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1Michael StrachanKensington (Olympia) Walk

2Copyright © heritagewalks.london 2019 75 West Street, Harrow on the Hill, London HA1 3EL info@walkingthepast.co.uk First published in the UK in 2012 Text and images copyright © Michael Strachan Michael Strachan has asserted his rights to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. (The cover illustration shows the Natural History Museum).

3Kensington(Olympia) Walk Michael Strachan

INTRODUCTION From the display centre of Olympia, with its striking archi-tecture currently undergoing major development, this walk takes you through an area where many famous artists lived, including Hamo Thornycroft, Luke Fildes and Lord Leighton. Cutting across Kensington High Street, one of London’s best shopping areas, this walk ends at the border with Chelsea. Historically the area grew out of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton which was surrounded by market gardens. This name and the gardens disappeared with the coming of the railways in the late 19th century and the opening/shutting and naming of local tube stations. Olympia was originally conceived in the early 1880s as a larger version of the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington. The project was driven by Edwyn Sherard Burnaby (1830-1883), MP for Leicestershire North, who wanted shows such as the military Royal Tournament, to be ac-cessible by railway from across London and the rest of the country. The Grand Hall and Pillar Hall of Olympia were completed in 1885. The National Hall annexe was completed in 1923, and in 1930 the Empire Hall was added, (see illustration above). 4St Philip’s ChurchNatural History MuseumEmpire Hall from Addison Road station

The area covered by this walk has become a popular tourist destination owing to the number of nearby mu-seums which were developed after the Great Exhibition of 1851. You’ll find plaques celebrating the lives of important Vic-torian artists and also film directors such as Michael Powell and Alfred Hitchcock. Along with other affluent areas nearby such as Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kens-ington, this part of London contains some of the most exclusive real estate in the world. Poles came here during World War II and afterwards the area of became even more cosmopolitan attracting many Belgian and French refugees. More recently, wealthy Middle-Eastern, Chinese and Russian expatri-ates have bought up the exclusive mansions. To hear this Introduction please click this icon To find out more about ‘What3Words’ please click this information icon 5If you would like to donate an amount which will help us cover our costs and continue to work on new publications please scan or tap the QR link below:

Planning Your Walk 1. If possible, walk with a friend. 2. Tell som eone whe re you are goi ng. 3. Take care when wal king a t nigh t. 4. Wear sensible clothes and footwear. 5. Always take a bottle of water to avoid de-hydration. 6. Don't try to do too much in one visit. 7. Check the opening times of all Museums and Galleries on-line. 8. Take your c amera or came ra p hone wit h batt erie s fu lly charged. 9. If you are printing out this do staple these!pages!together!. 10. Don’t forget to download your free Quiz and Plaque scoresheets by using the URL links on the next page… Starts at Olympia Underground station. (District line) Ends at South Kensington Underground station. (Piccadilly, Circle & District lines) Use the Transport for London (TFL) planner to plan your journey. 65.3 km 3.3 miles 2-3 hrs

To make your walk more interesting… …we have created an on-line, interactive map which you can find by clicking the link below, or by scanning the green QR code opposite. This will only work if you are reading this guide on a smart device like an iPad: Plot-a-Route map We have also added some fun challenges - the first is a picture quiz. So you need to look out for interesting objects such as ‘street furniture’, statues and architectur-al features shown in the I-Spy Challenge scoresheet. Click the link below, or scan the pink QR code opposite, to access a download for this scoresheet. It can then be printed or saved: I-Spy Challenge The second challenge is to ‘bag’ all the plaques along this walk. These are listed on a ‘Pastwalkers’ scoresheet along with their ‘what3words’ loca-tions. (Click the information icon op-posite for more about how ‘What3Words’ works). The plaque scores are based on age and quality rather than the importance of the person or event commemorated. Download by clicking on the link below, or by scanning the blue QR code opposite: Plaque Challenge 7Tick them off when you find them

KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA) WALK Start from Kensington (Olympia) station… Walk across the station concourse to Russell Road and turn left, looking for number 35… The first plaque states that Quaid i Azam Mo-hammed Ali Jinnah, 1876 - 1948, founder of Pa-kistan stayed here in 1895. He had come to London to study Law at Lincoln's Inn between 1892 and 1896. The Pakistan High Commissioner, Mr Mo-hammed Ikramullah, unveiled the plaque you can see here. Continue to the corner of Russell Street and turn right into Holland Gardens… At the end of Holland Gardens turn left and then first right into Addison Cres-cent… Follow Addision Crescent around into Addison Road… On your left you will see the church of Saint Barnabas. In 1825 the local Church of England authorities - the Vestry of Kens-ington - decided to build a new church in Brompton and a new chapel in the western part of Kensington. Saint Barnabas was consecrated in 1829 and desig-nated a chapel of ease to Saint Mary Abbots. It be-came a separate parish in 1856. 8Mohammed Ali Jinnah

Walk on to the entrance to Melbury Road on your left… Look for number 2a Melbury Road for the next plaque… William Hamo Thornycroft was an Eng-lish sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. He was one of the youngest artists to be elected to the Royal Academy, in 1882 and a lead-ing figure in the transition movement known as the New Sculpture. Continue along Melbury Road until you come to number 8… There are two plaques displayed here - one to Mar-cus Stone (English Heritage) and the other to Mi-chael Powell (Directors Guild of Great Britain). The house was designed by Richard Norman Shaw in the Queen Anne style. Shaw was well acquain-ted with members of the art establishment, be-ing friends with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Philip Webb. Marcus Clayton Stone was the son of Frank Stone ARA. Trained by his father he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy before he was eighteen. A few years later he began illustrating books 9Sir Hamo ThornycroftMarcus Stone

by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and other writers who were family friends. Michael Powell collaborated with Emeric Pressbur-ger setting up a production company The Archers. They wrote, produced and directed a series of clas-sic British films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). His later controversial 1960 film Peeping Tom was so vilified on first release that his career was seriously damaged but has now become a classic. Many film-makers such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and George A. Romero have cited Powell as an influence. 10Trailer link for ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’

Continue around Melbury Road until you can see number 31 which displays the next blue plaque… Sir Luke Fildes was a painter and illustrator born in Liverpool who trained at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools. He was the grandson of the political activist Mary Fildes. Fildes shared his grandmother's concern for the poor and in 1869 joined the staff of The Graphic news-paper, an illustrated weekly founded and edited by the social reformer, William Luson Thomas. Fildes shared Thomas' belief in the power of visual images to change public opinion on poverty and injustice and hoped that the images in The Graphic would result in individual acts of charity and collective social ac-tion. Look out for number 14 Melbury Road, now a block of flats, for the next plaque… Colin Hunter lived here. A successful Scot-tish Victorian artist he exhibited nearly one hundred works in the Royal Academy over thirty-five years. He was a member of the Holland Park Circle of famous artists, in-cluding Lord Leighton, G F Watts and Sir Luke Fildes among others, most of whom were his friends and neighbours. 11Luke FildesColin Hunter

Born in Glasgow, and then growing up in Helens-burgh, Hunter honed his craft painting landscapes in natural settings on the west coast and islands of Scotland and is best known for his seascapes. Paint-ing largely with oil and occasionally watercolours, he was also an accomplished etcher. Look out for number 18 which has two blue plaques - one with a higher score… Two very different, but important, people made this their London home. The first was Cetshwayo, ruler of the Zulu King-dom from 1873 to 1879 and its leader during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Cetshwayo consistently opposed the war and sought fruitlessly to make peace with the British. However was de-feated and exiled following the Zulu defeat. He was later allowed to return to Zululand, where he died in 1884. At the same address William Holman Hunt lived and died. Hunt was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paint-ings were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, who viewed the world itself as a system of visual signs. For Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the corres-pondence between sign and fact. Of all the members, 12King CetshwayoWilliam Holman Hunt

