Lancaster Gate | |
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 Lancaster Gate, houses 14-26 | |
| Coordinates: 51°30′41.6″N0°10′48.5″W / 51.511556°N 0.180139°W |
Lancaster Gate is a mid-19th century development in the Bayswater district of central London, [1] immediately to the north of Kensington Gardens.
It consists of two long terraces of houses overlooking the park, with a wide gap between them opening onto a square containing a church. Further terraces back onto the pair overlooking the park and loop around the square. Until 1865 the terraces were known as Upper Hyde Park Gardens, with the name Lancaster Gate limited to the square surrounding the church. [2] The development takes its name from Lancaster Gate, a nearby entrance to Kensington Gardens, itself named in honour of Queen Victoria as Duke of Lancaster. [3]
The terraces are stuccoed and are in an eclectic classical style featuring English Baroque details and French touches. [2] The church, known as Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, was an asymmetrical gothic composition with a needle spire. The architects were F. & H. Francis. The church was one of the best-known in London, but when dry rot was discovered in the roof the decision was taken to demolish most of the building and redevelop the site. [4] The last service in the church was on 6 March 1977, [5] and demolition began on 15 August 1977; only the tower and spire survive. [6] The rest of the building was replaced by a housing scheme called Spire House in 1983. [2]
Lancaster Gate stands alongside Hyde Park Gardens as one of the two grandest of the 19th-century housing schemes lining the northern side of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
The development was planned in 1856–57 on the site of a nursery and tea gardens, and construction took at least 10 years. [7] The terraces overlooking the park were designed by Sancton Wood and those around the square by John Johnson. [2] The exteriors are largely complete, with just a couple of 20th-century infills, but many of the interiors have been reconstructed behind the facades. Many of the properties are still in residential use and command very high prices. Others are used as embassies (such as the Embassy of Costa Rica), offices, or hotels. For many years, the headquarters of The Football Association were located in Lancaster Gate and the term was often used as a metonym for the organisation, but it later relocated to Soho Square and is now based at Wembley Stadium. [3]
Lancaster Gate is also an electoral ward of Westminster City Council. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,195. [8]
Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and Notting Hill to the west.
Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened in 1847. It is also the site of St Mary's Hospital and the former Paddington Green Police Station.
Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Paddington became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the City of Westminster in Greater London.
The Westbourne or Kilburn, also known as the Ranelagh Sewer, is a culverted small River Thames tributary in London, rising in Hampstead and Brondesbury Park and which as a drain unites and flows southward through Kilburn and Bayswater to skirt underneath the east of Hyde Park's Serpentine lake then through central Chelsea under Sloane Square. It passes centrally under the south side of Royal Hospital Chelsea's Ranelagh Gardens before discharging into Inner London's old-fashioned, but grandiose combined sewer system, with exceptional discharges into the Inner London Tideway. Since the latter 19th century, the population of its catchment has risen further but to reduce the toll it places on the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works and related bills its narrow basin has been assisted by private soakaways, and public surface water drains. Its depression has been replaced with and adopted as a reliable route for a gravity combined sewer. The formation of the Serpentine relied on the water, a lake with a long, ornate footbridge and various activities associated, which today uses little-polluted water from a great depth.
Ossington Street is a quiet one-way street in London, W2, leading from Moscow Road at its north end to the Bayswater Road / Notting Hill Gate at its south end.
Bayswater Road is the main road running along the northern edge of Hyde Park in London. Originally part of the A40 road, it is now designated part of the A402 road.
Cities of London and Westminster is a constituency returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom Parliament. As with all constituencies, the election is decided using the first past the post system of election. Until the 2024 general election, where the constituency elected a Labour Co-op MP, the constituency had always elected the candidate nominated by the Conservative Party.
Regent's Park and Kensington North was a constituency in Central and West London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election from 1997 to 2010.
Westminster North was a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It existed for the periods 1983–1997 and 2010–2024.
Westbourne is an area in West London. It has a manorial history spanning many centuries, within a more broadly defined Paddington, before shedding its association in the mid-19th century. It is named after the west bourne, West Bourne, or River Westbourne, a Thames tributary which was encased in 19th-century London in the 1850s. The spring-fed stream and associated manor have led to the place names Westbourne Green, Westbourne Park and more narrowly: Westbourne Gardens, Westbourne Grove, Westbourne Park Road, Westbourne Park tube station, Westbourne Studios and the name of a public house.
Paddington was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Paddington district of London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created for the February 1974 general election, partially replacing the previous Paddington North and Paddington South constituencies, and abolished for the 1983 general election. A Paddington borough constituency has three times been recommended during early stages of Boundary Commission inquiries, only to be altered before the final report was issued.
Leinster Gardens is a street in Bayswater, London. It is lined with tall, ornate, mid-Victorian terraced houses, many of which are listed buildings.
Craven Hill Gardens is a classical, Victorian, residential garden estate which has two small garden squares, the green subset of squares in London. It is in Bayswater, in its Lancaster Gate neighbourhood, south-west of contemporary Paddington of which those districts were once part. It is made up of four rows of residential buildings lining its three streets, and eastern returns, between 160 and 250 metres north of Hyde Park. The western return of this street configuration is partly Leinster Gardens and partly named Leinster Terrace.
The Hyde Park Estate is a residential district in the Paddington area of London. It is an affluent area, characterised by a layout of squares and crescents, and is home to several embassies, prestigious businesses and celebrities.
Orme Square is a private square in Bayswater, London, England, off the north side of Bayswater Road and on the north-west corner of Hyde Park, overlooking Kensington Gardens whose Orme Gate entrance takes its name from the square.
Cleveland Square is a private and gated garden square in the predominantly classically conserved Bayswater district of the City of Westminster, north of Central London's Hyde Park. The housing is in tall, tree-shaded rows, stuccoed and with pillared porches, with some discreet infilling of other housing behind.
Gloucester Terrace is a street in Central London in the vicinity of Paddington and Bayswater. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs northwards from Lancaster Terrace near to Lancaster Gate tube station and Hyde Park before curving round to meet Porchester Square around Westbourne. The southern section is close to the border between Tyburnia and Bayswater. It intersects with Craven Road, Chilworth Street, Cleveland Terrace, Bishop's Bridge Road and Orsett Terrace. Its northern section is close to the Great Western Main Line and Westway. Westbourne Terrace runs directly parallel to the east.
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Bibliography
Media related to Lancaster Gate, London at Wikimedia Commons