The Kensington District

by G. E. Mitton

On the eastern side of Church Street are the barracks and one or two large houses. In Maitland House lived James Mill, author of the "History of India," and father of the better known J. S. Mill. There is a tablet to his memory on one of the pillars in the church. York House was, as has been said, the home of Princess Sophia, who died here in 1848. This house is now to be demolished.

Church Street sweeps to the west a little further on, and at the corner stands a Roman Catholic orphanage, where fifty or sixty girls are provided for. There is a chapel within the walls, and night-schools are held, which are attended by children from outside. The continuation of the road northward, which becomes Brunswick Gardens, was made in 1877, and as the old vicarage stood right in the way it had to be pulled down. Bowack says that the vicarage was "valued yearly in the Queen's [Queen Anne's] Book at £18 18s. 4d., but is supposed to be worth near £400 per annum." In Vicarage Gate northward is a small church (St. Paul's) served by the clergy of St. Mary Abbots. The origin of the name Mall in this part of Kensington is not definitely ascertained. It of course refers to the game so popular in the reign of the Stuarts, and there may have been a ground here, but there is no reference to it in contemporary records. In the Mall there is New Jerusalem Church, with an imposing portico. It was formerly a Baptist Church, and was bought by the Swedenborgians in 1872. A bright red-brick church of the Unitarians is a little further on. Behind the Mall is Kensington Palace Gardens—really a slice of the Gardens—a wide road with immense houses, correctly designated mansions, standing back in their own grounds. This road is only open to ordinary traffic on sufferance, and is liable to be closed at any time.

The part of Kensington lying to the west of Church Street and extending to Notting Hill Gate was that formerly known as the Gravel Pits, and considered particularly healthy on account of its dry soil and bracing air. Bowack says that here there are "several handsome new-built houses, and of late years has been discovered a chalybeate spring." Swift had lodgings at the Gravel Pits between 1712 and 1713, and Anne Pitt, sister of Lord Chatham, one of the bright bevy of Queen Caroline's maids of honour, is reported to have died at her house at the Gravel Pits in 1780.

The most celebrated house here was Campden House, completely rebuilt fifty years ago, and entirely demolished within the last two years. Old Campden House was called after Sir Baptist Hicks, created Viscount Campden. It is said that he won the land on which it stands from Sir Walter Cope at a game, and thereupon built the house. This is the generally accepted version of the affair, but it is probable that there was some sort of a house standing here already. Bowack says: "Two houses, called Holland and Campden Houses, were built ... by Mr. Cope ... erected before the death of Queen Elizabeth." And, again (quoting from the Rev. C. Seward), "The second seat called Campden House was purchased or won at some sort of game of Sir Walter Cope by Sir Baptist Hicks." He adds that it was a "very noble Pile and finished with all the art the Architects of that time were capable of." The mere fact of such a prize being won at a game of chance was likely enough in the days when gaming ran high. Lysons, on the other hand, distinctly says that the house "was built about 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks, whose arms with that date and those of his sons-in-law, Edward, Lord Noel, and Sir Charles Morrison, are in a large bay-window in the front." It is most probable that Sir Baptist, on taking over the estate and the house then existing, so restored it as to amount to an almost complete rebuilding. He was created Viscount Campden in 1628, with remainder to Lord Noel, who succeeded him. Lord Noel's son, Baptist, the third Viscount, had Royalist tendencies, for which he was mulcted in the sum of £9,000 during the Rebellion. He married for his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Lindsey, and the Earl himself died at Campden House. The title went to Viscount Campden's eldest son Edward, who was created Earl of Gainsborough, and in default of male issue it afterwards reverted to his younger brother. The house itself had been settled on another son, Henry, who died before his father, leaving a daughter, who married Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. Previous to this Queen (then Princess) Anne had taken the house for five years on account of her only surviving child, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. There are few stories in history more pathetic than that of this poor little Prince, the only one of Anne's seventeen children who survived infancy. With his unnaturally large head and rickety legs, he would in these days have been kept from all intellectual effort, and been obliged to lie down the greater part of his time. But in that age drastic treatment was in favour, and the already precocious child was crammed with knowledge, while his sickly little frame was compelled to undergo rigorous discipline. He was a boy of no small degree of character, and with martial tastes touching in one so feeble. He died at the age of eleven of small-pox, not at Kensington, and perhaps it was as well for him that, with such inordinate sensibility and such a constitution, he did not live to inherit his mother's throne. His servant Lewis, who was devotedly attached to him, wrote a little biography of him, which is one of the curiosities of literature.

In 1704 the Dowager-Countess of Burlington came here with her son Richard, then only a boy, afterwards famous as an architect and art lover. In 1719 the house was sold, and came into possession of the Lechmere family. It did not remain with them long, but was purchased by Stephen Pitt, who let it as a school. In 1862 it was partially destroyed by fire. It was then bought by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who rebuilt it, and let it to tenants. Later on a charmingly-built row of houses and mansions rose up on its grounds to face Sheffield Terrace. The appearance of the later house was very different from that of the old one, and the arms mentioned by Lysons as being over a front window had quite disappeared.

Little Campden House, on the western side, was built for the suite of the Princess Anne, and Stephen Pitt occupied this himself when he let Campden House. It was latterly divided into two houses; one was called Lancaster Lodge, and the other, after being renovated and redecorated, was taken by Vicat Cole, R.A., until his death.

Gloucester Walk, on the south side, is, of course, called after the poor little Duke. Sheffield Gardens and Terrace, as well as Berkeley Gardens, stand on the site of old Sheffield House. Leigh Hunt says that the house was owned by Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, but he adduces no fact in support of his assertion; in any case, there are no historical associations connected with it.

In Observatory Gardens Sir James South, the astronomer, had a house, where there was a large observatory. He mounted an equatorial telescope in the grounds, by the use of which, some years previously, he and Sir J. Herschel had made a catalogue of 380 binary stars. He strenuously resisted any opening up of the district by road or rail, lest the vibrations of traffic should interfere with his delicate observations and render them useless. He died here in 1867. On the south side of Campden Hill Gardens are a number of houses standing in their own grounds, and, from the rank of their residents, this part has gained the name of the "Dukeries." Holly Lodge was named Airlie Lodge for a few years when tenanted by the Earl of Airlie, but reverted to the older name afterwards. Airlie Gardens is a reminiscence of the interlude. Lord Macaulay lived for the three years preceding his death in Holly Lodge.

Holland Lane is a shady footpath running right over the hill from Kensington Road to Notting Hill Gate; it passes the wall of Aubrey House, once the manor-house of Notting Hill. Though the name is a comparatively new one, the house is old and, to use the favourite word of older writers, much "secluded"; it is shut in from observation by its high wall and by the shady trees surrounding it. The building is very picturesque and the garden charming, yet many people pass it daily and never know of its existence.

St. George's Church, Campden Hill Road, dates from 1864; the interior is spoilt by painted columns and heavy galleries, but the stained glass at the east end is very richly coloured, and there is a carved stone reredos. The tower is high, but it is dwarfed by the tower of the Grand Junction Waterworks near at hand. Across Campden Hill Road is the reservoir of the West Middlesex Water Company, which, from its commanding elevation, supplies a large district by the power of gravitation.