Mayfair is at the present time the most fashionable part of London, so much so that the name has come to be a synonym for wealth or pride of birth. Yet it was not always so, as he who runs may read, for the derivation is simple enough, and differs from most cases in that the obvious meaning is the right one. In James II.'s reign a permission was given for a fair to be held on the north side of Piccadilly, to begin on the first day of May, and to last for fifteen days. This fair, we are told, was "not for trade and merchandise, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stageplays and drolls." It was immensely popular, and was frequented by "all the nobility of the town," wherein, perhaps, we see the germs of the Mayfair we know. It must be remembered that Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares, with their diverging streets, were not then begun, and that all this land now covered by a network of houses lay in fields on the outskirts of London, while Hyde Park Corner was still the end of the world so far as Londoners were concerned. It was about the end of the seventeenth century that the above-mentioned squares were built, and at once became fashionable, and as the May fair continued to flourish until 1708, it must have seen the growth of the district to which it was to give its name. Though suppressed, doubtless on account of disorders, it revived again, with booths for jugglers, prize-fighting contests, boxing matches, and the baiting of bears and bulls, and was not finally abolished until the end of the eighteenth century.
More than a quarter of the district is covered by Hyde Park, 394 acres in extent. Long before its acquisition by the Crown in 1536 it had been a favourite royal hunting-ground, and it so continued until Charles I.'s accession, when it was opened to the public. During this reign, and until 1736, the world of fashion centred round the Ring, a circular drive planted with trees, some of which are still carefully preserved on the high ground near the Ranger's house, though all trace of the roadway has long been obliterated. The Park was sold by auction during the Commonwealth, but resumed by the Crown at the Restoration, and in 1670 was enclosed with a brick wall and restocked with deer, who have left their traces in the name of Buck Hill Walk and Gate, close to the east bank of the Serpentine. This prettily-laid-out area, formerly known as Buckden Hill or the Deer Paddock, is now tenanted only by peacocks, ducks and rabbits.
Hyde Park has always been noted for its springs. In 1725 the Chelsea Waterworks Company obtained a license to supply the surrounding districts, and built a reservoir and engine-house near Grosvenor Gate, which existed until 1835, when, on the recall of the license, the engine-house was demolished and the basin laid out with flower-beds and a fountain. The present reservoir stands in the centre of the Park, while opposite Stanhope Place on the north side is a Gothic drinking fountain, the gift of the Maharajah of Vizianagram. The oldest of the present roads in Hyde Park is Rotten Row, made by William III.; it is now reserved for riding only, while under the trees on either side rank and fashion have lounged and gossiped since the days of the Ring. The popular derivation of the name is from Route du Roi, since it was known first as the King's or Lamp Road; but possibly it has its origin in the soft soil of which the ride since 1734 has been composed. The south road, now the fashionable drive, was made by George II. about 1732, as a short way to Kensington Park. The road from Alexandra Gate to Victoria Gate crosses the Serpentine by a stone bridge built by Rennie in 1826, and is the only one open to hired vehicles, which were first forbidden the use of the Park in 1695. From the Serpentine a soft ride runs parallel to the roadway as far as the Marble Arch; from this point Hyde Park Corner is reached by a broad drive bordered with flower-beds and trees, which replace the famous double avenue of walnuts cut down in 1811. It is much patronized by society, who congregate opposite Hyde Park Corner, near the Achilles statue, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A., cast from captured French cannon, and erected at a cost of L10,000 by the women of England in 1820, "in honour of the Duke of Wellington and his brave companions in arms." It is copied from a Roman antique, but the name is a misnomer. The road along the north side of the Serpentine is now thronged every day with bicyclists, to whom the Park has been lately thrown open. Here also are held the annual meets of the Four-in-Hand and Coaching Club during the season. This road was widened in 1852. Of past and present buildings in Hyde Park the following may be noted: When the Serpentine was made, an old lodge was demolished which may have been the tavern known in the reign of James I. as the "Grave Maurice's Head," and which later became Price's Lodge. Up to 1836, on the bank of the Serpentine stood an old house called the Cake House, and close to it was the old receiving house of the Royal Humane Society, which was replaced in 1834 by the present building, designed by Decimus Burton. Among the trees behind it is an old farmhouse (Hyde Park Lodge), the residence of Major-General Bateson, Deputy Ranger, adjoining which are the old barracks, now a police-station and guard-room, the head-gardener's house, built in 1877, and the old magazine. The new magazine stands close to the Serpentine Bridge, and contains over 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition. Near Grosvenor Gate stood the Duke of Gloucester's riding-house, built in 1724, which, after serving as the headquarters of the Westminster Volunteer Cavalry, was demolished in 1824. The old Ranger's Lodge at Hyde Park Corner was pulled down when Apsley House was built.
The remaining gates are Alexandra Gate and Prince of Wales's Gate, erected since 1851; Victoria Gate, Grosvenor Gate, made in 1724 by subscription of the neighbouring inhabitants; and Stanhope Gate, opened about 1760. There are also numerous entrances for foot passengers.
1712. The Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun, which took place near Price's Lodge. Both died on the ground, and Lord Mohun's second, General Macartney, was afterwards tried, on the accusation of Colonel Hamilton, for stabbing the Duke when on the ground; he was, however, acquitted.
Hyde Park has also been the scene of some serious riots, notably those in 1821 on the occasion of the removal of Queen Caroline's body; in 1885 against the Sunday Trading Bill; and in 1862 the Garibaldi disturbances. The most important riot, however, broke out in 1866, when the Reform Leaguers forcibly entered the Park by pulling down the railing. From the Reform League the Reformer's tree near the reservoir took its name; though the original one has been felled, the name is still applied to a neighbouring tree, and political demonstrations, which have been declared legal since 1866, are still held on the open space in the vicinity.
Oxford Street, which forms the northern boundary of the district, has already been described in the book on "Marylebone," with which district it is closely identified. It is only necessary here to mention some of the notable houses on the south side which fall within our compass.
At the corner of Lumley Street (south side) is the Royal Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb. The building, erected in 1870 from designs by Sir A. Blomfield, of red brick, contains a reading-room, lecture-hall, and on the upper floor St. Saviour's Church, in early Pointed style.
From Dering Street, on the south side of Oxford Street, the garden of Lord Carnarvon's house in Tenterden Street extended nearly to Harewood Place. On the site are a noticeable stone-fronted house, now a carriage warehouse, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, founded 1838 and removed here from Bloomsbury Square in 1856.
Park Lane, up to 1769 called Tyburn Lane, was in the reign of Queen Anne a desolate by-road, but is now a favourite place of residence for the fashionable persons in the Metropolis. It is open to Hyde Park as far as Hamilton Place, whence it reaches Piccadilly by a narrow street. At its junction with the former stands an ornamental fountain by Thorneycroft, erected in 1875 at a cost of L5,000, the property of a lady who died intestate and without heirs. At the base are the muses of Tragedy, Comedy, and History in bronze, above Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton in marble, the whole being surmounted by a bronze statue of Fame. The principal mansions in Park Lane are: Brook House, at the north corner of Upper Brook Street, designed by T. H. Wyatt, and the residence of the Earl of Tweedmouth, and next to it Dudley House. Dorchester House (Captain Holford) was built by Vulliamy in 1852 on the site of the town house of the Damers, Earls of Dorchester. The building, which stands in its own grounds, is rectangular, and constructed of Portland stone in Italian Renaissance style. On the narrow front is a carriage portico. The reception rooms and marble staircase have few rivals in London; they contain two libraries and a collection of pictures by old and modern masters. Here died in 1842 the Marquis of Hertford. Londonderry House, No. 18 (Marquis of Londonderry), was built in 1850 by S. and J. Wyatt on the site of the residence of the D'Arcys, Earls of Holdernesse. It contains a fine gallery of pictures and sculpture. Other inhabitants: the Duke of Somerset, in a house adjoining Camelford House, No. 35; Sir Moses Montefiore, d. 1885; Park Lane Chambers, Earl Sondes, Lord Monkbretton.
Grosvenor Square and the surrounding streets have always been the centre of the aristocratic world; the Square, which includes about six acres, was built in 1695. The garden was laid out by Kent, and in the centre stood formerly an equestrian statue of George I., by Van Nost, placed there in 1726. On the site, in 1642, was erected a fort named Oliver's Mount, which stood as one of the defences against the Royalists until 1647. Owing to the prejudices of the inhabitants, Grosvenor Square was not lit by gas until 1842.
At the corner end of Park Street, and in South Street and Aldford Street, the old houses have been pulled down and have been replaced by large, red-brick, ornamented structures, such as have also been erected in Mount Street, Grosvenor Street, and North and South Audley Street. The spaces behind the houses are occupied by mews. Great improvements have also been effected since 1887 in the housing of the working classes, particularly in the neighbourhood of Oxford Street, and in Bourdon Street and Mount Row, by the erection of blocks of industrial dwellings by the St. George's and Improved Industrial Dwellings Companies, under the auspices of the Duke of Westminster.
In Park Street, formerly called Hyde Park Street, lived Miss Nelly O'Brien, 1768; 7, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, M.P.; 26, Sir Humphry Davy, 1825, till his death; 113, Miss Lydia White, d. 1827; 123, Richard Ford, author of "The Handbook for Spain." In North Audley Street, opposite Green Street, is St. Mark's Church, built from designs by J. P. Deering in 1825-28, and reconstructed in Romanesque style in 1878. Adjoining is the Vicarage, built in 1887, and at the back the St. Mark's Institute, containing a church-room, mission-room, gymnasium, and a working men's club. Attached to the institute are the parish schools, built soon after 1830, and enlarged and repaired in 1894.
South Audley Street takes its name from Hugh Audley (d. 1662), the owner of some land in the neighbourhood. It has several interesting houses. No. 8, Alington House (Lord Alington), was, in 1826, Cambridge House, the residence of the Duke of York, and afterwards, until 1876, belonged to the Curzons, Earls Howe. In 73, Bute House, lived, in 1769, the great Earl of Bute, and near him his friend Home, author of "Douglas." Chesterfield House, a large mansion standing in a courtyard at the corner of Curzon Street, was built by Ware in 1749 for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, d. 1773, who wrote the "Letters" in the library. The portico and marble staircase, with bronze balustrade, were brought from Canons, the seat of the Duke of Chandos. In 1869 the house was sold to Mr. Magniac for L175,000, and he built over the gardens. It is now the town house of Lord Burton.
Opposite Aldford Street is Grosvenor Chapel, erected in 1730; an ugly building, with sittings for 1,200. It is now a chapel of ease to St. George's. Here were buried Lord Chesterfield, 1773; Ambrose Phillips, poet, 1749; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1762; David Mallet, poet, 1765; William Whitehead, poet, 1785; John Wilkes, 1797; Elizabeth Carter, 1806. The churchyard at the back was, in 1889, converted into a public garden. Just outside the gate is the Public Free Library, erected in 1894 under the Free Libraries Act.
Other inhabitants: General Paoli; Holcroft, dramatist, 1761; Sir William Jones; Lord John Russell; Lord Sydenham, 1841; 8, Archbishop Markham, d. 1807; 14, Sir R. Westmacott, sculptor, d. 1856; 15, Baron Bunsen, 1841; 72, Charles X., when in exile, and in 1816 the Duchesse d'Angouleme; Louis XVIII., in 1814, also lived in this street; 74, the Portuguese Embassy early in the eighteenth century; 77, Sir Matthew Wood; here Queen Caroline resided in 1820. In the enlargement of the street called Audley Square Spencer Perceval was born. North Row has no interest. In Green Street lived Sydney Smith, d. 1845; Lord Cochrane, d. 1814; 61 is Hampden House, residence of the Duke of Abercorn. At the corner of Park Street stood St. Mary's Church, pulled down in 1880.
