August 2015 archive

Notting Hill in Bygone Days: In the Eighteenth Century

Gravel Pits Notting Hill in Bygone Days by Florence Gladstone The 1830s The commencement of the village of Kensington Gravel Pits has already been described. Under present conditions it is difficult to realize how countrified the place remained during the whole of the eighteenth century. In Kip’s Britannia Illustrata, published in 1714, there is a …

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Notting Hill in Bygone Days: Kensington Gravel Pits and Northlands

Chenesitun Notting Hill in Bygone Days by Florence Gladstone The 18th century During the period of disorder which followed the Roman occupation of Britain, the forests were allowed to encroach, and in many places stretches of road became decayed and were ultimately overgrown by trees. This evidently happened between Brentford and Shepherd’s Bush. As the …

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Notting Hill in Bygone Days: Chenesitun and Knotting Barns

Table of contents Notting Hill in Bygone Days by Florence Gladstone Gravel Pits On the north side of the Thames as it crosses London there is a range of low hills. Beginning with Tower Hill close to the river, the range ends with Campden Hill, three-quarters of a mile from its bank. Each hill is …

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Daw’s map of Kensington (1852)

From Daw’s map of Kensington, published in 1852, shows the streets of Notting Dale (left) and Notting Hill (right) are beginning to be built.

Notting Hill in Bygone Days

Here’s a scan of the the seminal 1920s book about W10 and W11 history (now out of print): Florence Gladstone’s “Notting Hill in Bygone Days”. Each chapter is available here by following the links. P.S. Passing thanks to the big scanner at the Kensington main library which Dave Walker who does The Library Time Machine …

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Belsize Park

Modern Belsize includes the manor of Belsize and the northern part of the Chalcots estate. This article summarises the history of the two estates and explains how in the second half of the nineteenth century Belsize was transformed from farmland and gentlemen’s country houses to a middle class suburb.    The Belsize Estate Belsize, or …

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Acklam Road and the Carnival

As Hawkwind played a series of free gigs under the Westway, pictured on the gatefold sleeve of their 1971 album ‘X In Search of Space’, during which they would merge with the Pink Fairies as Pinkwind, Frendz underground paper (at 305 Portobello Road) made ‘a call to all progressive people; black people smash the racist …

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