, the estates
passed into the Edwardes family, by whom they were sold to Henry Fox,
second son of Sir Stephen Fox, Paymaster-General of the Forces in the
reign of Charles II., through whose exertions it was in great part that
Chelsea Hospital was built. Henry Fox followed in his father's steps,
becoming Paymaster-General under George II., and was created Baron
Holland in 1763. His second son was the famous statesman Charles James
Fox. Thus, after the lapse of about four years only, the old title was
revived in an entirely different family. Henry Fox's elder brother was
created first Baron, and then Earl, of Ilchester, which is the title of
the present owner of Holland House.
The plan of the house is that of a capital letter E with the centre
stroke extremely small, and was designed by Thorpe, but added to by
Inigo Jones and others. Sir Walter Cope's building in 1607 included the
centre block and two porches, and the first Earl of Holland, between the
years 1725 and 1735, added the two wings and the arcades. It is in a
good style of Elizabethan domestic architecture, and within is full of
nooks and corners and unexpected galleries, betraying that variety which
can only come from growth, and is never the result of a set plan. The
rooms are magnificent, and are exceptionally rich in their fittings and
collections--collections by various owners which have made the whole
house a museum. On the ground floor are the Breakfast, China, Map,
Journal, and Print rooms--the last three known as the West
Rooms--Allen's Room, and the White Parlour. On the first floor the most
important rooms are the Gilt, Miniature, and the Yellow Drawing-room,
the Sir Joshua Blue-room and Dining-room, and Lady Holland's apartments.
In the entrance-hall are busts of the Duke of Cumberland, by Rysbrach;
Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Charles James Fox, by Nollekens; the Right
Hon. J. Hookham Frere, by Chantrey, and others. The staircase has a
frescoed ceiling, by G. F. Watts, R.A., who has done much for the
decoration of the house, and who lives in Melbury Road hard by. There
is on the staircase a massive oaken screen with pillars, matching the
carved balustrade. The Breakfast-room, facing south, is a charming room;
it was formerly the hall when the main entrance was on this side of the
house. The walls are hung with velvet brocade and rich silk, and
panelled with four _arazzi_, enclosed in strips of gold embroidery. The
tapestries are Gobelins, by Coypel, director of the Gobelin
establishment. The China-room contains some splendid services, chiefly
of Sèvres and Dresden. The rooms called the West Rooms contain many
treasures: a collection of prints after Italian masters, and some of the
Dutch and French schools. From these is reached the Swannery, a large
room on the west side of the house, built by the present owner, and
finished in 1891; here there is an ornamental painting of swans by
Bouverie Goddard, which was exhibited in the Royal Academy. Allen's Room
owes its name to John Allen, an intimate friend of the third Lord
Holland, who accompanied him abroad, and was his confidant until his
death, after which Allen continued to live at Holland House. The
description of the White Parlour in any detail would be impossible, so
elaborate is the decoration of its mouldings and panels. In this room
there are two chests, the property of Sir Stephen Fox, the
Paymaster-General, and very interesting specimens of their time they
are. In the Gilt Room upstairs are curved recesses prepared by the first
Earl of Holland, who proposed entertaining Prince Charles at a ball when
he married Princess Henrietta Maria; however, in spite of the elaborate
preparations, the ball never took place. The medallions of the King and
Queen, Sully, and Henri IV. are still on the lower part of the
chimney-breasts. The upper parts of the chimneypieces and the ceiling
were done by Francis Cleyn, who decorated much at Versailles; and when
the chimneypieces came down, in 1850, G. F. Watts, R.A., painted the
gilt figures on the upper portions. The gilding and decoration of all
the rest of the room have never been touched since Charles I.'s day. The
ceiling is, however, modern, copied from one at Melbury of date 1602.