In Norfolk Street lived Lord William Russell, murdered by his valet in 1840; at 27 the Earl of Dunraven, 1895. In Upper Brook Street lived Lord George Gordon, b. 1750, and George Grenville; 3, Sir Lucas Pepys and the Countess of Rothes; 18, Hon. Mrs. Damer, sculptor, d. 1828; 27, "Single Speech" Hamilton, d. 1796; 18, Sir William Farrer, F.R.G.S.; 32, Marquis of Ormonde.
Mount Street (1740), called from the Fort of Oliver's Mount, was rebuilt with ornamental red-brick houses; it contains the Vestry Hall—now the Register Office for the district—built by Bolton in 1887, at a cost of L15,200, on the site of the old workhouse, now removed to the Fulham Road.
Inhabitants: Lady Mary Coke, 1810; Martin Van Butchell, d. 1810; Sir Henry Holland, 1816; No. 102, Madame d'Arblay, 1832; 111, on the site of an old manor-house, was in 1891 occupied by a college of Jesuit priests; 2, Sir Charles Hall, Q.C., M.P., d. 1900; 49, Earl of Selborne; 54, Lord Windsor; 105, Winston Churchill, M.P.; 113, Right Hon. Akers Douglas, M.P. In Carlos Place, so renamed in 1892 instead of Charles Street (1727), lives: No. 1, Sir George Chetwynd, Bt., 1896. Its prolongation, Duke Street, rebuilt in 1889 in red brick, dates from about 1770, and was named probably after the Duke of Cumberland. In that year a lying-in hospital stood in the street; opposite a small square is the King's Weigh House Congregational Chapel, a large building erected in 1891. Blocks of artisans' dwellings occupy the small streets round about.
In Gilbert Street are St George's, Hanover Square, District Schools, which replaced the old schools in South Molton Street. The building was erected in 1888 by Caroe on a site given by the Duke of Westminster, and cost L5,000. These schools were incorporated in 1818 with General Stewart's schools in South Street.
In Bourdon Street is St. Mary's Church, a chapel of ease to St. George's, built for L12,000 by the Duke of Westminster in 1881 to replace St. Mary's Church in Park Street. The building, from designs by Blomfield, is in medieval style. Adjoining is St. George's Workmen's Dwellings Association.
Brook Street was first called Little Brook Street, and afterwards Lower Brook Street. It takes its name from the Tyburn, which flowed down the course of South Molton Lane and Avery Row, by Bruton Mews to the bottom of Hay Hill, and through the gardens of Lansdowne House to Shepherd's Market. It then crossed Piccadilly at Engine Street, and flowed through the Green Park to Buckingham Palace.
In Brook Street is Claridge's (formerly Mivart's) Hotel. Here lived: No. 25 (now 72), Edmund Burke; Sir Henry Holland, 1820-73; 63, Sir William Jenner; 74, Sir William Gull; 57 (now 25), Handel, the composer; Lord Lake, d. 1808; Welbore Ellis, Lord Mendip, d. 1802; Mrs. Delany; 20, Gerald Vandergucht, engraver, and his son Benjamin Vandergucht, painter; Thomas Barker, painter; 25, Rev. Sydney Smith; 30, Sir Charles Bell, d. 1832; 34, Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1809; 63, Sir John Williams, physician; 66, Sir B. Savory, Bart.; 74, Lord Balcarres; 84, Sir William Broadbent, physician; 86, Lord Davey, P.C., F.R.S.
In South Molton Street, on the wall of No. 36, is an inscription: "This is South Molton Street, 1721." At No. 17 lived William Blake, poet and painter, in 1807. The St. George's Schools, at No. 53, were removed in 1889 to Gilbert Street, and the building sold for L2,500.
East of New Bond Street, Hanover Square, four acres in extent, was built as a fashionable place of residence in 1716-20. It was to have been called Oxford Square, but the name was changed in honour of the house of Hanover. A few of the old houses still remain, notably Nos. 17 and 23, but most of them have been rebuilt at various times, and are not in any way remarkable. The centre is enclosed and planted with trees, and at the southern end stands a bronze statue of Pitt by Chantrey, erected in 1831 at the cost of L7,000. The principal houses are: No. 3, the offices of the Zoological Society, established in 1826, and removed here in 1846; those of the Anthropological Society; 4, a large handsome building erected in 1774 by Sir George Gallini, and opened by him as the Hanover Square Concert and Ball Rooms. Here J. C. Bach, son of Sebastian Bach, gave concerts from 1785-93. The concerts of Ancient Music and those of the Philharmonic Society also took place here. In 1862 the rooms were redecorated and styled the Queen's Concert Rooms, but were in 1875 disposed of to the Hanover Square Club, established in that year.
Other inhabitants: the present No. 20, Field-Marshal Viscount Cobham, 1736-48; George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, d. 1735; Ambrose Phillips, poet, d. 1749. At the present No. 10: Admiral Lord Rodney, 1792-96; Admiral Lord Anson, 1762; "Single Speech" Hamilton, 1765; Percival Pott, surgeon, 1777-88; Thomas Campbell, poet; Sir James Clark, physician, 1841.
In Regent Street stood, until recently, Hanover Chapel, with two towers, designed by C. R. Cockerell, and built in 1824 at a cost of L16,180. The Ionic portico was imitated from that of Minerva Polias at Priene. In the interior was a painting of "Christ's Agony in the Garden," by Northcote, presented 1828 by the British Institution.
1791. Sir William Hamilton to Emma Harte (Nelson's Lady Hamilton).
Among the Rectors of St. George's were Charles Moss, D.D., 1759-74, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells; and Henry Courtenay, 1774-1803, made Bishop of Exeter in 1795.
At the bottom of George Street is Limmer's Hotel, formerly a noted resort of sporting men, rebuilt and enlarged in 1876. No. 25 is a handsome stone-fronted mansion, built in 1864 for Earl Temple. In 1895 it was in possession of the Duchess of Buckinghamshire. In a house on the same site lived John Copley, the painter, and his son, Lord Lyndhurst, d. 1863.
Other inhabitants: No. 3, Madame de Stael; 7, Admiral Sir Edward Hawke; 8, David Mallet, poet, 1758-63; Sir William Beechey, R.A.; Sir Thomas Phillips, R.A., d. 1845; 9, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1803; 13, Lord Chancellor Cowper, 1723; 15, Sir George Wombwell, afterwards for a short time the Junior Travellers' Club; Earl of Albemarle, 1726; Lord Stair, 1726; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, d. 1762; Sir Thomas Clarges, 1726; Colonel Francis Charteris, 1729; Lord Shelburne, 1748.
Maddox Street was built by the Earl of Burlington in 1721, and named after Sir Benjamin Maddox, the ground landlord (d. 1670). It contains a museum of building appliances established in 1866 in connection with the Institute of British Architects. Mill Street is so called from a mill which stood near the corner of Hanover Square; near it is Pollen Street; both are unimportant. Conduit Street, completed about 1713, is so called from the city conduit which carried water from the Tyburn to Cheapside. It was built for private residences, which have now been transformed into shops. On the south side, where is now a tailor's, stood, until 1877, Trinity Chapel, a plain, red-brick building built by Archbishop Tenison, in 1716, to replace the old wooden chapel which James II. had originally set up on Hounslow Heath, but which was brought to, and left at the top of, Old Bond Street about 1691. Four-fifths of the income derived from the three houses on this site are devoted to the maintenance of the district churches in the parish, the remainder going to the parish of St. Martin's. The share of St. George's parish now amounts to a capital sum of L5,075, and an income of L1,600.
At the Princess of Wales' Tavern, now demolished, David Williams started the Royal Literary Fund in 1772.
Nos. 15 and 16 are Long's Hotel, much frequented by Sir Walter Scott; it was rebuilt and enlarged in 1888.
At No. 18, now a jeweller's, was Steven's Hotel, fashionable during the Regency, and afterwards a haunt of Lord Byron's.
Old Bond Street, and the adjoining Stafford Street, Albemarle and Dover Streets, occupy the site of old Clarendon House, the grounds of which covered nearly 30 acres, granted to Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, by Charles II. The house, described by Evelyn as a noble pile, was erected in 1664, and after being leased, in 1670, to the Duke of Ormonde, was sold in 1675 to the second Duke of Albemarle, who parted with it to Sir Thomas Bond for L20,000. The latter, in 1686, built Bond Street, the west side of which was first called Albemarle Buildings. Residents: 1708, Lords Coningsby, Abingdon, and Anglesea; 1725, the Duke of St. Albans, Countess of Gainsborough; 1741, Duke of Kingston; 1753, Countess of Macclesfield; at the present No. 41, in 1768, died Laurence Sterne; Pascal Paoli, 1761; Boswell, 1769; No. 24, 1791, Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A., afterwards the offices of the Artists' Benevolent Institution, founded 1814, the Artists' Orphan Fund, and the Arundel Society for promoting the knowledge of Art, established 1848. These have now been removed.
In Stafford Street a stone let into the wall of a public-house had the inscription: "This is Stafford Street, 1686." At the corner of Albemarle Street, in 1852, was the Stafford Street Club, formed by Roman Catholics.
Albemarle Street, Grafton Street, and Dover Street contain handsome houses, the residences still of many of the aristocracy. The former was built in 1684-1708 by Sir Thomas Bond, and named after the Duke of Albemarle. Its chief houses are: No. 21, the Royal Institution, established by Count Rumford in 1799, for "diffusing the Knowledge and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements," etc.; has a stone front, with a row of half engaged Corinthian columns, designed by Louis Vulliamy, and erected in 1837. It contains a lecture-theatre, reading-room, and library of 50,000 volumes. Members are elected by ballot, and courses of lectures are delivered on science, philosophy, literature and art. Eminent men connected with the Institution: Faraday, 1830; Murchison, Lyell, Sedgewick, Whewell, Tyndall, Huxley, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Dewar. The President of the Society is the Duke of Northumberland.
Opposite is St. George's (proprietary) Chapel, a plain building, celebrated for its musical services.
No. 7 is the Royal Thames Yacht Club, instituted in 1823 for the encouragement of yacht building and sailing on the river Thames. It was formerly Grillion's Hotel. Here Louis XVIII. lodged in 1814, and Grillion's Club, formed 1813, had its meetings. The Roxburghe Club dinners also took place here.
No. 36 was the Hogarth Club for gentlemen associated with the arts, founded as the Artists' Club at the Turk's Head, Gerrard Street; removed here from Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, in 1888.
The Literary Club met in 1785 at Le Telier's in this street.
The steep descent of Hay Hill was so called from a farm in the neighbourhood, which, perhaps, took its name from Tyburn (the "Ayburn," the "Eia Burn"), which flowed at the foot. Here in 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt's head was exposed, and three of his companions hung in chains. In 1617 Hay Hill was granted to Hector Johnstone for services to the Elector Palatine. By Queen Anne it was granted to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who sold it for L200 and gave the proceeds to the poor. It afterwards came into the hands of the Pomfret family, and was sold prior to 1759 for L20,300.
Berkeley Square was built about 1698 on the site of the gardens of Berkeley House, the residence of Sir John Berkeley, afterwards Lord Berkeley, of Stratton, to whose descendant, Earl Fitzhardinge, the property still belongs. It slopes somewhat steeply to the south, and has a well-wooded garden in the centre, planted about the end of the eighteenth century. The equestrian statue of George III., by Beaupre and Wilton, erected by Princess Amelia in 1766, was removed in 1827, and the pedestal is vacant, but a drinking-fountain, the gift of the Marquis of Lansdowne, stands at the south end. In 1805 the north side was occupied by small tradesmen's shops, which have been replaced; but some of the other houses are old, and still have the iron link extinguishers before the door, which may be seen at many houses in this district. No. 25 is Thomas's Hotel, which dates from 1809. Charles James Fox lived here in 1803. No. 40 is noteworthy for the style of its architecture, but the finest house in the Square is Lansdowne House (Marquis of Lansdowne), standing in its own garden on the south side. It was built by Robert Adam for the Earl of Bute in 1765, and sold while still unfinished to the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, for L22,500. It contains a sculpture gallery commenced in 1778, with a collection of statuary by Gavin Hamilton. The pictures were collected by the third Marquis (1807-50), and comprise specimens by Raphael, Murillo, Velasquez, Hogarth, Reynolds, Landseer, and others. The library was added in 1790. Priestley was librarian when, in 1774, he discovered oxygen.
