The Kensington District | Page 9

at
the back, with their wide terraces, flower-beds, extensive lawns, and
fine old trees."
Kensington Gore was then considered to be in the country, and spoken
of as a mile from London. Count D'Orsay, who had married Lady
Blessington's stepdaughter, rather in compliance with her father's
wishes than his own inclination, spent much of his time with his
mother-in-law, and at her receptions all the literary talent of the age
was gathered together--Bulwer Lytton, Disraeli, and Landor were
frequent visitors, and Prince Louis Napoleon made his way to Gore
House when he escaped from prison. Lady Blessington died in 1849.
The house was used as a restaurant during the 1851 Exhibition, and
afterwards bought with the estate by the Commissioners.
The name "gore" generally means a wedge-shaped insertion, and, if we
take it as being between the Kensington Gardens and Brompton and
Cromwell Roads, might be applicable here, but the explanation is
far-fetched. Leigh Hunt reminds us that the same word "gore" was
previously used for mud or dirt, and as the Kensington Road at this part
was formerly notorious for its mud, this may be the meaning of the
name, but there can be no certainty. Lowther Lodge, a picturesque
red-brick house, stands back behind a high wall; it was designed by
Norman Shaw, R.A. In the row of houses eastward of it facing the road,
No. 2 was once the residence of Wilkes, who at that time had also a
house in Grosvenor Square and another in the Isle of Wight. Croker
says that the actor Charles Mathews was once, with his wife, Madame
Vestris, in Gore Lodge, Brompton. He was certainly a friend of the
Blessingtons, and stayed abroad with them in Naples for a year, and
may have been attracted to their neighbourhood at the Gore.
Behind the Albert Hall are various buildings, such as Alexandra House

for ladies studying art and music, also large mansions and maisonnettes
recently built. The Royal College of Music, successor of the old
College, which stood west of the Albert Hall, is in Prince Consort Road.
It was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, and opened in 1894. The cost
was defrayed by Mr. Samson Fox, and in the building is a curious
collection of old musical instruments known as the Donaldson Museum
and open free daily. In the same road a prettily designed church, to be
called Holy Trinity, Kensington Gore, is rapidly rising. In the northern
part of Exhibition Road is the Technical Institute of the City and Guilds
in a large red and white building, and just south of it the Royal School
of Art Needlework for Ladies, founded by Princess Christian.
Queen's Gate is very wide; in the southern part stands St. Augustine's
Church, opened for service in 1871, though the chancel was not
completed until five years later. The architect was Mr. Butterfield, and
the church is of brick of different colours, with a bell gable at the west
end. In Cromwell Place, near the underground station, Sir John Everett
Millais lived in No. 7; the fact is recorded on a tablet. Harrington Road
was formerly Cromwell Lane, and there is extant a letter of Leigh
Hunt's dated from this address in 1830. Pelham Crescent, behind the
station, formerly looked out upon tea-gardens. Guizot, the notable
French Minister, came to live here after the fall of Louis Philippe. He
was in No. 21, and Charles Mathews, the actor, lived for a time in No.
25. The curves of the old Brompton Road suggest that it was a lane at
one time, curving to avoid the fields or different properties on either
side.
Onslow Square stands upon the site of a large lunatic asylum. In it is St.
Paul's Church, built in 1860, and well known for its evangelical
services. There is nothing remarkable in its architecture save that the
chancel is at the west end. The pulpit is of carved stone with inlaid
slabs of American onyx. Marochetti, an Italian sculptor, who is
responsible for many of the statues in London, including that of Prince
Albert on the Memorial, lived at No. 34 in the square in 1860. But its
proudest association is that Thackeray came to the house then No. 36,
from Young Street, in 1853. "The Newcomes" was at that time
appearing in parts, and continued to run until 1855, so that some of it

was probably written here. He published also while here "The Rose and
the Ring," the outcome of a visit to Rome with his daughters, and after
"The Newcomes" was completed he visited America for a second time
on a tour of lectures, subsequently embodied in a book, "The Four
Georges." By his move from Young Street he was nearer to his friends
the Carlyles in Chelsea, a fact doubtless much appreciated