Bulmer Mews, W11

Road in/near Notting Hill Gate, existing between the 1850s and now.

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Road · * · W11 ·
August
6
2021
Bulmer Mews is a tiny mews behind Notting Hill Gate.

The entrance to Bulmer Mews is to the right of the Prince Albert pub in Pembridge Road. It runs down the backs of numbers 1-7 (odds) Ladbroke Road and presumably served as stabling for these and for the pub. It was probably first built up in the late 1840s or 1850s, and its original name may have been Victoria Mews – although it is already shown as a nameless alley on the 1862-5 Ordnance Survey map.

By the time of the 1881 census, it had been named Prince Albert Mews or Albert Mews, a name it retained until into the 1930s, presumably because of its proximity to the Prince Albert pub. It seems then to have been renamed Bulmer Mews by association with nearby Bulmer Place, a road which ran roughly where the service road now is for the shops on the north-west side of Notting Hill Gate (and which disappeared in the great 1950s redevelopment of Notting Hill Gate).

Bulmer Place originally had two entrances, both through archways. One was in Pembridge Road down the south side of the Prince Albert (where the lorries now turn in to service the shops on the north-west side of Notting Hill Gate). A branch of the mews then turned south to emerge into Notting Hill Gate roughly where the current tower block is.

The original buildings consisted of stables with living premises above. The 19th century census returns list seven or eight dwellings in the mews, mostly occupied by people associated with horses in one way or another – there were several grooms or coachmen; an omnibus horsekeeper; a dealer in horses; and in 1901 a fruiterer’s carman and a draper’s carman.

As the motor car replaced horse-drawn transport, the mews probably lost some of its residents, and became a fairly scruffy place. By the 1930s it appears to have been considered ripe for redevelopment, as in 1936 a planning application was made to develop both the Mews and 1-7 Ladbroke Road as a theatre. The application was granted, but the scheme did not go ahead. During the Second World War, an overground air raid shelter was erected in the mews, and after the war Kensington Public Library used this structure for a local branch, the Bulmer Mews Library. The library remained there until 1955, when the old air raid shelter was demolished.

Any buildings that remained were by this time probably in a pretty parlous condition. Already in 1946, when the brewery that owned the Prince Albert applied to Kensington Borough Council for planning permission to use part of the mews for offices and warehouses, a Council planning officer commented that it would involve pulling down “three or four very dilapidated stables with flats over, which are at present unfit for habitation”. Ownership of the mews seems to have been shared by then between the brewery (which owned the entrance to the Mews) and the playwright Ashley Duke of the Mercury Theatre (he was the husband of Dame Marie Rambert, whose eponymous ballet company was based at the Mercury). Duke had another go in 1975 at obtaining planning permission for a theatre, this time as part of a six-story office block. But his application was refused and for much of the next nine years a garden centre occupied the Mews.

The Mercury Theatre finally sold the mews “to alleviate financial pressures”, and in 1984 the new owner finally obtained permission to build the current mews houses.


Main source: Ladbroke Association
Further citations and sources


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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Comment
EMC   
Added: 10 Jul 2023 22:35 GMT   

Ossington Street, W8
correcting the date on my existing comment

Source: Paddington: Bayswater | British History Online

Reply
Comment
EMC   
Added: 10 Jul 2023 22:31 GMT   

Correction re Ossington Street
In the Wikipedia date of 1837 for the renaming of Victoria Grove as Ossington Street, the two last figures appear to have been transposed from the likely source, London County Council, Names of Streets (1905) quoted in T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, ’Paddington: Bayswater’, in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington, ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 204-212. British History Online ptth;:’www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp204-212 [accessed 10 July 2023]. "During the 1830s Victoria Grove (renamed Ossington Street in 1873) (fn. 48) was laid out from the Uxbridge road close to the boundary, on part of Gravel Pit field." This makes sense, as John Evelyn Denison, a former Speaker of the House of Commons, was created 1st Viscount Ossington in 1873.

Source: Paddington: Bayswater | British History Online

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

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Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

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Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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Notting Hill
TUM image id: 1510169244
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Pembridge Road (1900s)
TUM image id: 1556889569
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Boyne Terrace Mews, W11
TUM image id: 1453967964
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

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Notting Hill
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Pembridge Road (1900s)
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St Peter's Notting Hill
Credit: Asteuartw
Licence: CC BY 2.0


The Churchill Arms, Kensington
Credit: IG/lililondoner
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Pump attendant at a Lex Garage in Campden Hill Road, Kensington fills up for a customer (1952) In the 1950s, petrol pumps were still largely attached to garage workshops. People didn’t yet use the term “petrol station“ but instead “garage”.
Credit: Kurt Hutton/Picture Post
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3-4 Ladbroke Terrace in 2006.
Licence: CC BY 2.0


The Cabbie’s Hut at the end of Kensington Park Road, W11 near the junction with Pembridge Road.
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Notting Hill in Bygone Days
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This video is a little different - no walks from anywhere to anywhere. This video looks at the snapshots of lives captured by postcard photographers in Notting Hill Gate at the turn of the 1900s. As these photographers were ’winging it’ - taking photos of streets in anticipation of these being snapped up by postcard publishers - they were drawn to capturing scenes full of people going about their everyday lives. This means that zooming into these high-definition photos we can take a look at captured scenes that those depicted weren’t aware were being taken.
Credit: https://youtu.be/-Tqf2qTKTZM
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Ossington Street, W2 (2012)
Credit: Geograph/Jaggery
Licence: CC BY 2.0




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