The Sir Joshua Room would probably be more attractive to many people
than any other in the house; there is here the "Vision of St. Anthony,"
by Murillo, also a Velasquez, two Teniers, and many portraits by Sir
Joshua, including those of Charles James Fox, the first Lord Holland,
Mary, Lady Holland, and Lady Sarah Lennox, whose "Life and Letters" have
been edited by Lady Ilchester and her son, Lord Stavordale. In the
Addison or dining room there are several other portraits and more china,
including the famous Chelsea service presented by the proprietors of the
Chelsea Company to Dr. Johnson in recognition of his laborious and
unsuccessful efforts to learn their trade. From here we can pass to the
library, a long gallery running the whole width of the house, as a
library should do. Besides ordinary books, the library contains
priceless treasures, such as a collection of Elzevirs, a collection of
Spanish literature, a MS. book with the handwritings of Savonarola,
Petrarch, several autograph letters of Philip II., III., and IV. of
Spain, and autographs of D. Hume, Byron, Sir D. Wilkie, Moore, Rogers,
Campbell, Sir W. Scott, Southey, and foreigners of note, as Madame de
Stael, Cuvier, Buffon, Voltaire, etc.
From the Yellow Drawing-room, in which, among other things, is a curious
picture representing one eye of Lady Holland, by Watts, the Miniature
Room is reached: miniature in two senses, for, besides containing an
assortment of miniatures, it is very small. The miniatures are mostly
Cosways, Plymers, and Coopers. On January 10, 1871, Holland House caught
fire, and the chief rooms that suffered were those known as Lady
Holland's Rooms, on this side. Luckily the fire did not do much damage,
and all trace of it was speedily effaced.
Holland House is not shown to the public, and few persons have any idea
of the treasures it contains; to live in such a house must be a liberal
education. It can hardly be seen at all in summer on account of the
extent of the grounds of 55 acres stretching around it, and making it a
country place in the midst of a town. It has the largest private grounds
of any house in London, not excepting Buckingham Palace, yet from the
road all that can be seen is a rather dreary field. Oddly enough, there
is a considerable hill on the west, though no trace of this hill is to
be found in Kensington Road; it is, however, the same fall that affects
Holland Park Avenue on the north. Besides the fine elms bordering the
avenue, there are a variety of other trees in the grounds, among them
many cedars, still flourishing, though beginning to show the effects of
the London smoke. Excepting for the Dutch Garden, with its prim, though
fantastically-designed flower-beds, there is little attempt at formal
gardening. Here stands the seat used by the poet Rogers, on which is the
inscription:
"Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell
With me those 'Pleasures' which he sang so well."
An ivy-covered arcade leads to the conservatory, and various buildings
form a picturesque group near; these belonged at one time to the
stables, now removed. Not far off is the bamboo garden, in a flourishing
condition, with large clumps of feathery bamboos bravely enduring our
rough climate; in another part is a succession of terraces, through
which a stream runs downhill through a number of basins linked by a
circling channel; the basins are covered with water-lilies, and the
whole is laid out in imitation of a Japanese garden. Alpine plants are
specially tended in another part, and masses of rhododendrons grow
freely in the grounds, giving warmth and shelter. There is nothing stiff
or conventional to be seen--Nature tended and cared for, but Nature
herself is allowed to reign, and the result is very satisfactory. There
are many fascinating peeps between the rows of shrubs or trees of the
worn red brick of the house, seen all the better for its contrast with
the deep evergreen of the cedars.
In a field close by Cromwell is said to have discussed his plans with
Ireton, whose deafness necessitated loud tones, so that the open air,
where possible listeners could be seen at a distance, was preferable to
the four walls of a room. In the fields behind Holland House was fought
a notable duel in 1804 between Lord Camelford, a notorious duellist, and
Captain Best, R.N. Lord Camelford fired first, but missed his opponent.
He afterwards fell at Best's shot, and was carried into Little Holland
House, where he died in three days. The exact spot where the duel was
fought is now enclosed in the grounds of Oak Lodge, and is marked by a
stone altar.
To the west of Holland House is Melbury Road, a neighbourhood famous for
its artistic residents. The houses, mostly of glowing red brick, are
built in different styles, as if each had been designed to fill its own
place without reference to its neighbours. A curious Gothic house, with
a steeple on the north side, was designed by William Burges, R.A., for
himself. In the house next to it, now the residence of Luke Fildes,
R.A., King Cetewayo stayed while he was in England. Sir Frederick
Leighton, P.R.A., lived at No. 2, which has been presented to the
nation. Little Holland House, otherwise No. 6, Melbury Road, is occupied
by G. F. Watts, R.A. The name was adopted from the original Little
Holland House, which stood at the end of Nightingale Lane, now the back
entrance to Holland Park; this house was pulled down when Melbury Road
was made.
Melbury Road turns into Addison Road just below the church of St.
