KENSINGTON, NOTTING HILL,
AND
PADDINGTON:

WITH

Remembrances of the Locality
38 Years Ago.

BY AN OLD INHABITANT.

PROFITS OF THIS EDITION GIVEN TO THE BAZAAR FUND FOR THE
NEW ORGAN AT WESTBOURNE GROVE CHAPEL.

LONDON:
Printed by Griffiths & Co., “Paddington Mercury” Office,
58, Porchester Road, W.

Dedicated to my Young Friends.

I have thought it would be interesting to you to know something about the locality in which you live, as it was in times gone by.

The changes have been marvellous, but not more than many others within my recollection.

I knew the time when gas was not used, but when streets and shops were lighted with oil lamps.  When no police guarded our streets, but watchmen paid their half-hourly visits crying out “past 11 o’clock, &c., and a starlight night, &c.”

I remember when no omnibuses ran, and cabmen sat by the side of their fares.

When 4-horse coaches ran to Greenwich, Kensington, and other suburban places.

When the only way to obtain a light was to strike a flint on a piece of steel, and catch the sparks on tinder, and to puff at the tinder till it lighted a brimstone match.

When the Great Reform Bill was passing, and I used to be let out of school at 2 o’clock, because the men of Birmingham and Manchester, &c., threatened to march to London—The Tower was fortified—Temple Bar guarded.

I remember George the Fourth’s burial, and the people making a grand holiday.

I saw the procession at William the Fourth’s Coronation, and also at that of Queen Victoria.

“Long may she live.”

PART I.
“NOTES” OF KENSINGTON, NOTTING HILL, AND PADDINGTON.

Before entering upon my own remembrances of Kensington and Paddington, it will be interesting to notice some things connected with the history of these places.

Kensington is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Chenesiton.  Chenesi was a proper name, and “Lyson” says that in the time of Edward the Confessor a person of that name held a manor in Somersetshire.  It may be that Kensington was once a town belonging to a “Chenesi.”  At the time of the Romans this district comprised the northern boundary of the marshes formed by the overflowing of the Thames, Chelsea and Fulham being liable to inundation, but the higher elevation of a great portion of this parish rendered it fit for cultivation.

In 1218, in the reign of Henry III., it was disafforested.  Before this time it, with Paddington, had formed a portion of the Forest of Middlesex.

In Henry the Eighth’s time a great portion of Notting Hill and Paddington was still forest as appears from records dated 1543.

In 1610 Sir Walter Cope became possessed of the manor of St. Mary Abbot’s by a grant from the Queen.  It is recorded that he died possessed of the manor called Earl’s Court, Kensyngton, with its appurtenances, in Kensyngton, Chelsey, Hammersmith and St. Margaret’s, Westminster.  Two hundred acres belonging to the Ould House Kensyngton and all that wood called Notting Wood or Knotting Wood, for which he paid as under:—

The Kensington division of the hundred of Ossulstan includes Fulham, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Acton, part of Brentford, Ealing, Willesden and Chelsea.

The name of the hundred is probably derived from the German word Waassel which signifies water.  Others suggest Ousel, a bird, Ossultun, a town noted for its birds.

AGRICULTURE AND GARDENING.

Fifty years ago the greater portion of Kensington and Paddington was under cultivation for corn, market gardening, nurseries and grass land.

It would appear from ancient records that in past time the temperature of England must have been much higher than at present, for we read of vineyards and of wine being produced in very large quantities.  Of those vineyards, especially about Brompton, there are many records.

“Bewick” writes of a spot of ground called Brompton Park as being famed all over the kingdom for the growth of plants, and adds the stock is so large that if reckoned only at a penny each plant the whole value would be above £40,000.

PADDINGTON in the time of Edgar was given to the monks of Westminster at the cost of two hides of land.  As the value of a hide of land in Henry the First’s time was 3/-, the monks had a good bargain.

The name is of doubtful derivation, Pad may mean a path or a robber.  It may also mean a saddle.  The place may have been infested by robbers, or it may have been a place where travellers stopped to bait their horses and “re-padded.”

Pope Nicolas IV. gave the whole proceeds of the manor of Paddington to the poor.

This manor at the reformation passed into the hands of the Established Church.  Much as I value the Reformation I cannot pass on without asking what the people to whom this manor of Paddington was given have done for the poor.  If the poor had that which others have taken from them we should not have the sad spectacle of old couples driven into a workhouse in which no provision is made for them to end their days together.  Married by a church which says “What God has joined together let no man put asunder.”  That very church has become possessed of the means which would have enabled them to end their days in peace and comfort.

In Henry the Eighth’s time the manor of Paddington was valued at £41 16s. 8d.  Edward the Sixth granted the manor and rectory to Bishop Ridley, then Bishop of London, and to his heirs and successors.

KENSINGTON church lands were also very extensive, as much property was given in the reign of Henry the First to the monastery of Abingdon.  St. Mary Abbot’s district of Kensington will indicate the ground which was thus handed over to the abbots.

In 1527 a curate of Kensington (Sebastian Harris) was charged with having in his possession a New Testament and a Lutheran book.

He was ordered to leave Kensington within 2 days and not to return within 4 miles of the place for 2 years.

Tyndale’s New Testament was published 1525.

In 1612, in the reign of James I., the Archdeacon and other officials of churches were commanded to make answer to certain questions which threw some light upon the condition of the church and people of Kensington.  From