CHAPTER I - Brompton Road: Introduction
As an official name, ‘Brompton Road’ did not exist until
1863. (fn. a) It now denotes the portion of the old highway from
London to Fulham stretching south-westwards from
Knightsbridge as far as Pelham Street, beyond which it
becomes Fulham Road. But until 1935 Brompton Road
extended only as far as the junction with Thurloe Place
(opposite the Brompton Oratory); after this, Fulham Road
began.’ (ref. 1)
Today the broad arterial Cromwell Road seems a more
logical westward continuation of Brompton Road than the
relatively tranquil offshoot between the Oratory and
Pelham Street. But before 1855 there was no Cromwell
Road, (ref. 2) while not till after 1939 did West Cromwell Road
connect with Hammersmith via Talgarth Road and so
provide a major thoroughfare between London and the
west. Cromwell Road's construction, coinciding with the
main period of building development in South Kensington
and Earl's Court, made Brompton Road into one of the
busiest highways of the capital and contributed to the
bustling commercial identity that it enjoys today.
Nevertheless there was always much traffic on the old
turnpike road, which linked London not only with Little
Chelsea and Fulham but also (via Putney Bridge) with
parts of Surrey as well, and which from 1726 to 1826
was maintained by the Kensington Turnpike Trustees.
Anciently, the eastern end of this highway was known
indiscriminately as the road to Fulham or the road to
Brompton. The name ‘Brompton’, now used loosely, then
applied most precisely to the settlement which lay westwards of what is now South Kensington Station, just off
the turnpike road along the lane to Earl's Court. This lane,
generally called Brompton Lane or Bell and Horns Lane,
diverged from the main road at the Bell and Horns, an inn
sited opposite the Orator, where Empire House now
stands. After the frontages of Brompton Road nearer
London had been built up, the original nucleus of
Brompton became known as Old Brompton and Brompton
Lane as Old Brompton Road—which name survives
today except in the short stretch east of South Kensington
Station, where its line is represented by Thurloe Place.
Before 1863 therefore, ‘Brompton Road’ was in general
an unofficial term, usually to be construed as meaning the
part of the Fulham turnpike road connecting Knightsbridge with Brompton Lane and thus with Old Brompton. (fn. b) As with other main roads out of London, the different developments along its length had separate names and
numbers, which were not abolished until 1863.
Brompton Road before Development
The ancient parish boundaries of Kensington enclosed a
thin corridor encompassing the whole of Brompton Road
up to Knightsbridge Green on the north, and up to the
lane later to become Sloane Street on the south. On
neither side of the road was the hinterland within the
parish of much depth behind the frontages. Northwards,
extending to Knightsbridge and its continuation to the old
village of Kensington, was an outlying portion of the parish
of St. Margaret's, Westminster; on the south side lay the
parish of Chelsea. (fn. c) But these administrative divisions did
not coincide especially well with property boundaries at the
time of first development. On the south side one major
freeholder, the trustees of Smith's Charity, held lands both
in Kensington and in Chelsea, while on the north side the
boundary between Kensington and St. Margaret's, Westminster, divided another freehold of some antiquity, that
of the Tathams and later of the Moreaus.
Until 1760 no special development had occurred on
either side of the turnpike road. The character of the land
was generally speaking horticultural. Since Brompton like
much of Kensington was excellent nursery ground, it was
intensively cultivated. Nurserymen, some very prosperous,
feature often in early property transactions in the district,
the most celebrated being Henry Wise of Brompton Park
Nursery. (ref. 3) A surviving inventory of 1760 lists the effects of
David Anderson, nurseryman, who tended lands in the
region of the modem Beaufort Gardens, Beauchamp Place
and Ovington Square; it evokes an air of quaint, rustic
cottage life at Brompton which was then soon to be
broken. (ref. 4) Another deed of 1763 concerning the garden of
Sir Thomas Dyer (where Ovington Square now stands)
requires the lessee, John Hooper, gardener, to reserve
annually for Sir Thomas and his wife a peck of apples, a
peck of pears and a quantity of cherries and plums, ‘the
best and choicest fruit and produce of two hundred
standard trees growing or to grow on the said demised
premises’. (ref. 5)
Figure 1:
Principal estates along Brompton Road discussed in Chapters I–III. Based on the Ordnance Survey of 1862–72. The solid line
represents the boundary of the ancient parish of Kensington, the broken line shows estate divisions, and the dotted line shows estate divisions, and the dotted line and the dotted line shows boundaries
of the London boroughs between 1900 and 1964. The street names given are those of the 1860's, while the house numbers are those
generally in use since that period.
