Powis Terrace is a street in Notting Hill.
Powis Terrace/Hedgegate Court was originally down as Aston Road on the 1871 Ordnance Survey map, on which there are only buildings at the Cornwall (Westbourne Park) Road end and Hedgegate Court is yet to appear. At the turn of the century, on Charles Booth’s colour-coded social survey map it’s still down as Aston Road and rated well-to-do orange. The Hedgegate Court buildings were originally known as Colville Buildings.
In the 1950s Hedgegate Court became the most notorious Rachman slum street. Towards the end of the decade, as Rachman was distancing himself from his slum empire, the street came under the control of Vernon Hunte, a former Trinidadian policeman, and an African known as Edwards. Several of the houses hosted basement clubs and most had prostitutes sitting in the windows. In the 1958 riots Powis Terrace was in the eye of the storm. The Rachman tenant Ivan Weekes (who went on to be a Council alderman) recalls a pitched battle and burning cars along the street.
On the day of the arrest of the local serial killer John Christie of 10 Rillington Place in 1953, police descended on Powis Mews, alongside Powis Terrace, after a reported sighting of him sleeping in the back of a van. Along Westbourne Park Road in the late 60s, the Third Ear Band performed ‘cosmic ragas’ in the Safari Tent Caribbean store at 207 and the International Times hippy advice centre BIT at 141 was frequented by Richard Branson at the time of his ‘Student’ mag. On Booth’s 1900s map Powis (then Boundary) Mews is very poor dark blue. The most notable late 20th century resident of the mews was the actor/playwright/graffiti artist Heathcote Williams.
Through the 1960s Powis Terrace gained further renown from David Hockney’s studio, the cafe in ‘The L-Shaped Room’ (now the dog boutique), ’Jungle West 11’, residences of the hippy fashion designer Ossie Clark, the occult rhythm’n’bluesman Graham Bond, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger (of the Trinity ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ fame), a ‘Performance’ influence Great Train Robber hideout, hells angels, heroin dealers, Rastafarians, the jazz record shop and the London Free School.
Powis Terrace was acquired by the property dealer Robert Jacobs and John Michell on behalf of the Elmstead Trust. Michael de Freitas is said to have been bought off by Rachman with a house on Powis Terrace, which he managed to sell on to an estate agent. Robert Jacobs bought out the nominee landlords and the tenants, in order to convert the warren of seedy rooms into flats for predominantly white tenants, with Michael acting as the letting agent.
Powis Terrace is a street in Notting Hill.