Barnabas, which is of white brick, and has a parapet and four corner
towers, which give it a distinctive appearance. The interior is
disappointing, but there is a fine eastern window, divided by a transom,
and having seven compartments above and below. Quite at the northern end
of Holland Road is the modern church of St. John the Baptist; the
interior is all of white stone, and the effect is very good. There is a
rose window at the west end, and a carved stone chancel screen of great
height. The church ends in an apse, and has a massive stone reredos set
with coloured panels representing the saints. All this part of
Kensington which lies to the west of Addison Road is very modern. In the
1837 map, St. Barnabas Church, built seven years earlier, and a line of
houses on the east side of the northern part of Holland Road, are all
that are marked. Near the continuation of Kensington Road there are a
few houses, and there is a farm close to the Park.
Curzon House is marked near the Kensington Road, and a large nursery
garden is at the back of it; and further north, where Addison Road
bends, there are Addison Cottage and Bindon Villa, and this is all.
Addison's connection with Holland House of course accounts for the free
use of his name in this quarter.
Going northward, we come to the district of Shepherd's Bush and the
Uxbridge Road, known in the section of its course between Notting Hill
High Street and Uxbridge Road Station as Holland Park Avenue--a fact of
which probably none but the residents are aware. Above it, Norland Road
forms the western boundary of the borough. Royal Crescent is marked on
the maps of the beginning of the nineteenth century as Norland Crescent;
Addison Road was then Norland Road. Further westward is the square of
the same name, on the site of old Norland House.
[Illustration: KENSINGTON DISTRICT--SOUTH HALF.
Published by A. & C. Black, London.]
Addison Road leads up to St. James's Church, designed by Vulliamy, and
consecrated in 1845; it has a square tower of considerable height, with
a pinnacle at each corner. The chancel was added later. St. Gabriel's,
in Clifton Road, is an offshoot of this church, but, curiously enough,
it does not come within the parochial boundaries. It was built in 1883.
Following the road on the north side of the square, we pass the West
London Tabernacle, a brick building in the late Romanesque style. Close
by are St. James's Schools.
St. John's Place leads us past Pottery Lane, a reminiscence of the
potteries once here, round which sprang up a notoriously bad district.
The brickfields were hard by, and the long, low, red-tiled roofs of the
brick-sheds face a space of open ground known as Avondale Park. The Park
stands on a piece of ground formerly known as Adam's Brickfield. It was
suggested at one time that this should be used for the site of a
refuse-destroyer, but it was bought instead by the Vestry for the sum of
£9,200 to be turned into a public park. The late Metropolitan Board of
Works provided £4,250 towards the sum, and the Metropolitan Public
Gardens and Open Spaces Association gave £2,000. The laying-out of the
ground, which covers about 4½ acres, cost £8,000 more, and the Park
was formally opened June 2, 1892, though it had been informally open to
the public for more than a year before this date. The most has been made
of the ground, which includes two large playgrounds, provided with
swings, ropes, seesaws, etc., for the children of the neighbouring
schools, who come here to the number of three or four hundred. Just at
the back of the Park, on the west side, lie St. Clement's Board Schools,
and on the east St. John's Church Schools. Returning through Pottery
Lane, we see facing us at the upper end large brick schools covered with
Virginia creeper, adjacent to a small brick Gothic church. This is the
church of St. Francis, a Roman Catholic Mission Church, in connection
with St. Mary of the Angels, in Westmoreland Road. It was built about
thirty-three years ago by Rev. D. Rawes at his own cost, and contains
some very beautiful panels on slate by Westlake representing the
Stations of the Cross, which were the first done on that material in
England. There is also a painting by the same artist on the pulpit. The
baptistery, added later, was designed by Bentley, the late architect of
the new cathedral at Westminster. The schools adjacent are for girls and
infants, and the boys are accommodated at the buildings in the
Silchester Road.
Hippodrome Place leads past the north side of the school to Portland
Road. A great part of the district lying to the east of this, and
including Clarendon Road, Portobello Road, and Ladbroke Grove, was
formerly covered by an immense racecourse called the Hippodrome. It
stretched northward in a great ellipse, and then trended north-west and
ended up roughly where is now the Triangle, at the west end of St.