Interspersed between these walled nursery gardens were
occasional cottages and, more particularly, frequent hostelries
of the type that dotted the main thoroughfares
around London. These grew commoner as the road
approached Knightsbridge, a district well known in the
early eighteenth century, not to say notorious, for its inns.
Several of these clustered around the major junction next
to Knightsbridge Green where the roads from Fulham and
from Kensington met: the Swan, sited roughly on the
present corner of Brompton Road and Sloane Street; the
World's End (later the Fulham Bridge), set back from the
north side of the road between Knightsbridge Green and
what is now Lancelot Place; and the Rose or Rose and
Crown, an important coaching inn facing Knightsbridge
proper and therefore not in Kensington. By 1760 several
further houses had been built around this junction, most of
them in St. Margaret's parish, while Knightsbridge eastwards between here and Hyde Park Corner was beginning
to attract ribbon development. Further west along Brompton Road, the main inn was the Bell and Horns at the
corner of Brompton Road and Brompton Lane.
Early Development
With striking simultaneity, development commenced in
about 1763–4 at several points along both sides of the
eastern part of Brompton Road, as far as Yeoman's Row
on the south and Brompton Square on the north. The
coincidence tallies precisely with a well-attested building
boom in London, but it is the worthier of remark because
it took place on three separate freeholds and on one large
tract of copyhold land.
The landholdings along Brompton Road were at the
time quite fragmented (fig. 1). On the south side, proceeding westwards from what is now Sloane Street, the first
holding was that of William Browne: his eleven acres of
copyhold land are now represented along the frontage by
Nos. 1–159 (odd) Brompton Road, with a depth to the
parish boundary a little to the north of the present Basil
Street and Walton Place. There followed three small
freeholds, now covered respectively by the sites of
Beaufort Gardens, Beauchamp Place and Ovington
Square, before the extensive properties of the trustees of
Smith's Charity began west of Yeoman's Row. On the
north side of Brompton Road, the whole frontage westwards from Knightsbridge Green as far as what is now
Cheval Place, with a sizeable holding behind in both
Kensington and St. Margaret's, Westminster, was until
1754 in a single freehold ownership, latterly that of the
Moreau family. West of this large property, where Brompton Square, Holy Trinity Church and the Oratory now
stand, was a twelve-acre site which until 1749 was held as a
single copyhold. Beyond the Bell and Horns began what
was to become the Alexander estate, whose frontage to
Brompton Road extended as far as what is now the south
end of Alexander Square; after this came further lands of
Smith's Charity. These last estates are discussed in detail
in subsequent chapters.
The development of the 1760's was preceded by a small
flurry of property transactions on these lands. Of these, the
most important was the sale at auction in 1759 and ensuing
break-up of the large estate of the Moreaus along the
north side of the road. The largest purchaser, Elisha
Biscoe, was a lawyer practised in speculation and connected by family with the Brownes and Braces who owned
much property hereabouts (see fig. 2 on page 11). In
conjunction with Thomas Rawstorne, ironmonger, Biscoe
from 1764 undertook ribbon development all along the
frontage between the present Lancelot Place and Cheval
Place. Some of the original houses of Biscoe's Buildings
(later Brompton Row) survive, albeit in much altered
condition. A proprietary chapel behind the houses in
Rawstorne (now Montpelier) Street provided Brompton
with its first place of worship, which was not to be supplemented until Holy Trinity Church was built in 1826–9.
On the south side of the road, the frontage of William
Browne's copyhold estate was developed from 1764 under
the auspices of two main builders, Joseph Clark(e) and
William Meymott. Besides the several terraces built along
the main road here (known most generally as Queen's
Buildings) were some side streets and courts, among them
Queen's Gardens (later obliterated by Harrods) and
Queen Street (now Hans Road). The whole of the frontage up to the present No. 159 Brompton Road was by no
means completed when the building boom faded in about
1770, so that development dribbled on here until the early
1790's. West of Browne's land was a small three-and-a-half-acre
freehold (where Beaufort Gardens now stands);
this was bought in 1763 by Thomas Smith, musical instrument maker, and promptly developed with a short terrace
facing the main road called Brompton Grove. The last and
perhaps most interesting of these early developments came
a little further west, on the site of Ovington Gardens and
Square and the cast side of Yeoman's Row, all then the
freehold of Sir Thomas Dyer. Here from 1765 a terrace
arose along Yeoman's Row, but facing Brompton Road
three sizeable detached houses were built by William
Southall, carpenter.
