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KENSINGTON PARK HOTEL (“KPH”)

A brief account of the building, its architecture and history

The KPH was purpose built as public house in the 1860s and has survived relatively unchanged, still recognisable from its earliest photographs. The building sits at the end of a terrace on Lad broke Grove, on the corner of Lancaster Road, within the Ladbroke Conservation Area.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE AREA

Ladbroke Grove was named after the 19th century landowner, James Weller Ladbroke. His estate had been largely rural until development of his Ladbroke Estates began in 1821. A period of rapid development ensued, with several and property speculators and architects (most notably Thomas Allason) involved in the building and layout of the area. However, the fashionable and richest Londoners could not be enticed to move to so far from Central London and the City. The houses appealed rather to the professional and entrepreneurial middle classes, able to snap up Belgravia style housing at suburban prices, but development outstripped demand. By the 1850s the area was witnessing an economic depression and building in the area had been all but suspended.

Fig 1. 1850 Ordnance Survey Map, 1:5,280 (1850)

Three of the largest speculators in the Ladbroke and Notting Dale areas had been Charles Henry Blake, James Whitchurch and Stephen Philips. Undoubtedly seeing potential to realise their earlier investment, in 1861 they became members of the provisional committee of the Hammersmith, Paddington and City Junction Railway. The Hammersmith and City Railway subsequently opened in 1864. This new line connected with the Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway in the world, which ran between Paddington and Farringdon Street. North Kensington was now connected with the City. The growing demand for houses could hardly be fulfilled fast enough.

The 1860s saw a new surge in building along Ladbroke Grove and the surrounding area. Many long residential terraces were built, taller three or four storey houses usually at the street corners. In late 1864, Blake leased the land extending from Lancaster Road to beyond what we now know as Bassett Road and pledged to add a road with sewers within the year. The speculative building race was back on.

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EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE KPH

The first photograph of the KPH shows it completely built by 1866 (fig. 2). Signage had yet to be erected suggesting it was at the end of construction but before tenancy.

Fig. 2. 1866 Ladbroke Grove Road (1866, Lordprice Collection)

However, it was not shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1867, probably due to a time lag between the survey and its publication (fig. 3). By the time of the 1895 Ordnance Survey map, the KPH is well established and the surge of development following the Hammersmith & City Railway is evident (fig. 4).

Fig. 3. 1867 Ordnance Survey Map, 1:1,056 (1867) Fig. 4. Ordnance Survey Map, 1:1,056 (1895)

The address was known as 1 Ladbroke Grove Road until 1899. The name has always shifted back and forth between The Kensington Park and Kensington Park Hotel, although the word ‘hotel’ was most likely an early affection since census records do not provide evidence of lodgings being offered to the public. The 1881 census shows the first recorded publican to live at the KPH was a woman, a widow named Jane Coysh, who lived there with her four children and six staff. Subsequently, her son Robert took over the tenancy. By the 1899 census it was no longer a family concern, the Coysh family had moved out and Frederick Langford was installed as publican. The change in ownership signalled the next phase in the KPH’s history, symptomatic of the changes witnessed in other pub properties in England as a consequence of the growing power of the breweries.

In the mid 1890s, the Cannon Brewery of Clerkenwell was buying a large number of pubs and turning them into tied houses. Cannon rebuilt or remodelled using designs of specialist architectural firm

KPH

“P.H.” = KPH

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Shoebridge & Rising. Within 6 years Cannon had acquired over 125 freeholds with vacant possession and more leaseholds, including the KPH it would appear. In 1896, Shoebridge & Rising sought approval under the Metropolitan Local Management Act for a new sewer connection to prevent the KPH cellars flooding (fig. 5). These plans show the purpose built cellar was extensive and organised in separate areas for beer, wines, spirits and minerals, with a pot shed, three under-pavement coal vaults and a cellar flap on Lancaster Road.

It is unclear whether further changes were made by Cannon Breweries in the 1890s (remodelling would not have required approval, thus no records are held by RBKC). The decorative window frames with diamond-cut glass in the upper panels, sine arched framing and delicate split pediments, cruciform patterns in framed panels of an implied clerestory, may date from a 1890s refit but could originate from first build (fig. 6) (the plain glass in the main windows is modern). The central island bar that characterises the KPH’s interior was not a common feature of pubs of the 1860s and is likely a development of the 1890s when this style became popular. The remodelling for the central island would have required innovative structural alteration by introducing the five cast iron columns supporting the upper storeys without visible downward beams. These columns were cast specifically for use behind bar counters, the lower parts being plain whilst the upper parts are ornately moulded (fig. 7). It is unusual that the bar counter of the KPH has remained unchanged and is of consequent interest.

Fig. 5. 1896 drainage plans (1896) Fig. 6. Framed pattern (2014) Fig. 7.Ornately moulded upper

(2014)

When built in 1866, the terraces on both sides of the road mirrored each other architecturally (fig. 2), presenting an elegant symmetrical gateway to the nearby station. In the photograph, the KPH is situated on the left and a wine and spirit merchant on the Eastern side. Their architectural style is described as by Sir Osbert Lancaster as ‘Kensington Italianate’ [“Pillar to Post: English Architecture Without Tears”: Lancaster, Osbert: 1956 2nd edn: John Murray: pp 44-5]. Above fascia level, the upper elevations are of gault brick with stone dressed windows and stacked quoins that punctuate the shallow projecting bays of the composition. The first floor windows are half round arched below cornices that form stone balustrade balconettes to pedimented second floor windows. A stone string course above second floor level brings a change of vertical scale with lower arched windows and blocked bonded quoins terminating in a plain entablature with patterae, below a plain run cornice. Parapets on the terraces were originally crowned by urns surmounting piers with bottle balustrades between and the chamfered corner was surmounted by an open arched pediment like a bell cote.

