Development of the Estate
By the late eighteenth century the larger (western) portion
of the Trevor estate had been divided into two parts, comprising Powis House and its grounds and, to the west, a
field with a workshop used for manufacturing floorcloth.
The two parts were developed at different times, and much
of the dividing-line between them is preserved in the present-day property divisions, along the boundaries between
the houses on the west side of Trevor Street and Trevor
Square and those on the east side of Trevor Place. It is presumably their separate development that accounts for the
attenuated shape of Trevor Square (fig. 28). Both phases of
development were handled by the same man, the architect
William Fuller Pocock (1779–1849), the work being completed after his death by his son, William Willmer Pocock.
W. F. Pocock's professional involvement with the development of the Trevor estate seems to have begun about
1810, when he advised Lord Dungannon to pull down
Powis House and lay out the ground for building, procuring reports from Philip Hardwick and others 'in confirming of his own views'. (ref. 12)
(fn. b) His plan was roughly symmetrical:
an axial street leading off the Kensington road and opening
out into a narrow 'square'. The south side of the square
formed part of Arthur Street, a cross-street communicating with an old trackway (subsequently Lancelot Place)
running northwards from the Brompton road. The
remaining spaces, on the south and east sides of the estate,
were set aside for other buildings, chiefly small cottages
and a chapel. There was no mews as such, but there was
some stabling at the back of the western part of Trevor Terrace, the line of houses built fronting the Kensington road.
Work on laying out the Powis House grounds started in
1811, when the old house was demolished, but the development proceeded slowly. Building began at either end of
the estate, with the first houses in Trevor Terrace and some
smaller houses in Arthur Street. Few houses were completed before 1820, and it was not until about 1827 that the
last were finished. By that time the redevelopment of the
floorcloth factory site was also in progress, and there the
work turned out to be even more protracted. It was still
incomplete at the time of W. F. Pocock's death in 1849.
The Trevor estate development was to a very great
extent Pocock's own creation and took up much of his time
for some years, as his son later recalled. In addition to
designing the layout he was responsible, at least in general
terms, for the appearance of all the new buildings, and he
carried out parts of the development as his own speculation, later expressing regret that he had not taken on the
whole. On the Powis House grounds, his 'take' was limited
to Trevor Terrace, Arthur Street, and a few other houses
including No. 1 Trevor Square; for the second phase of
development, on the western part of the estate, he did take
every house-plot himself. (ref. 14)
Trevor Terrace
Trevor Terrace was the collective name given to the two
markedly different rows of houses fronting the Kensington
road on either side of the present Trevor Street (fig. 28). Of
the ten houses eventually built here, the earliest, now Nos
237 and 239 Knightsbridge, were finished and occupied by
1813. No. 235, and five houses to the east of Trevor Street
(all now demolished) followed in 1818–21. (ref. 15) The demolition of the old floorcloth factory, which adjoined the present No. 239 on the west, provided space for two more
houses to be added to the row. Pocock took out agreements
for building these two (and No. 2 Trevor Place) in 1823, but
they were not completed until the late 1820s. They are now
No. 241 Knightsbridge and No. 1 Trevor Place (Hill
House). (ref. 16)
As well as being the developer of Trevor Terrace, Pocock
had his own residence there. He first occupied the corner
house in the east range, later No. 233 Knightsbridge, living
there from 1817 until c. 1828, when he moved to its counterpart in the west range, now No. 1 Trevor Place (then No.
1 Hill Street). (ref. 17) The builder of the terrace, or part of it at
least, was the bricklayer Thomas Emmins of Chelsea, to
whom, or to whose nominees, Pocock sublet two of the
houses. (ref. 18)
Figure 29:
No. 31 Trevor Square, elevation, plans and details. Thomas Allen, building lessee, c. 1825–7
The houses in the surviving, western, half of Trevor
Terrace – the product of three phases of construction – are
tall and substantial, with front gardens of appreciable
depth (Plate 55a). The first three (Nos 235–239) were
designed as a more or less balanced group, the middle
house flat-fronted and the outer two with bows. The later
two houses have front bay windows, of a different pattern.