Excepting Southall's Buildings, these early developments of the 1760's were almost all orthodox houses in
long or short terraces. Those facing the turnpike road
tended to have long front gardens to shield them from dust
and noise; these were reduced almost to nothing later on
by road-widenings and the growth of single-storey shops
in front of old houses. But at first few of these houses
functioned as shops. They were good-class homes taking
advantage of Brompton's reputation for good air and salubrity. The smaller dwellings and workshops were concentrated on William Browne's land in the back courts and
streets, which in the nineteenth century were to degenerate.
For half a century from 1770, much of the new building
along Brompton Road consisted of modest infilling and
completion. On the north, a handful of new houses were
built in about 1777–80 and 1794–6 east of Lancelot Place,
on ground close to the Fulham Bridge tavern. Opposite,
Henry Holland between about 1781 and 1791 helped finish
development on William Browne's estate, laying out New
Street (now the northern end of Hans Crescent) and completing Queen Street (Hans Road) so as to allow good
communication between Brompton Road and his personal
undertaking of Hans Town at the northern tip of Chelsea
(Plate 3). The effect of Hans Town and its later outliers
within the large Cadogan estate in northern Chelsea upon
the district of Brompton Road was in the long term great.
Some of those who worked in Brompton when building on a
large scale recommenced in the 1820s were based in
Chelsea or had connexions with Holland and his circle.
Further, the strategic position of Knightsbridge and
Brompton Road in relation to fashionable addresses like
Cadogan Place and Hans Place was to make them a magnet
for shopping and aid in the growth of stores like Harrods.
One important development did occur along the south
side of Brompton Road at the end of the eighteenth century,
this was the construction between about 1785 and 1800 of
Michael's Place, Michael's Grove and Brompton Crescent
on Smith's Charity land west of Yeoman's Row. The
brainchild of the theatre architect Michael Novosielski, it
was probably more ambitious in terms of design than anything previously built in the locality. But little is known of its
appearance, and the crescent was completed after Novosielski's
death in 1795. It was certainly no success financially. Yet it may have been this development which first attracted theatrical and musical personalities to Brompton, their
suburb par excellence for much of the ensuing century.
The Growth of ‘New Brompton’
A survey made by Joseph Salway in 1811 to show drainage
along the turnpike road to Fulham well records the appearance of ‘New Brompton’ (as the district was sometimes now
called to distinguish it from Old Brompton further west)
just before a new wave of building occurred (Plates 4, 5).
The houses along the north side of Brompton Road are all
shown in elevation; most have good gardens, some with
trees, and few as yet are shops. Shortly after this, in the
boom of the 1820's, the buildings became denser and the
character of ribbon development began to be lost. On the
south side, Grove (now Beauchamp) Place filled up the gap
between Brompton Grove and Southall's Buildings, though
it progressed slowly at first. On the north side there was
more activity, anticipated by nine houses built between 1818
and 1824 close to Knightsbridge Green (later Nos. 42–58
Brompton Road). West of this, the back lands behind
Brompton Row were developed at the same time as Trevor
Square and Montpelier Square were going up in St.
Margaret's parish, while in Kensington proper Brompton
Square was started in 1821. Beyond the Bell and Horns,
Alexander Square and the surrounding streets were laid out
from 1826, and on Smith's Charity land, Onslow Terrace
was the precursor of larger developments to follow in the
1830's. The principals in these several undertakings were
closely linked. The central figure was James Bonnin, a
builder involved at Trevor Square, Brompton Square,
Alexander Square, Onslow Terrace and Grove Place; his
career is given in some detail on pages 61 and 101.
In 1826–9 ‘New Brompton’ acquired its own church in
the shape of Holy Trinity, just west of Brompton Square.
The suburb by now boasted some coherence, individuality
and prosperity. A directory of 1827–8 lists altogether a
hundred ‘nobility, gentry and clergy’ inhabiting Queen's
Buildings, Brompton Grove, Brompton Square (as yet
unfinished) and Brompton Row; of these, forty-three lived
in Brompton Row. (ref. 6) Tradesmen and craftsmen were concentrated particularly in Queen's Buildings. Several ‘professors’ and teachers, two attorneys and a scattering of
journalists and minor writers made their homes in Brompton at this period. But the most distinctive inhabitants were
musicians and actors, especially comedians, whose genial
presence enlivened the district well into the late Victorian
era (see Appendix).
