The Royal Oak was a country inn.
There were no houses of business then in the Grove, but where the Redan and about twelve shops down the Grove stand, there was a nursery ground, which in former times was a favourite resort of Queen Ann.
The inhabitants of the Grove were principally City or West-end men of business, who reached their habitation by the Bayswater or Paddington omnibuses.
These omnibuses belonged to two companies, the principal proprietors were:—Messrs. Melliship, Treadaway, Carpenter and Grant.
The General Omnibus Company afterwards bought up all their vehicles.
There was also one omnibus, the “Eagle,” which ran from Kensington Church, through Church Street, Bayswater Road, New Road, Islington to the Bank.
There were no cab stands but a stray cab might often be found at the Black Lion in the Bayswater Road or outside one of the other country inns.
Queen’s Road (Black Lion Lane) was only partly built on and the houses were small. A Wesleyan Chapel and Orphanage stood then on the site of the Queen’s Road Chapel, and in 1846, a high house (about No. 153, since taken by Mr. Whiteley) was erected for a Chartist Club House. It afterwards became the Queen’s Hotel. The houses opposite the baths were also built about 1846.
Porchester Terrace was only partially built, but on the west side resided Mr. Linnel, an artist, whose paintings of corn fields, &c., are so much admired by all who see them.
The reader may judge what sort of house the Royal Oak was by looking at the newspaper shop a few doors away. Beyond this to the railway on both sides of that which is now Bishop’s Road was a waste wilderness. I only remember one house and that a wooden one which had an inscription “The Cottage of Content.” It was a large basin-like piece of land and upon this Westbourne Terrace, Gloucester Gardens, Bishop’s Road, the north end of Porchester Terrace, and Craven Hill Road were built.