Other inhabitants: Corner of Bruton Street, No. 20, Colley Cibber, 1753; 45, the residence of the Earl of Powis, has a name-plate on the door (here, in 1774, Lord Clive committed suicide); 10, Lord Clyde, 1863; 11, Horace Walpole, 1774-97, Lady Waldegrave, 1800; 6, second Earl of Chatham; 13, Marquis of Hertford, Earl of Carnarvon; 17, Lord Rowton; 18, Sir S. B. Bancroft, actor; 21, Lady Anne Barnard, authoress of "Auld Robin Gray," d. 1825; Lord Brougham and Vaux, 1842; 28, Earl Grey, Lord Brougham, 1830-34, Sidney Smirke, R.A., architect, 1842; 38, here, in 1804, the Earl of Jersey married Lady Sophia Fane, daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland, d. 1867, Lord Londesborough, 1891. It has now been rebuilt in red brick by Lord Rosebery; 48, Lord Brougham, 1849; 52, Field-marshal Lord Strathnairn, d. 1894.
Here lived: Richard Cosway, R.A., 1770-80; No. 4, Shackleton, painter; 9, Pope's Martha Blount, 1731-63; General Bulkeley, d. 1815; Mrs. Howard, mistress of Louis Napoleon.
Bruton Street, built circa 1727, was named after Lord Berkeley's Dorsetshire estate. It contains large private houses, the most noticeable being No. 17, now Lord Stratheden and Campbell. At No. 22 (now Earl Bathurst) was the Pioneer Club for ladies.
In Hill Street (1743) lived: Lord Lyttelton, 1755-73; Admiral Byng, 1756; Smollett's Lady Vane, d. 1788; Mrs. Montagu, 1795; Lord Chief Justice Camden, d. 1794; Earl of Carlisle, b. 1802; Sir J. F. Leicester, 1829; No. 5, Mr. Henry Brougham (Lord Brougham), 1824, Lord Londesborough, 1835; 6 (a new house), Marquis of Tweeddale, 1895; 9, Admiral Sir Philip Durham, 1841; 8, The Mackintosh of Mackintosh; 20, Lord Barrymore; 21, William Grant, Earl of Malmesbury, d. 1820, Countess Darnley; 26, Lord Revelstoke; 27, Countess of Roden, 1895; 30, Lord Westbury; 33, Lord Hindlip; 34, Sir Charles G. Earle-Welby, Bart.; 41, Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, Bart.
Inhabitants: No. 10, Miss Florence Nightingale, 1895; 22, Beau Brummell; 33, Lord Holland; 36, Mlle. d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Sussex, 1835; 39, Lord Melbourne, 1837.
Some fine houses with an outlet by steps to Pitt's Head Mews form Seamore Place (circa 1761).
Opposite the chapel is Wharncliffe House, a plain building with courtyard and garden. Here lived in 1708 Edward Shepherd, the builder of Shepherd's Market. It was sold for L500 in 1750 to Lord Carhampton, who rebuilt it. From 1776-92 it was occupied by Lady Fane, and by Lady Reade from 1793 to 1813. In 1818 it was bought by Mr. J. Stuart Wortley, M.P., for L12,000, and is now in possession of the Earl of Wharncliffe.
Bolton Street was built in 1699, and was then the western limit of London. Here lived: Earl of Peterborough, 1710-24; George Grenville, d. 1770; Madame d'Arblay, 1818; Lord Melbourne; Hon. Mrs. Norton, 1841.
Here lived: Admiral Earl St. Vincent, 1717; Earl Ferrers, 1717; Lord Archibald Hamilton, 1717; Lord Forester, 1717; Sir John Cope, 1746; Miss O'Neil, actress; Mrs. Delany, 1742-44; Mrs. Vesey, 1780; No. 2, W. T. Brandes, chemist, 1822-23; 3, Macaulay, 1838-40; 9, Daniel O'Connell, 1835; 10, Sir Nicholas Wraxall, 1792; 11, Lady Hamilton, 1804-06, Countess Stanhope, 1807-29; 12, Edmund Kean, 1816-24; 14, William Mitford, 1810-22; 43, Charles James Fox, 1803; 47, at the corner of Piccadilly, a dull, ugly building, was formerly the residence of the Dukes of Grafton. In 1876 the Turf Club, established 1866, moved here from Grafton Street. Formerly the Arlington Club, it is now a great whist centre, and one of the most select clubs in London.
On either side of Mayfair Chapel are East and West Chapel Streets, built circa 1785. In the latter, at No. 7, lived Chantrey in 1804. They lead to Shepherd's Market, a congeries of small streets, which occupy the site of Brook Field, so called from Tyburn, which flowed through it. Here was held the May Fair, from which the district derives its name. First held in 1688, it lasted with many vicissitudes till the reign of George III., when the Earl of Coventry, d. 1809, procured its abolition. The ground in 1722 was an irregular open space, but in 1735 Shepherd's Market was built by Edward Shepherd, the lower story consisting of butchers' shops, and the upper containing a theatre where plays were given during the fair time. The block was built in 1860, and now consists of small provision shops.
In this street also the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III., married Miss Horton, the actress. On the site of Down Street (1730) stood Mr. Deane's school, where Pope was educated. The north end was called Carrington Place (1774) until 1867. On the west side is Christ Church, a building of great beauty erected in 1863, with a one-sided transept. The east window was presented by the Hope family. The street has been lately rebuilt with red-brick flats and chambers.
At the corner of Albemarle Street the Albemarle Hotel. Hatchett's restaurant, formerly called the New White Horse Cellar. After the resuscitation of stage-coaching in 1886, Hatchett's was a favourite starting-place, but is now little patronized. The new White Horse Cellar was named after the White Horse Cellar (No. 55) on the south side, so called from the crest of the House of Hanover, which existed in 1720, and was widely renowned as a coaching centre. It is now closed.
Adjoining Hatchett's is the Hotel Avondale, named after the Duke of Clarence and Avondale. The house was opened as a dining club, the "Cercle de Luxe," in 1892, after the failure of which it was reopened as an hotel in 1895.
No. 75 is the site of the Three Kings' Inn, where stood up to 1864 two pillars taken from Clarendon House.
At the corner of Berkeley Street is the Berkeley Hotel and Restaurant, formerly the St. James's Hotel, which stands on the site of the Gloucester coffee-house.
At No. 81 in 1807 was established Watier's Gambling Club, which lasted until 1819; it was named after the Prince Regent's cook, the manager. It afterwards became a public gaming-house, and is now a private residence.
At No. 89, the east corner of Half-Moon Street, lived Madame d'Arblay.
At No. 94, Cambridge House (Naval and Military Club), standing in a courtyard, occupies the site of Carpenter's Statue Yard, which was succeeded by an inn. It was built in 1760 for the Earl of Egremont. The Marquis of Cholmondeley lived here 1809-29, after which the Duke of Cambridge was the owner until 1850. Lord Palmerston occupied it from 1855 till his death in 1865, when it was purchased by the Naval and Military Club, established 1862, for officers of the army and navy, who made extensive alterations in 1878. This was the first club located in Piccadilly.
No. 97, at the corner of Whitehorse Street, is a square white building; the New Travellers' Club (social and non-political) was established here. It now houses the Junior Naval and Military Club.
No. 105, on the site of Jan Van Nost's figure-yard, the Earl of Barrymore built a house in 1870, which remained unfinished at his death. After being partially burned down, it was completed and opened as the Old Pulteney Hotel. Here the Emperor of Russia and his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, stayed in 1814. In 1823 the house came into the possession of the Marquis of Hertford, who partially rebuilt it in 1861. His son, Sir Richard Wallace, sold it to Sir Julian Goldsmid, M.P., who died 1896. It is now the Isthmian Club. Near here stood the Queen's Meadhouse.
No. 106, at the corner of Brick Street, stands on the site of the Greyhound Inn, which was purchased by Sir Henry Hunlocke in 1761. He was succeeded in 1764 by the Earl of Coventry, who built the present house, which became in 1829 the Coventry House Club. In 1854 it became the home of the St. James's Club, established in that year as a centre for the members of the British and foreign diplomatic bodies. Next door is the Savile Club, until 1836 the residence of Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the head of the banking firm.
No. 137, Gloucester House, stands on the site of Dickinson's Statue Yard. It belonged to the Earl of Elgin in 1808, from whom it was purchased in 1811 by the Duke of Gloucester on his marriage with Princess Mary. He was succeeded by the present owner, the Duke of Cambridge.
Inhabitants: No. 1, Lord Montgomery, 1810 (Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house); 2, Duke of Bedford, 1810-19, Earl Gower (Duke of Sutherland), Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1840-46, Duke of Argyle, 1847-51; 3, Earl of Cork, 1810-50, Earl of Dalkeith, 1870; 4, Earl of Lucan, 1810, Duke of Wellington, 1814, Lord Grenville, 1822, Messrs. Labouchere, 1823-29, Henry Bevan, 1840-48, Earl of Northbrook, 1895; 5, Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1810-25, Marquis of Conyngham, 1870, Baron Leopold de Rothschild, 1895; 6, Right Hon. John Sullivan, 1810, Earl of Belmore, Lord Montagu, 1829, Earl of Home, 1843, Lord Southampton, 1847, W. Munro, 1848, Hon. B. J. Munro, 1870; 7, Earl of Shannon, 1810-22, William Miles, M.P., 1840-50. Nos. 7 and 8 are now the premises of the Bachelors' Club, established 1881, one of the most fashionable young men's clubs in London.
Apsley House was built in 1778 by Lord Chancellor Apsley, Earl Bathurst, to whom the site was granted by George III. The ground was formerly occupied by the old Ranger's Lodge, and adjoining it was a tenement granted by George II. to Allen, a veteran of Dettingen, for a permanent apple-stall. In 1808 the house came into the possession of the Marquis Wellesley, and in 1816 into that of his brother, the Duke of Wellington, and it is now held by the fourth Duke.
It was faced with stone, and enlarged by the Wyatts in 1828, and in 1830 the Crown sold its interest in the building for L9,530. Further alterations were made in 1853. In the west gallery was held annually the Waterloo Banquet during the great Duke's life, and his study is still preserved intact. The house contains a good collection of pictures and many relics of the Napoleonic era.
The prolongation of Piccadilly to the westward is known generally as Knightsbridge, as far as the stone bridge which spanned the Westbourne at the present Albert Gate. Edward the Confessor granted the land to the Abbey of Westminster, and it was disafforested in 1218. After the Reformation Knightsbridge was preserved to the Abbey, and still belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. In 1725 the name was applied to the fields as far south as the King's Road (Eaton Square), but after the building of Belgravia it was restricted to the street fronting Hyde Park. Facing Hyde Park Corner is St. George's Hospital, established in 1733; the residence of the Earls of Lanesborough previously occupied the site. The present building was erected from designs by William Wilkins, R.A., in 1828, and enlarged in 1831, 1859, and 1868. In the latter year the south-west wing was added. The question of the removal of the hospital is exciting much attention at present. In connection with the hospital is Atkinson Morley's Convalescent Hospital at Wimbledon. The following celebrated doctors have been attached to this hospital: Matthew Baillie, 1787-1800; John Hunter, 1768-93; Sir Benjamin Brodie, 1808-40; Sir Prescott Hewett, 1848-91.
