houses | >Re-PHOTO

Around Randolph Avenue 1988

Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-11-positive_2400 — *Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-11*

If you take the Bakerloo Line to Maida Vale, the station exit is on the corner of Elgin Avenue and Randolph Avenue, and within a few yards of the corner I found a number of scenes that interested me enough to take a picture, including several I’ve not put online, including one of the station itself. It’s a nice Underground station, with the typical maroon tiles of the period and Grade II listed, opened in 2015, designed by Stanley Heap for the London Electric Railway but I think I felt it it would look better in colour, though I don’t think I made a colour image of its exterior.

Instead I crossed the road and walked a few yards north up Randolph Ave for this picture of Burke Electrical Services and the White Rose Laundry, both seemingly in an outhouse on the rear of the rather grandiose buildings of Elgin Avenue. All three shops in this picture are now a Starbucks, and those single-storey blocks now have two additional floors above, rather nicely blending in with the surroundings.

Elgin Mews North, Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-12-positive_2400 — *Elgin Mews North, Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-12*

The left hand building of the above picture was a part of the archway leading east from Randolph Road into Elgin Mews North.

Most of the houses in Elgin Mews North seem modern, said to date from around 1984, but the gateway and those on Randolph Avenue are Grade II listed. The mews arch in an Italian Gothic style was built around 1864 but according to the listing text heavily restored and possibly reconstructed behind the facade around 1980.

Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-14-positive_2400 — *Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-14*

A very similar pair of houses and archway are on Randolph Avenue just to the south of the Underground station, and are again Grade II listed.

Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-16-positive_2400 — *Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7d-16*

According to the Victoria County History, Maida Vale gets its name from a victory in the Napoleonic Wars in 1807 when Sir John Stuart defeated the French at Maida in Calabria, and in 1810 a new pub on Edgware Road was named The Hero of Maida in his honour.

George Gutch (1790-1894) architect to the Bishops of London who owned the area made plans on a grand scale including a long avenue Portsdown Road parallel to Edgware Rd crossed by Elgin Road, but these were slow to be put into action, and it was only in the 1860s that the area began to be built up.

By this time the white stucco of earlier developments was being replaced by buildings in brick, often multicoloured which give the area its distinct look. Elgin Road was renamed Elgin Avenue in 1886, but it was only in 1939 that Portsdown Road was renamed to its current Randolph Avenue.

Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7e-02-positive_2400 — *Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7e-02*

These long terraces are just beyond the mews in the image above.

Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 198888-7e-51-positive_2400 — *Randolph Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 198888-7e-51*

The terrace continues for some length down Randolph Avenue.

Elgin Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 198888-7e-52-positive_2400 — *Elgin Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 198888-7e-52*

I walked back to the tube station and Elgin Avenue, where a couple of shopfronts took may attention. The pillar dividing 294 and 296 is spiral, like those Italianate examples in Randolph Avenue.

Elgin Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7e-54-positive_2400 — Elgin Ave, Maida Vale, Westminster, 1988 88-7e-54

And a little further east there was a blind stating ‘312 MEN’ above quite a few images of women which probably amused me slightly.

I walked out of Maida Vale across the Edgware Road and into St John’s Wood – where my next post from 1988 will continue. You can click on any of the images here to see a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos and browse the album from there.

South Hampstead & Kilburn

Hilgrove Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-12-positive_2400 — *Hilgrove Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-12*

This semi-detached pair of Gothic revival red brick house date from around 1870 and are locally listed. They have a very ecclesiastical look. Hilgrove Road was laid out as Adelaide Road North in the 1830s or 40s and named in honour of Queen Adelaide, born as Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1792 who in 1818 was married to William, Duke of Clarence and became Queen who in 1830 became queen consort of Great Britain when her husband was crowned as William IV.

The road was renamed Hilgrove road in 1875 by developers who wanted to attract house buyers with a name that suggested it was a semi-rural location – something that is very common in this area. You can read more about Camden street names in a listing by David A. Hayes and Camden History Society.

Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-13-positive_2400 — *Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-13*

Fairhazel Gardens sounds like another of these ‘semi-rural’ estate agents names, but apparently was taken from a truly rural local property on the Sussex estate of the Maryon Wilson family. Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson (1800 – 1869) was the 8th Baronet of Eastbourne and Charlton. He was also lord of the manor of Hampstead and according to Wikipedia tried hard to cover the area with housing despite problems with the terms of his fathers will and the protests of local residents. You can read more in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Fairhazel Gardens (originally called North End Road) began to be developed in 1879 but the flats probably date from between 1886 and 1896. The area was developed by Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson, the tenth baronet (1829–1897).

Greencroft Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-14-positive_2400 — *Greencroft Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-14*

Greencroft was another genuinely rural name, coming from a farm near near Great Canfield on the Essex estate of the Maryon Wilsons (again according to the Camden History Society listing.) The houses here were built by Ernest Estcourt and James Dixon in the late 1880s.

Greencroft Gardens, Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-15-positive_2400 — *Queen’s Court, Greencroft Gardens, Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-15*

Canfield Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-62-positive_2400 — *Canfield Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-62*

Great Canfield on the Maryon Wilson Essex estate gave its name to Canfield Gardens – the estate there also contained a 16th century mansion Fitzjohns whose name also appears in the Hampstead area.

South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-63-positive_2400 — *Cleve Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-63*

Woodcote at 16 Cleve Rd, the road named after a property near Quex Park in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, the home of the Powell Cotton family who developed their estate around Quex Rd from 1868 on, with Cleve Road coming in 1882-6. Woodcote is a village on the Chilterns in South Oxfordshire, not far from Goring. Woodcote House there was the home of the Cotton family from around the 1790s until some time in the following century.

Kingsgate Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-51-positive_2400 — *Kingsgate Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-51*

Walking back towards Kilburn Park station my usual wandering fashion I came across this food stall being prepared in Kingsgate Road, though I can no longer remember what was the occasion for it. It looks like some church group, perhaps from the church close to the Quex Road end of Kingsgate Rd.

Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-52-positive_2400 — *Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-52*

This long parade of shops is still there to the west of the junction with Kilburn Priory at 199-219 Belsize Rd. Belsize Rd was developed from 1851.

221 Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, Camden, 1988 88-6e-53-positive_2400 — *221 Belsize Rd, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6e-53*

Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-54-positive_2400 — *Kilburn High Rd, Kilburn, Camden, 1988 88-6e-54*

The Red Lion at 34 Kilburn High Rd claims to have been established in 1444 and rebuilt in 1890, then replacing a rather charming two storey building possibly a hundred years old. At some time after my photograph it became called The Westbury, then in 2012 a bar called Love and Liquor, and finally in 2017 Soul Store West, a dinner, cocktail bar and hotel, which closed after four months. You can read more on its history in ‘Professor Morris’ and the Red Lion, Kilburn. The authors of this say the earliest date they can trace for the pub is an alcohol licence for 1721.

Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-6e-55-positive_2400 — *Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-6e-55*

Finally as I walked towards Kilburn Park Station I couldn’t resist taking another picture of TS Leicester, Kiburn’s ‘Tin Tabernacle’.

This was my final picture in London for around a month, though I made more pictures of Hull and also on an industrial architecture visit to Sharpness and the Forest of Dean.

Kilburn Park 1988

Carlton Vale, Kilburn, Brent 1988 88-5k-26-positive_2400 — *Carlton Vale, Kilburn, Brent 1988 88-5k-26*

My next walk at the end of May 1988 took me to Kilburn Park and Kilburn, and again in this post I have put the pictures in the order of my walk rather than the somewhat random order they have in the Flickr album 1988 London Photos. The church in the picture of Carlton Vale is St Augustine, Kilburn, and the large block of flats on the corner of Carlton Vale and Kilburn Park Rd was demolished in 2018-9, though I think the overhead walkway went many years earlier.

Kilburn, Brent 1988 88-5k-15-positive_2400 — *Kilburn, Brent 1988 88-5k-15*

These lower blocks of flats were a part of the same South Kilburn estate and I think close to the corner of Carlton Vale and Cambridge Rd. The estate of high-density housing in low-rise flats and 11 tower blocks was begun in 1959 and further developed in the 1960s and 70s. Brent embarked on a comprehensive redevelopment in 2014, which is resulting in a considerable loss of social housing.