Hunt remained most true to the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood throughout his life and was always keen to maximise the popular appeal and public visibility of his works. Continue down Melbury Road and turn right into Holland Park Road… Number 12 Holland Park Road, Leighton House, was the home of Frederick, Lord Leighton and is now an attractive museum. Opened to the public in 1929 it was awarded the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage in 2012. It was built using red Suf-folk bricks with Caen Stone dressings in a restrained Classical style. A painter, draughtsman, and sculptor, Leighton’s expensive works depicted historical, biblic-al, and classical subject matter in an academic style and were enormously popular during his lifetime. In 1860, he came to Lon-don and began his asso-ciation with the Pre-Raphaelites - a revolu-tionary artistic group. He designed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb for Robert Browning in the English Cemetery, Florence in 1861. By 1864 he had become an associate of 13Frederick, Lord Leighton

the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became its Pres-ident (1878–96). His 1877 sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python, was considered at its time to inaugurate a renais-sance in contemporary British sculpture, referred to as the New Sculpture. Carry on down Holland Park Road until you come to number 20… Phil May, who lived and worked here, is the last of this cluster of artists. How-ever May came from a working class background and already had a series of jobs around the Leeds area before set-ting off for London aged 17 with a sov-ereign in his pocket. He suffered ex-treme want, sleeping out in the parks and streets, until he got a job as de-signer to a theatrical costumier. He began drawing posters and car-toons, and for about two years worked for the St Stephens Review, until he was advised to go to Aus-tralia for his health. He was noted for the extraordinary economy of line which was a characteristic feature of his drawings became a regular member of the staff of Punch in 1896, and in his later years his services were re-tained exclusively for Punch and The Graphic. 14Phil May

In 1898, he was a founder member of the London Sketch Club. He died from tuberculosis in 1903 at his other home in St John's Wood, London. Continue to the end of Holland Park Road and turn left into Addison Road… Walk down to the junction with Kens-ington High Street and cross over into Warwick Gardens to look for number 13… This was the home of the writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton, a writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. His most popular creation was the fictional priest-detective Father Brown. Continue along Warwick Gardens and turn left down Pembroke Gardens… Continue on to Warwick Road up turn left up to Edwardes Square looking for number 27… This houses the next plaque commemorating the comedian Frankie Howerd. After a failed audition at RADA he toured the music halls despite suffering from major stage fright – a life-long condition. His personal life was marked by his efforts to con-ceal his homosexuality in an era when it was not publicly acceptable. 15G. K. Chesterton

After war service, he refocused his career with radio and theatre appearances and finally earned his own TV variety show, only to suffer a severe nervous breakdown. He somehow managed to recover, and earned high praise for both his performance in the London production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (in the Zero Mostel role) and his work on the popular satire series That Was the Week That Was (1962). He worked in such films as The Ladykillers (1955), Further Up the Creek (1958), The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), some 'Carry On' appearances, and the lead role in The House in Nightmare Park (1973). Frankie was awarded the OBE in 1977, the year his autobiography, "On My Way I Lost It," was pub-lished. He died of heart failure in 1992 and was bur- 16

ied at St. Gregory's Church in Weare, Somerset, where his lifelong partner Dennis Heymer was also buried. Walk up Edwardes Square and turn right into Kensington High Street… Almost immediately turn right into Earl’s Terrace where you’ll find two plaques… Number 14 was the home of Thomas Daniell RA - an English landscape painter who also painted Oriental themes. He spent seven years in India, accompanied by his nephew William, also an artist, and published several series of aquatints of the country. Number 12 Earl’s Terrace was home to Walter Pater - an English essayist, art and literary critic and fiction writer, re-garded as one of the great stylists. His first book was Studies in the History of the Renais-sance (1873), later revised as The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, in which he outlined his approach to art - as an ideal of the intense inner life. This was taken by many as a mani-festo of Aestheticism. 17Thomas DaniellWalter Pater

Carry on around Earl’s Terrace and turn right into Kensington High Street… Immediately turn right into the other side of Ed-wardes Square and look for the next plaque at number 11… T h i s w a s t h e h o m e o f Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson - known as ‘Goldie’, who was a Brit-ish political scientist and philo-sopher. He lived most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. He was closely associated wi t h th e B lo o m s b u r y Group. Dickinson was deeply distressed by Britain's in-volvement in the First World War. Shortly after the outbreak of that war he drew up the idea of a League of Nations, and his subsequent writings helped to shape public opinion towards the cre-ation of the League. Walk down to number 19 - where you’ll find an-other plaque… Ugo Foscolo, the Italian poet and patriot, lived here. Born Niccolò Foscolo, he was an Italian writer, revolutionary and a poet. He wrote an ode to Napo-leon, expecting Napoleon to overthrow the 18G. Lowes Dickinson