In the 1830's and ‘40’s the Brompton Road district,
though engulfed now in the broader development of London, remained prosperous and residentially desirable.
Canvassing for a new parish school in 1841, the vicar of
Holy Trinity wrote: ‘Brompton will never, 1 am persuaded,
require poor schools for more than 300 children. The
neighbourhood increases in respectability, as well as
numbers: and two squares are projected which will take
away a large number of our present back streets.’ (ref. 7) Though
this last remark betrays concern for improvement, the new
developments of Ovington Square and Thurloe Square
did not touch the area most in need of reform, around
New Street. Ovington Square and Terrace (1844–52)
however, in superseding Southall's Buildings, set the
pattern for later building, namely reconstruction with
shops facing the main road and houses behind.
In 1844 a local antiquarian, T. Crofton Croker, perambulated the whole turnpike road and published an amiable,
illustrated account of what he saw in Fraser's Magazine
(ref. 8)
Afterwards collected as A walk from London to Fulham (1860), his essays afford a clear picture of the
Brompton and Fulham Roads shortly before commerce took
a dominating hold of the main frontages. Another celebrant
of the locality's charms at this period, W. Carew Hazlitt
(grandson of the essayist), regretted from the vantage-point
of the 1890's the vanished Brompton of his youth, and
particularly Old Brompton, ‘the ancient mansions which
abounded there, the historical sites or records, the fine
residences in grounds, the market gardens, and, best of all,
the old Vale’, (fn. d) all of which had given place to ‘a dismal
moraine of bricks and mortar’. ‘I judge it to have been one of
the truest pleasures of my life, if not one of its greatest
privileges, to contemplate with my own eyes the beautiful
hamlet of Old Brompton, as it appeared prior to the Exhibition of 1851, which virtually destroyed it,’ added Hazlitt. (ref. 9)
Communications became an issue in Brompton from the
1830's. In 1836 a scheme was devised in connexion with the
Birmingham, Bristol and Thames Junction Railway (architect, William Hosking) for bringing in a line to a terminus at
Knightsbridge Green, with a large triangular market and
arcade at the angle between Brompton Road and
Knightsbridge (Plate 10c). The object of this enterprise,
stated the promoters of the Knightsbridge Market Company, was to establish a point ‘to which the produce of the
north and west of England, of Wales, and Ireland, as well as
that of the market gardens about Hammersmith and its
vicinity, can be brought with the greatest rapidity and at the
smallest possible cost’; and they prophesied for the venture ‘a great pre-eminence over every other metropolitan market
yet established.’ (ref. 10) Alarmed, the Bromptonians united in
opposition. For this and many other reasons, the line and
market were never built. Yet at later dates up to 1846
proposals continued to be canvassed for bringing in a
railway to a terminus at Knightsbridge Green, and the
prolonged uncertainty may have affected property values
along the north side of Brompton Road between Brompton
Square and Knightsbridge Green close to the projected
course of the line. (ref. 11)
Brompton Road itself started slowly to improve in surface
though not yet in width, after its management passed in
1826 from the Kensington Turnpike Trust to the Commissioners of Metropolis Turnpikes. The very heavy wear
on this and other local ‘lines’ was ascribed in the 1840's
particularly to the traffic of ‘Omnibus and Market Garden
Carriages’ bearing ‘produce from market gardens and
heavy return loads of manure’. (ref. 12) Along some portions of
the road, the difference of levels between the worn-down
highway and the made-up ground supporting ribbon development on either side was quite dramatic; opposite
Brompton Row, the roadway ran narrowly through ‘a sort of
gorge’ between the still-ample front gardens of the flanking
houses. (ref. 13)
Two things focussed increasing public attention upon the
state of Brompton's roads in the 1850's and 60's. One was
the growth of official ‘South Kensington’ round Exhibition
Road, deriving from the Great Exhibition of 1851 and
confirmed by the establishment of the South Kensington
Museum in 1856–7. Henceforward, Brompton Road
became the main thoroughfare leading to London's new
cultural quarter, and any deficiency in the district was
loudly and publicly complained of. The columns of The-Builder
(whose editor, George Godwin the younger, was a
lifelong inhabitant of Brompton) were particularly prolific
in suggestions for street improvements. (ref. 14)
The other change came about through the formation of
Cromwell Road, started in 1855 to serve the rapid growth
of residential South Kensington, that ‘city of palaces’
which arose in these years, in the words of William
Pepperell, ‘under the magic touch of capitalists and
builders like Mr. Freake and others’. (ref. 15) This wide new
road (not carried to its full length for over twenty years)
connected with the eastern end of Brompton Road via
Thurloe Place, highlighting a growing difference between
the sections west and east of the old Bell and Horns. From
now on the upper part of the old highway began to take on
a candidly commercial character, whereas the section
between the Bell and Horns and Pelham Street was
quieter and still predominantly residential.
