The Ladbroke Estate was a substantial estate of land owned by the Ladbroke family in Notting Hill, London, England, in the early 19th century that was gradually developed and turned into housing during the middle years of the century, as London expanded. Characterized by terraces of stuccoed brick houses backing onto large private garden squares, much of the original building remains intact today, and now forms the heart of one of London's most expensive and fashionable neighbourhoods.
In the early 19th century, the Ladbroke family owned a number of substantial parcels of land in Kensington, then a largely suburban area. All were located north of the Uxbridge Road (now Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park Avenue). Development of the land was begun in 1821 and continued until the 1870s. Around six architects and many more property speculators were involved in developing the final layout of the area. [1]
In the late 18th century, the estate had been owned by Richard Ladbroke, esquire, of Tadworth Court, Surrey. He died childless, and around 1821 his land passed to his nephew James Weller, who assumed the name Ladbroke in order to be able to inherit. James Weller Ladbroke held the estate until his death in 1847, though the actual development of the land was carried out by a firm of City solicitors, Smith, Bayley (known as Bayley and Janson after 1836), working in conjunction with the architect, landscaper and surveyor Thomas Allason. [2]
Under the terms of his uncle's will James Weller Ladbroke could only grant leases of up to twenty-one years' duration. However, he and his advisers managed to obtain power by means of a private Act of Parliament of 1821 to grant ninety-nine-year leases, and it was at this point that development began in earnest. [1]
Allason's first task was to prepare a plan for the layout of the main portion of the estate, which was completed by 1823. The 1823 plan marks the genesis of Allason's most enduring idea — the creation of large private communal gardens enclosed by terraces and/or crescents of houses. Eventually around fifteen of these communal gardens would be built, such as Arundel Gardens and Ladbroke Gardens, and they continue to contribute to the unique character of Notting Hill to this day. [1]
Allason's design was inspired by Nash's work at Regent's Park, and his vision was an ambitious one, consisting of a spectacular estate, focused on a large central circus with radiating streets built around central "paddocks" or garden squares. However, the financial crisis of 1825 forced his plans to be greatly scaled down, and Allason's original bold vision would never be fulfilled. [3]
A number of different developers were involved in the eventual piecemeal development of the estate, including Robert Cantwell (who was also responsible for the elegant design of Royal Crescent), Joshua Flesher Hanson, Ralph Adams, and John Drew. [1] Many of the more elegant buildings were the work of Thomas Allason, whose work may be seen in Stanley Gardens and Kensington Park Gardens, including St Peter's Notting Hill. [4]
The building boom of the 1820s did not last, and by the early 1830s new development had ground to a halt. From 1834-1838 no new building leases were granted. However, in 1837 the entrepreneur John Whyte leased 140 acres (0.57 km2) of land from the estate and proceeded to enclose "the slopes of Notting Hill and the meadows west of Westbourne Grove" with a 7-foot (2.1 m) high wooden paling. The result was the Hippodrome, a bold and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to build a race course to rival Epsom and Ascot. Unfortunately, the race course was not a financial success and it closed in 1842. [5]
By this time, conditions for building had once again become favourable, and development resumed, crescents of stuccoed houses being built on Whyte's circular race track. James Weller Ladbroke died in 1847 but building continued until almost all the available land had been developed by the 1870s.
Many streets in Notting Hill still bear the name of the Ladbroke family, including Ladbroke Grove and Ladbroke Square. Others are named after prominent statesmen of the period: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (Lansdowne Crescent, Rise and Road); George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Cross and Road); and Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley (Stanley Crescent and Gardens).
The former Ladbroke Estate is now a conservation area. The Ladbroke Association, a local non-profit group with around 400 members, is dedicated to preserving the original vision of the Ladbroke Estate and maintaining its architectural integrity.
Many parts of the 1999 film Notting Hill were set and shot in the former Ladbroke Estate. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
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.
Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Chelsea and Kensington, and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road to the west, Holland Park Avenue to the north, and Kensington Church Street to the east. In reality, the Holland Park district extends north of Holland Park Avenue, toward Notting Hill. It has been said that Holland Park is the “posh” part of Notting Hill. The three principal neighbourhoods of Holland Park are centred around the Park itself, with stately houses and townhomes to the north, south and west of the Park. Adjacent districts are Notting Hill to the north, Earl's Court to the south, and Shepherd's Bush to the west.
Ladbroke Grove is an area and a road in North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.
Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name.
Pinehurst Court is a portered Victorian mansion block at 1-9 Colville Gardens, just off Colville Terrace and near the Portobello Market in Notting Hill, London, England. The terrace was initially built in the 1870s by the builder George Frederick Tippett, as single family residences, but from the 1880s the houses began to be subdivided into flats. By 1928 the neighbourhood was described as "rapidly becoming poorer", and by 1935 as a "largely slum area". The gentrification of Notting Hill in the 1980s and 1980s greatly improved the character of the building, which now forms a part of one of London's most fashionable neighbourhoods.