In contrast, the houses forming the eastern range had no
front gardens and were all flat-fronted (although the original intention does appear to have been for a corresponding
mixture of bowed and flat fronts). (ref. 19)
The physical difference between the halves of the terrace came to be matched by differences in use and social
status. Before many years had passed the eastern half had
lost its residential character, becoming drawn into the racy
and increasingly disreputable ambience of the High Road.
Nos 1 and 2 became shops, as did No. 3, after many years
in the occupation of surgeons, and in 1844 Nos 4 and 5
Trevor Terrace were converted into a public house, the
Trevor Tavern, later the Trevor Arms, at the back of which
a music-hall was built in the 1850s (see below). (ref. 20)
In 1911 Nos 1, 2, and 3 (by then Nos 225–229 Knightsbridge) were pulled down by J. C. Humphreys, the purchaser of the Trevor estate. It was announced in August
1914 that bachelor flats were to be built on the site, to
designs by Messrs Palgrave and Partners, but the scheme
was not carried out, presumably on account of the war. (ref. 21)
Four years later Humphreys used the vacant ground for a
western extension to Knightsbridge Hall (see page 88). Its
site, together with that of the Trevor Arms and the musichall, is now covered by part of Mercury House.
Figure 30:
Nos 1–9 Caroline Place, 1820–2, ground-floor plans. Demolished
The western range of Trevor Terrace retained its residential character, becoming the most select part of the
estate. After W. F. Pocock's death, his son W. W. Pocock
continued to reside at No. 1 Trevor Place until the 1860s. (ref. 22)
The back drawing-room in this house had 'a great deal of
wood carving around the walls', possibly some of the oak
work acquired by the elder Pocock from Wanstead House,
Essex (pulled down in 1824), which he is said to have incorporated into the building. (ref. 23) No. 1 Trevor Place and the
other surviving houses have been variously altered, the
chief external change being the full stuccoing of the front
at No. 239 Knightsbridge.
Past residents of Trevor Terrace include: Francis
Augustus Bonney, surgeon and contributor of verse to the
European Magazine and other journals (No. 3, later No.
229 Knightsbridge, c. 1847–57); Jonathan Thomas Carr,
founder of Bedford Park (No. 7, now No. 237 Knightsbridge, 1870s); and Tristram Ellis, artist and traveller (No.
8, now No. 239 Knightsbridge, 1890s).
Trevor Square and Trevor Street
Development in Trevor Square and Trevor Street (called
Charles Street until 1936) was slow to take off. In 1816 John
Souter, a bricklayer, leased a plot for houses on the east side
of the square, at the south end, with a chapel at the back on
the corner of Arthur Street and Lancelot Place. A plan
with Souter's lease suggests that the square was then envisaged as laid out with the houses arranged in semi-detached
pairs. (ref. 24) Trevor Chapel was duly completed later in the year,
but no houses were built, and when work on the square
began in earnest in about 1818 or 1819 the semi-detached
arrangement had given way to standard terraces. Leases of
new houses forming the east side of the square north of
Souter's ground were granted between December 1819
and July 1821, one to a Chelsea bricklayer, James Binns,
and the rest to nominees of the elder James Bonnin, the
carpenter-builder responsible for much building in Brompton and Chelsea during the 1820s and '30s. Leases of five
houses went to Lancelot Edward Wood, a stonemason,
who, like Bonnin, was active elsewhere on the estate. (ref. 25)
The first houses to be completed in Trevor Square
appear to have been Nos 9 and 10 on the east side, and No.
