Kensington Living
Cottesmore Gardens
Cottesmore Gardens runs west from Victoria Road and contains very large family houses, mainly consisting of four storeys and a basement. They are mostly stuccoed in a variety of shades of off white. On the south side there is a particularly attractive and very large double house. No. 6 on the south side has attractive external French-style shutters.
On the north side Wychwood House is a huge mansion, approximately three times the size of the normal terraced houses in the area.
The street is particularly quiet and there are many attractive trees in the front gardens of the houses.
Cottesmore Gardens was part of the Vallotton Estate.
The south side was built first. Nos. 2 and 4 were built in 1847/8 by David Moore, an architect, who also designed many of the houses in Victoria Road. He occupied No. 2, a detached villa, himself. Further along, houses were built by David Howell, of Fleet Street. He was a solicitors’ articled clerk who turned to building. He built Nos. 6-24 (even) Cottesmore Gardens, along with Nos. 5 and 7 Stanford Road, just round the corner, in 1852.
Edward William Burgess of Wardour Street, Soho was the builder of 3-19 Cottesmore Gardens on the north side of Cottesmore Gardens and 4-11 St Albans Grove (which back on to them) on the south side of St Albans Grove . He started work in 1851 and both rows were completed by 1856. The houses appear to be terraced but are in fact built in pairs quite close together.