This distinction was confirmed by the first significant
widening of Brompton Road, which was started in 1862
to improve access to the International Exhibition of that
year. As this exhibition was situated just off the new
Cromwell Road (where the Natural History Museum now
stands), it affected Brompton Road more directly than its-predecessor.
The improvements carried out between
1862 and 1873 were between Knightsbridge Green and
Thurloe Place only. On the section so widened, various
small strips of ground in front of Brompton Row and
Queen's Buildings disappeared and the private gardens
were drastically curtailed. (ref. 16) The main frontage thus
ceased to be residentially desirable, although the property
behind remained eligible. In 1860, for instance, Brompton
Grove was pulled down and replaced by a row of dour
shops facing the road hut with a ‘square’, Beaufort Gardens, behind. Again, in 1866–8 further frankly commercial
buildings arose at Nos. 187–195 (odd) Brompton Road in
place of the remnant of the old Southall's Buildings, but a
row of large private houses was built along the cast side of
Ovington Gardens behind.
In confirmation of these changes, the name of Brompton Road became official in 1863 and the old terrace
names and numbers disappeared. Henceforward commercial activity gathered pace. Tattersalls, the great horse
auctioneers, removed in 1864 from Hyde Park Corner to a
large site in St. Margaret's parish right behind Nos. 38–58
(even) Brompton Road, so perpetuating the association
with horseflesh peculiar to these environs since the days of
the coaching inns and affecting several local shops and
pubs. Opposite, C. D. Harrod was between 1860 and 1889
in the process of transforming a small grocer's shop into a
great department store. The instance of Harrods was not
an isolated one; in Knightsbridge further east, Woollands
and Harvey Nichols went through similar stages in the
same years. Knightsbridge and Brompton Road, or at least
their southern sides, were thus becoming fashionable for
shopping. By 1884 Harrods' custom could be described as ‘world-wide’. (ref. 17) Vet its premises then consisted of motley
additions to the original houses built on William Browne's
estate a hundred years before.
Brompton Road since 1890
Between 1893 and 1908 there occurred, not before time, a
great rebuilding of the whole south side of Brompton Road
between Sloane Street and Brompton Place, including
Harrods. In 1859, thinking of this district, George Godwin
the younger (who had been brought up in New Street) had
contrasted in The Builder the generally good amenities of
Brompton with ‘rows of houses just behind all the gay, airy
surface, which art absolute hot-beds of disease. Each
room is occupied by a family, at a high rent, and the doctor
is a constant visitor.’ (ref. 18) At this time William Browne's old
estate was in the hands of Lord Kensington's creditors and
was so heavily encumbered by debt that little could be
done with it. The problems of its ownership were finally
resolved in 1888, when the freehold effectively passed to
the Goddard family, who undertook rebuilding as soon as
the leases expired.
The dominant achievement of this reconstruction was
the new Harrods, which for exuberance and scale (if not
for architectural finesse) rivals anything in London. The
designer of Harrods, C. W. Stephens, was also active on
neighbouring sites at Nos. 79–85 and 137–159 (odd)
Brompton Road, making his much the most powerful hand
in this part of the street. But the reconstruction of the
estate, excepting two houses by Voysey and one by
Mackmurdo at Nos. 12–16 (even) Hans Road, was
adjudged by contemporaries to lack architectural quality.