Venetian oligarchy and create a free re-public, only to be disappointed when the Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Octo-ber 1797) ended the ancient Republic of Venice, then partitioned by the French. He is especially remembered for his 1807 long poem Dei Sepolcri. Carry on walking down Edwardes Square passing the well-known Scarsdale Tavern public house on your left… The next plaque is across the road at 1 Pem-broke Cottages… Sir William Rothenstein the painter and writer lived here. He is best known for his work as a war artist in both world wars, his portraits, and his popu-lar memoirs, written in the 1930s. William Rothenstein was born into a Jewish family in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire where he was educated at Bradford Grammar School. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's growing textile industry. More than two hundred of Rothen-stein's portraits of famous people can be found in the National Portrait Gallery col-lection. The Tate Gallery also holds a large collection of his paintings, prints and drawings. 19Ugo FoscoloSir Wm Rothenstein

Continue along Pembroke Square into Pembroke villas… At the junction with Pembroke Road turn left… Follow Pembroke Road around into Earl’s Court Road… As you turn into Earl’s Court Road you’ll see St Philip’s Anglican Church – an item in the I-Spy Challenge sheet. It dates from 1857, when permission was obtained to build a new church in the village of Earl’s Court. In 1858 the new church was consecrated by the Bishop of London. Joseph Claxton was the first vicar, also providing £5,000 towards the cost of the new church, where he served until his death in 1877. Do look at the clock, a local landmark, it was added in 1883 and has now been restored to work-ing order. Turn left into Lexham Gardens… At number 101 there is a blue plaque marking the home of Sir Learie Constantine - a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Tri-nidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black peer. He played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. An opponent of racial discrimination, in later life he was influential in the passing of the 20Rothenstein's portrait drawing of Auguste Rodin c 1916

1965 Race Relations Act in Britain and was knighted in 1962 becoming a life peer in 1969. The next plaque was erec-ted at number 91 ‘in the best possible taste’ to mark the home of Kenny Everett - an English comedian, ra-dio disc jockey and television presenter. After spells on pirate ra-dio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the first Disc Jock-eys to join the newly-cre-ated BBC Radio 1 in 1967. 21Kenny Everett

It was here he began to develop his widely-popular trademark voices and surreal characters for televi-sion. Walk to the end of Lexham Gardens and turn right into Marloes Road… Number 1 Marloes Road was the home of Andrew Lang, a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropo-logy. Best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales, the Andrew Lang lectures are named after him. 22Andrew Lang

Continue down Marloes Road and cross over Cromwell Road by the nearest safe crossing and briefly divert to 173 Cromwell Road to view the next blue plaque… This house was the London home of Benjamin Britten an influential English composer, a conductor and pianist. A central figure of 20th-century British music, his works included opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. He is best-known for the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945) from which an excerpt is shown below: 23Benjamin Britten

Turn back along Cromwell Road over the en-trances to Kenway Road and Knaresborough Place to number 153 Cromwell Road… The next blue plaque here honours the controver-sial film director Alfred Hitchcock who lived here. He directed over 50 feature films and became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and pro-ducing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director despite five nominations! (See the next page for a short video outlining his life and achievements). 24

For the next part of this walk you need to cross back over Cromwell Road by the nearest safe crossing and enter Lexham Gardens… You’ll find the next plaque at number 1 Lexham Gardens… This was the home of Krystyna Skarbek OBE, GM also known as Christine Granville, was a Polish agent of the Brit-ish Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. She be-came celebrated for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. She may have been the inspira-tion for a modern James Bond film character - ‘Vesper Lynd’. She was tragically stabbed to death in 1952 in London by an obsessed and spurned suitor who was subsequently hanged. Continue along Lexham Gardens past Lexham Gardens Mews on your right… Turn right into Lexham Walk and walk up until you reach Cornwall Gardens… Divert left briefly and look for the next plaque at number 95 Cornwall Gardens… 25Christina Granville

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett DBE lived here in flat 5 Braemer Mansions. An English novelist, her works focus on power struggles within dysfunctional Edwardian upper-middle-class families. They are written in a highly individualistic dialogue-heavy style. In 1955 she was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son. Retrace your steps back to where you entered Cornwall Gardens and turn left to look for the next two plaques which are quite close to each but on opposite sides of this road… Number 52 Cornwall Gardens was the London home of the Brazilian statesman and diplomat Joa-quim Nabuco. Born in Brazil, he was the son of a major political figure in the Brazilian Empire, Jose Thomas Nabuco (1813–1878). A lifetime senator, counselor of state, and wealthy landowner he made his move from conservativism to liberalism in the 1860s, establishing the Liberal Party in 1868 and supporting the re-forms that would lead to the abolition of slavery in 1888. 26Dame Ivy Compton-BurnettJoaquim Nabuco

