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A Lyttle Blogge Poste about Ye Old English Fayre
One of the ways you can indicate that something is old and quaint is to misspell all the words, adding e’s indiscriminately and throwing in the word Ye as often as possible. You can see it in old films...
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In the gallery
Local Studies and Archives collections often contain paintings and prints connected with the area they cover, particularly if like Kensington and Chelsea the area is or has been one where artists lived...
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Blog extra: one million
It’s only a number. Obviously. But a million page views is still a bit of a landmark. Thanks to everyone who has read and supported this blog since 2011. [Photographs by James Hedderly,...
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Christmas Days: the wonder of Woolies
Woolworth’s stores were once upon a time a seemingly immovable feature of the British high street. Every town had one, some more than one, and every London district. Think back now to all the different...
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Christmas Days: Argent Archer
I had an enquiry the other day about the photographer Albert Argent Archer. A website devoted to photographers said we had a collection of his work, which was news to me. The name did ring a bell...
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The Roof Gardens 1979: for your pleasure
Strictly speaking I know we should have Kensal Road part 3 this week but I’m a little bit under the weather after Christmas and these pictures recently fell into my lap courtesy of my volunteer, BC,...
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Forgotten buildings: a few numbers in Cromwell Road
Just before Christmas I did a post which largely arose out of the large number of people you could see in some Survey photos taken around South Kensington Station. I thought I might do something...
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A walk down Ashburn Mews
We left off last week near here. That’s 109 Cromwell Road, the corner of Ashburn Gardens. Ashburn Gardens still exists of course, but the buildings you see in the picture do not. There was an...
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Archer’s High Street
Albert Argent Archer, the excellently named Kensington photographer was featured in one of the short posts over Christmas. As promised, this week we are returning to him, but first a few historical...
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Car spotting in Oxford and Cambridge (Gardens)
The content of this post arises from the use of an occasional method of mine to stimulate inspiration. Start scanning with one picture you like and keep going until a theme emerges. I don’t know if it...
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Mews views
We’re starting this week back with our old friend Ashburn Mews. I thought I’d dealt pretty comprehensively with that comparatively small piece of territory but I realised while looking for some...
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Kensington Church Street – slowly up the hill
Kensington Church Street is one of the oldest thoroughfares in Kensington, and as essential to the identity of Kensington as the High Street. So given that we have plenty of pictures of it in the...
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Kensington Church Street – grand houses and large houses
I had feeling that this week’s post was going to be as late as last week’s. But maybe not. As I recall we were about here… Just at the point where Kensington Church Street veers left (or north west...
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Did you say an ostrich? High jinks at Batty’s Hippodrome
It’s a high summer at the moment so my mind is wandering back to a summer in another year, 1851. Was it a hot July in Kensington that year? Hot enough I expect, but not hot enough to deter a...
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Cul-de-sac: St Mary Abbot’s Place
Last Saturday, on one of those hot, hot days we’ve been having I was sitting with my son at the bus stop on Kensington High Street opposite St Mary Abbot’s Place, looking at the short terrace called...
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Kensington Church Street: farther along
Resuming our progress up Kensington Church Street, we’re now round the corner now but still heading up the hill. This is the corner of another cul-de-sac, Melon Place Numbers 62 and 64 date from...
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Silver Street: Kensington Church Street part 4
For this final post on Kensington Church Street we’re in Silver Street, which, as I said last week, is the name by which the northern section of the street used to be known. Church Lane was the...
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The Depot – Warwick Road 1969
They call it the Council Offices, Pembroke Road these days. But we used to call it the Depot. I’ve been there for training courses, sat in rooms and listened to trainers, practiced recruitment...
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Alfred Waterhouse, the affable artist, and the Natural History Museum
This week’s post is the work of my friend and colleague Isabel Hernandez for whom this has been a labour of love. I can only thank her for her hard work in giving us another epic post, and me a week or...
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Mr William Luker Jr, Coadjutor
W J Loftie’s 1888 book Kensington: Picturesque and Historical is an unprepossessing volume. But inside, there are, as the title page states “upwards of three hundred illustrations (some in colour)” in...
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