17, part of W. F. Pocock's own 'take' along Arthur Street,
which were first rated and inhabited in 1819. The rest of
the east side (including the five houses, Nos 12–16, on
Souter's plot) had been completed and was largely occupied by 1821; the remainder of the south side followed by
1823. (ref. 26)
Leases of the three southernmost houses on the west
side were granted during this period to Wood and another
of Bonnin's nominees, (ref. 27) but only one house (No. 25) seems
to have been completed at the time, the other two not being
finished until about 1826. The remainder of the west side
was completed c. 1825–7. (ref. 28) So far as is known, neither Bonnin nor Wood was involved in these slightly later houses,
the leases of which were mostly made direct to various
tradespeople. Two were leased by direction of Thomas
Allen, a carpenter of High Street, Kensington, who himself took two houses on lease. (ref. 29)
The first and last houses numbered in the square are the
end houses at the bottom of Trevor Street. No. 1 was first
rated and occupied in 1823, No. 38 in the following year. (ref. 30)
Building in Trevor Street began about 1819. No. 5
appears to have been the first house to be occupied, in 1821,
and the rest of the street was finished and fully occupied a
couple of years later. (ref. 31) Thomas Emmins was involved in the
building of some of these houses, and one was leased to
another bricklayer, William Bennett of Soho. (ref. 32) Pocock took
a lease on the last three houses on the east side (Nos 7 and
8 and No. 1 Trevor Square), together with an L-shaped
plot adjoining on which were subsequently built cottages
in Caroline Place and a range of four houses which became
known as Petwin Place (fig. 28). (ref. 33)
Caroline Place was a row of dwellings of the most basic
description (fig. 30). Originally known as Emmins Place, it
was built by Thomas Emmins and another Chelsea bricklayer, Charles Hawkins, in 1820–2. (ref. 34) In 1889–90 both
Caroline Place and Petwin Place were pulled down and
incorporated into the site of a new tennis court for the nearby Prince's Club (see Plate 57b).
The architecture of Trevor Street and Trevor Square is
characteristic of the late Georgian to Regeney period, and,
though engaging – as long ago as 1909 The Times spoke of
the square's 'old world charm' (ref. 35) – calls for little comment.
The houses are of standard side-passage plan, and built of
yellow brick with gauged window-heads and channelled
stucco to the ground-floor fronts. Their only external decorative features are patterned fanlights and balconies
(fig. 29. Plates 55b, 55c, 56a, 56b). While some mansards have
been added and rear wings reconstructed, the houses
remain essentially unaltered in their outward appearance.
The notable exception is No. 38 Trevor Square, much
enlarged and embellished with stuccowork some time
before the First World War (Plate 55d). (ref. 36) Indoors, some
houses retain their original door-frames and matching
wooden chimney pieces of a pattern similar to one shown in
W. F. Pocock's Modern furnishings for rooms of 1811 (fig. 29).
Trevor Lodge, on the west side of Trevor Street, is
entirely new, a neo-Regency essay of 1990 by John Green,
a restorer of period houses.
The most famous past resident of Trevor Square is the
courtesan Harriette Wilson, who lived at No. 16 from 1828
to about 1830, a few years after the publication of her celebrated Memoirs. Her novel Clara Gazal (1831) was probably written at the house.
Figure 31:
Soldiers' Dwellings, Trevor Street, 1890–92, ground-floor plan. Demolished
Inhabitants of the square before the First World War
included several artists, among them George Fripp (No.
10, 1841); Claude Langlois (No. 24, 1840s), John Swindles
(No. 20, 1861) and Westley Horton (No. 30, 1880s–90s); a
sculptor, Thomas McCarthy (No. 22, 1881); a comedian,
Richard Leggett, and his vocalist wife Emma (No. 1, 1871),
and a 'dramatic writer', William Brownlow (No. 32,
1840s–60s). Later occupants include the novelist Radelyffe
Hall and her companion Lady Troubridge (No. 7), Leon
Quartermaine, actor (No. 4), and the playwright Ben
Travers (No. 10).
Past residents of Trevor Street include John Chapman
Mathews, artist (No. 16), and the architect Herbert Osborn
Cresswell (No. 12).