Look a little further on the other side of the road for number 100 Cornwall Gardens… Sir Terence Rattigan, a British dramatist and screenwriter, was born here. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others. A troubled homosexual who saw himself as an outsider, Rattigan’s plays of-ten centred on issues of sexual frustration and failed relationships, in a world of repression and reticence. Carry on walking along Cornwall Gar-dens until you can turn right into Gren-ville Place… Walk down Grenville Place until you reach number 6… Charles Booth was a pioneer in social re-search who lived here. A British shipowner, social researcher, and re-former, best known for his innovative 27Sir Terence RattiganCharles Booth

philanthropic studies on working-class life in London towards the end of the 19th century. During the 1860s Booth had been strongly influ-enced by the philosophy of Auguste Comte, the founder of modern sociology. Booth's work, along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, influenced government policy regarding poverty in the early 20th century and helped initiate Old Age pensions and free school meals for the poorest children. Continue along Grenville Place to the junction with Cromwell Road and turn left… Look for the next plaque at the corner of 39b Queens Gate Gardens and Cromwell Road on your left… Slobodan Yovanović was a Serbian and Yugoslav writer, historian, lawyer, philosopher, literary critic, diplomat and politician, and one of the prominent intellectuals of his time. He took part at the Paris Peace Conference (1919) as an expert for the Yugoslav Government. Continue along Cromwell Road, crossing over Queen’s Gate… On your left you pass one of Lon-don’s great museums - the Natural History Museum… 28Slobodan Jovanović by_Uroš_Predić_(1931)

The Natural History Museum exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major mu-seums on Exhibition Road, the others be-ing the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80! million items within five main collec-tions: botany, entomology, mineralogy, pa-laeontology and zoology. Alfred Waterhouse, the designer of this world-famous museum, created an extra ordinary mena-gerie of terracotta designs worthy of a 'cathedral to nature.’ (See the playful design below). 29Alfred Waterhouse,_

Once you have passed this magnificent building then cross over into Cromwell Place… 21 Cromwell Place has a plaque on its side wall commemorating Sir Charles Freake, an untrained English architect and builder, responsible for nearby Eaton Square, Exhibition Road and Onslow Square, who mainly specialised in domestic architecture for wealthy clients. From humble beginnings and apprenticeship as a carpenter, he be-came a master builder, patron of the arts — especially music — and a philan-thropist. Look across this road to number 5 for the next plaque… Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA was an Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime de-pictions. He was unable to travel to the Western Front because of ill health follow-ing a serious car crash during a Zeppelin bombing raid. So he remained in Britain and mostly painted ships, aeroplanes and airships. Back across the road at number 7… John Everett Millais, the painter, lived at this address as did Emil Hoppe and 30Sir Charles FreakeSir John Lavery

Francis Bacon. Millais was an English painter and illustrator who helped to found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A child prodigy, he became the young-est student to enter the Royal Academy Schools aged only 11. He became the most famous exponent of the group’s style and his painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) generated considerable contro-versy. His famous depiction of Ophelia, in 1851–52 embodied the historical and naturalist focus of the group. (See image on the last page). This walk ends at the nearby South Kensington station. However, if you would like to add one more plaque to your score then briefly turn into Thur-loe Street and look for number 18. Margery Grace Blackie CVO MD, was appoin-ted as the first woman royal physician to Queen Elizabeth II. Together with her close friend Doctor Helena Banks, she had set up a homeo-pathic practice here in 1929 which contin-ued for many years. 31John Everett MillaisDr. Margery Blackie

‘In 1978, it was reported that her medical bag for house calls at Buckingham Palace included "arsenic, strychnine, wormwood, wolfsbane, death cap mush-room, and the venom of the Gila monster, rattlesnake and hooded cobra”, although according to the principles of homoeopathy most of her pre-parations would have contained practically none of the material substances for which they were named.’ 32

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