Quintin Avenue. It was used for both flat racing and steeplechasing, and
the steeplechase course was more than two miles in length. The place was
very popular, being within easy reach of London, but the ground was
never very good for the purpose, as it was marshy. The Hippodrome was
opened in 1837, and Count d'Orsay was one of the stewards; the last race
took place in 1841. St. John's Church stands on a hill, once a grassy
mound within the Hippodrome enclosure, which is marked in a contemporary
map "Hill for pedestrians," apparently a sort of natural grand-stand.
The Church was consecrated in 1845, four years after the closing of the
racecourse. The entrance to the racecourse was in what is now Park Road,
just above Ladbroke Road, near the Norbury Chapel. The district,
therefore, all dates from the latter half of the nineteenth century; it
is well laid out, with broad streets and large houses, though north of
Lansdowne Road the quarter is not so good. It is very difficult to find
anything interesting to record of this part of Kensington; a
perambulation there must be, or the borough would be left incompletely
described, but such a perambulation can only resolve itself into a
catalogue of churches and schools. Ladbroke Grove goes down the steep
hill above noticed. St Mark's Church gives its name to the road in which
it stands: it was consecrated in 1863.
Northward, at the corner of Lancaster Road, stands a fine Wesleyan
chapel in the Early English style, with quatrefoil and cinquefoil stone
tracery in the windows. It is built of white brick and has large schools
below. The foundation stone was laid in 1879 and the church opened May
20, 1880. Very nearly opposite to it are the large brick buildings of
the Kensington Public Baths. Between the Lancaster and Walmer Roads we
come again to the very poor district extending from the Potteries. In
Fowell Street there is a square, yellow brick Primitive Methodist
chapel, with a stone stating that it was founded "Aug. 2nd, 1864, by J.
Fowell, who gave the land." Fowell Street leads into Bomore Road, at the
corner of which stands Notting Dale Chapel; this is a plain brick
building founded in 1851. In the other direction, westward, Bomore Road
takes us past the top of St. Clement's Road, and turning into this we
pass St. Clement's Church, opened in 1867. It is a plain yellow and red
brick building, but the walls of the chancel are decorated, and there is
a pretty east window. The parish contains 12,000 people, and is one of
the poorest in London, not even excepting the worst of the East End.
Mary Place is at right angles to St. Clement's Road, and in this there
is a supplementary workhouse. It contains the relief office, large
casual wards, the able-bodied workhouse, and a Poor Law Dispensary.
Opposite are large Board Schools; the Roman Catholic Schools in the
Silchester Road have been already mentioned in connection with the
Catholic Schools of St. Francis. On the northern side of Silchester Road
is the Notting Barn Tavern, which stands on the site of the old Notting
Barns Farm. Beyond Walmer Road, northwards, are a few rows of houses,
and a Board School, and a great stretch of common reaching to St.
Quintin Avenue. The backs of the houses in Latimer Road are seen across
the common on the west; these houses, however, lie without the
Kensington boundary line. A road called St. Helen's Gardens bounds the
common on the east, and leads to St. Helen's Church, which is a severely
plain red-brick building. North of St. Quintin Avenue is another great
stretch of common, and at its south-eastern corner lies St. Charles's
Square. The square was named after St. Charles's College, a Roman
Catholic establishment, which forms an imposing mass at the east side.
The College was founded by Cardinal Manning. It was humble in its
origin, beginning in 1863 with a few young boys in a room near the
church of St. Mary of the Angels, Bayswater. Other houses were taken as
necessity arose, and in 1872 the numbers were so great that the question
of building a suitable college arose. There was at first a difficulty
about obtaining the freehold of the site desired--that on which the
present building stands--but this was overcome eventually, and the whole
cost of the College came to about £40,000. It stands in a square of 11
acres, and was finished in 1874. The building is of red brick with stone
facings, and is ornamented by figures of saints; it is about 300 feet in
extent. In the centre is a tower, rising to a height of 140 feet, on
which are the Papal Tiara and Crossed Keys. A corridor runs nearly the
length of the building inside. On the laying-out of the recreation
grounds and gardens between one and two thousand pounds has been spent.
The object of the College is to bring education within the reach of all
scholars at a moderate cost. The students do not necessarily become
priests, but enter various professions, and in 1890 it was reckoned
that no less than 1,200 youths had passed through the curriculum. A
museum and library are among the rooms. And standing as it does on the
outskirts of London, with much open ground in the vicinity, the building
is very favourably situated for its purpose.
