Campden Hill is a hill in Kensington, West London, bounded by Holland Park Avenue on the north, Kensington High Street on the south, Kensington Palace Gardens on the east and Abbotsbury Road on the west. The name derives from the former Campden House, built by Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden whose country seat was Campden House in the Gloucestershire town of Chipping Campden. [1]
The hill contains Holland Park, the former deer-park of Holland House, the remains of which important mansion house stand on the south-west corner of the hill. To the east of Holland House, the south-west side of the hill is characterized by large Victorian houses which are part of the Phillimore estate. [2] Aubrey House is situated on top of Campden Hill. Campden Hill Square on the north-west side is formed of large Regency houses.
The small street called Campden Hill runs from Campden Hill Road westward into Holland Park. It was built on part of the grounds of the former Bute House.
Bute House was built c.1812, and was named after the second Marquess of Bute who lived there from 1830 until 1842. The next occupant was Hon. William Sebright Lascelles, the brother of the third Earl of Harewood; his widow Lady Lascelles lived there until 1856. The sixth Duke of Rutland lived there from 1865 until his death in 1888. The last owner was Blundell Charles Weld, a Lancashire landowner, who renamed the house Blundell House. After he left the house in 1912 or 1913 it was demolished. [3]
1 Campden Hill was built in 1915 by Colonel Edmond Hills, President of the Royal Astronomical Society and his wife Juliet, to the designs of Edward P. Warren. [4] A street named Observatory Gardens is situated nearby. From the 1950s to 2001, it was the residence of the Ambassador of Uruguay and has since been marketed by the Phillimore Estate as a private home.[ citation needed ]
Campden Hill Gate, a mansion block of flats, was used for the filming of the ITV dramatization of the Agatha Christie short story, "The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" (1990) in their Agatha Christie's Poirot series. [5] Earlier Campden Hill had been the setting for a popular mystery story by Victor Bridges: The Red Lodge: A Mystery of Campden Hill (1924). [6]
50 Campden Hill Square, was the home, from 1907 to 1939, of Evelyn Underhill the Christian philosopher, teacher and pacifist. It is marked with a blue plaque. [7]
The Windsor Castle public house is a Grade II listed building at 114 Campden Hill Road, dating from 1826. [8]
The top of the hill was the site of water-tower reservoirs established in the 19th century by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company and the West Middlesex Waterworks Company. [9]
Notable birthplace of: writer, poet, philosopher G. K. Chesterton who wrote in his Autobiography [10] that he was born on Campden Hill, Kensington and mentioned the water-tower as well.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around 2.9 miles (4.6 km) west of Central London.
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.
Agatha Christie's Poirot, or simply Poirot, is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. The ITV show is based on many of Agatha Christie's famous crime fiction series, which revolves around the fictional private investigator, Hercule Poirot. David Suchet starred as the fictional detective. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. The series also aired on VisionTV in Canada and on PBS and A&E in the US.
Baron Phillimore, of Shiplake in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1918 for the former Judge of the High Court of Justice and Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Walter Phillimore, 2nd Baronet. The Phillimore Baronetcy, of The Coppice, had been created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 28 December 1881 for his father Sir Robert Phillimore, who was also a noted lawyer and judge. The first Baron was succeeded by his son, the second Baron.
Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park.
Greenway, also known as Greenway House, is an estate on the River Dart near Galmpton in Devon, England. Once the home of the author Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust.
Dead Man's Folly is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 November of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.95 and the UK edition at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6). It features Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver.
Black Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie (1890–1976) which was produced initially in 1930. The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright. In the play, a scientist discovers that someone in his household has stolen the formula for an explosive. The scientist calls Hercule Poirot to investigate, but is murdered just as Poirot arrives with Hastings and Inspector Japp.
Little Holland House was the dower house of Holland House in the parish of Kensington, Middlesex, England. It was situated at the end of Nightingale Lane, now the back entrance to Holland Park and was demolished when Melbury Road was made. Number 14 Melbury Road marks its approximate location.
Lichfield Court, on Sheen Road in Richmond, London, consists of two Grade II listed purpose-built blocks of flats. Designed by Bertram Carter and built in fine Streamline Moderne style, it was completed in 1935.
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) was an English crime novelist, short-story writer and playwright. Her reputation rests on 66 detective novels and 15 short-story collections that have sold over two billion copies, an amount surpassed only by the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. She is also the most translated individual author in the world with her books having been translated into more than 100 languages. Her works contain several regular characters with whom the public became familiar, including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Parker Pyne and Harley Quin. Christie wrote more Poirot stories than any of the others, even though she thought the character to be "rather insufferable". Following the publication of the 1975 novel Curtain, Poirot's obituary appeared on the front page of The New York Times.
Debenham House at 8 Addison Road is a large detached house in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, W14. Built in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect Halsey Ricardo, it is a Grade I listed building.
Lists of adaptations of the works of Agatha Christie:
Hornton Street is a street in Kensington, London W8. It runs north to south from Sheffield Terrace to Kensington High Street.
Campden Hill Road is a street in Kensington, London W8. It runs north to south from Notting Hill Gate to Kensington High Street.
The Monogram Murders is a 2014 mystery novel by British writer Sophie Hannah featuring characters created by Agatha Christie. It is the first in Hannah's series of Hercule Poirot books, continuation novels sanctioned by the estate of Agatha Christie. The novel was followed by Closed Casket (2016), The Mystery of Three Quarters (2018), and The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020).
Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Hicks was the only child of author Agatha Christie.
Abbotsbury Road is a residential road in the Holland Park area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, West London, England.