Notting Dale

Neighbourhood, existing between 1839 and now

 HOME  ·  ABOUT  ·  ARTICLE  ·  MARKERS OFF  ·  BLOG 
(51.513 -0.212, 51.513 -0.212) 
MAP YEAR:18001810182018301860190019502024 
Use the control in the top right of the map above to view this area on another historic map
 
Neighbourhood · * · W11 ·
September
17
2021
From Pigs and bricks to Posh and Becks...

As houses were springing up all over the rest of northern Kensington, one corner of the borough was developing into a slum whose notoriety was probably unsurpassed throughout London

It lay at the foot of the hill on which the Ladbroke estate was laid out, directly north of Pottery Lane, on badly draining clay soil between the Norland Estate and Notting Barns Farm.

Its first occupants were to give it two infamous names: the brick makers, who seemed to have arrived in the late lath century, and the pig-keepers, who moved there in the early l9th century.

To make bricks and tiles involved large excavations, which soon filled with stagnant water. The keeping of pigs entailed collecting refuse and offal from the kitchens of hotels and private houses, feeding most of it to pigs and boiling down the fat.

The combination of both bricks and pigs spelt disaster for the area.

Samuel Lake of Tottenham Court Road, a scavenger and chimney sweep by occupation was the first to keep pigs here and he was soon joined by the pig keepers of the Marble Arch area who had been forced out of their area by building development. The colony was at first sufficiently isolated to be able to go about their business unfettered; and by the time streets were being built nearby, the piggeries were so well established that developers simply steered clear.

Shacks sprang up wherever convenient for there was no building control in London at that time, and inevitably they were jumbled together with the pigs and the ponds: indeed often the three were combined, with humans sharing their roofs with animals and living directly over stagnant water: the animals at one stage outnumbered people by three to one.

The area’s unsanitary conditions had become so notorious that Charles Dickens ran a special feature on it in the first edition issue of his magazine Household Words.

The Piggeries and Brickyards were far from the sight and concern of the Vestry and its duties were taken up by charities, both religious and secular. But it was Kensington’s first Medical Officer of Health, Dr Francis Goodrich, who was given the formidable task of cleaning up the area. Goodrich stated that it was one of the most deplorable
spots not only in Kensington but in the whole of the metropolis.

Rather than manufacturing bricks, locals started to concentrate more on the making of pottery, mostly drainpipes, tiles and flower pots to supply the local building boom. This trade, however, gradually declined and business ceased by 1863, the same time as when the stagnant ’Ocean’ was filled in.

As far as the Piggeries were concerned strong opposition to a clean up came from the pig keepers themselves, as that was their only livelihood. And perversely the Vestry did not want them to lose the pigs because the families then could become a charge on the poor rate.

By 1878 Goodrich’s successor Dr Dudfield managed, however, to gradually reduce the number of pigs but it was not until the 1890’s that the last pig was banished.

The area nevertheless remained notorious. Instead of pig keeping the men turned to living off what their women could earn as laundresses, initially at home (especially in
the Stoneleigh Street area) and later in small laundries. A local saying in this area declared that ’to marry an ironer is as good as a fortune’

But change was coming.

The 1860s at last witnessed the opening of schools, (such as one in Sirdar Road), the paving of streets and the construction of proper sewers. But it was not until 1888 were public baths and washhouses provided at the junction of Silchester and Lancaster Roads.



In the early 20th century the local street market of note wasn’t Portobello Road but the Bangor Street Rag Fair
(click image to enlarge)


In 1889 the Rev C E Roberts of St Clements Church and the Rev Dr Thornton of St Johns appealed in a letter to the Times for an open space for the children of this area. As a result the old brickfield and the area of the ’Ocean’ became the start of Avondale Park opened in 1892 and named in memory of the recently deceased Duke of Clarence and Avondale.

But even then, a year after the park was opened that the Daily News described the area adjacent to the park as ’Avernus’ (the fabled gateway to hell!). The article identified Wilsham Street, Kenley Street, another two streets now replaced by Henry Dickens Court and part of Sirdar Road as ’hopelessly degraded and abandoned’.