Over the garden walls of the College we see the high buildings of the
Marylebone Infirmary. Further northward are the western gasworks, and
just beyond them the well-known cemetery of Kensal Green. The principal
entrance is a great stone gateway of the Doric order with iron gates in
the Harrow Road. Avenues of young lime-trees, chestnuts, and tall
Lombardy poplars line the walks, between which a straight central
roadway leads to the church at the west end. The multitude of tombstones
within the cemetery is bewildering. On either side of the way are
immense sepulchres of granite, marble, or stone. Some in the Gothic
style resemble small chapels; others, again, are in an Egyptian style.
The church and the long colonnades of the catacombs are built in the
same way as the gateway. The cemetery contains 77 acres, and the first
burial took place in 1833. The grave of the founder, with a stone
inscribed "George Frederick Carden, died 1874, aged 76," lies not far
from the chapel, with a plain slab at the head.
The roll of those buried here includes many illustrious names: The Duke
of Sussex, died 1843, and the Princess Sophia, died 1848, both of whom
we have already met in another part of Kensington; Anne Scott and Sophia
Lockhart, daughters of Sir W. Scott; his son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart;
Allan Cunningham, died 1842; Rev. Sydney Smith, died 1845; W. Mackworth
Praed, 1839; Tom Hood, died 1845; I. K. Brunel, died 1859; Charles
Kemble, died, 1854; Leigh Hunt, died 1859; W. M. Thackeray, died 1863;
J. Leech, died 1863; Sir Charles Eastlake, P.R.A., died 1865; Charles
Babbage, P.R.S., died 1871; Anthony Trollope, died 1882; besides many
others distinguished in literature, art, or science.
The name Kensal possibly owes its derivation to the same source as
Kensington, but there is no certainty in the matter.
The Grand Junction Canal runs along the south side of the cemetery, and
the borough boundary cuts across it at Ladbroke Grove Road. There is a
Roman Catholic church in Bosworth Road; it is of red brick, with pointed
windows, and is called Our Lady of the Holy Souls. The mission was
established here in 1872, and the present building opened in 1882. In
the interior the arches and pillars are of white stone, and the
altar-piece is a large coloured panel painting. In Bosworth Road,
further southward, there is a very small Baptist chapel with plaster
front. The church of St. Andrew and St. Philip stands to the east in
Golborne Gardens. It was built in 1869, and is of red brick with stone
facings in the French Gothic style. In the upper or northern part of
Mornington Road, on the eastern side, is a large Board School, where
special instruction is given to blind, or partially blind, children. On
the opposite side, slightly further up, is Christ Church, a model of
simplicity, and within it is light, lofty, and well proportioned. It has
a narthex at the east end. The font is a solid block of red-veined
Devonshire marble. The church was founded in August, 1880, and
consecrated May 14, 1881.
In Golborne Road we pass a plaster-fronted brick chapel
(Congregational). The Portobello Road is of immense length, running
north-west and south-east. This quarter is not so aristocratic as its
high-sounding name would lead us to infer. Faulkner gives us the origin
of the name. "Near the turnpike is Porto Bello Lane, leading to the farm
so called, which was the property of Mr. A. Adams, the builder, at the
time that Porto Bello was captured." He adds: "This is one of the most
rural and pleasant walks in the summer in the vicinity of London." So
much could not be said now, for in the lower part the road is very
narrow and is lined with inferior shops. The Porto Bello Farm seems to
have stood almost exactly on the site of the present St. Joseph's Home
for the Aged Poor, which is just below the entrance of the Golborne
Road, and is on the east side. This is a large brick building, in which
many aged men and women are supported by the contributions collected
daily by the Sisters. It is a Roman Catholic institution, and was
founded by a Frenchman in 1861, but the benefits of the charity are not
confined to Roman Catholics. It was humble in its origin, beginning in a
private house in Sutherland Avenue. The present building was erected for
the purpose when the charity increased in size. There is a chapel in
connection with the building. Exactly opposite is the Franciscan
Convent, with its appendage, the Elizabeth Home for Girls. The building,
of brick, looks older than that of St. Joseph's. Behind the convent runs
St. Lawrence's Road, between which and Ladbroke Grove Road stands the
church of St. Michael and All Angels, founded in 1870, and consecrated
the following year. It is of brick, in the Romanesque style, forming a
contrast to the numerous so-called Gothic churches in the parish.