Facing Hyde Park a row of well-built private houses now forms St. George's Place (1839), which, until lately, consisted of low brick buildings. One of these is now being pulled down to make way for the station of the new Piccadilly and Brompton Electric Railway. Close by is the Alexandra Hotel, built soon after the marriage of the present Queen, after whom it was named. Behind is Old Barrack Yard, which adjoined the old Guards Barracks, established about 1758. After being discontinued for troops, it was used as a depot until 1836, when the lease was sold and the building let out as tenements. The site is now occupied by St. Paul's Schools in Wilton Place. The houses beyond Wilton Place are being rebuilt further back to widen the roadway, which has hitherto been very narrow, and which during the afternoon in the season is often blocked by the traffic.
Park Side, the north side of Knightsbridge, is freehold of the Dean and Chapter, and rented by the descendants of Mr. Gamble of Trinity Chapel. Shops were erected here about 1810. At the east end stood the stocks in 1805, and in 1835, close by, a watch-house and pound. The Queen's Head, an old inn dating from 1576, was pulled down in 1843. Trinity Chapel belonged to an ancient lazar-house or hospital, held by the family of Glassington under the Abbey of Westminster in 1595. The chapel was rebuilt in 1629 and 1699, and repaired in 1789. It was entirely restored and remodelled in 1861 at a cost of L3,300. A charity school, instituted about 1785, adjoined it until 1844, when it was removed and attached to St. Paul's. In Knightsbridge Chapel marriages were performed without banns or license in a manner similar to those at Mayfair Chapel. The most celebrated of these are: Sir Robert Walpole to Katherine Shorter, 1700; Henry Graham to the Countess of Derwentwater, daughter of Charles II., 1705.
In 1765 George II. attempted to buy the fields adjoining Buckingham Palace to the west, but as Granville refused to sanction the expenditure of L20,000 for the purpose, the property was bought by Lord Grosvenor for L30,000, and Grosvenor Place was built in 1767-70, overlooking the Palace gardens. It has always been a fashionable place of residence. The houses below St. George's Hospital were formerly small and plain. The best-known inhabitants were: No. 1, Dr. Lewes' School of Anatomy and Medicine; 4, Lord Egremont (the third); north corner of Halkin Street, the Earl of Carlisle, Byron's guardian.
In Grosvenor Row, at the south end of Grosvenor Place, stood a court named Osnaburgh Row (1769), after the Duke of York, who was also Bishop of Osnaburgh. It was cleared away about 1843. Near it stood the Duke's Hospital for Invalid Guards, closed in 1846 and removed 1851. Adjoining it was an old inn, the Feathers.
The district bounded by Knightsbridge and Grosvenor Place, as far as Sloane Street and Ebury Street, is known as Belgravia, after Belgrave Square, which occupies the centre. Up to 1825 it was named the Five Fields, and was bare, swampy ground on which were a few market gardens. Only one road, the King's Road (Eaton Square), crossed it, though there were numerous footpaths, rendered insecure by the highwaymen and footpads who infested them. It was also a favourite duelling-ground. In 1826 a special Act of Parliament empowered the owner, Lord Grosvenor, to drain the site, raise the level, etc., and in the course of the next few years Messrs. Cubitt and Seth Smith built the streets and squares which now rank as a fashionable centre with the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square. The houses are mainly uniform in type—square, substantial, plaster-fronted structures, which give an aspect of monotony to the whole district.
The principal approach to Belgrave Square is by Grosvenor Crescent, a broad and handsome street commenced in 1837, but not completed until about 1860. Where is now the south-west wing of St. George's Hospital stood Tattersall's famous auction mart for horses, etc., and betting-rooms. The establishment was started by Richard Tattersall, trainer to the last Duke of Kingston, about 1774, and was long popularly known as "the Corner." It was pulled down in 1866, and removed to Knightsbridge Green.
Wilton Place stands on the site of a cow-yard, and is a broad street with fine houses on the east side. Here is St. Paul's Church, celebrated for the ritualistic tendencies of its successive vicars. It was built in 1843 by subscription on the drill ground of the old barracks, and cost L11,000, the site being given by the Marquis of Westminster. The building by Cundy is handsome, in Early Perpendicular style, and has sittings for 1,800. It was enlarged and altered in 1889 and 1892, when a side-chapel, by Blomfield, was added. Adjoining is the Vicarage, and opposite are St. Paul's National Schools.
In the adjoining Kinnerton Street (1826), so called from one of the Grosvenor estates, stood the dissecting school and anatomical museum of St. George's Hospital, removed to the new wing in 1868. At No. 75 is an institute for providing and promoting humane treatment of animals, founded by Lady Frances Trevanion circa 1890. It is supported by voluntary contributions.
West Halkin Street and Halkin Place on the west side, and Halkin Street on the east side of the Square, are named after Halkin Castle, the Duke of Westminster's seat in Flintshire. The first contains a chapel of singular shape, the northern end being wider than the southern. It was built by Seth Smith as an Episcopal church, but is now Presbyterian.
Halkin Street was commenced about 1807, but until 1826 it, as well as the other streets leading out of Grosvenor Place, terminated in a mud-bank, on the other side of which were the Five Fields. On the north side is Mortimer House, a plain brick building standing in a courtyard. It was the residence of the late Earl Fitzwilliam, but is now Lord Penrhyn's. Next to it is Belgrave Chapel (St. John's), a proprietary church in Grecian style, built in 1812, with accommodation for 800. The remaining houses are small and unpretending, as are those in Chapel Street, built 1775-1811, and so called from the Lock Hospital Chapel, which stood at the corner of Grosvenor Place. Here lived Mr. Richard Jones (Gentleman Jones). No. 24, General Sir W. K. Grant, d. 1825.
The name is taken from the seat of the Lowndes family, the ground landlords. In Lowndes Street lived: No. 33, Colonel Gurwood, editor of "Wellington's Despatches"; 40, Mrs. Gore, novelist.
Inhabitants: No. 2, Mrs. Gore; 3, Lord Charles Wellesley; 13, Earl of Munster, son of William IV., who shot himself in 1842. It is now Lord Harewood's residence.
Grosvenor Place, Lower Grosvenor Place, Hobart Place, Eaton Square, and Clieveden Place occupy the site of the King's private road, which had existed before as a footpath, but was made a coach-road by Charles II. as a short-cut to Hampton Court. It ran along the north garden of Eaton Square, and crossed the Westbourne at Bloody Bridge, a name which dates as far back as 1590. On the north side, where is now Eaton Terrace, was a coppice which provided wood for the Abbey. Houses were first built on it about 1785, and in 1725 a turnpike existed at its junction with Grosvenor Place. Admission to the road was by ticket, but in 1830 it was thrown open to the public under the name of the King's Road. Part of Lower Grosvenor Place, however, was named Arabella Row in 1789, but became known by its present name in 1789. Here in a shabby house lived Lord Erskine after resigning the Lord Chancellorship in 1806.
Hobart Place was first so called in 1836, but part of it was called Grosvenor Street West until 1869. It leads to Eaton Square, built by Cubitt in 1827-53. This is 1,637 feet long by 371 feet wide, 15 acres in extent, and contains six enclosed gardens. The houses are of the usual type. At the west end is St. Peter's Church, built in 1826 in Ionic style from designs by Hakewell at a cost of L21,515. An altar-piece by Hilton, R.A., was presented by the British Institution in 1828, but was removed in 1877, and is now in the South Kensington Museum. After being nearly burnt down in 1837, it was rebuilt by Gerrard, and in 1872 a chancel and transepts in Byzantine style, by Sir A. Blomfield, were added. The nave was remodelled in 1874, and further alterations have been made in the last ten years at a cost of L5,000. Here are buried Admiral Sir E. Codrington, d. 1851, and General Lord Robert Somerset, G.C.B. The Right Rev. G. H. Wilkinson, Bishop of St. Andrew's, was vicar from 1870-83.
Clieveden Place, first built over in 1826, was so named in 1890 from the Duke of Westminster's late estate near Cookham, instead of its original name, Westbourne Place.
Between Clieveden Place and Pimlico Road the streets are narrow and unimportant. In Westbourne Street (1826), so called from the neighbouring Westbourne River, stood the York Hospital for invalid soldiers, removed to Chatham in 1819. On the east side is a Baptist chapel, a plain building, erected in 1825. Skinner Street (1842) and Whittaker Street (1836) lead to Holbein Place, built over the Westbourne, and called in 1877 "the Ditch." Leading from Whittaker Street are Passmore Street (1837) and Union Street, containing industrial dwellings.
Inhabitants—Chester Place: Right Hon. Charles Buller, d. 1848. Chester Square: No. 19, Mantell, the geologist, d. 1852; 24, the poet Shelley's widow, d. 1851.
The houses in Chester Square and the neighbourhood are not so pretentious as those in Belgravia, but it is still a fashionable place of residence. In South Eaton Place, near the south end, stood the Star and Garter Tavern, well known about 1760. The end of this street was called Burton Street (1826) until 1877. In Elizabeth Street, first called Eliza Street in 1820, and until 1866 divided into Upper Elizabeth Street, Elizabeth Street, and Elizabeth Street South, stood the Dwarf Tavern, noted about 1760. At the south end, near St. Philip's Parochial Hall and Parsonage, is St. Michael's Mission House, built in 1893. Gerald Road, 1834 until 1885 named Cottage Road, contains the station of the R Division of Police.
Eccleston Street, with which in 1866 was incorporated Eccleston Street South, was so called from Ecclestone in Cheshire, where the Duke of Westminster has property. A house on the west side inhabited by Sir Frances Chantrey was pulled down during the construction of the underground railway. On the same side is the Royal Pimlico Dispensary, established in 1831. Part of the east side has been rebuilt. In Eccleston Place is the station of the Westminster Electric Supply Company, which supplies this district with electric light. In Lower Belgrave Street (1810), the lower end of which was till 1867 named Belgrave Street South, are St. Peter's National Schools, a large red-brick building with a playground, in connection with St. Peter's, Eaton Square.
On the west side, at the corner of Buckingham Palace Road, are Belgrave Mansions, built from designs by Cundy in 1868, a large block in French Renaissance style, with a frontage of nearly 300 feet. The ground-floor is occupied by shops, and above are five floors of flats. The centre of the open space is occupied by two triangular enclosed gardens, and is crossed by Ebury Street, once an open lane leading over the fields to Chelsea. Houses were built on it after 1750, and in 1779 the north-eastern end was named Upper Ranelagh Street and Ranelagh Street. The south-western end was Upper Ebury Street, but the whole was renamed Ebury Street in 1867. It is an uninteresting street of unpretending houses and shops. In Upper Ebury Street lived: Rodwell the composer; William Skelton, engraver, d. 1848; No. 174 is the Boys' School belonging to the parish of St. Barnabas.
At the other end, near Ebury Bridge, is Ebury Square, built about 1820 on the site of Ebury Farm. This ancient property, which derives its name from the Saxon ey, water, and burgh, a fortified place, is mentioned in 1307, when permission was granted by Edward I. to John de Benstede to fortify it. In Queen Elizabeth's time it consisted of a farm of 430 acres, let on lease for L21 per annum. In 1676 it came into the possession of the Grosvenor family, and in 1725 embraced a long narrow area, reaching from Buckingham House to the Thames between the Westbourne and the present Westmoreland Street.
The square was partially destroyed in 1868, but the old houses remain on the north-west and south sides. In the centre is a garden, and the ground between it and Buckingham Palace Road is occupied by St. Michael's National Schools, opened in 1870, a spacious building, accommodating about a thousand scholars; there is a large playground. The site had been previously occupied by the Pimlico Literary Institution, built in 1830 from designs by J. P. Deering.
On the remaining side a handsome block of industrial dwellings (Ebury Buildings) was built in 1872, when the old Flask Lane (1785) was swept away. The approaches on the north-west are Semley Place (1785), late Flask Row, and Little Ebury Street (1823). At the end of Avery Farm Row (probably a corruption of Ebury), opposite Ebury Bridge, is a drinking-fountain, erected in memory of the second Marquis of Westminster, d. 1869, by his widow.