The dense rows of artisan houses in these streets were massively over-occupied or else were the most primitive lodging houses in which a bed on the floor cost a few pennies per night. Local residents made a living as best they could but it was a close knit community who seemed to scrape together enough money to pay for visits to the music hall and for summer day trips.

By 1904 new low cost tenements were built and the Improved Tenements Association bought 64 year leases of four houses in Walmer Road in 1900, and these were modernised and divided into two room tenements to accommodate 13 families for rents of 5 shillings a week. Other housing associations followed such as the Wilsham Trust formed by Ladies- in-waiting at Kensington Palace.

The poverty and hardship of the Potteries and Piggeries is very much a thing of the past. Now the neighbourhood is an attractive, leafy, peaceful backwater made up of rows of well kept two and three storey Victorian brick terraced houses and cottages, in the shadow of the graceful golden weather vane and clock of St Clements Church.

The area has come a long way.

Further sources:
The Notting Hill & Holland Park Book by Richard Tames
Kensington & Chelsea by Annabel Walker with Peter Jackson
Notting Hill and Holland Park Past by Barbara Denny




Main source: Survey of London
Further citations and sources



NEARBY LOCATIONS OF NOTE
22 Maxilla Gardens, W10 22 Maxilla Gardens is a now-demolished property.
24 Maxilla Gardens, W10 24 Maxilla Gardens was an address along Maxilla Gardens.
Bangor Street (1911) Bangor Street was a street in Notting Dale which disappeared after the Second World War.
Bangor Street (turn of 20th century) The St Agnes soup kitchen was situated on the corner of Bangor Street that this photo was taken from.
Corner of Bangor Street and Sirdar Road The location became the Dolphin Pub.
Earl of Zetland The Earl of Zetland - a pub in the Potteries
Kenilworth Castle The Kenilworth Castle was a post-war pub in Notting Dale.
Kensington Hippodrome The Kensington Hippodrome was a racecourse built in Notting Hill, London, in 1837, by entrepreneur John Whyte.
Kensington Park Hotel The KPH is a landmark pub on Ladbroke Grove.
Mary Place Workhouse Notting Dale Workhouse stood on the site of what is now Avondale Park Gardens,
North Kensington Library North Kensington Library opened in 1891 and was described as one of London’s finest public libraries.
Notting Dale From Pigs and bricks to Posh and Becks...
Ridler’s Tyre Yard Ridler’s Tyres was situated in a part of Blechynden Street which no longer exists
St John’s Notting Hill St John’s Notting Hill is a Victorian Anglican church built in 1845 in Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill.
St John’s Hill St John’s Hill is the highest point in the area.
The Brittania The Brittania was situated on the corner of Clarendon Road and Portland Road, W11.
Western Iron Works The Western Iron Works was the foundry business of James Bartle and Co.