If we continue southwards, either by Portobello or Ladbroke Grove Roads,
we pass under the Hammersmith and City Junction Railway, carried
overhead by bridges. Ladbroke Hall stands south of the bridge in
Ladbroke Grove, and a large Board School in Portobello Road. A little
further south in Ladbroke Grove is a branch of the Kensington Public
Library, opened temporarily in the High Street, January, 1888, and
established here October, 1891.
In Cornwall Road is the entrance to the Convent of the Poor Clares,
which is a large brick building, covering, with its grounds, 1¾
acres, and which was built for the convent purposes in 1859, having been
founded by Cardinal (then Father) Manning. The nuns, numbering about
thirty, are vowed to the contemplative life of prayer and manual labour
in the service of God, but do no teaching or nursing, and there are no
lay sisters. The next opening on the south side of Cornwall Road is
Kensington Park Road, in which stands a Presbyterian church, built of
light brick. On the north side of Cornwall Road is Basing Road, in which
is a Congregational chapel of white brick. In Talbot Road we see the
high lantern tower of All Saints' Church, founded in 1852, and
consecrated 1861. Its tower is supposed to resemble the belfry of
Bruges, and is 100 feet in height. The mission church of St. Columb's at
Notting Hill Station is in connection with All Saints', and ministered
to by the same clergy.
A few yards further on in Talbot Road is the entrance to the Talbot
Tabernacle. The building stands back from the road, behind iron gates,
and is faced with blazing red brick, while over the doorways is a
profusion of ornamental moulding.
The streets lying to the south of Talbot Road require no particular
comment. At the corner of Archer Street, Kensington Park Road takes a
sudden south-easterly turn, and below the turn is St. Peter's Church,
very different from the other churches in the district, being in the
Italian style. It was consecrated January 7, 1876. The decoration of the
interior is very elaborate, some of the pillars having gilded capitals.
In Denbigh Road there is a stuccoed Wesleyan Methodist chapel, dated
1856. Northward runs Norfolk Terrace, lately merged in Westbourne Grove.
In it, at the corner of Ledbury Road, stands the Westbourne Grove
Baptist Chapel, a fine gray stone building with two southern steeple
towers.
The southern end of Pembridge Road is joined at an angle by Kensington
Park Road, and at the corner stands Horbury Congregational Chapel,
founded in August, 1848. It is built of gray stone and stands in a good
position. Nos. 1 to 15, Clanricarde Gardens, and six shops in Notting
Hill High Street, belong to the poor of Kensington; they are built on
land given to the parish by an anonymous benefactor in 1652. This is
known as Cromwell's gift, but there is not the smallest evidence to
show that Cromwell was the donor. Lysons mentions the tradition, but
confesses there is no evidence to support it.
And now we have traversed Kensington from end to end, and in so doing
have come across many notable men and many fair women. Kensington is
royal among suburbs on account of its Palace, and its annals include
history as well as the anecdotes of great men. Yet though old
associations live in name and tradition, none of the buildings, as at
present standing, date back further than the older parts of Holland
House and Kensington Palace, and the greater part are much more modern.
The zenith of Kensington's popularity was not reached until after the
Hanoverian Sovereigns sat on the English throne, and this is a mere
nothing in time compared with that enjoyed by some parts of outer
London--for instance, Chelsea. That there should be so much to say about
the district, in spite of its comparative youth, shows how richly it has
been peopled. Statesmen, men of letters, royalties, court beauties, and
divines we have met. One of the greatest of our novelists and our
greatest philosopher were closely connected with Kensington, and the
tour made around the borough may fitly rival in interest any but those
taken in the very heart of London.