Buckingham Palace, which falls partly within St. George's district and partly within St. Margaret's, Westminster, has already been described in the volume on Westminster.
The Royal Mews, the entrance to which is in Buckingham Palace Road, contains a large riding-school, a room for the state harness, stabling for the state and other horses, and houses for forty carriages. Here also are kept the old and new state coaches, the former of which was built in 1762 of English oak, with paintings by Cipriani, and cost L7,660.
Buckingham Palace Road, now a broad street with large houses and shops, was in 1725 an open country road, known as the coach-road to Chelsea. The houses in it are rated under the name of Pimlico as late as 1786, but rows of houses under various names had been built earlier—Stafford Row in 1752, Queen's Row in 1766. These, with Victoria Road (1838), Stockbridge Terrace (1836), King's Road, Lower and Upper Belgrave Place and Belgrave Terrace (1826), were united under the name of Buckingham Palace Road in 1867, and in 1894 Union Place, Holden Terrace, and South Place were incorporated with it. The portion facing the Palace is named Buckingham Gate, and consists of seven large private houses. On this site, facing the Park, stood Tart Hall, the residence of Viscount Stafford (see "Westminster").
Facing Grosvenor Gardens is the Grosvenor Hotel, opened in 1862 in connection with Victoria Station. The building, designed by Knowles, is 272 feet long, 75 feet deep, and 150 feet high, and cost L100,000.
Beyond, on the north side, a row of large red-brick houses has been built since 1883, containing Buckingham Palace Mansions (flats), the National Training School of Cookery, and the City of Westminster Public Baths. Here also is St. Peter's Institute, in connection with St. Peter's, Eaton Square, which cost L15,000. It consists of a club for 600 men and 600 boys, with gymnasium, class-rooms, reading-room, concert-hall, etc.
Buckingham Palace Gardens, also on the north side, is a row of large, ornamental, red-brick houses, newly erected, adjoining the Free Library built by Bolton and opened in 1894. On the first floor is a natural history collection presented by a parishioner. St. Philip's Church, built 1887-90, is a plain but spacious red-brick building, in Early English style by Brierley and Demaine, with seats (free) for 850. Adjoining is the Grosvenor Club and Grosvenor Hall, used for social entertainments, etc. Nearly the whole of the south side of the road has recently been demolished in view of the extension of Victoria Station.
Inhabitants—Stafford Row: W. Ryland, engineer, executed for forgery 1767; Mrs. Radcliffe, authoress of the "Mysteries of Udolpho"; Richard Yates, d. 1796. Lower Belgrave Place: No. 3, George Grote, historian (later 102, Buckingham Palace Road); 29 and 30, Sir Francis Chantrey, 1814-41 (later 98, Buckingham Palace Road); 27, Allan Cunningham, poet, 1824-42; 96, Henry Weekes, R.A. Buckingham Palace Road: E. B. Stephen, R.A., 1882.
From the end of Buckingham Palace Road Chelsea was reached by the present Pimlico Road, so called in 1871, when the old names of Jews' Row, Grosvenor Row (1785), and Queen Street (1774) were abolished. The origin of the name Pimlico is uncertain. There was one also at Hoxton, where a certain Ben Pimlico kept a noted hostelry in Queen Elizabeth's time. It is now officially used to denote the whole district south of Knightsbridge, but is popularly confined to the part between Chester Square and the Thames. It began to be sparsely inhabited in 1680, after which date it is mentioned occasionally in the rate-books, and regularly after 1739.
On the north side, near the east end, are two narrow streets—Clifford's Row (1785), and King Street (1785). At the corner of Ebury Street stood an old inn, the Goat and Compasses, now replaced by the Three Compasses public-house. Further on is the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, built about 1850 as a chapel of ease to St. Barnabas. Adjoining is the site of the Chelsea Bun House, in its best days kept by Richard Hand, "who has the honour to serve the Royal Family." It was celebrated by Swift in 1711, and was taken down in 1839. Opposite stood Strombelo or Stromboli House, a minor place of amusement, at its height in 1788. Near here Nell Gwynne is said to have lived, and her name is kept up by the Nell Gwynne Tavern and a passage called Nell Gwynne Cottages.
Between the Pimlico and Commercial Roads are several small streets. In Bloomfield Place stood St. John's School for girls, established in 1859 under the auspices of the Sisterhood of St. John; adjoining, under the same management, St. Barnabas' Mission House and St. Barnabas' Orphanage, established in 1860. In Bloomfield Terrace lived at No. 1 Captain Warner, inventor of the "long range," d. 1853.
In Church Street (1846) stands the college of St. Barnabas, founded by Rev. W. J. Bennett. The buildings are of Kentish ragstone, were designed by Cundy, and contain a church, clergy house, and school-house with teacher's residence. The church, originally built as a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, is in Early Pointed style, and has a tower and spire of Caen stone 170 feet high, with ten bells. The edifice cost L15,000, and was at the opening signalized by ritualistic disturbances. The schools built on the site of the Orange Tavern and tea-gardens in the Pimlico Road were designed for 200 boys, 200 girls, and 200 infants, but a separate boys' school has been since built in Ebury Street.
Ranelagh Grove occupies the site of The Avenue, which led from Ebury Bridge to old Ranelagh House, but now ends in the blank wall of Chelsea Barracks.
In Ranelagh Terrace (now abolished), near Ebury Bridge, d. at No. 2 the Rev. T. Pennington, son of Elizabeth Carter, in 1852.
Commercial Road (1842) is occupied by works and industrial dwellings (Gatcliff Buildings, 1867, and Wellington Buildings). On the west side is the wall of Chelsea Barracks.
It leads by the Chelsea Bridge Road to the embankment at Victoria Bridge, a light and graceful suspension bridge designed by Page and opened in 1858. The structure, which cost L88,000, is built of iron, and rests on piers of English elm and concrete enclosed in iron casings. The piers are each nearly 90 feet in length by 20 feet in width, with curved cutwaters. The whole bridge is 915 feet long, 715 feet between abutments, the centre span 347 feet, side-spans each 185 feet, and there is a clear water-way of 21 feet above high-water mark. The roadway is made by two wrought-iron longitudinal girders extending the whole length of the bridge, suspended by rods from the chains. Toll-houses stand at each end, but it was purchased in 1879 for L75,000 as a free bridge.
Near the end of the bridge stood the White House, a lonely habitation much used by anglers; opposite, on the Surrey side, was a similar building, the Red House. A short way to the east stood the Chelsea Waterworks, incorporated as a company in 1724, though waterworks seem to have existed here before that date. They extended, with the Grosvenor Canal and basin (now occupied by Victoria Station), over 89 acres, and supplied water to Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Pimlico, and part of Westminster. The company has now removed to Kingston, and the site is occupied by the western pumping-station of the main drainage system of London, built 1873-75 at a cost of L183,000.
Graham Street (1827) incorporated with which in 1894 were Graham Street West and Gregory Street (1833), contains the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, a red-brick building with a spire, built in 1872. Caroline Street (1834) is of no interest. Eaton Terrace (1826) was until 1884 named Coleshill Street. At the corner of Clieveden Place is an old proprietary chapel, Eaton Chapel, in Grecian style, built about 1800, with sittings for 1,200. A chapel existed here, however, before that date, known as the Five Fields Chapel.
Chester Terrace was in 1878 amalgamated with Minera Street (1830), and in 1887 with Newland Street (1836).
Chester Square is very long and narrow; it is five acres in extent, and was commenced about 1834. It has three enclosed gardens. At the west end is the handsome church of St. Michael, erected 1844-46 in the Decorated style from designs by Cundy. The tower has a lofty spire. The chancel was extended in 1874, and the building has on several occasions been enlarged and restored.
Chester Place, at the east end of the square, was incorporated with it in 1874.
The portion of our district lying between the Buckingham Palace Road and Grosvenor Canal and the eastern boundary forms an acute-angled triangle with the apex at Buckingham Palace. The streets north of Victoria Street, which lead into Buckingham Palace Road from the east, are narrow and unimportant. Here is Palace Street (1767), until 1881 called Charlotte Street, after Queen Charlotte, the first royal occupant of the Palace. In it is St. Peter's Church, a plain building with seats for 200, which existed as Charlotte Chapel in 1770. Its most famous incumbent was Dr. Dodd, who was executed for forgery in 1777. Subsequently it was held by Dr. Dillon, who was suspended in 1840. It was then a proprietary chapel, but is now a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square; also St. Peter and St. Edward's Catholic Chapel.
In Palace Place (until 1881 Little Charlotte Street) is St. Peter's Chapel School, established in 1830.
The Vauxhall Bridge Road, commenced after 1816, but first mentioned under that name in 1827. The following terraces were incorporated with it in 1865: Bedford Place (1826), Trellick Place (1826), York Place (1839), Pembroke Place, Gloucester Place, Windsor Terrace, Shaftesbury Crescent (1826), Howick Place and Howick Terrace (1826).
Wilton Road (1833), with which, in 1890, was incorporated Wilton Terrace, skirts the east side of Victoria Station. In it stands the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square. It is a handsome red-brick edifice, built by Blomfield in 1875, and it accommodates about 900. Behind, in Hudson's Place, are St. Peter's Mission House and parish room.
Gillingham Street (1826), Hindon Street (1826), Berwick Street (1830), and St. Leonard's Street (1830) are mean and uninteresting.
Warwick Street occupies the site of the ancient Willow Walk, a low-lying footpath between the cuts of the Chelsea Waterworks, where lived the notorious Aberfield (Slender Billy) and the highwaymen Jerry Abershaw and Maclean. It is first mentioned in the rate-books in 1723.
Belgrave Road (1830) is a broad, well-built street, with large houses. In 1865 Eccleston Terrace, North and South Warwick Terrace, Upper Eccleston Place, and Grosvenor Terrace, were incorporated with it. Nearly opposite Eccleston Square is Eccleston Square Chapel (Congregational), in Classical style, with seats for 1,100. The railway is crossed by Eccleston Bridge. Eccleston Square is 4 acres in extent, and is long and narrow, with an enclosed garden, built in 1835.
Warwick Square, of 3 acres, is very similar, and was built in 1843. At the end stands St. Gabriel's Church, built by Cundy in Early English style, and consecrated in 1853.
St. George's Road is a broad street joined to Buckingham Palace Road by Elizabeth Bridge.
2. The promotion of the study of children's diseases.
Clarendon Street (1858) absorbed Warwick Place in 1870. Stanley Street (1851) was renamed Alderney Street in 1879, Winchester Street 1852, Cumberland Street 1852.
Ebury Bridge is the oldest of the bridges over the railway and canal. It was known in early days as Chelsea, and afterwards as Waterworks Bridge, a wooden structure. A turnpike existed here until 1825. At the south end stood Jenny's Whim, a celebrated tavern and pleasure-garden, perhaps named from the name of the proprietress and the fantastic way it was laid out. It was in the height of its popularity about 1750, and came to an end circa 1804. When the railway was widened in 1863 all vestiges of it were swept away.
St. George's Row was built as Monster Row circa 1785, and renamed in 1833. Here was the site of the manor-house of Neyte. The Monster public-house commemorates the old Monster tavern and garden, the name being probably a corruption of monastery.
At the corner of Warwick Street are the Pimlico Rooms, containing a hall for entertainments, etc., and occupied by the Ebury Mission and Pimlico day-school for boys, girls, and infants. Adjoining the railway is a double row of industrial dwellings, built by the trustees of the Peabody fund under the name of Peabody's Buildings.
Westmoreland Street (1852) contains the Pimlico chapel for United Free Methodists.
Lupus Street (1842) is named after Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, an ancestor of the Duke of Westminster. It contains a hospital for women and children.
At the eastern end is St. George's Square (1850), a long narrow space reaching to the river with an enclosed garden in the centre. The houses are large. At No. 9 Sir J. Barnby d. 1896.