NEARBY STREETS
Aldermaston Street, W10 Aldermaston Street is a lost street of North Kensington (Notting Dale)
Alestan House, W10 Alestan House is a block on Freston Road (Notting Dale)
Ansleigh Place, W11 Ansleigh Place is an ex mews to the west of Notting Dale (Notting Dale)
Arthur Court, W10 Arthur Court is a block on Silchester Road (Notting Dale)
Arundel Gardens, W11 Arundel Gardens was built towards the end of the development of the Ladbroke Estate, in the early 1860s (Notting Hill)
Avondale Park Gardens, W11 Avondale Park Gardens, unlike other roads in the area, was developed in the 1920s when it was laid out on the former workhouse site (Notting Dale)
Avondale Park Road, W11 Avondale Park Road is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Bangor Street, W11 Bangor Street was situated on the site of the modern Henry Dickens Court (Notting Hill)
Barandon Street, W11 Barandon Street connected Lancaster Road with Latimer Road station (Notting Dale)
Bard Road, W10 Bard Road lies in the area of London W10 near to Latimer Road station (Notting Dale)
Bartle Road, W11 Bartle Road is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Blechynden Mews, W10 Blechynden Mews is a former side street in London W11 (Notting Dale)
Blechynden Street, W10 Blechynden Street is now a tiny street in the vicinity of Latimer Road station, W10 (Notting Dale)
Blenheim Crescent, W11 Blenheim Crescent one of the major thoroughfares in Notting Hill - indeed it features in the eponymous film (Notting Hill)
Bomore Road, W11 Bomore Road survived post-war redevelopment with a slight change in alignment (Notting Dale)
Bramley Mews, W10 Bramley Mews become part of a redelevopment of the area north of Latimer Road station in the 1960s (Notting Dale)
Bramley Road, W11 Bramley Road is the street in which Latimer Road station is situated (Notting Dale)
Bramley Street, W10 Bramley Street is one of the lost streets of North Kensington (Notting Dale)
Bridge Close, W10 Bridge Close is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Calverley Street, W10 Calverley Street, one of the lost streets of W10 is now underneath a motorway slip road (Notting Dale)
Cambridge Gardens, W10 Cambridge Gardens is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Camelford Walk, W11 Camelford Walk is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Charlotte Mews, W10 Charlotte Mews is one of London W10's newer thoroughfares. (Notting Dale)
Clarendon Cross, W11 Clarendon Cross is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Clarendon Road, W11 Clarendon Road is one of the W11’s longest streets, running from Holland Park Avenue in the south to Dulford Street in the north (Notting Hill)
Clarendon Walk, W11 Clarendon Walk is a walkway in a recent Notting Dale development (Notting Dale)
Codrington Mews, W11 This attractive L-shaped mews lies off Blenheim Crescent between Kensington Park Road and Ladbroke Grove (Notting Hill)
Colville Houses, W11 Colville Houses is part of the Colville Conservation Area (Notting Hill)
Convent Gardens, W11 Convent Gardens is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Cornwall Crescent, W11 Cornwall Crescent belongs to the third and final period of building on the Ladbroke estate (Notting Hill)
Cornwall Road, W11 Cornwall Road was once the name for the westernmost part of Westbourne Park Road (Notting Hill)
Crowthorne Road, W10 Crowthorne Road is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Dale Row, W11 Dale Row is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Daley Thompson House, W11 Daley Thompson House is a block on Colville Square (Notting Hill)
Darfield Way, W10 Darfield Way, in the Latimer Road area, was built over a number of older streets as the Westway was built (Notting Dale)
Dixon House, W10 Dixon House is a block on Darfield Way (Notting Dale)
Dulford Street, W11 Dulford Street survived the mass demolitions of the late 1960s (Notting Dale)
Dunworth Mews, W11 This is a street in the W11 postcode area (Notting Hill)
East Mews, W10 East Mews was lost when the Westway was built. It lies partially under the modern Darfield Way (Notting Dale)
Elgin Crescent, W11 Elgin Crescent runs from Portobello Road west across Ladbroke Grove and then curls round to the south to join Clarendon Road (Notting Hill)
Elgin Mews, W11 Elgin Mews lies in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Evesham Street, W11 Evesham Street now runs west from Freston Road (Notting Hill)
