Hewer Street, W10

Road in/near North Kensington, existing between the 1870s and now.

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Road · * · W10 ·
December
6
2020
Built as part of the St Charles’ estate in the 1870s, it originally between Exmoor Street to a former street called Raymede Street.

Alfred Hewer was the Secretary of the Land and House Investment Society, which developed the fields of Portobello Farm into streets in the 1860s.

Ernest Walsh, contributing as part of the BBC People’s War in 2004 wrote about Hewer Street:

I was 17 years old when the following incident happened and was living in Notting Hill.

The street shelters were erected just after the outbreak of war. The low square buildings were fitted with bunks to sleep 10 persons and were sited along the road-side.

For nearly two years since 1940,vhen the raids on London really started, the brick built shelters had been our sleeping quartets; built mainly to protect civilians from shrapnel and falling masonry.

As soon as the warning sounded, the family would gather bedding, tea-pot and kettle, and settle down for the night; knowing that there would be no reprieve until the dawn. No luxuries, such as running water, toilet facilities or lighting, were to be had in our temporary abode. A candle, primus stove, and a bowl for washing were the essential requisites.

Someone was banging on the recently re-placed shelter door; I recognised Ronnie Trotman shouting.

“We’ve got to get round to the dairy, it’s been hit with about 20 incendiary bombs; the place is ablaze, and the horses are trapped next door, in John Nodes the undertakers” he blurted. Ronnie and I were great buddies; we had been friends since our days at the glass factory. We had even volunteered together at Horn Lane Acton recruiting centre. I was accepted, passed A1, but Ronnie failed on his bad eyesight.

Hewer Street ran parallel with Rackham Street, and it took Ronnie and about two minutes to get to the scene.

When we arrived at the dairy, the ambulances from St Charles Hospital were dealing with the casualties. We could hear the horses screaming next door, and making our way through the courtyard where a number of incendiaries had fallen, we noticed also, the now familiar red glow coming from the undertakers’ stables. ‘Together with Ronnie and Uncle Bob, we climbed over the boundary wall and into the undertakers courtyard, only to find the door of the stable would not open!

We could hear the horses panicking in their stalls, but the door would not budge; something was preventing it from opening, and it was difficult to see what the problem was.

I called to Uncle Bob “l’m going to try to get in through the window and calm the horses” Following his nod of assent, I threw a milk crate up, smashed the window and climbed in. The jump into the comparative darkness, landed me onto a bale of hay, luckily braking my fall. An incendiary bomb was burning fiercely in the far corner of the stable, slightly away from the horses. The deadly glow, and terrifying sizzle of magnesium, with its acrid smell; the choking smoke was suffocating the air.

Horses in their stalls were screaming, and kicking in panic. With the little light there was I groped my way to the horse nearest to the burning canister.
“Betsy” as the name plate on the door indicated, was jumping about wildly. As I approached her she rushed to her stall door. I then shielded her eyes with my hands. “Steady there girl”, I whispered gently, “we’ll soon get you to safety”.

I must have accidentally slipped the bolt to her door, because Betsy dashed past me, knocking me off balance, onto the wet slippery floor. The milk float, which was being used could still be heard crashing against the stable door, but still no sign of it being opened.

The sinister glow of the fire-bomb produced grotesque shadows as the panic stricken horses shied in their stalls. Holding on like grim death the Betsy, I shouted in the direction of the entrance. “Hurry up and get that bxxxxy door open, I’m being kicked to death in here”

The fire seemed to be gaining hold, and there was no way that I could get back up and out through the window. Suddenly the stable door crashed open! Betsy broke away from me and literally flew out of the door, knockinq Ronnie and Uncle Bob flying. The other horses must have smelt the air of freedom,
causing them to become more frenzied.

Rose-Maria appeared on the scene, and rushing to “Billy’s” stall, placed a damp blanket over his head; leading him out to safety.
The fires were then quickly dealt with, and the remaining four horses were evacuated from the building.