INDEX
Abbot's Manor, 7, 10, 46
"Adam and Eve," 41
Addison, Joseph, 35, 50, 77
Addison Road, 85
Albert Gate, 12
Albert Hall, 25
Albert Memorial, 66
Alexandra House, 28
Allen Street, 40
Anne, Queen, 56
Aubrey House, 75
Bangor, Bishop of, 49
Barker, Christopher, 9
Barracks, The, 14
Blessington, Lady, 26
Boltons, The, 33
Boyle, Richard, 35
Bray, Sir Reginald, 9
Brompton, 4
Brompton Cemetery, 35
Brompton Grove, 16
Brompton Heath, 33
Brompton Park, 19
Brompton Road, 15
Brontë, Charlotte, 52
Brooks, Shirley, 15
Browning, Robert, 54
Brunswick Gardens, 69
Bullingham House, 67, 68
Burghley, Lord, 10
Burleigh, John, _see also_ Burghley, 34
Burlington, Earl of, 73
Burne-Jones, Sir E., 50
Camelford, Lord, 84
Campden House, 3, 71
Campden, Viscount, 72
Canning, George, 32
Caroline, Queen, 32
Caroline the Illustrious, 57, 58
Chardin, Sir Charles, 77
Chester, Bishop of, 35
Church Street, 67, 69
Churches:
All Saints', Ennismore Gardens, 18
All Saints', Notting Hill, 97
Carmelite, 67
Christ, 95
Holy Trinity, Brompton, 16
Holy Trinity, Kensington Gore, 28
Horbury Chapel, 98
New Jerusalem, 70
Our Lady of Seven Dolours, 34
Our Lady of the Holy Souls, 94
Pro-Cathedral, The, 40
St. Andrew and St. Philip, 95
St. Augustine's, 28
St. Barnabas, 85
St. Clement's, 91
St. Cuthbert's, 38
St. Gabriel's, 87
St. George's, 75
St. Helen's, 91
St. James's, 87
St. John's, 89
St. John the Baptist, 85
St. Jude's, 38
St. Mark's, 90
St. Mary Abbots, 43
St. Mary's, 33
St. Mathias', 38
St. Michael and All Angels', 96
St. Paul's, Onslow Square, 29
St. Paul's, Vicarage Gate, 69
St. Peter's, 98
St. Stephen's, Earl's Court, 38
St. Stephen's, Gloucester Road, 38
Talbot Tabernacle, 97
Clarence, Duke of, 62
Clarkson, 26
Cobbett, William, 43
Colby, Sir T., 53
Cole, Vicat, 74
Coleherne Court, 37
Coleridge, 39
Colman, George, 15
Consumption Hospital, 30
Convent of the Assumption, 49
Convent of the Poor Clares, 97
Cope, Sir Walter, 8, 9, 10, 71, 76
Cornwallis, Sir W., 10
Crabbe, 32
Cranley Gardens, 31
Croker, Crofton, 15
Cromwell, 84, 99
Cromwell Gardens, 21
Cromwell, Henry, 20, 45
Cromwell House, 19, 20
Cromwell, Oliver, 20
De Vere Gardens, 54
Dickens, 16
Disraeli, 26
Dodington, William, 9
Donaldson Museum, 28
D'Orsay, Count, 26
Downham, Simon, 6, 8
Dukeries, The, 74
Earl's Court, 36
Earl's Court Exhibition, 37
Earl's Court Manor, 10
Edwardes Square, 38
Elliot, Lady, 12
Elphinstone, Dr., 53
Ely, Bishop of, 49
Ennismore Gardens, 16
Essex, William, 8
Evelyn, 19
Exhibition, Great, 20
Fairfax, General, 76
Finch, Sir Heneage, 55
Florida Tea-Gardens, 32
Flounder's Field, 16
Fowell Street, 90
Fox and Bull, 13
Fox, C. J., 14, 78
Fox, Henry, 78
Fox, Sir Stephen, 78
Franciscan Convent, 96
Free Library, 42
French Embassy, 12
Gainsborough, Earl of, 72
George I., 57
Gloucester, Bishop of, 35
Gloucester, Duchess of, 32
Gloucester, Duke of, 72
Gloucester Lodge, 32
Gloucester Road, 31
Gloucester Walk, 74
Gordon, General, 38
Gore House, 26
Gravel Pits, 4, 70
Great Exhibition, 66
Green, J. R., 49
Grenvilles, The, 8
Guizot, 29
Hale House, _see_ Cromwell House
Half-way House, 14
Harrington, Earl of, 21
Herrington Road, 28
Hereford House, 38
Hervey, Hon. A. J., 17
Hicks, Sir Baptist, 71
High Street, Kensington, 42, 48
Hippodrome, The, 89
Holland House, 76-84
Holland Lane, 75
