Notting Hill

Notting Hill is a district of London located to the west of the centre and close to the north-western corner of Hyde Park. It lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

History

The hill from which Notting Hill takes its name is probably the hill up and down which Ladbroke Grove passes, which has its summit near the point where St John's Church now stands. Alternatively, some writers suggest that Notting Hill can refer to nearby Campden Hill, but the local place name and map evidence is against this. The name is very old, and is usually said to derive from the Saxon personal name Cnotta, as in Cnotta's Hill.

Related Topics:
Ladbroke Grove - Campden Hill - Saxon

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In early times, the area was entirely rural, and it fell within the northern part of the parish of Kensington. An early manor of Notting Barns is recorded. The name Notting Hill came to prominence when a turnpike gate was constructed at the bottom of the hill on the main road from London to Uxbridge, which is now known as Oxford Street, Bayswater Road and Holland Park Avenue along this part of its route. The point at which the turnpike gate stood was known as Notting Hill Gate. The gate was there to stop people passing along the road without paying and the proceeds were applied towards the maintenance of this important road. The gate was removed in the 19th century.

Related Topics:
Kensington - Oxford Street

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There is, therefore, a difference between modern Notting Hill (which is the area surrounding the hill) and Notting Hill Gate (originally the site of a gate at the bottom of the hill and now the area at the south of Notting Hill, around Notting Hill Gate tube station) at the south end of Notting Hill). However, the two are often confused.

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When the westward expansion of London reached Bayswater in the early 19th century, the main landowner in Notting Hill was the Ladbroke family and from the 1820s they began to lay out streets and houses with a view to turning the area into a fashionable suburb of the capital (although the development did not get seriously under way until the 1840s). Many of these streets bear the Ladbroke name, including Ladbroke Grove (the main north south axis of the area) and Ladbroke Square (which is the largest private garden square in London).

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The original idea was to call the district Kensington Park, and other roads (notably Kensington Park Road and Kensington Park Gardens) are a survival of this. This is also the reason for the choice of PARK as the name of the local telephone exchange (which is in the Portobello Road at the back of Kensington Park Road) which is the origin of the classic Notting Hill telephone prefix 727 (now 7727) on the principle illustrated here, since the letters PAR corresponded with the numbers 727 on old telephone dials.

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The principal architect of this plan was the Ladbroke family's surveyor Thomas Allom and its distinctive feature was that, instead of houses being set around a garden square separated from the houses by a road around the square, houses were placed around the edge of the garden square, with the road on the other side of the house. This meant that the houses had direct access at the back to a secluded communal garden to which people on the street did not have access and which could not, for the most part, even be seen from the street. These communal gardens continue to provide the area with much of its attraction for the richest householders.

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At an early stage, a racecourse was laid out running around the hill, with bystanders expected to watch from the summit of the hill, but it was not a success and houses were built over it.

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The Notting Hill houses were large but they did not, when built, succeed in capturing the very richest Londoners, who tended to live further towards the centre of London in Mayfair or Belgravia. Rather, they appealed to the upper middle class who could live there in Belgravia style but at lower prices. In the opening chapter of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga novels, he housed the Nicholas Forsytes "in Ladbroke Grove, a spacious abode and a great bargain" (The Man of Property, Chapter 1, published 1906).

Related Topics:
Mayfair - Belgravia - John Galsworthy - Forsyte Saga

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In common with many parts of London, the reputation of the district evolved significantly over the course of the 20th century. As middle class households ceased to employ servants, the large Notting Hill houses lost their market and were increasingly split into multiple occupation. In the postwar period the name Notting Hill evoked a down at heel area of cheap lodgings, epitomised by the notorious racketeering landlord Peter Rachman. It was documented in the famous 1950s Southam Street photographs of Roger Mayne, and features as a backdrop to novels by G.K. Chesterton (The Napoleon of Notting Hill), Colin Macinnes (Absolute Beginners) and Michael Moorcock (the Jerry Cornelius quartet). The area is also the setting of the Rita Tushingham movie The Knack (and how to get it) (1965).

Related Topics:
Peter Rachman - Roger Mayne - G.K. Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill - Absolute Beginners - Michael Moorcock - Rita Tushingham

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By the 1980s, single occupation houses began to return to favour with families who could afford to occupy them, and Notting Hill is now one of London's smartest and most desirable areas characterised by well maintained stucco fronted pillar porched houses, private gardens, communal gardens, access to the public parks at Holland Park and Kensington Gardens, and smart shops.

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