My advise to start top this route: walk along HOLLAND PARK ROAD or cycle along LADBROKE ROAD!
Notting Hill Gate
A TURNPIKE road
A turnpike gate was constructed at the foot of the hill on the main road from London to Uxbridge, now Oxford Street, Bayswater Road and Holland Park Avenue along this part of its route.
Turnpike roads were toll roads, maintained and operated by trusts established by Parliament, primarily during the 18th and 19th centuries, to facilitate long-distance travel and commerce The turnpike system played a significant role in improving transportation, promoting urbanisation, and contributing to economic growth,
The rise of railways in the 19th century led to the decline of the turnpike system, as railways offered a faster and more efficient means of transportation. The network of roads established by turnpike trusts still forms the framework of Britain's roadways today.
No. 21. NOTTING HILL ARTS CLUB
THE GATE CINEMA
The cinema first opened its doors on 15 April 1911 as the Electric Palace, with capacity for 480 patrons (280 seated and a further 200 standing!). The floor plan of the cinema was not dissimilar to that of today, except the foyer stretched down the side of the building. It later became The Embassy, and in 1931 was one of the first British cinemas to convert fully to sound. During the Second World War, the ornate exterior was severely damaged and subsequently replaced with a plain façade and a flat roof.
Since the 1950s the venue has steadily built a reputation as the place to see avant-garde and experimental cinema alongside repertory art-house programmes. With new ownership in 1974 came the change of name to The Gate. In 2003 the cinema joined the Picturehouse family and in 2004 it received a full refurbishment. The lobby retains its Cinema 100 plaque
THE CORONET THEATRE
In 2020, the theatre was redecorated and a statue by the British sculptor Gavin Turk (born 1967) has been placed upon the dome above the building’s main entrance. The new artwork replaces one that was removed many decades ago.” The artwork depicts the artist Gavin Turk posing as the famous artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) just as he appears his sculptural in the Annenberg Courtyard of Burlington House in the grounds of the Royal Academy. When seen from the east, the new sculpture looks like a painter holding a palette and his brush. However, when seen from the west, the viewer might be led to believe that the statue is of a man holding a gun.
This was a cinema, the cinema where William watched the sci-fi movie ‘Helix’ that starred Anna Scott.
130 NOTTING HILL GATE. Site of RICHARD BRANSON 3rd VIRGIN RECORD shop
Promotion of the album“Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols” . Richard Branson poses with a placard “Cold Sex Pistols ice cream”.
Police raid. Branson won. A university professor testified in court that "bollocks" was an old term referring to 18th-century priests or nonsense, rather than testicles.
Alleyway (for Ladbroke Road), right turn into Victoria Gardens
Artist: Barney McMahon
REGENCY HOUSES
CAROLINE DECAMP and TONY BENN lived here
Educationalist and writer. Born Cincinnati, Ohio. She came to Britain in 1948 to study at Oxford. There she met Tony Benn, who became her husband. An advocate of comprehensive education, she co-founded the Campaign for Comprehensive Education. Her writings include a biography of the Labour pioneer Keir Hardie. Died at Charing Cross Hospital.
TONY BENN
Peerage Act (1963): Benn successfully campaigned for the right to renounce hereditary peerages, allowing him to remain in the House of Commons after inheriting his father’s title. This marked a landmark change in British law.
Labour Government Roles: He served as Postmaster General (1964–66). BT TOWER, built. Minister of Technology (1966–70), Secretary of State for Industry (1974–75), and Secretary of State for Energy (1975–79), where he championed public ownership and industrial democracy.
Advocacy for Democratic Socialism: Benn was a leading figure on Labour’s New Left, promoting participatory democracy, workplace self-management, and public ownership. He opposed Thatcherism and New Labour’s centrist policies.
Support for Workers: He backed initiatives like the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ “work-in,” advocating for workers’ rights and control over industries.
Diaries and Legacy: Benn documented his political life extensively, producing influential diaries. Once labeled “the most dangerous man in Britain,” he later became a respected elder statesman of the left.
P.D.JAMES lived here
Phyllis Dorothy James was born in Oxford. Best known for her crime novels, many of them featuring the detective Adam Dalgliesh. Created Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. She died in 2014.
