Notting Hill Living
Clarendon Road
This road was named after Lord Clarendon, a prominent member of the House of Lords when the Ladbroke Estate was being developed.
Various landowners owned bits of Clarendon Road. At the Holland Park Avenue end, J W Ladbroke was the freeholder and he entered into a building agreement with William Drew for the construction of houses. As was customary, Drew could build and take leases himself, or sell-on his rights to particular plots to other builders to whom the freeholder would then grant the leases.
Drew’s chosen contractors at the time were William Liddard (described as a “gentleman” in the agreements) and Thomas Allason, Ladbroke’s architect. In 1845, Drew allocated Nos. 2-10, a terrace close to Holland Park Avenue, to William Liddard and Nos. 12 and 14 to Allason. Allason’s houses are built as a pair with the three storeys and basements. they are brick faced but, for decoration, have stucco strips like pilasters from ground floor to roof where there is an entablature and a parapet. (This was a feature of most of Drew’s houses and Allason probably designed them.)
On the west side, in 1840 Drew took the leases of Nos. 13 and 15 himself. These are a joined pair of stucco faced houses with purely decorative pilasters. In 1845 he passed Nos. 17-21 (odd) to Liddard. This is a short terrace of three stuccoed houses with the minimum of decoration. He gave Nos. 23 to 29 to Allason. These are three storey houses with semi-basements, and they have a bow window structure from basement right up to roof level. The houses nearer Holland Park Avenue - Nos. 1-11 (odd) - were allocated to the same builders, but were later demolished.
The next part of Clarendon Road was in the parcel of land controlled by Richard Roy and most of the houses were built by his building partner, William Reynolds. Between the end of Drew’s area and Lansdowne Walk, Reynolds built two short terraces of narrow-fronted houses in 1844 - Nos. 16 to 26 (even) on the east side and Nos. 31-39 (odd) on the west side.
Above Lansdowne Walk, Reynolds built more spacious houses on the east side, in two ranges, Nos. 28-42 (between Lansdowne Walk and St John’s Gardens) and Nos. 44-58 (between St John’s Gardens and Lansdowne Crescent). These houses backed onto the gardens behind Lansdowne Road. Between 1844-45 he built Nos. 41-77 on the east side of the road, above Lansdowne Crescent, H P Bruyeres had some involvement with the building of a few of the remaining houses. He took Nos. 60-66 on the east side (Nos. 60 and 62 have not survived.)
Charles Blake owned part of the land on the east side Clarendon Road, above Lansdowne Crescent . In 1851 he leased Nos. 68-76 (even) to Thomas Holmes, a builder, and the remaining house, No. 78, to H W Smith, a builder. William Sim, the architect, may have designed them all.
For a time, Dr Samuel Walker owned some of the Clarendon Road frontage on the east. In 1853 he leased Nos. 90-110, just below Blenheim Crescent, to William C Gazeley, a Camden Town builder. Walker also gave Gazely the contract to build Nos. 112-120 (even) in the section above Blenheim Crescent at the same time. But this was land subsequently taken back by Blake and in 1861 he granted the building lease to Charles Chambers, a timber merchant. Only No. 112 still survives.
The rest of the Clarendon Road fell in land owned by Stephen Phillips. On the east side, where he had relatively little land, he allocated Nos. 122-126 (even) to William C Gazeley and Nos. 128-142 to William Pilbeam, a builder, in 1852. On the west side, most of the houses between Nos. 87 and 105 were allocated to William Reynolds, but Nos. 99 and 101 were taken built by Joseph Helling, a plumber, in 1852. Nos. 107-119 were taken by Thomas Pocock, but most have now been demolished to make way for Nottingwood House and Allom House. Nos. 195-207 were built by J V Scantlebury, a Paddington builder, in 1860.
