I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet

I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet was a clothing boutique which achieved fame in 1960s "Swinging London" by promoting antique military uniforms as fashion items.

Notting Hill Carnival
Credit: Chris Croome

I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet was opened by Ian Fisk and John Paul and managed by Robert Orbach at 293 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, in 1966. Among the shop’s customers were Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix.

Robert Orbach arranged for his ex boss Warren Gold aka Lord John to rent the shop in Wardour Street to John Paul. Another new branch of Kitchener’s was opened in Foubert’s Place, off Carnaby street, also arranged by Orbach selling Militaria and Swinging London novelty items, that was rented from Henry Moss and Harry Fox of Lady Jane fame.

In 1967 two more Kitchener’s outlets opened on Carnaby Street and later expanded to sites in Piccadilly Circus and then King’s Road (where the shop was named I Was Lord Kitchener’s Thing).

In the summer of 1967, Fisk and Paul dissolved their partnership. Fisk took sole ownership of the Portobello road premises, which became the Injun Dog head-shop (subtitled Once I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet).

The last Kitchener’s outlet in Coventry Street closed its doors in 1977, but is still remembered as an important Swinging Sixties boutique.

The New Vaudeville Band recorded a song titled "I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet" in tribute to the shop.

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Tom Vague 3 Acklam Road Added: 9 Sep 2020 14:02 GMT	The Bedford family at 3 Acklam Road (1860 - 1965) From the 19th century up until 1965, number 3 Acklam Road, near the Portobello Road junction, was occupied by the Bedford family. When the Westway construction work began the Bedfords sold up and moved to south London. In the early 1970s the house was taken over by the North Kensington Amenity Trust and became the Notting Hill Carnival office before its eventual demolition. Anne Bedford (now McSweeney) has fond memories of living there, although she recalls: ‘I now know that the conditions were far from ideal but then I knew no different. There was no running hot water, inside toilet or bath, apart from the tin bath we used once a week in the large kitchen/dining room. Any hot water needed was heated in a kettle. I wasn’t aware that there were people not far away who were a lot worse off than us, living in poverty in houses just like mine but families renting one room. We did have a toilet/bathroom installed in 1959, which was ‘luxury’. ‘When the plans for the Westway were coming to light, we were still living in the house whilst all the houses opposite became empty and boarded up one by one. We watched all this going on and decided that it was not going to be a good place to be once the builders moved in to demolish all the houses and start work on the elevated road. Dad sold the house for a fraction of what it should have been worth but it needed too much doing to it to bring it to a good living standard. We were not rich by any means but we were not poor. My grandmother used to do her washing in the basement once a week by lighting a fire in a big concrete copper to heat the water, which would have been there until demolition. ‘When we moved from number 3, I remember the upright piano that my grandparents used to play �’ and me of sorts �’ being lowered out of the top floor and taken away, presumably to be sold. I used to play with balls up on the wall of the chemist shop on the corner of Acklam and Portobello. We would mark numbers on the pavement slabs in a grid and play hopscotch. At the Portobello corner, on one side there was the Duke of Sussex pub, on the other corner, a chemist, later owned by a Mr Fish, which I thought was amusing. When I was very young I remember every evening a man peddling along Acklam Road with a long thin stick with which he lit the streetlights.’ Michelle Active who lived at number 33 remembers: ‘6 of us lived in a one-bed basement flat on Acklam Road. When they demolished it we moved to a 4-bed maisonette on Silchester Estate and I thought it was a palace, two toilets inside, a separate bathroom that was not in the kitchen, absolute heaven.’ Reply
David Jones-Parry McGregor Road, W11 Added: 7 Sep 2017 12:13 GMT	Mcgregor Road, W11 (1938 - 1957) I was born n bred at 25 Mc Gregor Rd in 1938 and lived there until I joined the Royal Navy in 1957. It was a very interesting time what with air raid shelters,bombed houses,water tanks all sorts of areas for little boys to collect scrap and sell them on.no questions asked.A very happy boyhood -from there we could visit most areas of London by bus and tube and we did. Reply
charlie evans The Apollo Added: 10 Apr 2021 18:51 GMT	apollo pub 1950s Ted Lengthorne was the landlord of the apollo in the 1950s. A local called darkie broom who lived at number 5 lancaster road used to be the potman,I remember being in the appollo at a street party that was moved inside the pub because of rain for the queens coronation . Not sure how long the lengthornes had the pub but remember teds daughter julie being landlady in the early 1970,s Reply
Christian Cornwall Road, W11 Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT	Cornwall Road, W11 Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road. Reply