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These crowning features were lost following the wartime bomb damage which also led to the matching terrace opposite the KPH being demolished.

The West terrace ends at the entrance to the KPH on an angled corner with Lancaster Road. Above the door, windows on the chamfer continue the horizontal modulation and vertical hierarchy of the main street elevation. The upper chamfer was plain for signage in addition to the fascias on each side. The first floor function room fireplace and that of the room above were behind a blind window bay, the first floor blind window providing opportunity for further signage (now decorated with a naive style mural of a market scene). Decoration of on the angled panel above the entrance to the Public Bar varied during the 20th Century but an indistinct image of about 1900 (fig. 8) shows signage of similar shape to that in an undated 20th Century photograph (fig. 9) and the panel remains in place today (fig. 10).

Fig. 8. Signage panel (c.1900) Fig. 9. Panel (late C20th) Fig. 10. Panel, lamp, K.P.H.

(2014) Taylor Walker & Co acquired the Cannon Brewery in 1930. The Taylor Walker trademarked lamps were fixed to the fascias in 1930 (see fig. 10 above) and remain in place today. Taylor Walker was taken over by Ind Coope in 1959 which subsequently merged with two other breweries to form Allied Breweries in 1961. The Double Diamond brand was owned by Allied Breweries and is visible on the frontage in 1968 under the large gilded initials ‘K.P.H.’ which are back in place today (see fig. 10 above and fig. 11 below). Inside, backlit signs above the circle bar still advertise Ind Coope of Burton, a brewery which merged with Allied Breweries in 1961 before being sold to Carlsberg-Tetley to Bass in 1997 (fig. 12).

Fig. 11. Double Diamond and K.P.H. (1968) Fig 12. Ind Coope backlit signs above circle bar (2014)

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The corner entrance is intrinsic to the original plan and follows the nineteenth century principle of locating pubs on street corners. As was the norm, the layout of the KPH was divided along class lines. The Public Bar has the most prominent entrance which contrasts with the discrete entrance of the Saloon Bar to the rear. The central island bar served as a Public Bar entered by the corner doors. The Public Bar catered to the working classes with bare boards and sawdust, hard seating and cheaper beer. A lobby was shared with the small Private Bar. A larger Saloon Bar was entered from a long side lobby off Ladbroke Grove and a lobby off Lancaster Road. The Saloon Bar was favoured by the middle classes, with carpets, cushioned seating and a premium charged for drinks. The cellar plans may illustrate the unheated nature of the Bars; only a modest sized coal vault was required for a clientele who kept their hats and coats on, with a fireplace in the Saloon only.

‘Before’ (fig 13) and ‘after’ plans submitted by Cannon Breweries’ architects Hukine & Mayall in 1929 reflect the needs of a changing clientele. Downstairs, new plan saw the loss of the Private Bar in favour of an enlarged Public Bar, new entrance doors to smaller lobbies and provision of its first Ladies’ lavatory (fig 14).

Fig. 13. ‘Before’ plan of first floor function rooms (1929) Fig. 14. Ladies’ facilities created 1929 (2014)

The KPH benefitted from the close proximity to the railway station and became a convenient hostelry for commuters, but the early plans indicate it also catered for single male workers employed in the area by providing a Luncheon Room upstairs and a Billiards Room, a popular leisure activity. The staircase rising from the Saloon Bar led to these two major spaces but in 1929 this gave way to activities intended for a wider audience.

Created in the redesign of 1929, the Theatre on the first floor is the one of the defining features of the KPH. The Theatre is a large room with a raised stage over the mews arch. At this time, a new Gents’ toilet was built at the head of the stairs, taking space from the former Billiards Room; this is why the Theatre narrows to the left of the stage (fig 15).

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Fig. 15. Theatre function room (2014)

In recent history, the Theatre was home to the Kensington Park Theatre Club from 1986, the Chair Theatre from 1988 and the Grove Theatre in 1990. The Theatre continues to provide a space for live music, events and parties. Singer Sir Tom Jones performed here at the start of his career for princely fee of £10. Urban mythology has it that serial killer John Christie was a barman at the KPH in the 1940s but it is true that his neighbour Timothy Evans, hanged for Christie’s crimes, was a regular and that the KPH was a location in the acclaimed 1971 film “10 Rillington Place” starring Sir Richard Attenborough as Christie. In another episode in the area’s notorious past, the KPH is rumoured to have been HQ of fascist Oswald Mosely during his disastrous bid for election to the Kensington North seat in 1958; a Mosely rally is cited in the novel “Bad Penny Blues” by Cathie Unsworth in which the KPH is featured. Despite this, the KPH has remained non-partizan. The riots of 1958 led to the founding of the Notting Hill Carnival and the KPH has been part of the backdrop for the annual Notting Hill Carnival ever since. The KPH continues to cater to the area’s West Indian and Irish communities whilst becoming ever more cosmopolitan and inclusive, through the bohemian era of the 1970s, the creative and media colonisation of the 1980s and 1990s and the re-gentrification of the noughties – the KPH continues to provide enjoyment and activities catering to its wide community base.