The air raid had quietened down somewhat as we arrived back at the shelter. It was now nearly 2 o’clock in the morning as I quietly lifted the door from its resting position and entered. Ronnie decided to risk the journey home; saying his Dad would be worried. Uncle Bob indicated that he had had enough “Sod it! I’m going upstairs to bed” he said as he marched out of the shelter.

Within the next few hours we would all be preparing for work, so the desperately needed sleep was our life preserver. As I checked the bunks with their sleeping occupants, the snoring and grunting of their fitful reposes was music to my ears.

My mouth was so dry, I could really murder a cup of tea. The primus was sitting on the table, invitingly. The smoke fumes and dust I must have inhaled this night would soon be washed away with a nice hot “cuppa”. It was the chinking of the cups that woke Mum. “What have you lot been sxxxxxxg about at now?” she grumbled. “I’m making a cup of tea, would you like one Mum” I asked, evading her curt question. Her grunt and th nod of her head told me she would, “But I don’t think there is any milk left” she countered.
My thoughts raced to the dairy and all the spilt milk I’d just been wading through, but it had to be tea without (aarghh!)

As I lay in my bunk, I could hear the air raid in the distance. Sleep would not come.

Bleary-eyed and washed out, with a stale cheese sandwich in my pocket which was to be my day’s sustenance, the 662 trolley-bus took me the next morning to Lamsons, a munitions factory in Hythe Road, Scrubs Lane.

“ Ernie Walsh! The foreman wants to see you on the office”
“Now what’s up” I thought punching my clock-card, acknowledging the charge-hand’s directive.
“I see by this letter I’ve just received, that you’ve volunteered to join the Army” the foremen said as I entered the office.
“That is correct”
“Well, if you change your mind, I will get you reserved on your war-work here, as a lathe-capstan operator”
“Thanks all the same” I said, “But I would like to join up”
I think I’d had enough of war-torn, half-starved London by now — I just wanted to get away.

Hewer Street was cut off half way along its length by post-war redevelopment.




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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Comment
Brenda Newton   
Added: 5 Jun 2021 07:17 GMT   

Hewer Street W10
John Nodes Undertakers Hewer Street W10

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Brenda Newton   
Added: 5 Jun 2021 07:27 GMT   

Hewer Street, W10
My husband Barry Newton lived over John Nodes in Hewer Street in 1950’s. Barry dad Tom worked for John Nodes and raced pigeons in his spare time Tom and his Lena raised 5 sons there before moving to the Southcoast in the mid 70’s due to Tom ill health

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Lived here
Tom Vague   
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.’



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Born here
Susan Wright   
Added: 16 Sep 2017 22:42 GMT   

Ada Crowe, 9 Bramley Mews
My Great Grandmother Ada Crowe was born in 9 Bramley Mews in 1876.

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Comment
Fumblina   
Added: 27 Mar 2021 11:13 GMT   

St Jude’s Church, Lancefield Street
Saint Jude’s was constructed in 1878, while the parish was assigned in 1879 from the parish of Saint John, Kensal Green (P87/JNE2). The parish was united with the parishes of Saint Luke (P87/LUK1) and Saint Simon (P87/SIM) in 1952. The church was used as a chapel of ease for a few years, but in 1959 it was closed and later demolished.

The church is visible on the 1900 map for the street on the right hand side above the junction with Mozart Street.

Source: SAINT JUDE, KENSAL GREEN: LANCEFIELD STREET, WESTMINSTER | Londo

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Comment
Fumblina   
Added: 27 Mar 2021 11:08 GMT   

Wedding at St Jude’s Church
On 9th November 1884 Charles Selby and Johanna Hanlon got married in St Jude’s Church on Lancefield Street. They lived together close by at 103 Lancefield Street.
Charles was a Lather, so worked in construction. He was only 21 but was already a widower.
Johanna is not shown as having a profession but this is common in the records and elsewhere she is shown as being an Ironer or a Laundress. It is possible that she worked at the large laundry shown at the top of Lancefield Road on the 1900 map. She was also 21. She was not literate as her signature on the record is a cross.
The ceremony was carried out by William Hugh Wood and was witnessed by Charles H Hudson and Caroline Hudson.

Source: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1623/images/31280_197456-00100?pId=6694792

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Lived here
David Jones-Parry   
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.