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Tony Whipple Frank Whipple Place, E14 Added: 16 Apr 2024 21:35 GMT	Frank Whipple Place, E14 Frank was my great-uncle, I’d often be ’babysat’ by Peggy while Nan and Dad went to the pub. Peggy was a marvel, so full of life. My Dad and Frank didn’t agree on most politics but everyone in the family is proud of him. A genuinely nice, knowledgable bloke. One of a kind. Reply
Theresa Penney Whites Row, E1 Added: 16 Apr 2024 18:08 GMT	1 Whites Row My 2 x great grandparents and his family lived here according to the 1841 census. They were Dutch Ashkenazi Jews born in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 19th century but all their children were born in Spitalfields. Reply
Wendy The Polygon 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. Reply
Steve Charleville Circus, SE26 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 Reply
Steve Charleville Circus, SE26 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 Reply
Charles Hornsey Rise, N19 Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT	My House I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s. Reply
NH Woodgrange Road, E7 Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT	Telephone House Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000 Reply
Paul Cox Aldine Street, W12 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. Reply

LOCAL PHOTOS

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Coronation street party, 1953. TUM image id: 1545250697 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Children of Ruston Close This road was the renaming of Rillington Place. Even after renaming, this street, where notorious murders had taken place, proved too much to avoid subsequent demolition. TUM image id: 1545251090 Licence:	The "Western" TUM image id: 1489498043 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Ladbroke Grove (1866) The future Kensington Park Hotel is the corner building on the left. The area beyond the railway bridge (now the Hammersmith and City Line) was still green fields at this stage TUM image id: 1513618275 Licence:	The St Agnes soup kitchen was situated on the corner of Bangor Street, W11 that this photo was taken from. Bangor Street disappeared from the streetscene of Notting Dale after the Second World War. Credit: Bishopsgate Institute TUM image id: 1456741743 Licence:
HM Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother, with Lady Petrie, opening Henry Dickens Court, W11 (1953) The Queen Mother is greeted by large crowds and is accompanied by Lady Petrie, Mayor of Kensington. Henry Dickens Court was built by the Council on a bomb site as part of the borough’s post war redevelopment plan. It was named after Henry Dickens, grandson of Charles Dickens, an Alderman on the Council and an active advocate of municipal housing. Credit: Kensington Libraries TUM image id: 1627908621 Licence:	The Tile Kiln, Notting Dale (1824) Credit: Florence Gladstone TUM image id: 1563720078 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Clayton Arms TUM image id: 1453029104 Licence: CC BY 2.0	The Earl Derby stood on the corner of Southern Row and Bosworth Road. The Earl Derby himself was Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby who fought at the battle of Bosworth. TUM image id: 1453372511 Licence: CC BY 2.0	The Foresters TUM image id: 1453071112 Licence: CC BY 2.0
The Lads of the Village pub TUM image id: 1556874496 Licence: CC BY 2.0	The Prince of Wales TUM image id: 1556874951 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Admiral Blake (The Cowshed) Adjacent Admiral Mews was occupied by a series of sheds for cows. Drovers bringing their cattle to the London markets would house them in these sheds for the night, whilst they themselves found shelter and refreshment in the neighbouring tavern, which received a nickname alongside its official one. The exterior of the pub was featured in the early 2000s pub-based sitcom, "Time Gentlemen Please", written by Richard Herring and Al Murray. TUM image id: 1556888887 Licence:	Photographed just after the Second World War, this is the bombed-out Rackham Street, London W10 looking down from the junction with Exmoor Street. Rackham Street ran off Ladbroke Grove, roughly along the line of the modern Bruce Close. Credit: Kensington and Chelsea library TUM image id: 1557403168 Licence:	Kensington Park Hotel TUM image id: 1453375720 Licence: CC BY 2.0