At the north end is St. Saviour's Church, built in 1864 from designs by Cundy in a Decorated Gothic style. It has sittings for 1,834, and was restored in 1882. To the east are Pulford Street (1848) and Aylesford Street, in which is St. Saviour's Mission House, built by the Duke of Westminster at a cost of L4,000. It serves also for parochial meetings. Here also are the works of the Equitable Gas Company, established 1830.
In Claverton Street (1852) is a Methodist Wesleyan chapel, in Classical style, with seats for 1,000.
In Glasgow Terrace (1851), formerly Caledonia Street, are St. Saviour's and St. Gabriel's National Schools. This neighbourhood contains many works and offices, the largest of which is Taylor's repository for storing property. Along the river runs the Grosvenor Road, part of the Thames Embankment. The houses built on and near it were generally known in the last century as the Neat Houses. Terraces with various names—Albion Terrace, Pier Terrace, Erin Place (1826), Thames Parade (1827), Thames Bank (1828)—were incorporated with the road in recent years. Facing the river is All Saints' Church, a chapel of ease to St. Gabriel's, by Cundy, built circa 1870 to replace a mission church; opposite it is the Pimlico Pier for river steamboats. Adjoining St. George's Square is the Army Clothing Factory, established in 1857 in the Vauxhall Bridge Road as an experiment to provide labour for women. The present establishment was opened in 1859, and has since been largely increased, occupying a space of about 7 acres. The east block is the Government store, the west the factory, the centre of which is occupied by a glass-roofed hall, three stories high, surrounded by spacious galleries.
The boundaries of the borough of Paddington are not quite coterminous with those of the parish. It is true that the alteration is not great. On the east Edgware Road and Maida Vale still mark the limits with a line as straight as that drawn by a ruler. On the south Bayswater Road serves a similar purpose as far as the Serpentine, where the boundary dips to include part of the Gardens; these are the same as the old boundaries. The present line, however, returns northward up the Broad Walk to Bayswater Road instead of up Kensington Palace Gardens. From Bayswater Road it follows Ossington Street, Chepstow Place, Westbourne Grove, Ledbury Road, St. Luke's Road, and crosses the railway lines northward to Kensal Road, having from the Bayswater Road been either a little within or without the parish line, doubtless so drawn for convenience' sake, as it follows streets and not an arbitrary division. From Kensal Hall the line follows the canal to Kensal Green Cemetery, and, going northward, returns east along Kilburn Lane, thus including a bit of ground previously owned by Chelsea. From Kilburn Lane the northern boundary dips down between Salisbury Crescent and Malvern Road, and up again by Kilburn Park Road; in this last part it remains unaltered.
The Westbourne stream formerly ran right through the district. It rose in Hampstead, flowed through Kilburn, and followed the trend of the present Cambridge and Shirland Roads, though keeping on the east side of the place where these streets now stand. It crossed the Harrow Road, and ran on the west side of the present Gloucester Terrace until it reached the Uxbridge Road. It fed the Serpentine, and, crossing the road at Knightsbridge, formed the eastern boundary of the Chelsea parish.
A stream somewhat similar in course was the Tyburn, which also rose at Hampstead, but flowed through the parish of Marylebone, the ancient Tyburnia. This was considerably to the east of Paddington, and has been treated in the Marylebone section. Oxford Street was the ancient Tyburn Road, and the gallows stood opposite the Marble Arch.
In Rocque's 1748 map the district is nearly all open ground; part of the Harrow Road is marked, and there are a few houses on it near the Edgware Road. The Green Lane, now Warwick Road, runs into it from the north. The Pest House is marked prominently about where the chapel stands in Craven Terrace in the south of the parish. Below is marked "Bayswatering." Queen's Road is Westbourne Green Lane, and the green itself is very nearly where Royal Oak Station now stands. About it there are a few scattered houses.
"King Edgar gave the Manor of Paddington to Westminster Abbey;" this Lysons affirms without any comment. Dart varies the tradition slightly by asserting that it was Dunstan and not the King who presented the manor to the Abbey. But later writers have thrown discredit on both statements. Paddington is not mentioned in the Conqueror's Survey, which points to the fact that it was not at that date a separate manor. Robins, on the authority of the Rev. Richard Widmore, for many years librarian to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, boldly states that the documents supposed to prove this gift are undoubted forgeries.
Newcourt says, "the Manor and Rectory of Paddington (which of old did belong to the monastery of Westminster)," etc. The first authentic mention of the manor is in a document "in the thirty-first year of Henry II.," drawn up between "Walter Abbot of Westminster and Richard and William de Padinton, brothers, touching the entire tenement which they held in Padinton of the Church of Westminster," whereby they gave up their hold on the land in consideration of a sum of money. This Abbot Walter gave, we are told, the manor of Paddington for the celebration of the anniversary of the day on which he died.
"the manor of Paddington is put wholly into the hands of the Almoner … and whatsoever shall be the final overplus shall be expended charitably in distribution to the poor. On the day of celebration the Almoner is to find for the Convent fine manchets, cakes, crumpets, cracknells, and wafers, and a gallon of wine for each friar, with three good pittances, or doles, with good ale in abundance at every table, and in the presence of the whole brotherhood: in the same manner upon other occasions the cellarer is bound to find beer at the usual feasts or anniversaries on the great tankard of twenty-five quarts.
"He shall also provide most honourably and in all abundance for the guests that dine in the refectory, bread, wine, beer, and two dishes out of the kitchen besides the usual allowance. And for the guests of higher rank who sit at the upper table under the bell, with the president, ample provision shall be made as well as for the Convent: and cheese shall be served on that day to both.
But the Abbot had to pay the King a small yearly sum, and cause certain services of reaping and ploughing to be performed for him, which showed that he held the land in some sense subject to the Crown. In Henry VII.'s reign his mother, the Countess of Richmond, bought certain lands in Kensington, Willesden, Paddington, and Westbourne. She left the greater part of her possessions to Westminster, so that the Abbey lands in this vicinity must have been increased. The manor acquired by the Countess seems to have consisted chiefly of two farms—Notting Barns in Kensington, and "Westborne" in Paddington; the former is fully dealt with in the section devoted to Kensington. Besides the lands left to the Abbey, she bequeathed part of her possessions to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
King Henry also held other lands here, which he had obtained by exchange or purchase. He made Paddington a part of the endowment of the new See of Westminster. After the abolition of that See Edward VI. gave "the mannor and rectory of Paddington" to Dr. Nicholas Ridley, then Bishop of London, "and his successors for ever" (Newcourt).
Westbourne remained in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster; thus the two manors parted company. Paddington was confiscated during the Commonwealth, but was claimed by Bishop Sheldon at the Restoration. It was restored to him, and he let it to his nephew, Sir Joseph Sheldon, knight, and Daniel Sheldon. It was held by the Sheldon family until 1740, when it was let by Gibson, the Bishop of London, to Sir John Frederick, in whose family it remained for many generations.
A survey of London in 1827 shows us very few streets in the quarter to the south of Praed Street and east of Westbourne Terrace and Street. Connaught Square and Connaught Place are marked, and the curious rectangular piece of ground of about 5 acres belonging to St. George's, Hanover Square. This was bought by St. George's Vestry in 1764, when the land was surrounded by fields, and was suitable for a cemetery. Among others buried there was Laurence Sterne, whose body is said to have been exhumed by body-snatchers. But this ground does not belong to Paddington. In the above-mentioned survey Cambridge Street is Sovereign Street, and the oval piece with Southwick Crescent at one end is Polygon Crescent, a name now only retained in Polygon Mews.
Hyde Park Gardens is marked "Intended Crescent," but except in the triangular corner, now bounded by Cambridge and Albion Streets, there are few houses.
Cambridge Street and Oxford and Cambridge Terraces and Squares preserve in their names the memory of the gift of the Countess of Richmond to those universities.
In Southwick Crescent stands St. John's Church, built originally in 1826, and then known as Connaught Chapel. In 1832 a district was allotted to the chapel. In 1844 a portion of this was transferred to the new church of St. James. Four years later St. John's obtained a portion of the chapelry district, and in 1859 the district itself was made into a new parish. Part of the new parish was transferred to St. Michael and All Angels in 1864. The church is in a late Gothic style. It was completely renovated during 1895, when the present reredos was added.
In Titchborne Road are St. John's Schools. In Junction Mews, off Sale Street, is a boatmen's chapel. In Market Street is one of the Dudley Stuart night refuges for the destitute. And to the north, in Praed Street, is a small Baptist tabernacle with painted front, and further westward the church and schools of St. Michael and All Angels. The church was built in 1862; it is in the Decorated style, and the architect was Mr. Hawkins. Its predecessor was a chapel of ease to St. John's, but in 1859 the district was made separate. The organ is by Hill.
In Norfolk Square we find All Saints' Church. This has been lately rebuilt, having been burnt down on May 31, 1894. The old church was consecrated on All Saints' Day, 1847, and its architecture is described as having been "Gothic of the eleventh century." The first architect was Mr. Clutton. The building was restored and the chancel added in 1873 from Mr. J. Brooks's designs.
The new church is striking, being of red brick with terra-cotta mouldings over the doors and windows. The architect was Ralph Nevill, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. The old walls that remained have been engrafted into the new building. The organ is by Hill. The floor of the church is of mosaic, and stalls, screens, and nave seats are of Burmese wood, called padouk. The church is lit by electric light.
In the 1827 map a spot at the extreme end of Stanhope Street, just where it touches Westbourne Street, is marked Archery Ground, and a little to the north, at the corner of Bathhurst Street, are "Bagnigge Wells," probably named after the more famous Bagnigge Wells, near Gray's Inn Road.
Robins quotes an Act (49 George III.) in which "Byard's Watering Place" is mentioned in Tyburn.
In George III.'s reign the mayor and citizens were empowered by an Act of Parliament to see their water rights at Bayswater, which was done for the sum of L2,500.
From the springs doubtless arose the names of Brook's Mews, Conduit Mews, Spring Street West, and Eastbourne Terraces.
"Joseph Francis Nollekens, buried Jan. 24, 1747." This was the father of the famous sculptor.
On the east side of Craven Terrace is a finely-built Congregational Church. This is in a decorated style, with a large wheel window and elaborately ornamented pinnacles. It was built between forty and fifty years ago, and contains seats for about 700 people. St. James's Schools are opposite. Craven Terrace and Hill, and Hill Gardens, recall the memory of the fine old Earl Craven, who remained in London during the 1665 plague, when most of those able to do so had fled. He married the titular Queen of Bohemia, a daughter of James I., whom he had loved devotedly all his life.
The pest-house marked so prominently on Rocque's map was almost on the site of the present Craven Terrace Chapel. Lord Craven gave a site at Soho for the purpose of a burial-ground, having seen the difficulty attending burial after the plague of 1665, and also for a cottage hospital for the suburbs. When this site was built over, he gave another site, presumably the pest-house marked by Rocque. Lysons says, "which if London should ever again be visited by the plague is still subject to the said use"—a sentence which reads quaintly in these days of the Intramural Burials Act.
The borough boundary turns out of Kensington Gardens in Palace Gardens, and, crossing the Bayswater Road, goes up northward between Ossington Street and Clanricarde Gardens. North of Moscow Road there is a Greek church of St. Sophia, built of red brick with a high central dome.
There is a small Baptist chapel at the back of Porchester Gardens. Across the Queen's Road there are St. Matthew's Parochial Schools, built in 1831, enlarged 1861. Further northward in Queen's Road are the capacious buildings of the Paddington Public Baths and Washhouses, erected at a cost of L40,000.
Holy Trinity Church, in Bishop's Road, was consecrated July 30, 1846, and considerably renovated in 1893. It is a very handsome church, of Kentish ragstone, in the Perpendicular style, with quatrefoil parapet, ornamental pinnacles and spire. The site on which it stands was formerly a deep hole, and consequently the cost of foundations alone came to L2,000.
