Canonbury

Canonbury

A house built in 1821 and forming part of a terrace flanking Union Chapel.  From the mid-19th century the chapel was famous for its music and the congregation thought nothing of tackling the Hallelujah Chorus.  Fittingly a music master was the first owner and resident of this house.  After his death it was let by his family to a wide variety of people, including a German ship owner, and a retired lamp manufacturer who took a prominent - and corrupt - role in parish affairs and had a local road named after him.  Another colourful occupant, a keen gambler and racehorse owner, had a chain of tobacconists and oyster bars - the fast food of the day.  More recent residents were the actress Sally Miles and director Gavin Millar.

Notting Hill

Notting Hill

This house was built in c.1846 on the Ladbroke Estate.  Its first residents were a barrister, and later an army major who was charged with assault for defending the honour of his actress wife with a horsewhip.  In 1890 it was the home of German mathematician Olaus Henrici.  Residents in the 20th century included a wholesale leather dealer - a refugee from the Russian pogroms - and subsequently another refugee Jewish family from Vienna.  Neighbours were suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst who lived a few doors away with her adopted 'war babies'; prison reformer Margery Fry; and Danish soprano Engel Lund and her stage partner Ferdinand Rauter.

Marylebone

Marylebone

The Barley Mow in Dorset Street was built in c.1791 and is now the oldest surviving pub in Marylebone.  The interior retains its original matchboard panelling and, most notably, a pair of late 19th century panelled drinking boxes.  Private booths were once commonplace but are now an exceptionally rare survival.  They were compared at the time to the similar arrangement in pawnbrokers' shops, which was perhaps their inspiration.

In the first part of its history the Barley Mow was the centre of the local community, providing the venue for public meetings and inquests, illegal gambling and sweepstakes.  Its clientele has ranged over the years from guardsmen at the Life Guards stables in the 18th century, to a hardcore of swigging admakers from the nearby agencies in the 20th.  No doubt the pub was the cause of much annoyance in the 19th century to Charles Babbage, the 'father of computing' who lived and worked a few doors away and loathed street music and noise.

South Kensington

South Kensington

This magnificent stucco-faced house, designed by George Basevi and built in 1833 on the site of nursery gardens, was at first considered almost in the country.  The crescent was soon home to some eminent residents, including the French Prime Minister, Francois Guizot, who was forced to flee with his family by the revolution of 1848.  Another neighbour was Edward John Trelawny, the writer, adventurer and companion of Byron and Shelley.

In the 20th century popular actress Lilian Braithwaite lived next door with her daughter Joyce Carey.  Other residents included actor-manager Nigel Playfair; dramatist Emlyn Williams; Margot Fonteyn; author Eric Ambler; and publisher Max Reinhardt.

Spitalfields

Spitalfields

This house was built in 1721 and, like much of the rest of the street, was first occupied by a weaver.  The owner of the property was a popular and controversial doctor, probably responsible for introducing the condom to London as a means to prevent 'the secret disease'.  A minister of a local Huguenot church was a later resident, followed by several people in the beer trade when the house was owned by a partner of Truman's.  From the mid-19th century increasing numbers of Jewish refugees moved to Spitalfields and the house became multi-occupied with a family on each floor.  During the First World War it was home to Rabbi Abraham Kook, one of the most influential rabbis of the 20th century, who subsequently became the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine.

Kensington

Kensington

Built in 1859 on the site of a Georgian mansion called Sheffield House, this house was first occupied by the builder's father-in-law, a prosperous copper-plate printer.  It was later the home of church architect William Kedo Broder, who died falling between the carriage and platform at Westbourne Park station when trying to board a train.  A dashing RAF officer, Mungo Buxton, lived here in the 1950s.  He designed various single-seat sailplanes and was largely responsible for the first British troop-carrying glider.

A near neighbour was Admiral Nicholas Wolkoff, one-time ADC to Tsar Nicholas and the last Imperial Russian naval attache.  He opened the Russian Tea Room in South Kensington, a place frequented by White Russians and where members of the secret society, the Right Club, used to meet.

Marylebone

Marylebone

This house was built in 1776 in a street which now forms the core of Marylebone's private medical quarter.  One of the early residents was Admiral the Hon Thomas Pakenham.  Another, who had retired from the East India Company, in 1813 spent nearly as much on decorating the house as he did buying it - the list of expenditure survives.  A few doors away was the home and virtual prison of poet Elizabeth Barrett who eloped with Robert Browning in 1846.

But from the early days the street was the home of medical men, including Sir Frederick Treves, friend of the 'Elephant Man'; and Arthur Conan Doyle in his days as an ophthalmic practitioner.  When this house was the home and practice of Dr. Richard Asher, Paul McCartney moved into a top floor room for three years.  Several of the Beatles' songs were written in the basement music room, including I Want to Hold Your Hand, Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday.

Primrose Hill

Primrose Hill

Part of a glorious terrace of Italianate villas by Henry Bassett, this house was built c.1842 and home to several merchants and a small school in the mid-19th century.  Poor Mrs. Charles Dickens spent the last twenty years of her life opposite after separating from her husband - when she left, never to see her husband again, she was allowed to take with her only their eldest child.

In the 20th century neighbours included Walter Sickert, a prominent member of the Camden Town group of painters, who also took a keen interest in the Jack the Ripper case.  From the early 1960s the crescent became a celebrated nerve-centre for liberal intellectuals, artists, writers and journalists. These included Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett (and 'the lady in the van'), Claire Tomalin, Ursula Vaughan Williams and jazz musician George Melly.

Regents Park

Regents Park

Designed by John Nash as part of his plan to develop the Crown lands into the fashionable residential estate of Regent's Park - this house was built c.1825.  A prosperous stone merchant and paving contractor, John Mowlem, was the first tenant whose company was to become one of the largest in the country.  Other residents included a lady who experienced a strange psychic occurrence at the house in 1856; Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans, chief international labour advisor to the Government; and French horn virtuoso Barry Tuckwell.

Mendelssohn, Dickens, Darwin and Gerald du Maurier all spent periods in neighbouring houses, as well as 'Mrs Aria' - gossip columnist and long-term lover of actor Henry Irving. 

South Kensington

South Kensington

Built in the early 1840s on the site of nursery gardens, this house is part of a square designed by George Basevi.  The area became highly 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.

Early tenants of the house included a Major-General and an Admiral, and another in 1868 whose caretaker - a music hall actress - comprehensively stripped the house when it was left in her care. She was arrested wearing one of her mistress's best silk dresses.  During the 1960s the house was owned by the diplomat Sir Peter Wakefield and later by Prince and Princess Yuri Galitzine.  Wild parties were thrown in a neighbouring house by the flamboyant theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, whose guests regularly included John Lennon, Germaine Greer, Vanessa Redgrave and Roman Polanski.  One evening Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon watched risque movies there with Harold Pinter and Peter Cook.

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