Designed by Francis Radford and built between 1856 and 1864, these grand detached villas surrounding a long rectangular garden are the centrepiece of the Pembridge Conservation Area.  This house was occupied for many years by a colonial merchant, whose family owned it until 1920.

Increasingly, from the early 20th century, the large houses began to be used by institutions - notably the Norland Institute for Training Children's Nurses - or became private hotels.  This house was briefly the Imperial Overseas Home from early 1918, but was then purchased by a private individual for his residence and businesses.  Several press articles in the 1920s described him as 'a hydra-headed individual', 'a master dodger' and 'a shady character' - purportedly making use of seven aliases.  He lived at the house until his death in 1978 at the age of 97.  He was then the last resident owner of a whole property in the square.

The house then became a commercial address until its recent restoration to a single dwelling.

Built in c.1846, early residents included a trunk maker and military outfitter, and Henry Taylor, a silk merchant employed by his wealthy uncle Samuel Courtauld.  The local area soon became renowned as an artists' colony, with painters at this house - Frederick Tayler and Vandeleur Ormsby - and several others in the street.  James Tissot lived nearby with his mistress Kitty Newton in the 1870s.

From 1923, it was home to actor-manager, stage director and author Malcolm Morley, who lived here at first with his widowed mother.  Their lodgers included opera singers, such as Heather Begg and Betty Hellawell, and the artist Molly Bernhard-Smith.  Malcolm Morley's widow lived at the house until her death in the 1990s. 

One of a terrace developed on the site of Sheffield House in the late 1850s, this property was first occupied by Sigismund Borkheim, a wine merchant and political activist.  His close friend Karl Marx was a frequent visitor.  Residents in the 1930s were script writer and film critic Patrick Mannock and his wife Laura.  As 'Sally Adair' she was the author of more than two dozen romantic novels.

The freehold was acquired in 1961 by the Church of England, and for more than thirty years the house served as the diocese headquarters and residence of the Bishop of Gibraltar, subsequently the Bishop in Europe.

This house, built in c.1844 on the Ladbroke estate, remained unlet for the first twelve years.  Early residents included solicitors, a physician, a hay merchant and a newspaper proprietor.

After the Second World War it was home to publisher and jazz critic Sinclair Traill, followed by the wildlife artist and conservationist Keith Shackleton and his family. 

Astonishingly, three close neighbours in the road were murdered.  The first in 1856, a solicitor, was killed by his deranged nephew.  A married couple - as it happens living in the solicitor's old house - were targeted in 1948 by John Haigh 'The Acid Bath Murderer'.

Early residents of this house built in c.1725 included a clergyman, a baronet and an Irish landowner with a propensity for duelling - followed for several years by a Clerk of the Papers at the House of Lords.  From the mid-19th century it was multi-occupied as the district declined.

In 1911 it was combined with the house next door by the Marquess and Marchioness of Ripon.  Still tiny by some standards, it was declared 'a real doll's house' by Queen Alexandra when she visited.  Theatrical impresario Hugh 'Binkie' Beaumont owned the double house for many years after the Second World War.  His legendary soirees included such as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Katherine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan and Cecil Beaton.  Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller stayed the night in 1956.

Built between 1860 and 1879, these streets of villas form one of the grandest and most consistent High Victorian Italianate residential developments in London.

The first resident of this house was the widow of a gunpowder manufacturer, who considerably improved the property, with no expense spared.  One of the improvements was a detached billiard room in the garden - now converted to a 3-bedroom house.  Her neighbours included the Greek merchant and art patron Alexander Constantine Ionides, Maharajah Duleep Singh (the last ruler of Lahore) and Count and Countess d'Aquila - who were spectacularly sued by their Parisian upholsterers for not paying their huge bill.  The resultant sale of the contents of the house lasted several days.

The house remained a single family residence until 1930 when it was converted to 'a rabbit warren of bed sitting rooms' as it was later described.

This house was built in the 1840s on the Ladbroke estate.  An early resident was Dr. John Doran, an Irish author and journalist, whose wide circle of friends included writers, such as William Makepeace Thackeray and Douglas Jerrold, and the painter William Powell Frith.  Other residents of the house included a merchant, a tea broker, a brewer and an auctioneer - the latter being burgled days after moving in.

From the 1930s for many years it was home to Blanche Ward, an early advocate and teacher of Christian Science.

Built in the 1850s, this street immediately proved popular with retired high-ranking army and naval officers, particularly those with Indian connections.  Others included merchants, and several artists and writers.  Randlord Harry Mosenthal, and Panaghi Vagliano 'The father of modern Greek shipping' both lived in the street.

Residents of this house included solicitors, and a civil engineer responsible for the railway network on the Isle of Man.  Another was the widow of a man who had made a fortune in the gold rush in South Africa.

Built mainly in the 1840s on the site of nursery gardens, this street became fashionable after the surplus funds from the 1851 Great Exhibition helped to create the new 'South Kensington' devoted to the promotion of the arts and sciences.  Residents of the house have varied from a valet to the 6th Duke of Rutland in the 1870s, advertising pioneer Arthur Greenly in the 1920s, and an Assistant Judge Advocate General in the 1960s.

From the early 1970s it was home to Myles Cooke, a former MI6 officer, and his wife Sandra but the marriage ended in divorce.  She owned the house for more than 35 years, in the meantime meeting her future husband at Harrod's Food Hall one day in 1985.  Her fellow shopper was the film director Sir David Lean, who was buying grapes.  Lean had just scored a significant triumph with A Passage to India.  She became his sixth and last wife.

This house was built in c.1857.  It was always intended for commercial use on the ground floor and was first occupied by a coffee house keeper.  It remained as coffee rooms until 1910, after which it was a dairy for fifty years, and then an antiques shop followed by a charity shop.

As early as the 1930s, however, Westminster City Council had ear-marked much of the immediate area for 'slum' clearance and the redevelopment of a new housing estate, removing the previous industrial and wharf developments.  Fortunately this house (just) escaped demolition.  It was converted to a single family dwelling, and the shopfront removed, in 1985.