The Tabernacle is a Grade II-listed building in Powis Square, Notting Hill, west London, England, built in 1887 as a church. The building boasts a curved Romanesque façade of red brick and terracotta, and two towers with broach spires on either side. Today the Tabernacle serves as a cultural arts and entertainment venue, including a theatre, meeting rooms, music studio, art gallery, bar and kitchen, conservatory and a garden courtyard.
All Saints Notting Hill is a Church of England parish church in Talbot Road, Notting Hill, London. It is a Victorian Gothic Revival stone building with polychromatic decoration. All Saints' is a Grade II* listed building.
St John's Notting Hill is a Victorian Anglican church built in 1845 in Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, London, designed by the architects John Hargrave Stevens (1805/6–1857) and George Alexander (1810–1885), and built in the Victorian Gothic style. Dedicated to St John the Evangelist, the church was originally built as the centrepiece of the Ladbroke Estate, a mid nineteenth century housing development designed to attract upper- and upper middle-class residents to what was then a largely rural neighbourhood in the western suburbs of London.
The Kensington Hippodrome was a racecourse built in Notting Hill, London, in 1837, by entrepreneur John Whyte. Whyte leased 140 acres (0.57 km2) of land from James Weller Ladbroke, owner of the Ladbroke Estate, and proceeded to enclose "the slopes of Notting Hill and the meadows west of Westbourne Grove" with a 7-foot (2.1 m) high wooden paling. The race course was not a financial success and it closed in 1842, the land being developed soon afterwards, as Ladbroke began building crescents of houses on Whyte's former race course.
St Peter's Notting Hill is a Victorian Anglican church in Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London. Designed in the classical style by architect Thomas Allom, work was begun in 1855 and completed in 1857.
Park Crescent is at the north end of Portland Place and south of Marylebone Road in London. The crescent consists of elegant stuccoed terraced houses by the architect John Nash, which form a semicircle. The crescent is part of Nash's and wider town-planning visions of Roman-inspired imperial West End approaches to Regent's Park. It was originally conceived as a circus (circle) to be named Regent's Circus but instead Park Square was built to the north. The only buildings on the Regent's Park side of the square are small garden buildings, enabling higher floors of the Park Crescent buildings to have a longer, green northern view.
Thomas Allason (1790–1852) was an English architect, surveyor and landscaper, noted in particular for his work at Connaught Square and the Ladbroke Estate in Kensington.
James Weller Ladbroke was a nineteenth-century landowner and the principal developer of the Ladbroke Estate, a substantial parcel of land in Notting Hill, London, England. Many streets in Notting Hill still bear the Ladbroke name today, including Ladbroke Grove and Ladbroke Square, and the former Ladbroke Estate is now a conservation area.
Arundel Gardens is a street and a communal garden square in Notting Hill, London, one of seven streets between Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Road of which five share in a communal garden between them. It was built in the 1860s, towards the later stages of the development of the Ladbroke Estate, until that decade part of the rural hinterland of London. Notable past residents of the street include psychologist Charles Samuel Myers, who coined the term shell shock, and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Sir William Ramsay, discoverer of the noble gases.
Pottery Lane is a street in Notting Hill, west London. Today it forms part of one of London's most fashionable and expensive neighbourhoods, but in the mid-19th century it lay at the heart of a wretched and notorious slum known as the "Potteries and the Piggeries". The slum came to the attention of Londoners with the building of the Hippodrome in 1837 by entrepreneur John Whyte. Unfortunately for Whyte a public right of way existed over his land and "dirty and dissolute vagabonds" from the nearby slum invaded his racecourse, adding to his financial difficulties and, in part, leading to the closure of his venture in 1842. Pottery Lane gradually improved in the late 20th century along with the rest of the Notting Hill area, and today the houses there fetch multi-million pound prices. Just one of the original brick kilns still survives; it is located in Walmer Road, just north of Pottery Lane, and bears a commemorative plaque placed there by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Ladbroke Square is a garden square in Notting Hill, west London, England.
Lancaster Road (West) Estate is a housing estate in North Kensington, west London.
Portland Road is a road in Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea that was built as a speculative development in the 1850s. The road has been noted for its division into three sections of different wealth: the section between Holland Park Avenue and Clarendon Cross/Hippodrome Place being one of the most expensive places to buy a house in London, a section of terraced houses further north being also very expensive but less so than the lower reaches of the road, and a section at the northern end that was once slums and is now working class social housing and is described as being north of an "invisible line" that divides it from the privately owned sections of the road.
Norland Square is a garden square in the Notting Hill area of London. Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, runs northward from Holland Park Avenue to Queensdale Road. The mews street Norland Place runs eastwards of the Square.