Almost on the spot where Royal Oak Station now is was once the rural Westbourne Green, companion to Paddington Green further eastward. In Rocque's time there were a few scattered houses here. At Westbourne Farm, which stood until about 1860, Mrs. Siddons lived for some time. Lysons says: "A capital messuage called Westbourne Place, with certain lands thereto belonging, was granted by Henry VIII. anno 1540 to Robert White. This estate was some years ago the property of Isaac Ware, the architect (editor of Palladio's works and other professional publications), who, with the materials brought from Lord Chesterfield's house in Mayfair (which he was employed to rebuild), erected the present mansion called Westbourne Place a little to the south of the old house, which was suffered to stand several years longer. Westbourne Place was sold by Ware's executors to Sir William Yorke, Bart., Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, who resided there a short time and afterwards let it to a Venetian Ambassador. In the year 1768 he sold it to Jukes Coulson, Esq., who expended a very considerable sum in enlarging the house and laying out the grounds. The library which he added to the house is said to have cost about L1,500. The situation is extremely pleasant, and so uncommonly retired that a person residing here could hardly conceive himself to be in a parish adjoining that of St. George's, Hanover Square." The vast meshes of the railway network at present on the spot are in eloquent contrast to the above. Further down in the Porchester Road is the Westbourne Park Chapel, a red-brick building in the Pointed or Gothic style, built in 1876.
To the south, near Westbourne Grove, lies St. Thomas's Church, a temporary iron building. Close by is a Presbyterian church named St. Paul's. It is faced with Kentish ragstone, and was consecrated 1862. In the Artesian Road is a Roman Catholic church, St. Mary of the Angels, consecrated on July 2, 1857, but since enlarged three times. The architect of the latter portions was J. F. Bentley. There is in the interior a fine painting of St. Anthony of Padua, supposed to be a genuine Murillo. The schools in connection are on the south side. In Westbourne Park Road is St. Stephen's Church. The organ is by Hill. At the north end of Westbourne Park Road are national schools.
St. Paul's Church and schools stand in Marlborough Street. The church was built in 1873, and is of earth-brick, without spire or tower. This part of Paddington is considerably cut up both by the railway and canal. Crossing the latter at the Lock Bridge, we see the Lock Hospital and Asylum standing on the west side of the road. The hospital was established in 1737, and the asylum in 1787. Adjoining the hospital is the workhouse, occupying with its infirmary about 5 acres. The workhouse has 623 beds, and the infirmary 280. All the wards are here and all the paupers except the school-children. Beyond the workhouse still remain some nursery gardens, and in the continuation of the Harrow Road is a Roman Catholic church, the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Vincent de Paul, of Kentish ragstone with a wheel window in the east end. The foundation-stone was laid in 1878, and it was opened in 1882 as a private chapel. In 1893 it was opened to the public. The altar and altar-rails are of white Carrara marble inlaid with malachite. In connection with the church next door is the St. Vincent's Home for boys. This was begun by a railway clerk, and passed into the hands of the Brotherhood of St. Vincent de Paul. Lord Douglas took up the work, established the home in its present position, and built the church. In 1889 St. Joseph's Home, Enfield, was amalgamated with St. Vincent's. The home contains 100 boys, received between the years of twelve and sixteen, who are taught various trades by which to earn their own living. Further on in the Harrow Road, opposite Ashmore Road, is Emmanuel Church, built of brick in a plain Pointed style. The foundation-stone was laid in 1886. The schools in connection are next door.
The new bit of Paddington at Kensal Green requires little comment; chapels, schools, and St. John's Church break the monotony of dreary streets. In fact, all this part of northern Paddington, though varying in the width of streets and the class of its houses, contains nothing of any interest. We must now return southward and eastward to what is known as Church Ward, which contains nearly all that is most interesting of old Paddington. The old parish church, named St. Mary's, stands to the north of the Harrow Road. It is a small building of earth-brick in the form of a Maltese cross, with a cupola in the centre, supposed to have been designed after a Greek model. The side fronting the road has a portico, and on the south and west walls there are curious niches formed by bricks. The interior is heavy and ugly, with a massive circular gallery running round three sides. The pulpit stands right over the central aisle, supported by the steps on one side and the reading-desk on the other, making thus a curious arch under which everyone must pass to reach the Communion rails; it is of mahogany which has been painted, and the figures of Dutch oak on the panels are supposed to be Flemish work. The church holds about 800 persons. There are many monuments and tablets on the walls, but only two worthy of note: one in memory of Mrs. Siddons, who is buried in the churchyard, on the north side of the chancel; one to Nollekens the sculptor, who died 1823, on the south side of the chancel. This is a bas-relief of a man seated by the side of a pallet or bench, on which rests a woman holding a baby; behind, an angel, representing Religion, points upward. The apparently irrelevant subject excited much comment until an explanation was suggested. In the Howard Chapel of Wetherall Church, in Cumberland, there is a sculptured monument in memory of one of the ladies of the Howard family who died in childbirth. The bas-relief over Nollekens' tomb is the facsimile of this sculpture, with the exception of the male figure in the foreground. The sculpture was executed by Nollekens himself, and is supposed to be one of his masterpieces. The monument to Nollekens is, therefore, obviously representative of the sculptor himself executing this great work. The present church was built in 1791, and stands on the site of a pond. Its predecessor was dedicated to St. James, a saint to whom the present parish church has returned, and stood a little to the northward on the site of the present right of way.
These Sheldons were the nephews of the Bishop Sheldon to whom the manor was restored at the Restoration in 1661. Newcourt tells us that before the Parliament had seized it the church was a donative or curacy in the gift of the Bishop of London; that the pension of the curate was but L28 per annum. This was increased by Bishop Sheldon to L80, and the larger sum was fixed by Act of Parliament, and the lessee was bound by his lease to pay the Vicar L80 a year. The first curate mentioned is one "Griffin Edwards, A.B., licentiat., December 18, 1598." The churchyard proper only comprises about 1 acre of land, but the old burial-ground, including the site of the older church, adjoins to the northward and includes 3 acres. This was laid out as a public garden in 1885. The freehold rests with the Vicar of Paddington. On the east side, above the centre pathway, is a flat stone to the memory of Mrs. Siddons, who died 1831, aged 76. On it are three glazed vases added later by the parish. In the same vault is buried Mrs. Martha Wilkinson, her dresser, who died in 1847, and was laid here by her own especial request. On the west side, below the centre path, is a flat stone to the memory of one John Hubbard, who lived from 1554 to 1665, and therefore reached the patriarchal age of 111 years. The churchyard also contains the remains of Collins, an artist, who painted English coast scenery; Dr. Geddes, translator of the historical books of the Old Testament; Banks, the sculptor, 1805; Nollekens; the Marquis of Lansdowne; Vivares, the engraver, 1780. The churchyard was enlarged in 1753, when Sherlock was Bishop of London, and further in 1810, when the piece of ground at the north-east corner, which is marked on a map of the beginning of the nineteenth century "Manor House," was enclosed. To the east of the church is the famous Paddington Green, now shrunk to very small dimensions. A statue of Mrs. Siddons in white marble has been erected on Paddington Green. The statue was designed by M. Chavalliand, and executed by Messrs. Brindley. The total cost was about L450.
In Greville House, which stands on the north side of the Green, Emma, afterwards Lady Hamilton, lived for four years under the protection of the Hon. Charles Greville, to whom her mother was housekeeper. None of the other houses now standing are old enough to merit comment. Paddington House, "a handsome brick structure," built by Denis Chirac, who had been jeweller to Queen Anne, formerly stood on the east side of the Green, near to Harrow Road. He entered upon his residence here in 1753. At the corner of Church Street, on the Green, stands the Children's Hospital, a large red-brick building. The origin of this was a Free Dispensary for Sick Children, opened in 1862 in Lisson Grove by two medical men. Relief was afforded to 20,000 children during the first six years of the work, which was carried on under the management of a medical committee. In 1869 a building fund was suggested. But it was in 1881, by the earnest work of Mr. George Hanbury, that practical steps were taken for the establishment of a small hospital. In 1883 the freehold of the land at the corner of Church Street was purchased, and the buildings standing there were adapted for the purpose. Further ground was bought at the back in 1885, and an out-patient department established. In 1890, owing to the pressure of applications for in-patients, it was decided to build a new wing. However, for sanitary reasons, it was considered better to pull down the old building and entirely rebuild the hospital. The children then in the hospital were temporarily sent to Harrow, and the new building was commenced in 1894, and was reopened in June, 1895. An interesting old shop at the corner of Church Street was pulled down to make way for it. It contains all modern improvements, including electric light and cooking by gas. There is an isolation ward for any infectious illness which may break out, and two large, bright wards for the ordinary patients. The walls of these are lined with glazed bricks and tiles, and one of the wards contains large tile-work pictures representing well-known fairy tales. Boys are received up to the age of twelve, and girls to fourteen years. Babes of even three and four days are admitted. The out-patients' department is entirely free, no letter of any sort being required. The payment of a nominal fee of a penny to insure genuine cases is all that is exacted. Out-patients are selected by the medical staff to become in-patients. The children look bright and well cared for; the wards are models of cleanliness and comfort. The hospital is entirely supported by voluntary contributions and subscriptions. The temporary house at Harrow has been retained as a convalescent home.
A house, No. 13, close by the hospital, is one of Dr. Stainer's Homes for Deaf and Dumb Children.
The Paddington charities may be here described. But it must be remembered that amounts where mentioned are only given in general terms, and are liable to variation.
The Bread and Cheese Charity is of very ancient origin, and is said to have been founded by two maiden ladies. The bequest was in the form of land, though the name of the donors and the date of the gift are unknown. With the rents of the land bread and cheese were purchased, and thrown from the church tower to poor people on the Sunday before Christmas. The annual income arising from this source is now divided, being expended partly upon education, partly upon apprenticeship, and a certain amount upon coals and blankets to be distributed among the poor of the parish.
Johnson's Charity is a rent-charge of L1 a year, distributed in small sums among the poor of the parish. The date of this bequest is not known.
Lyon's Charity is of very ancient date—namely, 1578. It consists of an estate in Kilburn and an estate in Paddington, and is distributed among many different parishes. The greater part of the income, which, of course, varies in amount, goes to the repairing of roads.
Harvest's Charity in 1610 bequeathed an estate to the parishes of Paddington and Marylebone for repairing the highways. The income derived from this source is devoted to the above-mentioned purpose.
Dr. Compton's and Margaret Robertson's, or Robinson's Charity.—This is supposed to have been partly the gift of Dr. Compton, Bishop of London. The first grant was made in 1717, which was after Dr. Compton's death, but it is possible that he promised the gift which was granted by his successor, Dr. Robinson. Lysons says "the donation was confirmed by Dr. Robinson." "The first admission to the land, the property of Margaret Robertson's Charity, was on the 18th day of April, 1721" (Charity Commissioners' Report). The same persons are trustees for both charities. The gross total income, which amounts to about L535, is distributed as follows: L321 for education purposes, L107 for apprenticing, and the same as the latter sum to be given to the poor of the parish in kind.
The Almshouse Charity.—Paddington is singularly deficient in almshouses, the only houses of the kind having been pulled down between 1860 and 1870. These stood opposite the Vestry Hall, and are mentioned below. The Almshouse Charity includes the charity of Frances King. It is described as having been mentioned first on the Court Rolls of the manor of Paddington in 1720, but Lysons, in referring to the same charity, says: "Several small almshouses were built at the parish expense in the year 1714." There were seventeen of these almshouses in all, inclusive of four built by Samuel Pepys Cockerell. Two of them were used as rooms by the master and mistress of the Charity School. Some of these houses must have been pulled down previous to the year 1853, for at that date the Vestry applied for permission to pull down the twelve almshouses in the Harrow Road, considering that the estate could be more advantageously administered. It was not until 1867, however, that the order of the Court of Chancery was finally obtained, and after the demolition part of the land was let on a building lease. Another part, with a frontage to the Harrow Road, was let also on a building lease 1869. The houses erected on this are Nos. 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, Harrow Road. Frances King's Charity was L200, given by will in 1845 to be expended in coals for the inhabitants of the above-mentioned almshouses. The total income of the Almshouse Charity is somewhere about L200; of this amount the trustees pay a yearly sum of L50 to the trustees of St. Mary's School, and the remainder is applied to necessary expenses, and to pensions of L10 to L12 a year to deserving candidates in the parish.