Writing in 1905, A E. Street lamented that, despite a
general improvement in street architecture, ‘Brompton
Road is perhaps peculiarly unfortunate: a thoroughfare of
unusual breadth, with ample room for good-sized trees on
one side, it was not without possibilities of being made a
stately approach to the region of big churches and palaces
beyond. Commercialism, however, has decreed otherwise,
and nowhere is the particular stamp of architecture which
one connects with the big, braggart, unregenerate shop
more noticeable than here.’ (ref. 19)
This rebuilding and the several pieces of infilling that
occurred on the north side of Brompton Road in the same
period by no means drummed the lowlier tradesman out of
the area. Some small shops and public houses were indeed
still built (for instance between Nos. 33 and 61 in
1898–1900), while most of the older shops remained
modest; Beauchamp Place, for example, remained plain
and unaffected in character until well after 1945. But along
the main frontage they were increasingly overshadowed by
grander concerns, drapers like Tudor Brothers, Gooch,
Owles and Beaumont, and of course the overwhelming
emporium of Harrods. There were also daintier small
shops like Spikings the bakers with its tea room (No. 108)
and, close to Knightsbridge, a rash of arcades: Park Mansions Arcade on the north side of the street (1897–1900),
Brompton Arcade (1903–4) and the Knightsbridge Station Arcade (1903–4) opposite. This last was built in
connexion with the Piccadilly tube railway, which opened
in 1906. As this line originally offered two stations close
together, ‘Knightsbridge’ at Nos. 29–31 and ‘Brompton
Road’ at No. 206, it swelled still further the road's
commercial significance. Hitherto Brompton Road had
been served only by horse omnibus, but from now on the
shopping district was quick to reach. All photographs of
this part of Brompton Road taken since 1900 during the
working week show crowded pavements and busy traffic.
This boom seems to have been unanticipated when rebuilding took place on the Goddard estate, where shopkeepers
appear to have been confined to two floors of retailing at
most, with flats above. At Harrods, for instance, the
directors were already anxious in 1912 to displace some of
the flats they had so recently built on upper floors along
Brompton Road and Basil Street—a process which took
many years to carry out in its entirety.
Meanwhile further west, the old houses of Michael's
Place were demolished in the late 1880's and succeeded
between Nos. 209 and 251 (odd) by Brompton Road's
first taste of the Queen Anne style. Here the conflict of
commercial and residential pressures was resolved by
having shops along the frontage but making the houses
above accessible from a separate street behind. Further
back were two further rows of houses sharing a cramped
communal garden. By contrast the grand Mortimer
House, built in its own grounds with a high brick wall on
two sides, together with the gardens of Alexander Square
opposite helped to perpetuate the old-style, suburban
character of this part of the street. The difference between
Brompton Road's western half and the commercial section
to its east was now more than ever marked, a dramatic
point of demarcation being from 1880 the bulk and from
1892–3 the alien seicento façade of Herbert Gribble's
Brompton Oratory, entirely eclipsing the impoverished
appearance of the established church's secluded Holy
Trinity behind. On the opposite corner, the Bell and
Horns and the old buildings behind it survived until
1909–15, when most of the present Empire House, Hotel
Rembrandt and flats were built.
The history of Brompton Road since 1918 broadly
confirms previous trends. Big blocks of flats arose at Nos.
78–94 (1934–5) and 197–205 (1929–30), but there were
no new department stores to rival Harrods, merely a
scattering of smaller smart shops, the harbingers of today's
boutiques. In the squares and residential areas behind,
there was some infilling and much conversion of small houses in streets like Rutland Street, Fairholt Street and
Montpelier Walk into ‘bijou’ dwellings.
Since 1945, rebuilding has taken place on a much
enlarged scale, with office blocks predominating now over
flats. Few of these, particularly on the north side, have
blended well with earlier development. A very large comprehensive
scheme of rebuilding carried out in 1955–60
on the Tattersalls site and adjoining land between
Knightsbridge Green and Lancelot Place seems especially
wanton in its disregard of the street frontage. Yet this
development would have been dwarfed in scale had the ‘Knightsbridge Intersection Scheme’ gone ahead. This
project, fathered in the late 1950's by Capital and Counties
Property Company Limited (which by then owned the
frontage of Brompton Road between Sloane Street and
Hans Crescent), would have imposed upon the complicated
junction where Brompton Road meets Knightsbridge
a huge traffic circulation system. Vast swathes of
property on all sides of this junction would have come
down in favour of office blocks, and a large ‘island’ development
in the centre was to crown the whole. Plans for
carrying out this scheme were well advanced in 1964 when
the advent of a Labour Government committed against
further office building in central London caused its withdrawal. (ref. 20)
Further west, the surviving houses of the old Brompton
Row have suffered from the intermittent insertion of office
buildings between Montpelier Street and Cheval Place. By
contrast, an attempt was made at Nos. 190–212 (even)
Brompton Road, following further road-widening, to return
the south end of Brompton Square to something
loosely resembling its original character.