Oxford Rd, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-61-positive_2400 — *Oxford Rd, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-61*

Unsurprisingly Oxford Road runs parallel with Cambridge Ave up to the Kilburn High Rd. These streets were two of those developed by local builder James Bailey in the 1860s, developing the area he called Kilburn Park. The name was given to the first underground station in Kilburn which opened in 1915 in Cambridge Ave.

Oxford Rd, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-64-positive_2400 — *Oxford Rd, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-64*

These are typical houses of the era and were probably built from published designs in architectural pattern books. My grandather, who built a few houses on a much less grand scale had owned at least one of these and as children we were sometimes allowed to look at this beautifully illustrated volume.

Cambridge Avenue, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-66-positive_2400 — *Cambridge Avenue, Kilburn, Brent, 1988 88-5l-66*

At its southern end Cambridge Avenue leads to both Cambridge Road and the rather posher Cambridge Gardens.

Central Motors, Canterbury House, Canterbury Rd, Kilburn, Brent 1988 88-5l-52-positive_2400

Central Motors in Canterbury Rd still looks much the same, but Canterbury House, although retaining the facade had two extra storeys added in 2015-6 with luxury flats and penthouses. It as built in 1862 when this was still a part of Kilburn Lane as a railway signal factory for Saxby & Farmer who became one of the largest employers in the area but moved out around 1906.

South Kilburn Estate, Crone Court, Rupert Road, Brent, 1988 88-5l-53-positive_2400 — *Crone Court, South Kilburn Estate, Rupert Road, Brent, 1988 88-5l-53*

Crone Court is on the corner of Rupert Rd and Denmark Rd on the South Kilburn Estate and is due for redevelopment in the next few years. The 12 storey block, 32m tall, was completed in 1964.

Joe's Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 198888-5l-55-positive_2400 — *Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-55*

Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium & Cycleworks was definitely in Malvern Rd, West Kilburn as it had a street sign higher up on the building. It had a remarkable window display and I took far too many pictures – a few of them here.

Joe's Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-56-positive_2400 — *Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-56*

Joe's Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-41-positive_2400 — *Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-41*

Joe's Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-45-positive_2400 — *Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-45*

Joe's Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 198888-5l-31-positive_2400 — *Joe’s Used Ballbearing Emporium, Malvern Rd, West Kilburn, Westminster, 1988 88-5l-31*

Click on any of the images to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse the rest of the album.

Another Chelsea Walk – 1988

Church Of The Ñazarene, Grant Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-5j-54-positive_2400 — *Church Of The Ñazarene, Grant Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-5j-54*

I returned for another walk in Chelsea, taking the train to Clapham Junction and taking a few pictures on my short walk to the bus stop of the Church Of The Ñazarene close to the north entrance to the station on Grant Road. The church, a twelve-sided building by Green Lloyd Adams was built in 1970 on the edge of the Winstanley Estate, developed by Battersea Council in the 1960s. The lettering on the ramp ‘JESUS SAID I AM THE WAY’ is designed for maximum size rather than typographical nicety.

Currently extensive building work is being carried out to considerably extend the church, though its future may be threatened if Crossrail 2 goes ahead. Of the two pictures I made I preferred a view across the small area with seats to a cleaner architectural view also included in the album.

Falcon Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-5j-55-positive_2400 — Falcon Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1988 88-5j-55

On the bus I took advantage of an unusually clean front window on the upper deck to take a photograph of Falcon Road with the Queen Victoria pub. Also apparently known as ‘Spikey Hedghog’ the pub which had been there since the 1860s closed permanently in 1999 and was demolished to build the 8 flats of St Luke’s Court.

The picture also includes a falcon – both image and text on the side of a lorry. Elsewhere you can read a short post Falcon Road – a Memory of Battersea by someone who grew up living in the pub which gives an idea what the area was like, probably in the 1950s.