Folly Mews, W11 Folly Mews is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Fowell Street, W11 Fowell Street, W10 was redeveloped in the 1970s (Notting Dale)
Frederick Dobson House, W11 Frederick Dobson House is a block on Cowling Close (Notting Hill)
Freston Road, W10 Freston Road is a street with quite a history (Notting Dale)
Freston Road, W11 The southern end of Freston Road stretches over into the W11 postcode (Notting Hill)
Frinstead House, W10 Frinstead House is a block on Freston Road (Notting Dale)
Gorham Place, W11 Gorham Place is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Grenfell Road, W11 Grenfell Road follows the line of an old road: St Clement’s Road (Notting Dale)
Grenfell Tower, W11 Grenfell Tower is a residential block in North Kensington (Notting Dale)
Heathfield Street, W11 Heathfield Street was a side turning off of Portland Road (Notting Hill)
Hesketh Place, W11 Hesketh Place runs between Walmer Road and Avondale Park Road (Notting Dale)
Hippodrome Mews, W11 Hippodrome Mews is a turning off Portland Road, commemorating a lost racecourse (Notting Dale)
Hippodrome Place, W11 Hippodrome Place was named after a lost racecourse of London (Notting Dale)
Hunt Close, W11 Hunt Close is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Hurstway Street, W10 Hurstway Street ran from Barandon Street to Blechynden Street (Notting Dale)
Hurstway Walk, W11 This is a street in the W11 postcode area (Notting Dale)
Kenilworth Street, W11 Kenilworth Street was demolished just after the Second World War (Notting Dale)
Kenley Street, W11 Kenley Street, W11 was originally William Street before it disappeared (Notting Hill)
Kenley Walk, W11 Kenley Walk is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Kensington Park Mews, W11 Kensington Park Mews lies off of Kensington Park Road (Notting Hill)
Kensington Park Road, W11 Kensington Park Road is one of the main streets in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Kingsdown Close, W10 Kingsdown Close is one of a select number of roads in London W10 lying south of Westway (Notting Dale)
Kingsnorth House, W10 Kingsnorth House is a block on Silchester Road (Notting Dale)
Ladbroke Crescent, W11 Ladbroke Crescent belongs to the third and final great period of building on the Ladbroke estate and the houses were constructed in the 1860s. (Notting Hill)
Ladbroke Gardens, W11 Ladbroke Gardens runs between Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Road (Notting Hill)
Ladbroke Grove, W11 Ladbroke Grove is the main street in London W11 (Notting Hill)
Lansdowne Crescent, W11 Lansdowne Crescent has some of the most interesting and varied houses on the Ladbroke estate, as architects and builders experimented with different styles (Notting Hill)
Lansdowne Rise, W11 Lansdowne Rise, W11 was originally called Montpelier Road (Notting Hill)
Lansdowne Road, W11 Lansdowne Road is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
Lansdowne Walk, W11 Lansdowne Walk was named after the Lansdowne area of Cheltenham (Notting Hill)
Latimer Mews, W10 (Notting Dale)
Latimer Road, W10 Latimer Road was named after Edward Latymer who endowed land for the funding of Hammersmith’s Latymer school in the early 17th century (Notting Dale)
Lockton Street, W11 Lockton Street, just south of Latimer Road station is so insignificant that nary a soul know’s it’s there (Notting Dale)
Lowerwood Court, W11 Lowerwood Court is a block on Westbourne Park Road (Notting Hill)
Malton Mews, W10 Malton Mews, formerly Oxford Mews, runs south off of Cambridge Gardens (Notting Dale)
Malton Road, W11 Malton Road is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Manchester Road, W10 Manchester Road is one of the lost streets of North Kensington, now buried beneath a roundabout (Notting Dale)
Markland House, W10 Markland House can be found on Darfield Way (Notting Dale)
Martin Street, W10 Martin Street disappeared as the Latimer Road area was redeveloped (Notting Dale)
Mary Place, W11 Mary Place connects Walmer Road with Sirdar Road (Notting Dale)
Maxilla Gardens, W10 Maxilla Gardens was a former street in London W10 (Notting Dale)
Mersey Street, W10 Mersey Street - now demolished - was once Manchester Street (Notting Dale)
Mortimer Square, W11 Mortimer Square is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Nicholas Road, W11 This is a street in the W11 postcode area (Notting Hill)
Olaf Street, W11 Olaf Street was once part of ’Frestonia’ (Notting Hill)
Pamber Street, W10 Pamber Street is a lost street of North Kensington (Notting Dale)
