A tower at the west end, and a suitable enclosure before the entrance, yet remain to be accomplished, ere the work of completion is done. The estimated cost of these works amounts to £2,100; and it is to be hoped that the necessary funds may not be long forthcoming, to hinder their commencement.
The minister is the Rev. William Harness, known for his edition of Shakspeare and other contributions to current literature; and the senior curate is the Rev. Mackenzie Walcot, whose “Memorials of Westminster,” and other works on the ancient city, have rendered him its most popular and pleasing historian.
Charles R. Harford and James Baber, Esqs., were the first chosen churchwardens, and filled the office continuously till the present year, when W. Aldridge, Esq., was instituted in room of Mr. Harford.
Albert Gate occupies an arched surface over the bed of the Westbourne, which was here open and crossed by two bridges, one just within the Park, and erected about 1734; the other, the old bridge from which our Hamlet is named. On its west side was the “Fox and Bull;” on its east a low court of very old houses, named after the “White Hart,” which, with these other buildings and the Cannon Brewhouse, were entirely removed by authority of an Act of Parliament (4 Vict., c. 12) passed March 10th, 1841, which empowered the Commissioners of Works to purchase the land on which these tenements stood and the buildings thereon, for the purpose of forming a new entrance to Hyde Park. Accordingly, these improvements were carried out, and the iron gates, which are of a very chaste design, were fixed August 9th, 1845. The two stags on the side pedestals formerly performed the same watch and ward at the Ranger’s Lodge in the Green Park. They were modelled from a pair of prints by Bartolozzi.
Part of the ground bought by the commissioners they leased for ninety-nine years to Mr. Thomas Cubitt, who immediately built on the eastern side a large mansion, for which it is said Mr. Hudson, M.P., paid him £15,000. It is now the residence of the French Ambassador: here our Queen paid a visit in state on May 12, 1854; and the Emperor Napoleon held a Levee on his visit to her in May, 1855.
This house was at first the butt of the London wits, who named it Gibraltar House, affirming it would never be taken. This opinion did not deter Mr. Cubitt from erecting another, now the London and County Bank Branch; and a third is now nearly finished for Captain Layland. Architecturally, there is nothing in these mansions to admire, notwithstanding the arrogance with which they force attention. Though so gigantic, they are not imposing; of an unusual altitude, they are destitute of ornament, and can only be likened to some “tall bullies,” determined even in vulgarity to lord over their fellows.
Brompton Road: a row of houses built about twenty years since on the garden of Grosvenor House. The National School House attached to Brompton Church was built in 1841, in the Tudor style, from designs by Mr. George Godwin.
Ennismore Place and Terrace, built by Elger on land belonging to the Earl of Listowel, from whose second title the name is derived; commenced in 1848, and finished in 1855. Along the curve at the bottom of the Terrace (now called Princes Terrace) the boundary of St. Margaret’s parish abuts on that of Kensington. No. 11, Princes Terrace, is the residence of Mr. Bonamy Price.
High Road: a heterogeneous row of houses between the Green and Rutland Gate is so called. They are built without any attempt at uniformity, and are generally of a mean description. Parts of the western end are now called Trevor Terrace, and South Place. The oldest houses in the Hamlet are in High Road: Chatham House (why so called I know not), built in 1688, now a broker’s, was for many years a boarding-school, and originally surrounded by a garden. Three doors beyond is an ancient inn, now known as the “Rose and Crown,” but formerly the “Oliver Cromwell,” and which has been licensed above three hundred years. It is the oldest house in Knightsbridge, was formerly its largest inn, and not improbably the house which sheltered Wyatt, while his unfortunate Kentish followers rested on the adjacent green. A tradition told by all old inhabitants of the locality that Cromwell’s body-guard was once quartered here, is still very prevalent, and an inscription to that effect was till lately painted in front of the house; [104] and on an ornamental piece of plaster-work was formerly emblazoned the great Protector’s coat-of-arms. Although I have not been able to find any mention of this place in connection with the Civil War, or with Cromwell, yet nothing is more certain than that (as I have before noticed) our neighbourhood was frequently the scene of skirmishes during that contest, or more probable than that it should be so, considering it was the main road from the west to the capital. In 1647 the Parliament Army was encamped about here, and Fairfax’s head-quarters were for awhile at Holland House; so also immediately before and after the fight at Brentford. At all events, Mr. Corbould, the distinguished painter, took this old inn as a subject; and “The Old Hostelrie at Knightsbridge,” exhibited in 1849 at St. George’s Gallery, formed a pleasing and animating picture. He laid the scene as early as 1497; and opposite the inn stands a well, surmounted by a figure of St. George, while beyond is the spacious green, the meandering stream, the bridge over it, surmounted by an embattled tower; while still further appears the old hospital and chapel. All this is likely to be summarily condemned as the painter’s fancy, but it nevertheless proves that an interest in the place was not confined to the lower orders alone. The house has of late been much modernised, and in 1853 had a narrow escape from destruction by fire; but enough still remains in its peculiar chimneys, oval-shaped windows, the low rooms, large yard and extensive stabling, with the galleries above and office-like places beneath, to testify to its antiquity and former importance. [106]