THE MITRE PH.
Statue of ST.VOLODYMYR
EMBASSY of UKRAINE
HOLLAND PARK (district)
Along Ladbroke Road
The RAMBERT DANCE COMPANY has its origins here
BOWDEN COURT
Built as a "young ladies" residence by Bradley's, the furriers.
It was used as a "wrennery" (wrens' quarters) during WWII. The Women's Royal Naval Service was formed in 1917. With the initials WRNS, they quickly became known as the Wrens and they made a significant contribution to both the First and Second World Wars. The WRNS remained an important part of the armed forces until it became amalgamated with the Royal Navy in 1993.
Later a civil service hostel. Now, a hostel
Former POLICE STATION
On Ladbroke Rd.
Former FIRE STATION
THE LADBROKE ARMS PH.
Cross over Lansdowne Road
LANSDOWNE HOUSE
An incredible Arts and Crafts assemblage by the architect William Flockhart dating from the start of the twentieth century. Flockhart was also the architect of a similarly impressive shopfront at 180 New Bond Street.
Constructed as purpose-built studios and residences for artists, the eight storey building was occupied by numerous creative types as recorded by the blue plaque on the side elevation. It is imaginatively sculpted: with projecting corner bays, stepping gable ends, generous irregular balconies, arches and windows of a wide variety of sizes, particularly large on the north elevation – which is perhaps where the studios were located.
Later on, the building housed the recording studios for the likes of Queen, Shirley Bassey and John Lennon.The building is now subdivided into flats and is Grade 2 listed.
SKIFFLE here!: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansdowne_Studios
Lansdowne Walk
No. 19 THE COSMIC HOUSE
The Cosmic House (originally known as the Thematic House) is a Grade I-listed postmodernist masterpiece located at 19 Lansdowne Walk near Notting Hill/Holland Park in West London. Built between 1978 and 1983, it was designed by the influential architectural historian and critic Charles Jencks alongside his wife, garden designer Maggie Keswick Jencks, and architect Sir Terry Farrell. Constructed as a physical manifesto of Post-Modern architecture, the house is heavily saturated with complex iconography, wordplay, and symbols linking human culture to cosmology.
Back to the o original NOTTING HILL, alongside the N side of Holland Park Avenue
Shops and eateries
Norlands Conservation Area
Norland Square
The name of the sqarden square, as well as the nearby Norland Place and Norland Road, come from the Norland Estate which is the historic name for the farmlands in the northern part of Kensington Parish. It was designed by architect and property developer Robert Cantwell, who laid out the area in 1837, and was constructed during the early Victorian era. Cantwell also oversaw the almost contemporaneous Royal Crescent, which was likewise developed from the old Norland Estate. Since the 1820s, Cantwell had been involved in development plans for the larger Ladbroke Estate to the north.[4
Alongside Queensdale Rd.
Addison Ave.
Named after the early 18th-century writer and politician Joseph Addison who lived at nearby Holland House. The Holland Estate was gradually redeveloped for housing although Addison Avenue was actually built on the adjacent Norland Estate. It was developed during the 1840s by the architect and property developer . It was designed with a vista towards St James' Church
St.James’s Gardens
ST.JAMES’S NORLANDS Church
A detour, further West
HOLLAND PARK SYNAGOGUE
It was founded in the early 20th century by a community of Sephardi Jews who had come to England to better themselves economically when they foresaw the decline of the Turkish Empire.
They lived first in the City of London and gradually made their way west as more and more families arrived, mainly from Salonika in Greece and Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Turkey.
St.Ann’s Villas (road)
The land was part of the Norland Estate which was redeveloped in the early Victorian era into affluent housing for the expanding population of London. Addison Avenue and Norland Square were both laid out around the same time as St Ann's Villas. The barrister and former Member of Parliament for Penryn Charles Stewart was heavily involved in the development.
The southernmost stretch of St Ann's Villas continued the original style of Robert Cantwell but on reaching Queensdale Road the architectural style changes. Built as semi-detached villas in the Tudor Gothic style, it provides a distinct contrast to the rest of the estate, which uses white stucco terracing. A number of the buildings are now Grade II listed.The music hall performer Albert Chevalier was born in the street in 1861 and is now commemorated by a blue plaque.