Pickwick House, W11 Pickwick House can be found on St Anns Road (Notting Hill)
Portland Road, W11 Portland Road is a street in Notting Hill, rich at one end and poor at the other (Notting Hill)
Portobello Road, W11 Portobello Road is internationally famous for its market (Notting Hill)
Pring Street, W10 The unusually-named Pring Street was situated between Bard Road and Latimer Road (Notting Dale)
Rifle Place, W11 Rifle Place is a road in the W11 postcode area (Notting Hill)
Rillington Place, W11 Rillington Place is a small street with an infamous history (Notting Dale)
Romilly House, W11 Romilly House is located on Wilsham Street (Notting Hill)
Rosmead Road, W11 Rosmead Road, W11 was originally called Chichester Road (Notting Hill)
Runcorn Place, W11 Runcorn Place was once Thomas Place, and before even that ’The Mews’ (Notting Hill)
Ruston Close, W11 Due to its infamy, Rillington Place was renamed to Ruston Close in 1954 (Notting Dale)
Ruston Mews, W11 Ruston Mews, W11 was originally Crayford Mews (Notting Dale)
Scampston Mews, W10 Scampston Mews is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Shalfleet Drive, W10 Shalfleet Drive is a newer road in the Latimer Road area of W10 (Notting Dale)
Silchester Mews, W10 Silchester Mews, shaped like an H, disappeared in 1969 under the Westway (Notting Dale)
Silchester Road, W10 Silchester Road crosses the border between London W10 and London W11 (Notting Dale)
Silchester Terrace, W10 Silchester Terrace was lost to W10 in the 1960s (Notting Dale)
Sirdar Road, W11 Sirdar Road is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Dale)
Soane House, W10 Soane House is a block on Latimer Road (Notting Dale)
St Andrews Square, W11 St Andrews Square is a street in Notting Dale, formed when the Rillington Place area was demolished (Notting Dale)
St John’s Gardens, W11 St John’s Gardens runs around St John’s church (Notting Hill)
St Mark’s Road, W11 St Mark’s Road is a street in the Ladbroke conservation area (Notting Dale)
St Mark’s Close, W11 St Mark’s Close runs off St Mark’s Road (Notting Dale)
St Mark’s Place, W11 St Mark’s Place is situated on the site of the former Kensington Hippodrome (Notting Hill)
Stable Way, W10 Stable Way is a street in North Kensington, London W10 (Notting Dale)
Stanley Crescent, W11 Stanley Crescent was named after the noted politician Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, who became Prime Minister in 1852 (Notting Hill)
Station Walk, W10 Station Walk is one of the streets of London in the W10 postal area (Notting Dale)
Stoneleigh Place, W11 Stoneleigh Place, formerly called Abbey Road, was built across a brickfield in Notting Dale (Notting Dale)
Stoneleigh Street, W11 Stoneleigh Street runs between Treadgold Street and Stoneleigh Place (Notting Dale)
Talbot Mews, W11 Talbot Mews seems to have disappeared just after the Second Worid War (Notting Dale)
Testerton Street, W11 Testerton Street did not survive the bulldozer in the late 1960s (Notting Dale)
Testerton Walk, W11 Testerton Walk is a street in Notting Hill (Notting Hill)
The White Building, W11 The White Building is sited on Evesham Street (Notting Hill)
The Yellow Building, W11 The Yellow Building is sited on Nicholas Road (Notting Hill)
Threshers Place, W11 Threshers Place is a quiet street with a long story (Notting Hill)
Treadgold Street, W11 Treadgold Street is part of the Avondale Park Gardens Conservation Area (Notting Dale)
Trinity Mews, W10 Trinity Mews lies off of Cambridge Gardens (Notting Dale)
Verity Close, W11 Verity Close is a street in W11 (Notting Dale)
Vernon Yard, W11 Vernon Yard is a mews off of Portobello Road (Notting Hill)
Walmer Road, W10 Walmer Road is the great lost road of North Kensington, obliterated under Westway (Notting Dale)
Walmer Road, W11 Walmer Road is the oldest street in the area, dating from the eighteenth century or before (Notting Hill)
Waynflete Square, W10 Waynflete Square is one of the newer roads in the vicinity of Latimer Road station (Notting Dale)
Wesley Square, W11 Wesley Square lies behind Notting Hill Methodist Church (Notting Dale)
Whitchurch Road, W11 Whitchurch Road connects Bramley Road with Treadgold Street (Notting Dale)
Whitstable House, W10 Whitstable House is a block on Silchester Road (Notting Dale)
Wilton Yard, W11 Wilton Yard once ran off Latimer Road (Notting Hill)


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 674 completed street histories and 46826 partial histories


Click here to see photos of the area


  Contact us · Copyright policy · Privacy policy