Holland Park, 75
Holly Lodge, 74
Home for Crippled Boys, 41
Hood, Tom, 16
Horseman, Robert, 8
Horticultural Gardens, 24
Horticultural Society, 20
Hudson, Mr., 13
Hunt, Leigh, 28, 39
Hunter, John, 37
Hyde, Manor of, 12
Ifield Road, 35
Ilchester, Earl of, 78
Imperial Institute, 22
Inchbald, Mrs., 39, 45, 53
Jerdan, W., 16
Jerrold, Douglas, 16
Jockey Club, 14
Kensal Green Cemetery, 93
Kensington Court, 53
Kensington Gardens, 3, 54
Kensington Gore, 27
Kensington Grammar School, 49
Kensington House, 53
Kensington Manor, 7, 10
Kensington Palace, 3, 54
Kensington Palace Gardens, 70
Kensington Square, 3, 48
Kent, Duke of, 62
Kent House, 14
Kingston, Duchess of, 16
Kingston House, 16
Knightsbridge, 10, 11
Knightsbridge Green, 13
Knotting Barns, _see_ Notting Barns
Ladbroke Grove, 90
Lambert, General, 76
Lancaster Lodge, 73
Landor, 27
Latimer, Lord, 10
Liston, John, 15
Little Campden House, 73
Little Chelsea, 33, 35
Little Holland House, 85
Locke, 35
London University, 22
Lowther Lodge, 27
Lytton, Bulwer, 26
Macaulay, Lord, 74
Macaulay, Zachary, 26
Maids of Honour, 59
Mall, The, 70
Marochetti, 29
Mary Place, 91
Mary, Queen, 56
Matthews, Charles, 27, 29
Mazarin, Duchess of, 50
Melbury Road, 85
Michael's Grove, 15
Mill, James, 69
Mill, J. S., 49
Millais, Sir J. E., 28
Morland, George, 13
Murchison, Sir R., 35
Napoleon, Prince Louis, 27
Natural History Museum, 21
Newton, Sir Isaac, 4, 42, 67
Neyt, Manor of, 11
Noel, Lord, 72
Notting Barns, 7, 9, 10
Notting Hill, 3
Observatory Gardens, 74
Onslow Square, 29
Oratory, The, 18
Ovington Square, 16
Oxford, Bishop of, 49
Oxford, Earls of, 6
Palace Gate, 54
Pater, Walter, 39
Paulet, Sir William, 10
Pelham Crescent, 29
Penn, William, 77
Phillimore Terrace, 40
Pitt, Stephen, 73
Pitt Street, 69
Portobello Road, 95
Portsmouth, Duchess of, 53
Pottery Lane, 87
Princes Skating Club, 14
Priory Grove, 33
Queen's Gate, 28
Redcliffe Gardens, 35
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 13
Rich, Sir Henry, 10, 76
Richmond, Countess of, 9
Romilly, Sir S., 26
Royal College of Music, 28
Royal College of Science, 22
Royal Crescent, 86
Rutland Gate, 14
St. Charles's College, 92
St. Charles's Square, 92
St. George's Union, 34
St. Joseph's Home, 96
Scarsdale House, 41
Schools, Free, 42
Serpentine, The, 58
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 35
Sheffield House, 74
Sheffield Terrace, 74
Sheridan, 41
Shower, Sir Bartholomew, 35
Sophia, Princess, 64
South Kensington Museum, 19, 22
South, Sir James, 74
Stair, Lord, 17
State-rooms, 61
Strathnairn, Statue of, 13
Talleyrand, 49
Tattersall, 14
Technical Institute, City and Guilds, 28
Thackeray, 3, 29, 50
Thistle Grove Lane, 33
Town Hall, The, 42
Uxbridge Road, 86
Vere, Aubrey de, 5
Vestris, Madame, 27
Vicarage Gate, 69
Victoria and Albert Museum, _see_ South Kensington
Victoria, Queen, 62, 63
Victoria Road, 38
Walwyn, William, 7
Ward, Sir E., 35
Warren, Sir G., 17
Warwick, Countess of, 77
Warwick, First Earl of, 10
Watts, G. F., 51, 79
Wellesley, Marquess, 17
West Town, 8, 10
Wilberforce, W., 25
Wilkes, John, 27
Wilkie, Sir D., 40
William III., 55
Winchester, Marquis of, 8
Woolsthorpe House, 42
Wright's Lane, 41
Yates, Frederick, 15
York, Frederick, Duke of, 62
Young Street, 3
THE END
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