The name may refer to a planned but never built St Ann's Church for the new development. Instead the church serving the new district St James' Church was located in the nearby St James' Gardens.
The street continues north as St Ann's Road for some distance, then becomes Bramley Road shortly before reaching Latimer Road tube station. Also first laid out in the Victorian era, very few of the original buildings now survive.
Royal Crescent
Designed in 1839, The Royal Crescent is one of the most architecturally interesting Nineteenth Century developments in Holland Park. Evidently inspired by its older namesake in Bath, it differs from the Bath crescent in that it is not strictly a true crescent but rather two quadrant terraces each terminated by a circular bow in the Regency style, rising as a tower, a feature which would not have been found in the earlier classically inspired architecture of the 18th century which the design of the crescent seeks to emulate. The plan of the Royal Crescent was the design of the planner Robert Cantwell, and it was the need for the newly fashionable underground sewers which caused the crescent to be designed in two halves rather than any consideration for architectural aesthetics. On early maps it is marked as Norland Crescent.[1]
The stucco fronted crescent is painted white, in the style of the many Nash terraces which can be seen elsewhere in London's smarter residential areas. Today many of these four storey houses have been converted to apartments, although a few remain as private houses.
Behind the terraces is the Royal Crescent Mews. The Mews is a part-cobbled cul-de-sac off Queensdale Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It contains 34 properties used for residential purposes. It is part of Kensington's Norland Conservation Area; first designated in 1969, it contains Royal Crescent, Norland Square and St. James's gardens. Building of the area began in the 1840s and was completed just fifteen years later. It contains linked terraces and is largely urban in style
St. Ann’s Rd.
St.James’s Gardens
Former WEST LONDON TABERNACLE, now ISLAMIC UNIVERSAL ASSOCIATION
Originally erected in the 1860′s by Mr Varley, a Baptist businessman who wanted to preach in the neighbouring Potteries, it was later used as an industrial warehouse.
In the last 20 years it has found a new religious use, as an Iranian Shia Mosque and the headquarters of the Islamic Universal Association.
(Penzance Place)
Penzance St.
1996. OSSIE CLARK, murdered.
By the late-seventies, his fortunes went into a downward spiral. Never a good businessman, Clark now found his clothes decidedly unfashionable. The Kings Road was now enthralled with the punk revolution and its accompanying homemade fashion.
By 1983 he was declared bankrupt after the Inland Revenue claimed 14 years of back tax. He lost his house and had to live with friends until, eventually, the DHSS re-housed him in a small council flat in Penzance Street, Holland Park.
In 1995 Clark invited 27-year-old Italian Diego Cogalato to move into his one-bedroomed council flat. Just eighteen months later – on 7 August 1996 – Cogolato called 999 and said to the operator “I think I’ve killed someone”.
David Hockney’s famous painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy was given to Ossie and Celia as a wedding present. Ossie, later in his life and needing the money, sold it to the Tate Gallery for just seven thousand pounds. It is now one of the most famous British painting and worth millions.
Former EARL OF ZETLAND P. H.
The Earl of Zetland, pub in Notting Hill, located at 116 Princedale Road, is permanently closed. Now a mixed-use building with offices and a flat. The pub was known for its well-kept beer and was a Charrington local. It was also featured in Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Blow Up".
À prominent nobleman, Whig MP, and the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (Freemasons) from 1844 to 1870. A massive advocate for thoroughbred racing, his horse Voltigeur won both the Derby and the St Leger in 1850.
Notting Dale
The site was formerly agricultural land belonging to two farms, Notting Barns and Portobello, together covering 400 acres (160 hectares). The area then went through several industrial stages, such as pottery, before becoming overrun with pig farming and other "noxious" trades, all of whom were required to move out from their former inner city locations. This gave rise to area's nickname of "The Pigs and the Potteries".[3] The area became known for appalling living conditions; in the mid-19th century, it fell into disuse and disrepair.[4] By the late 19th century Notting Dale began to be developed for residential purposes, and also became known for its Irish Gypsy community.[3][5] It is now home to a mix of public and private housing.