Kensington Living
Cope Place
Cope Place is a short street between Earls Court Road and Abingdon Road. It is only a few minutes’ walk from Holland Park.
The north side consists of rather unusual, but fairly modern, red brick houses having two storeys and basement, which contrast with the Victorian terrace on the south side (also two-storey houses with basements.) There are no front gardens and all the front doors are approached by half a dozen steps immediately off the pavement.
Some of the houses on the south side are completely stuccoed whereas others are just stuccoed up to first floor level.
(See Nokes Estate for a short history of the Abingdon Villas and Scarsdale Villas area.)
Cope Place was originally known as Park Terrace, after Thomas Park who had built houses here in the early 19th Century. From 1851 the street was called Emma Place. In 1911 it was renamed Cope Place.
Nos. 2-26 (even) were built in about 1852-4. The houses were not meant for the rich, and the District Surveyor complained that the walls were too thin in some of the houses. Nos. 2-18 (even) were built by J.J. Watts, a City pewterer. Nos. 10 and 12 were built by George Miller, a Chelsea builder. Nos. 14 and 16 were built by Richard Anderson, as probably were Nos. 18-26.