Beaufort St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-45-positive_2400 — *Beaufort St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-45*

I got off the bus in Beaufort St in Chelsea and photographed this doorway there before walking along Cheyne Walk. Although the door is on Beaufort St, this is Belle Vue Lodge with the address 91 Cheyne Walk. It gets a lengthy mention in the Survey of London, first published in 1913 which suggests it dates from before 1771. It states that in 1829 it was occupied by “Luke Thomas Flood, who was a great benefactor to the parish. He was evidently a friend of the historian, for he addressed some lines to him, which conclude with the halting line ‘Sweet Chelsea shall ever live in thee.’ Flood Street was named after him, and his benefactions are celebrated at the parish church by a service on January 13th,—’Flood’s Day.'”

Houseboats, River Thames, Chelsea Embankment, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-32-positive_2400 — *Houseboats, River Thames, Chelsea Embankment, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-32*

I walked across Cheyne Walk to make a photograph over the roofs of houseboats at the moorings, looking towards Chelsea Harbour and at left the Rank Hovis flour mills at Battersea and the Battersea Rail bridge. Then I think only used by goods trains this now carries frequent services of the London Overground as well as Thameslink trains.

Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-33-positive_2400 — *Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-33*

I took a picture of houses in Cheyne Row. That at left is No 104 with two blue plaques, for the artist Walter Greaves (1846-1930) and Anglo-French ‘Poet, essayist and historian’ Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) whose poem Jim (who ran away from his Nurse and was eaten by a Lion) ends with the famous lines:
‘And always keep ahold of nurse
For fear of finding something worse.’

No 104 doesn’t get a mention in the Survey of London, but No 100 at right of the picture is part of Lindsey House which it suggests was “rebuilt much in its present external form by the third Earl of Lindsey in 1674” but then divided into separate houses as 95-100 around 1775. It gets a very long entry.

Beaufort St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-22-positive_2400 — *Beaufort St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-22*

I walked back up Beaufort St, passing a long row of frontages with identical garden ornaments which I think is Beaufort Mansions, though the gardens now have hedges. I think these mansion flats probably date from around 1890.

Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-23-positive_2400 — *Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5j-23*

I was on my way to take a few more photographs on the King’s Road, including a several shop interiors. I think the name of the shop is on the wall at left, part hidden, Pineapple.

More pictures from this walk in a later post.

Click on any of the images above to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse other images in the album.

Glebe Place and Carlyle Square 1988

Glebe Place, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-52-positive_2400 — *Glebe Place, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-52*

Glebe Place on the southern side of the King’s Road is a curious street with two right-angle bends and includes a series of artists studios, some grander than others, and its residents over the years have included a huge list of artists and writers – Wikipedia lists around 30 – as well as Paul Robeson, Shirley Williams and Constant Lambert.

I don’t remember outside which house I found this rather fierce sculpture which I think is no longer present.

Glebe Place, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-51-positive_2400 — *Glebe Place, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-51*

25 and 25a Glebe Place. The heraldic lions have since left and the roof has been replaced. No 25 was the home of artist George Washington Lambert (1873-1930) who was born in Russia, educated in Somerset and emigrated with his mother and sisters to Australia in 1887. There he began exhibiting paintings and working as a cartoonist and illustrator. In the 1900s he spent a year in Paris, then moved to London; in the First World War he was an official Australian war artist, and he returned to Australia in 1921. His second son, Constant Lambert (1905-51), a notable British composer, was born in London in 1905 and also lived here; he was the Founder Music Director of the Royal Ballet.

Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-34-positive_2400 — *Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-34*

The houses at left of the picture are the pair at the north end of the east side, No 27 and 28 and to the right of them are the doors of No 25 and 24 on the north side.

Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-35-positive_2400 — *Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-35*

This rather agonised looking sculpture on the balcony was at No 28 but is no longer present.

Carlyle Square was laid out by the Cadogan Estate in the 1830s after Lord Cadogan bought the land on the north side of King’s Road in 1835, quickly clearing it of the existing small houses and cottages and laying out Oakley Square around an ornamental garden. But development of the square was slow. As originally set out, there were entrances for vehicles from both the east and west sides to King’s Road; more recently an area of garden separates the square from King’s Road, allowing only pedestrian entrance, with vehicle entrance being only from Old Church St.