Arthur Street
Development in Arthur Street began a little earlier than in
Trevor Square. On 1 July 1812 Daniel Pontifex of Holborn, mercer, took out an agreement with Lord Dungannon to build four houses there, but within a few days he had
transferred the agreement to W. F. Pocock. About a year
later Pocock obtained leases on three plots comprising the
entire south side of the street (including the south side of
the square and the sites of two back courts, Cottage Place
and Trevor Place). It was not until about 1815, however,
that the first four houses appeared, and not until the early
1820s that the majority of these plots was built up. The
easternmost house became a pub in the 1840s, the Earl
Grey. (ref. 37) Censuses show this part of the estate to have been
mainly working-class throughout the Victorian period
(though the larger houses at Nos 17–22 Trevor Square
seem to have retained a generally higher-class character
until the mid-century).
On the north side of the street, at the corner with
Lancelot Place, stood the Trevor Chapel, built in 1816 for
an Independent congregation led by Dr John Morison,
who had resigned as minister of Union Chapel in Sloane
Street, following differences of opinion there. Pending the
opening of the new chapel, in December 1816, Smith &
Baber's floorcloth factory provided a temporary meetingplace. The builder was a member of the congregation, John
Souter, to whom the site, together with ground for houses
in Trevor Square, had been leased some months earlier. (ref. 38)
(ref. 39)
The chapel was greatly enlarged during the 1830s, and
in 1840 schoolrooms were added at the top of the building,
when funds were also raised for the intended purchase of
the property (though this was evidently not accomplished).
Among the donations received was £300 from the developer Seth Smith. (ref. 40) A gallery was later installed, perhaps
during alterations in 1865. (ref. 41)
Trevor Chapel (latterly Trevor Congregational Church)
closed about 1902, in which year the building was taken
over by Harrods and converted for use as a showroom and
garage for motor-carriages and accessories. It was later
used as a warehouse until its demolition in the early 1950s. (ref. 42)
All the old houses on the south side of Arthur Street
were swept away about 1913 for the building of a large
warehouse and factory for Harrods. The name was
abolished in 1918, since when the whole street has been
regarded as forming the south side of Trevor Square.
Lancelot Place (west side)
Lancelot Place takes its name from Lancelot Edward
Wood, the stonemason involved in the development of
houses in Trevor Square. The roadway itself originated as
a driftway from the Brompton road to the back of the Rose
and Crown on the Kensington road, and dates back to the
eighteenth century or earlier.
The southern end was taken up by the Trevor Chapel,
the site of which was redeveloped in 1953 with a row of
neo-Georgian houses designed by Jack E. Dalling, LRIBA
(Plate 58b). (ref. 43)
North of the chapel, Lancelot Place was built up with
small cottages and shops c. 1819–20, much of it being
included in leases of houses on the east side of the square. (ref. 44)
None of these survive, and this part of the street is now
occupied by post-war houses and lock-up garages, the most
recent building being Lancelot House at the north end
(1995, by the Halpern Partnership). (ref. 45)
Soldiers' Dwellings, Trevor Street (demolished)
At the back of the Trevor Arms in Trevor Terrace a small
block of flats was built about 1890, on the site previously
occupied by the Trevor Music Hall, and subsequently
adapted as married quarters for soldiers from Knightsbridge Barracks.
The music hall, first licensed in 1854, was the westernmost of several such places of popular entertainment which
flourished in early to mid-Victorian Knightsbridge. With
galleries on three sides, the hall could seat 800. (ref. 46)
Figure 32:
Nos 11–23 Trevor Place, typical elevation. W. F. Pocock, architect, 1840–3
Figure 33:
Nos 3–8 Trevor Place, typical elevation. W. F. Pocock, architect, 1844–5
A reconstruction on a grander scale, to designs by J. W.