Denis Chirac left in 1777 a sum of L100 (Report Charity Commissioners; Lysons says L138) for the benefit of the poor children of the parish. This amount, together with L120 given by Baron Maseres, was applied to the building of a schoolroom. The old Charity School, still standing near the site of the almshouses, was built in 1822 upon copyhold land granted for the purpose by the Bishop. St. Mary's Schools at present stand near the spot in Church Place.
Abourne's Charity was left in 1767. It is at present L300 in stock, and produces an annual income of from L8 to L9, distributed in bread among the poor of the parish.
Simmonds' Charity consists of the dividends on L600 stock, from which an annual income of from L16 to L20 is distributed among poor women of the parish in sums of 10s. 6d.
Marion Mayne's Charity.—In 1854 Marion Mayne left a sum of money by her will for keeping in repair certain tombstones, tablets, etc., including her own, and a sum for the maintenance of Paddington Green in good order, and a sum to be expended in annuities among the poor of the parish. The present income is derived from the dividends on L6,416 1s. 7d. stock, the latest income of which is expended as directed.
Smith Charity.—Under Augustus Frederick Smith's will, proved March 19, 1881, dividends on L9,985 3s. 8d. were left to the parish. The income is between L200 and L300. This is distributed amongst poor women about sixty years of age resident in Paddington, in pensions of not more than L20, or less than L10 per annum.
Following St. Mary's Terrace northwards, we see on the east side a curious little passage leading to a small Welsh chapel, an iron building. Close by the chapel stands a genuine old cottage, whitewashed and thatched, a remnant of the time when Paddington was largely composed of open ground. This cottage is said by an antiquarian authority to be several centuries old. It was granted to the Welsh congregation by the Bishop of London in 1890. Not far from this, up another narrow opening, is an old brick house with quaint red-tiled roof. This is Claremont House. It is picturesque, but has no authentic history. Opening out of St. Mary's Terrace on the east side, Howley and Fulham Places and Porteus Road recall the ownership of the Bishops of London.
The Red Lion, No. 239, a little to the north of Praed Street, claims as ancient a date. Tradition says that Shakespeare acted in one of the old wooden rooms, now vanished, and the inn boasts a haunted chamber.
In Cambridge Place is St. Mary's Hospital and Medical School. The suggestion of a hospital was discussed in 1840, but the foundation was not laid until 1843 by the late Prince Consort. The building was designed to hold 380 beds, but though it has been added to from time to time it still contains less than this, a supply totally inadequate to the demand for accommodation. The first wing was opened in 1857, and contained 150 beds. In 1865 the present King laid the foundation-stone of a further wing, and in 1892 the stone of the Clarence memorial wing. By 1886 all the building land acquired by the hospital had been used, and it was found necessary to purchase other land. In 1887 negotiations were made by which the Grand Junction Canal Company agreed to sell their interest in the required land. After five years' labour and the expenditure of L48,000, the desired result was achieved, and the Clarence wing was commenced. The hospital now faces Praed Street as well as Cambridge Place, the intervening houses having been pulled down. It is a great square red-brick building with stone facings. Behind the hospital are All Saints' Schools, and to the west of them the Great Western Railway Terminus. The Act for the extension of the Great Western line to Paddington, and for the erection of a station, was dated 1836. The first station was, however, only temporary. The present one was designed by I. K. Brunel, commenced 1849, and completed in 1854. It contains three passenger platforms, and the roof is divided by columns into three great spans, of which the centre one measures over 102 feet in width, and the outer ones 68 feet each. The station buildings and platforms at Paddington cover an area of 373,407 feet, but even this extent is insufficient for the railway purposes. Adjacent houses have consequently been adapted for the offices, and there is continual need for further accommodation. There are eight platform lines, and the platforms themselves are 780 feet in length. The daily passenger trains number from 250 to 300, and with the addition of excursion trains in the season the total daily average has reached 350. The diurnal number of passengers is estimated at 14,000, but high-water mark has been touched between 40,000 and 50,000. Twenty-five tons of news parcels are despatched from Paddington in one day, and nearly 3,000 mail-bags and parcels-post packages pass through the station in the same time, besides about 5,000 milk-churns. The above figures give some indication of the enormous traffic at this great terminus. The army of workers employed numbers 2,000, exclusive of the large clerical staff employed in the general department. The Great Western Hotel in a Renaissance style fronts Praed Street. It was built from 1850 to 1852, and its frontage is nearly 89 yards in length, and it is connected with the station by means of a covered way. Covered ways also connect the station with Praed Street and Bishop's Road Stations of the Metropolitan Railway.
In No. 19, Warwick Crescent, Robert Browning lived for five-and-twenty years, a fact recorded by a tablet of the Society of Arts. He came here in 1862, broken down by the death of his wife, and remained until a threatened railway near the front of the house—an innovation never carried out—drove him away. We are now once more in the region where the name of Westbourne is freely used. There is Westbourne Terrace and Square, Westbourne Park Crescent and Terrace Road. Near to Park Crescent in Chichester Place is a Jewish synagogue of red brick, with ornate stone carving over doors and windows. Next door is a curiously built Primitive Methodist chapel, with bands of differently coloured bricks in relief. St. Mary Magdalene's Church and schools stand at the corner of Cirencester Street. A temporary church was first opened in 1865, and the real building in 1868. This was the work of G. E. Street, R.A., and is a compactly built church of dark-red brick, with apse and very high spire, 202 feet in height. It stands in rather a peculiar situation at the junction of three or four roads, and suits the position well.
On July 13, 1872, while workmen were still busy with the roofing, the church caught fire. The damage, however, was not great. The church was finally completed in 1878. The services are High Church. The patronage is held by Keble College, Oxford, and the population of the parish is about 10,000. The ward of Maida Vale is bounded by Church ward on the south, Westbourne and Harrow Road wards on the west, and the borough boundary north and east. Between the Maida Vale Road and St. Saviour's Church in the Warwick Road there is nothing to comment on. The church of St. Saviour is in a Decorated style of Gothic. It is ornately built, with a square tower buttressed and pinnacled. The church was consecrated in 1856, and in 1883 a very fine and solidly-built chancel was added. This is faced on the interior with Cosham stone. Carved stone niches run on the north and south and on both sides of the Communion table. Some of these contain life-size statues of saints and the Apostles. A very handsome set of sanctuary lamps, after a Florentine design, hang across the chancel. In Formosa Street are the Church schools of St. Saviour's, and in Amberley Road there is a Board School. At the north of Shirland Road is a dingy brick building like a large meeting-room. This is the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church; in it the services are held in Welsh. Across Sutherland Avenue, at the corner of Shirland Road, is a very large brick building faced with red brick, which has two doorways with porticos supported by columns with ornamented capitals. This is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, built in 1876. The schools in connection are beneath the chapel. Further northward in the Shirland Road is a large brick building with two entrances. This is the Wordsworth Ladies' College and a branch of the Kilburn Orphanage. It was built in the year 1887 for both purposes, and there is no interior division between the college and home. The orphans are only kept here until nine years of age, when they are passed on to the Central Home. The Kilburn Sisters have patented a form of cot surrounded with wire to prevent the very little ones from falling out in their sleep. The room where there are rows upon rows of these cots with head curtains is a very curious spectacle, though it certainly suggests the desirability of further accommodation. The college has large class-rooms and a studio for art students. Some students board here, but the greater number attend daily. The terms are very low—fifteen shillings a week, including board, lodging, and tuition. The college is intended to assist girls desirous of passing the Government examinations as elementary school teachers. Almost immediately opposite the college is a small brick Baptist chapel, considerably below the level of the road. In Elgin Avenue there is a school of the Girls' Public Day School Company. On either side of Elgin Avenue are large spaces of open ground used by market-gardeners and others. To the north lies Paddington Recreation Ground, with cricket, football, and tennis grounds, running and cycling tracks. Beyond this, in the most northerly part of the borough, is the Kilburn Orphanage. This was begun in 1875 in two houses in the Kilburn Park Road, but funds were raised for building purposes, and in 1880 the present orphanage was completed. The Sisters themselves supplied quite half of the money required. The rule of the Sisterhood is that, though each retains control of her own capital, her income goes into the common fund. The orphanage is a large red-brick building standing in Randolph Gardens. The western wing, now connected with the main building, was added later, and the chapel last of all; it was not completed until about 1890. The chapel is well fitted up, and the whole building has an air of comfort and warmth in the interior. The passages are paved with tessellated pavement, and the floors of the large schoolrooms are of parquet. This is only one of the orphanage homes. There is a large establishment at Broadstairs, which is partly a home for convalescents and partly for orphans; and another at Margate; a relief home for little ones, already mentioned, in the Shirland Road; and homes for boys at Brondesbury, Oxford, and elsewhere. In Burwood Place there are printing-offices and workshops connected with the orphanage, entirely managed by the boys. During the last few years there has been much discussion on the methods of the orphanage, and several charges have been brought against the Sisters, of which the chief are: (1) Want of business method and properly audited accounts; (2) injudicious methods: advertising for illegitimate children without inquiry, to the encouragement of vice; (3) receiving payment with such children, when the foundation was intended for the absolutely destitute; (4) repudiation of all external control, evidenced by deposing the Archbishop of Canterbury from his post of patron when he attempted inquiry. These offences seem to have been chiefly the result of mismanagement, not deliberately wrought, and might be condoned. The orphanage receives children from the workhouse under five years of age, and also foundlings. The community comprises about 160 Sisters, of which many are abroad. The orphan girls are trained in domestic work, and do all their own work in the home. They do not leave until they are nineteen or twenty years of age.
Adjoining the orphanage is the large red-brick church of St. Augustine. This is a remarkable church both inside and out. It was designed by J. L. Pearson, who thereby obtained the distinction of adding the letters R.A. to his name. Through this building he also obtained the commission to build Truro Cathedral. The church, as above stated, is of red brick, in the first Pointed style, with long lancet windows. At the four corners are four Pointed towers enriched with stonework. The centre steeple has never been added, for want of funds, though the foundations for it are deeply laid. The interior is very picturesque. There is a triforium formed by the bays of the arches carried up from the centre aisle. The roof is groined, and the chancel-screen, pulpit, walls of the chancel, and the reredos are all stonework, with niches fitted with stone figures. In the transeptal chapels are some fine oil paintings executed on brick; that in the south chapel is the work of a prize pupil of the Royal Academy. The church was built entirely owing to the exertions of the present vicar, Mr. Kirkpatrick, who himself contributed largely. An iron church on the same site was erected in 1870, and was so constructed that the present building could be built over and enclose it; therefore service was never interrupted for one day during the process. In 1871 the greater part of the church was built, and in 1877 the nave was opened. It was completed in 1880.
There is very little of interest in the remaining part of the district. St. Peter's Church, Elgin Avenue, was consecrated on August 12, 1872. The church is built of Kentish ragstone, and is in a plain Early English style, with an apse at the east end. The square tower, surmounted by a short steeple, was added a few years later. The pillars are of polished Aberdeen granite. St. Peter's National Schools lie to the south in Chippenham Road. In Fernhead Road there is a Wesleyan chapel, built in an ornate style with two square towers. Further north, just within the borough boundary, is St. Luke's Church, built of brick, with schools attached. This was consecrated in January, 1877, and is in a severe Gothic style.