Development began with short terraces of 3 houses on both the east and west sides next to King’s Rd, all now Grade II listed. They were followed in 1855 by a couple of semi-detached villas on the west side and around 1860 the north side of the square was largely completed with some varied houses. The remaining gaps – including most of its east side – were completed not long after, mainly with large identical semi-detached houses with a few feet gap between them.

Among notable residents over the years were Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, William Walton, Sybil Thorndike, Edna O’Brien and David Frost (who held an annual summer party for some years in the garden.) No 21 was built for the Duke of Portland around 1860, and a later Duke of Portland who was Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee during WW2 was still in residence.

Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-22-positive_2400 — *Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-22*

Bushes carefully trimmed in pots under the windows of No 22.

Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-24-positive_2400 — *Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-24*

This rather splendid tree is I think a fig tree and is still present – along with the pots at No 22 on the south-facing north of the square.

Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5i-33-positive_2400 — *Carlyle Square, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988*

No 37-40 have walls and gate posts like this, and this is the entrance of 38. Most of the rest of the houses on the east and west side have plain iron railings.

Click on any of the images above to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse other images in the album.

More Chelsea

Sir Thomas More, St Thomas More Gardens, Chelsea Embankment, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-25-positive_2400 — *Sir Thomas More, St Thomas More Gardens, Chelsea Embankment, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-25*

My Chelsea walk continued with a little wandering close to the Thames where I found two elderly people contemplating the statue of Sir Thomas More. More (1478-1535) opposed the Reformation and wrote polemics against Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Tyndale, although he is better known now as the author of ‘Utopia’, published in 1516. But it was his opposition to the politics of a real island, refusing to accept Henry VIII rather than the Pope as supreme head of the Church of England that led to him losing his head at Tower Hill and eventually to his being made a Catholic saint in 1935.

Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-15-positive_2400 — *Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-15*

It was the elegant iron work supporting the balcony that particularly attracted me to 48 Cheyne Walk, though I didn’t think it was particularly improved by the lamp post outside, awkwardly in the pavement, which though of relatively elegant design seemed out of place.

Cheyne Row, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-16-positive_2400 — *Cheyne Row, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5g-16*

Cheyne Row leads north away from the river between no 49 and 50 Cheyne Walk and I get confused between the two similarly named streets. This house, known for obvious reasons as Old Sun House at No 2 is the first on its east side.

Boy with a Dolphin, David Wynne, sculpture, Cheyne Walk, Oakley St, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-62-positive_2400 — *Boy with a Dolphin, David Wynne, sculpture, Cheyne Walk, Oakley St, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-62*

One of several variations on a theme by Sir David Wynne including his Girl with a Dolphin close to St Katherines Dock, this is perhaps the most interesting. I have to admit of not being a great fan. At least two other casts of this sculpture exist, both in the USA.

The model for the boy was Wynne’s son Roland David Amadeus Wynne, then 11. After Roly committed suicide aged 35 in 1999 a plate was added to the statue dedicating it to him.

*Cheyne Walk, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-8h-63*

Perhaps the only distinctive later building on Cheyne Walk, this Grade II listed house at 38 was designed by Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) one of the leading figures in the Arts and Crafts movements and built around 1900. C R Ashbee like Moore wrote utopias, though his two, like much of his work was very much inspired by William Morris, whose ‘News from Nowhere’ appeared in 1890. He was a prominent homosexual, but he married in 1898 and some years later the couple had four daughters.

Cheyne Walk, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-64-positive_2400 — *Cheyne Walk, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-64*

C R Ashbee, like More, wrote utopias, though his two, like much of his work was very much inspired by William Morris, whose ‘News from Nowhere’ appeared in 1890. He was a prominent homosexual, but he married in 1898 and some years later the couple had four daughters, one of whom wrote a frank ‘novel’ about the family relationships in which only the names are thought to be fictional.

Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea Embankment Gardens, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-55-positive_2400 — *Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea Embankment Gardens, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-5h-55*

I took another picture of Thomas Carlyle sitting on his chair as well as the two in a previous post. I think this perhaps better describes both the statue by Sir Edgar Boehm, erected in 1882, the year after his death and also the surroundings.

Click on any of the pictures to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos. They appear in a different order in the album but in this post are in the order I took them on my walk.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

More Around the King’s Road 1988

London House, Fulham Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-45-positive_2400 — *London House, Fulham Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-45*

My walk around the streets to the north of the King’s Road took me as far as the Fulham Road where I found London House at No 266 and joined to it a Servite Catholic Church. Our Lady of Dolours was started by two Servite priests, missionaries from Florence who arrived in London in 1864. Building the church here, designed by Joseph Hansom began in 1874 and it was opened the following year by Cardinal Manning. The church is Grade II listed. London House is currently being refurbished and extended, returning the exterior to something more similar to its Victorian original.

Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-44-positive_2400 — *Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-44*

V K Patel is still listed as having a dental surgery on the King’s Road, and, allowing for the various London number changes has retained the same phone number, but is now in a very different building to this rather run-down looking and overgrown house, which I think has probably been demolished.

Langton St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-42-positive_2400 — *Langton St,, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-42*

Flavio looks like an Italian restaurant and although my contact sheet suggests it was on the King’s Road, was actually a few yards from it in Langton St. I think it is now an Irish restaurant with a different shopfront.

Kings Rd area, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-54-positive_2400 — *Kings Rd area, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-54*

I’m unable to remember where I took these two decorative bowls on window ledges, but think it might have been on Lamont Road or one of the adjoining roads.

Hobury St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-56-positive_2400 — *Hobury St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-56*

31 Gertrude St is on the corner with Hobury St and the door is actually in the latter street. It retains the simple elegance that attracted me to photograph it back in 1988. Poet and novelist George Meredith (1828-1909) has a blue plaque on the next house down Hobury St. It was his poem ‘The Lark Ascending’ that inspired the well-known composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams and elsewhere Meredith was the first to publish the word ‘tweets’ as a verb, though his twittering was avian.

Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-52-positive_2400 — *Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-52*

Chamberlin, Powell & Bon designed 355 Kings R for Kensington and Chelsea council and this 15 storey 152 ft high tower was built in 1968-71. The council sold it off in the 1980s when the brickwork was begining to need repair and it was reclad and converted to private flats. At the right is an office of Roy Brooks, the estate agent who became a legend in the 1960s (he died in 1971) and made a fortune through his adverts in the Sunday Times and Observer desribed the houses he was selling in vivid terms as hardly fit for human habitation, exagerating any defects and making them up where none existed.

Lamont Road Passage, Park Walk, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-53-positive_2400 — *Lamont Road Passage, Park Walk, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-53*

A handy passage for those living in Lamont Road to get to the shops in Park Walk and the King’s Road. The picture is of its corner with Park Walk and at left you can see Roy Brooks Estate Agents, a tree in the Milman’s Street Moravian Burial Ground and the house on the corner of Milmans St and the King’s Road. There is of course another tree in the shop window.

Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse the other images in the album.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Around the King’s Road 1988

I took a stroll along the King’s Road, looking at some of the shop windows, then explored some of the streets to the north.

Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-52-positive_2400 — *Shop window, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-52*

There was something very strange about this view, and looking at when I made a print made me think that somehow it had turned into a negative. The contrast between the two mannequins, one white and one black had attracted me and I think the lighting and my treatment almost makes the right hand figure dissolve.

Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-64-positive_2400 — *Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-64*

Light fittings for sale in a shop window give some interesting shapes.

Boy, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-65-positive_2400 — *Boy, Kings Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5b-65*

Stephane Raynor opened BOY on the King’s Road in 1976, and it became “the epicentre of a new dawn in both fashion and music, defining the spirit of punk and birthing the New Romantic scene that appeared in its wake.”