Brooker, was planned in 1889 but did not go forward,
apparently because Lord Trevor was not willing to grant a
new lease for such a purpose. The following year the landlord of the Trevor Arms, George Young, did obtain a new
lease of the site, which he redeveloped as flats (soon let to
the War Office), with a basement billiard-room communicating with the pub though under separate management. (ref. 47)
The six-storey block was built of red brick with stone
dressings: bay windows were added to the upper floors in
1892 by the War Office. Except on the top (mansard) floor,
where a communal laundry and wash-house were situated,
each level was divided into four apartments, of three or four
rooms (fig. 31). (ref. 48)
The building was demolished after the Second World
War for the Mercury House development.
Trevor Place
The planning of Hill Street (renamed Trevor Place in
1936) dates back to about 1822, when W. F. Pocock began
work on the replacement of Smith & Baber's floorcloth factory, which then stood towards the north end of a large
enclosure on the west side of the estate (immediately west
of the present No. 239 Knightsbridge). But it was only in
1827, when additional land was acquired from the neighbouring landowner, T. W. Marriott, that the present layout
became possible. The extra ground allowed houses to be
built on the west side of the street south of the new factory.
As part of the deal, Marriott was able to join his roadway at
the top of Montpelier Square to the new street, thus connecting his estate, which he was then in the process of
developing, with the Kensington road. (ref. 49)
Although by 1828 building agreements had been made
for houses all along the east side of Hill Street, only two
houses were built there at this time, both on leases to W. F.
Pocock under an agreement of 1823: these were No. 1
Trevor Place (see under Trevor Terrace above) and No. 2
(otherwise known as Hill Street House). A wide-fronted,
shallow house, No. 2 was built adjoining some stables, now
enlarged or rebuilt as dwellings, at the rear of the large plot
occupied by No. 1. Nothing further was built until about
1840, presumably as a consequence of the general slump in
the building trades in the late 1820s and '30s.
All the remaining plots were let to Pocock in a series of
leases made between 1840 and 1843, but several houses had
yet to be erected by the time of his death in 1849; they were
completed by his son William Willmer Pocock. Building
began with the south-eastern range (Nos 10–24). Four
houses were standing, two of them occupied, by 1840, and
the rest were completed by 1843. The northern range (Nos
3–9) was built in 1844–5, but was not fully occupied until
the early 1850s. Of the south-western range, Nos 29–35
and the corner house were first rated in 1847; the last four
houses, Nos 25–28, were completed but as yet uninhabited
in 1852. (ref. 50) The corner house, formerly No. 36 Hill Street, is
now numbered 45 Montpelier Square.
Although the earlier houses on the Trevor estate were
apparently built of bricks made on site, some at least of
those in Hill Street were constructed with bricks made by
the Pococks at their brickfield in Battersea. This had been
bought by W. F. Pocock in 1844, with the aim of cashing in
on the brick shortage caused by the rush to complete buildings in the London suburbs before the new Building Act
(with its revised definition of the metropolitan area) came
into force. (ref. 51)
Stylistically, the 1840s and '50s houses in Trevor Place
show how architectural fashion had moved on since Trevor
Square was built (Plates 56c, 57a; figs 32–3). Semi-circular
fanlights have given way to plain rectangles, unadorned
window openings with gauged heads to stuccoed surrounds, and there are thick stucco cornices along the parapets. The three ranges are not identically treated: the taller
end houses in the southern half of the street, for instance,
have the additional emphasis of cursorily defined giant
pilaster orders. On the northern terrace the houses have
full-width balconies, while those to the south have only
minimal iron enclosures to each window.
Former residents of Trevor Place include: Henry Whittaker, artist (No. 14, late 1840s); Charles Digby Harrod,
son of the founder of Harrods, largely responsible for the
firm's expansion from the 1860s (No. 2, 1860s–70s); the
composer Constant Lambert (No. 10, late 1930s), the
architect and designer Felix Harbord (No. 1, 1940s–50s),
and the novelist Henry Green (No. 16, 1940s–50s).