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Dave Fahey   
Added: 6 Jan 2021 02:40 GMT   

Bombing of the Jack O Newberry
My maternal grandfather, Archie Greatorex, was the licensee of the Earl of Warwick during the Second World War. My late mother Vera often told the story of the bombing of the Jack. The morning after the pub was bombed, the landlord’s son appeared at the Warwick with the pub’s till on an old pram; he asked my grandfather to pay the money into the bank for him. The poor soul was obviously in shock. The previous night, his parents had taken their baby down to the pub cellar to shelter from the air raids. The son, my mother never knew his name, opted to stay in his bedroom at the top of the building. He was the only survivor. I often wondered what became of him.

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Comment
   
Added: 30 Dec 2022 21:41 GMT   

Southam Street, W10
do any one remember J&A DEMOLITON at harrow rd kensal green my dad work for them in a aec 6 wheel tipper got a photo of him in it

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Lived here
Scott Hatton   
Added: 11 Sep 2020 15:38 GMT   

6 East Row (1960 - 1960)
We lived at 6 East Row just before it was demolished.

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Comment
danny currie   
Added: 30 Nov 2022 18:39 GMT   

dads yard
ron currie had a car breaking yard in millers yard back in the 60s good old days

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Comment
   
Added: 4 Sep 2022 15:42 GMT   

Superman 2
I worked here in 1977. The scene in the prison laundry in Superman 2 was filmed here.

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Comment
CydKB   
Added: 31 Mar 2023 15:07 GMT   

BlackJack Playground
Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance was my favourite childhood park.I went to St Mary’s Catholic school, East Row from Nursery all the way through to Year 6 before Secondary School and I was taken here to play most days. There was a centre piece flower bed in the Voysey Garden surrounded by a pond which my classmates and I used to jump over when no one was looking. The Black jack playground was the go to playground for our sports days and my every day shortcut to get close to the half penny steps foot bridge via Kensal Road. There was also a shop where we could buy ice lollies on hot summer days.The Southern Row side of the Park was filled with pebbles which used to be so fun to walk through as a child, I used to walk through the deepness of the pebbles to get to Bosworth Road or east towards Hornimans Adventure Park.

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Lived here
Norman Norrington   
Added: 28 Dec 2020 08:31 GMT   

Blechynden Street, W10
I was born in Hammersmith Hospital (Ducane Rd) I lived at 40 Blecynden Street from birth in 1942 to 1967 when I moved due to oncoming demolition for the West way flyover.
A bomb fell locally during the war and cracked one of our windows, that crack was still there the day I left.
It was a great street to have grown up in I have very fond memories of living there.



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Comment
charlie evans   
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

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john ormandy   
Added: 20 Mar 2021 17:30 GMT   

Blechynden Street, W10
Went to school St Johns with someone named Barry Green who lived in that St. Use to wait for him on the corner take a slow walk an end up being late most days.

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT


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.

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NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

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

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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

Reply
Comment
Gillian   
Added: 17 Feb 2024 00:08 GMT   

No 36 Upper East Smithfield
My great great grandfather was born at No 36 Upper East Smithfield and spent his early years staring out at a "dead wall" of St Katharine’s Docks. His father was an outfitter and sold clothing for sailors. He describes the place as being backed by tenements in terrible condition and most of the people living there were Irish.

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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Coronation street party, 1953.
TUM image id: 1545250697
Licence: CC BY 2.0
The "Western"
TUM image id: 1489498043
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Clayton Arms
TUM image id: 1453029104
Licence: CC BY 2.0
The Foresters
TUM image id: 1453071112
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The Lads of the Village pub
TUM image id: 1556874496
Licence: CC BY 2.0
The Prince of Wales
TUM image id: 1556874951
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Kensington Park Hotel
TUM image id: 1453375720
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The Albion, now in residential use.
TUM image id: 1556404154
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

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Coronation street party, 1953.
Licence: CC BY 2.0


The "Western"
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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
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Clayton Arms
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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.
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The Foresters
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The Lads of the Village pub
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The Prince of Wales
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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.
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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
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