Changes on the south side of Brompton Road, though
considerable, have been less drastic. The numerous
boutiques, notably between Sloane Street and Hans
Crescent and in Beauchamp Place, make a fascinating
study in the ephemeral fashions of window-display and
shop-front. Between them, the unchanging bulk of
Harrods offers a reassuring token of permanence and
prosperity.
Brompton Road, Existing Buildings
Since the frontage of Brompton Road is divided into separate estates treated in several different chapters, the following list is appended of
existing buildings along its whole length, together with their dates of original erection and their architects and builders, where known.
Sources are given only if more detailed information is not supplied elsewhere.
South Side (odd numbers)
Nos. 1–9 (with Nos. 1, 2 and 2a Sloane Street). W. Duvall
Goodwin, architect, 1903–4; alterations by W. Curtis
Green and Partners, architects, 1932–4. (ref. 21)
Nos. 13–27 (with Nos. 2–8 Basil Street and Brompton
Arcade). Shops and arcade by G. D. Martin, architect, and
Perry and Company, builders, 1903–4; superstructure by
G. D. Martin and W. F. Harber, architects, 1909–10.
Nos. 29–31 (with Basil Street Hotel). Ground flour (converted)
originally Knightsbridge Station, by Leslie W. Green,
architect, 1903–5; superstructure by Delissa Joseph,
architect, 1910–11.
No. 33. Riley and Glanfield, architects, 1957–8. (ref. 22)
No. 35. James D'Oyley, architect, Lilly and Lilly, builders,
1893. (ref. 23)
No. 37. W. Reason, builder, 1898. (ref. 24)
Nos. 39–41. T. H. Adamson and Sons, builders, 1898. (ref. 25)
Nos. 43–45. Martin Wells and Company, builders, 1898–9. (ref. 26)
Nos. 47–49. James Smith and Sons, builders, 1899. (ref. 27)
No. 51. G. R. Tasker and Sons, ?architects, 1899. (ref. 28)
No. 53. Eedle and Meyers, architects, 1898. (ref. 29)
No. 55. .Architect and builder unknown, c. 1898–9.
No. 57. James Smith and Sons, builders, 1899–1900. (ref. 30)
No. 59. William Downs, builder, 1899–1900. (ref. 31)
No. 61. Percy Henry Adams, architect, William Downs, builder,
1899–1900. (ref. 32)
Nos. 63–77. Martin, Wells and Company and James Carmichael,
builders, 1903–4.
Nos. 79–85 (with Nos. 46–54 Hans Crescent). C W. Stephens,
architect, James Carmichael, builder, 1903–4.
Nos. 87–135 (Harrods). C. W. Stephens, architect, John Allen
and Sons, builders, 1901–5.
Nos 137–159 (with Nos. 2–10 Hans Road). C. W. Stephens,
architect, Holloway Brothers, builders, 1903–6.
No. 161. G. A. Burn, architect, Thomas Stimpson, builder,
1860–1. (ref. 33)
Nos. 163–169 (Collier House). Industrial Investment Services
Limited with Gilbert Ash Limited, builders, 1961–2. (ref. 34)
Nos 171–175 (with Nos. 48–51) Beaufort Gardens). Igal Yawetz
and Associates, architects, 1974–6. (ref. 35)
No 177. G. A. Burn, architect, Richard Batterbury, builder,
1860–1. (ref. 36)
Nos. 179–181. Built in 1825 and leased to William Farlar,
ironmonger, in 1831.
No. 183. Ernest R. Barrow, architect, Lawrence and Sons,
builders, 1927. (ref. 37)
Nos. 185–187. Leased to George Benjamin Sams, statuary and
mason, 1825.
Nos. 187A–191. Clifford Derwent and Partners, architects,
1964. (ref. 38)
Nos. 193–195 (Hereford House, with No. 11 Ovington
Gardens). Denis Clarke Hall and Partners, architects,
1963–4. (ref. 39)
Nos. 197–205 (Ovington Court, with Nos. 1A–7 Yeoman's
Row). Murrell and Pigott, architects, 1929–30. (ref. 40)
No. 207 (The Bunch of Grapes) Leased to lames Walters,
victualler, 1845. (ref. 41)
No. 209 Leased to Charles Patrick Smith, upholsterer. 1887
No. 211 R J. Worley, architect, G. and G Green, builders,
1886–7.