Elm Park Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-01-positive_2400 — *Elm Park Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-01*

72 Elm Park Road is one of a row of individually designed late Victorian houses that make this an interesting street. Since I took this picture it has been extended with an extra storey at both top and bottom, but still looks much the same from the street. The house is now valued at around £12m and was named in 2015 as the address of one of the many people exposed in the The Panama Papers exposure of the rogue offshore finance industry

The Vale, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-03-positive_2400 — *The Vale, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-03*

I’m unsure why this property at 26 The Vale required such an elaborate security camera, something rather unusual back in 1988. I’m sure my framing, although I was mainly interested in the doorway was deliberately to include this. The building is a part of a corner site including joined properties in Elm Park Road, and plans were made in 2012 which would have involved the removal of this doorway. It was still there in 2020.

Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 198888-5c-34-positive_2400 — *Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-34*

Taken from the corner of Edith Terrace and looking north up Fernshaw Rd (late Maude Grove). The taller block on the right in the distance is Fernshaw Mansions. an Edwardian block in this largely late Victorian street. The houses and garden walls are generally in rather better decorative state now than in 1988.

Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-46-positive_2400 — *Fernshaw Rd, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5c-46*

This unmodernised freehold house in Fernshaw Road was for sale in 1988 and if I had been able to afford it I should have bought it. It’s one of a terrace from 1-11 and would probably now sell for around £4m. I suspect the price in 1988 was around a hundreth of that.

Click on any of the pictures abouve to go to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos, from where you can browse through all the pictures in the album.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Kings Road & Chelsea Common 1988

Anderson St, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-21-positive_2400 — *Anderson St, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-21*

It was the eye on the billboard that particulalry caught my attention on the corner of this long block of rather distressed looking shops and accomodation on the Kings Road, though I now have no idea what it was advertising and rather doubt if I did then. The long terrace has been considerably smartened now, with both advertising hoardings gone and the building has a smooth unblemised finish.

Royal Ave, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-22-positive_2400 — *Royal Ave, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-22*

Royal Avenue was first laid out as a part of a scheme connecting the Royal Hospital Chelsea with Kensington Palace which was apparently approved by Sir Christopher Wren in 1681, but only ever got as far as the King’s Road. At first it was planted with two rows of horse chestnut trees and grass and was known as Chestnut Walk, then it got white ladder stiles over the walls at each ends and became known as White Stiles. The terraces on each side date from around 1840 and are Grade II listed. The chestnuts were replaced by lime and plane trees and the grass by gravel around the same time, and it was renamed Royal Avenue in 1875. In 1970 the road access to King’s Road was replaced by a broad area of pavement. It still looks much the same as when I made this picture in 1988.

Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-23-positive_2400 — *Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-23*

Another view of the King’s Road that is relatively unchanged, although there is now a florists stall which would have obscured this view. Strangely the council have replaces the plain but elegant bollards here with rather more ornate versions which seem rather less in keeping with the elegant white stucco architecture of Wellington Square, behind me as I made this image. The square was developed around the time of the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852 and was named for him.

The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-13-positive_2400 — *The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-13*

The Pheasantry got its name from Samuel Baker who bred new breeds of pheasants and other species there in the nineteenth century, though the present building is thought largely to have been built and embellished after the building was bought in 1880 by Amédée Joubert & Son, upholsterers and sellers of furniture, tapestry and carpets. In the early 20th century it also housed artists and a ballet school, and from 1932 when Felix Joubert retired the basement became a bohemian restaurant and drinking club with a host of famous actors and artists among its patrons. The club closed in 1966, the basement becoming a nightclub and the rest of the building flats. Now it houses a branch of Pizza Express and a cabaret club. Wikipedia has more.

The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-24-positive_2400 — *The Pheasantry, Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-24*

The listing text describes this as “Central entrance with split segmental pediment supported by 2 male caryatids.”

Shop window, Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-33-positive_2400 — *Shop window, Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-33*

Elystan Street runs from the miniscule remains of Chelsea Common and was originally called College St. Here in 1913 the William Sutton Trust built 14 red-brick blocks of model dwellings, designed by E C P Monson, with 674 dwellings for around 2,000 working-class residents of Chelsea. Another large estate was also begun close to this in 1913 by the Samuel Lewis Housing Trust, with eight blocks of model dwellings completed after the First World War to house 1,390 people. (British History Online.)

Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-35-positive_2400 — Elystan St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-35

Elystan St is better known now as the name adopted by a restaurant at No 43 with a Michelin star.

Monkeys, Restaurant, Cale St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-36-positive_2400 — *Monkeys, Restaurant, Cale St, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-36*

Monkeys in Cale St, also leading from the residual Chelsea Common, a small triangle of grass in a road junction looks more my kind of restaurant. It faces that triangle and still looks very similar, but now claims to be “London’s best Neapolitan pizzeria”.

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version and to browse other images in my album 1988 London Photos.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Around Chelsea

Michelin Building, Fulham Rd, Brompton, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-46-positive_2400 — *Michelin Building, Lucan Place, Fulham Rd, Brompton, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-46*

It was too hard to resist the Michelin Building any time I walked past, though I felt it had already been photographed to death – and most of my pictures were in colour, including closer views of its decorative panels.

Opened in 1911 as the first UK headquarters and tyre depot for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd, and designed by Michelin employee and engineer François Espinasse it was more an architectural advertising hoarding featuring the Michelin Man ‘Bibendum’, his name derived from “Nunc Est Bibendum“, “Now is the time to drink”. A precursor of art-deco, it is grade II listed. It was also a fairly early use of ferro-concrete, using the Hennebique system, which gave its interior wide spaces for a tyre bay and made it relatively fire-proof. This picture was made three years after Michelin moved out, when the building was redeveloped by publisher Paul Hamlyn and restaurateur/retailer Sir Terence Conran as offices, shop and restaurant. (mainly from Wikipedia.)

Fulham Road, South Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-54-positive_2400 — *Trees, Fulham Road, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-54*

This house is on the west corner of Pelham Crescent, and the three trees that attracted my attention are still there, remarkably little changed 33 years later, though of course each spring they get covered with leaves.

Selwood Terrace, South Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-61-positive_2400 — *Selwood Terrace, South Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-61*

The east side of this street is Neville Terrace and the west side is Selwood Terrace. This front garden with a wall covered with ivy is close to the Fulham Road and I think both wall and ivy have disappeared, possibly as a part of a basement extension to the property.

South Parade, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-62-positive_2400 — *South Parade, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-62*

I think this tall building probably dates from around 1892 and is part of long terrace including a former fire station with that date on the north side of Chelsea Square. It was the Nurses Home for the Royal Brompton Hospital and is still a part of the hospital. Chelsea square was named Trafalgar Square when it was laid out in 1810 but that was later used for a rather larger square in Westminster. The square later became a tennis club before much of the area was rebuilt in neo-Georgian style in the 1930s.

The Crown, pub, Dovehouse St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-63-positive_2400 — *The Crown, Dovehouse St, Chelsea, Kensington & Chelsea, 1988 88-4r-63*

The Crown pub is on the corner of Dovehouse St and Dudmaston Mews, just a few yards south of the Fulham Rd and more or less surrounded by hospitals. No longer a Whitbread pub it has lost the crown sign, replaced by a dreary sign with a neon crown, and other largely flowery embellishments have ruined the simplicity of the frontage. The Princess Of Wales at the left of the row of buildings closed as a pub around 2000 and is now a French restaurant, with considerably more expensive food than The Crown.

Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-11-positive_2400 — *Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-11*

I took fewer pictures of the Kings Road than I should have done. This shop window display seemed more erotic than most.

Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-16-positive_2400 — *Kings Road, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-16*

These rather disparate buildings are still there on the Kings Road, on the south side just east of Radnor Walk, though now occupied by different shops and rather less trendy.

Jubilee Place, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-15-positive_2400 — Jubilee Place, Chelsea, Kensington and Chelsea, 1988 88-5a-15

And immediately opposite the previous picture is Jubilee place, leading north with this house and wrought ironwork at No 9 over double gates leading down to a basement garage.

Click on any of the images to go to larger versions in my album 1988 London Photos were you can browse through these and other pictures.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.