The Kingston House estate and Ennismore Gardens in Knightsbridge is a green, dual-character area within the western limits of the City of Westminster in London. The first-named is immediately south of Hyde Park, London taking up the park's semi-panorama row of 8 to 13 Princes Gate (demolished) and otherwise, as to more of its wings, set around the east of Princes Gate Garden including a terrace of houses №s 1 to 7 Bolney Gate. The second-named is a garden square of 59 tall creamy-white terraced houses and the approach road to Prince of Wales Gate, Hyde Park as well as the identical-size public, square green of the church that is since 1956 the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints facing which green are its anomalous outlier row for a London garden square, №s 61 to 66. The relatively small, broad-fronted house set against the Consulate-used pairing at №s 61 to 62 is № 60 and as with the other 65 numbers of Ennismore Gardens is a listed building.
Kingston House estate has some Art Deco features but has no statutorily listed buildings. It has four 1930s to 1950s ranges of flats in 1930s style, arranged in three parts.
Kingston House, originally called Chudleigh House, was a Palladian mansion, built in the mid-eighteenth century by Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull (1711–1773) for his mistress and later bigamous wife Elizabeth Chudleigh (1720–1788).[1] On her death it passed to the Duke’s nephew Charles Pierrepont, 1st Earl Manvers, and had a series of tenants, among which Sir George Warren, MP; the 6th Earl of Stair; and Edward Loveden Loveden of Buscot Park.
In 1813 the house saw its only sale (for continued use as such). This was to William Hare, Baron Ennismore, later 1st Earl of Listowel. He died at the house in 1837 and was succeeded by his grandson William Hare, 2nd Earl of Listowel who seldom occupied it. He sold some grounds for house-building. The house was again let to tenants (which would include Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who died there in 1842, and Baron Lionel de Rothschild). It remained with the family until four years after the death in 1931 of the 4th Earl, when it passed to his younger son, created Viscount Blakenham. In 1935 the house was sold for building of many more homes, and after the death of the Dowager Countess of Listowel in 1936, it was demolished in 1937 and replaced by two large blocks of private-ownership apartments, Kingston House North and Kingston House South.
In the 1840s, development began with the construction of houses on Princes Gate and the east side of Ennismore Gardens, as well as a public house, the Ennismore Arms which was the first building of this scheme: built in 1845-7. It stood at the southern end of Ennismore Mews, which ran behind the houses on the eastern side of Princes Terrace. It suffered bomb damage during World War II and was rebuilt by Watney’s in the 1950s. It closed in 2002 then was demolished.[2]
All Saints' Church was built in 1848–9, designed in the Italianate style by Lewis Vulliamy. The church has murals by Heywood Sumner and is a Grade II* listed building.[3] William Ralph Inge was vicar there 1904–1907.[4] The Anglican church looked for another denomination to take it on in 1955, so late in the following year it became the Russian Orthodox Patriarchial Church of The Assumption of All Saints, part of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh.[5] The prized organ was taken by agreement, to be installed at the Church of St John-at-Hackney.
In the 1860s the 3rd Earl released more land; the rest of Ennismore Gardens, including the private garden square at its centre, was laid out in the 1870s.[6] The five-storey houses have porticos with Corinthian columns, and a continuous railing creating a first floor balcony.[7] All 55 are listed buildings (in the starting, mainstream category, known as Grade II).[8] Many lamps on the pavements of roads are likewise listed.[9]
Moncorvo House was completed in 1880 for Albert George Sandeman (future Governor of the Bank of England) and named in honour of his father-in-law, Portugal’s ambassador in London, the Visconde Da Torre de Moncorvo.[10] In 1883, Bolney House was built to a design by the eminent architect Richard Norman Shaw[11] for Alfred Huth, son of Henry Huth.
Kingston House North replaces the demolished townhouse of Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull (1711–1773), yet is wider and has two long projections to the south;[12] its eastern wing (Kingston House North) has a smaller projection to the south; it replaced a grand house fenced off from Kingston House.
From the 1930s onwards, many of the original buildings, including Kingston House itself, were replaced by apartment blocks and modern townhouses. The Second World War brought further changes in use of the pre-war mansions. Moncorvo House became the post-war London HQ of the Canadian Joint Staff Establishment and the Embassy of Morocco before being demolished in 1964 and replaced with Moncorvo Close. Bolney House was demolished in the 1960s, replaced with Bolney Gate a terrace, numbered 1 to 7, on one of the two offshoots of the road named Ennismore Gardens – that leading to Prince of Wales Gate.
During World War II, the Norwegian government-in-exile took a main base at Kingston House North.[13]
After this war vacant parts of the grounds of long-demolished Kingston House saw Kingston House East (the E and SE wing of the North instance) and the two blocks of Kingston House South built, flanking 1 to 10 Morcorvo Close; the western block (№s 1 to 32) has short projecting wings; the eastern (№s 40 to 90, non consecutively) has none.[14]
The independent Hampshire School occupied №63 from 1933–2008, when it moved to the former Chelsea Library.[15]
The iconic Hollywood actress Ava Gardner lived[16] at №34 from 1968 until her death in 1990, and is commemorated by an English Heritage blue plaque on the side wall of the property. She is also commemorated by an ornamental urn in the square. She could be often be spotted going for a swim in the nearby Imperial College pool with a towel rolled under her arm.
The Libyan consulate and visa office occupies №s 61–62; the main embassy is at 15 Knightsbridge.[14] Its smaller-footprint rear forms № 60, which with №s 63–65 directly to the east are listed in the same way and for the same reasons as the main square itself.
From 2010 to 2019 there were 50 sales of conversion apartments among the townhouses of Ennismore Gardens, averaging £1,864,000.[17]
Ennismore Garden Mews has been used to set film scenes. Alfred Hitchcock used № 31 as the home of Barbara Leigh-Hunt's character, 'Brenda Blaney', in the 1972 film Frenzy. The 1987 VW Golf TV advert directed by David Bailey featured Paula Hamilton leaving № 23.[18]
The first residents[20] were aristocrats and statesmen's families; in the 20th century they were joined by artists and actors.