Nos. 213–215. Samuel Chaten, builder. 1886–7.
Nos. 217–225. Mark Manley, builder, 1886–7.
Nos. 227–235. Alexander Thorn, builder. 1886–7.
Nos. 237–249. S. and R Cawley. builders, 1888.
Nos. 251. Matthews Brothers, builders, 1889.
The Hour Glass. Sidney Castle, architect, 1936.
No. 285. c. 1830. largely rebuilt in 1981.
No. 287. c. 1808. probably rebuilt or altered c. 1830.
Nos. 289–293. c. 1830.
Nos. 295–301. Architect unknown, 1934–5.
Nos. 303–307. Temple and Foster, builders, 1871.
Nos. 309–313. Probably rebuilt c. 1835; refronted 1871.
No. 315 c. 1808. altered.
North Side (even numbers)
Nos. 2–22 (Park Mansions, with Nos. 127–151 knightsbridge). G.D. Martin, architect, A. Kellett, builder,
1897–1900. (ref. 42)
Nos. 24–21. (formerly All Saints' Schools). Leased in 1839,
much rebuilt c. 1885. (ref. 43)
Nos 44–58 (Caltex House, with No. 1 Knightsbridge Green).
Stone, Toms and Partners, architects, 1955–7.
Nos 58A–64 (Silver City House). Frank Scarlett, architect,
1955–7.
Nos. 66–76 (Lionel House). Gunton and Gunton, architects,
1960.
Nos 78–94 (Princes Court), G. Val. Myer and F. J. Watson
Hart, architects, 1934–5.
Nos. 96–104 (Trevor House) William H. Rohbins, architect,
1959–60. (ref. 44)
Nos. 106–110. Sheppard Robson and Partners, architects,
Costain Construction Limited, builders, 1981–2. (ref. 45)
No 116. Rebuilt by Kenneth Gibson, architect, 1955–6. (ref. 46)
Nos. 118–122. Largely rebuilt by Elgood and Hastie, architects. 1932–3. (ref. 47)
Nos. 124–126. Hubbard Ford Partnership, architects, Crouch
Construction Limited, builders, 1982–3. (ref. 48) <Nos 116-126 were redeveloped in 1991-2, to designs by Michael Squire, architect.>
No 128. Leased to William Rose, carpenter, 1767; altered.
No 130. Rebuilt c 1850, builder unknown.
No. 132 (The Crown and Sceptre). Leased to Thomas
Rawstorne, ironmonger, 1766; altered.
Nos. 134 and 136. Leased to George Longstaff, bricklayer, 1766
(No. 134 much rebuilt).
No 138. Leased to Thomas Longstaff, mason, 1766; front
rebuilt.
Nos. 140–148. Duke, Simpson and MacDonald, architects,
Harry Neal, builders, 1980–2. (ref. 49)
Nos. 150 and 152. Leased to George Gibbons, carpenter, 1766.
No 154. Battley Sons and Holmes, builders, 1905. (ref. 50)
No 156. Leased to George Gibbons, carpenter, 1766.
Nos 158–166. C. H. Elsom and Partners, architects, 1959–60. (ref. 51)
No. 168. Leased to Joseph Clark, carpenter, 1768; much rebuilt
c.1835.
Nos. 170–174. Leased to Joseph Clark, carpenter, 1767–8.
Nos. 176–178. Wills and Kaula, architects, 1954–5. (ref. 52)
Nos. 180–186. A. J. Fowles and Partner, architects, 1963. (ref. 53)
No. 188. Leased to Joseph Clark, carpenter, 1768.
Nos. 220–244 (Umpire House, with Nos. 1–7 Thurloe Place).
Paul Hoffmann, architect, 1910–16.
Nos. 250–262 (St. George's Court and Garage). Robert
Angell and Curtis, architects, Sir Lindsay Parkinson and
Company, builders, 1934–5.
Nos. 264–268. John Mechelen Rogers, architect, Henry R.
Wagner, builder, 1879–80.
Nos. 270–280 (Crompton Court, with Nos. 91–93 Pelham
Street). C. Stanley Peach, architect, W. Moss and Sons,
builders, 1933–5.