Earls Court
Barkston Gardens
Barkston Gardens is a garden square on the east side of Earls Court Road. Most of the buildings are large red-brick mansion blocks of five and six-storeys in height. On the north side are some small hotels. The garden square itself is ringed by tall mature trees and has a large expanse of grass and many shrubs.
Barkston Gardens was built on site of Earl’s Court House. Robert Gunter I had bought it in 1829 and then let it to Mary Bradbury to run as a private lunatic asylum for ladies – a peculiar choice given that Gunter himself lived at the neighbouring Earls Court Lodge. It was kept as an asylum until the death of a later owner, Robert Hill, in 1878. His widow stayed on there until the lease ran out in 1885.
John Robinson Roberts, who was a lessee and builder in Harrington Gardens, built most of the houses and flats in Barkston Gardens. He had property and construction interests all over London, but he adopted Barkston Gardens as his home. He lived in one of his houses and had a stake in the Barkston Gardens Hotel. Between 1886 and 1889 Roberts built Nos. 15-81 (odd) and Nos. 12A to 44 (even) Barkston Gardens. Ellen Terry, the actress, lived at No. 22 from 1889 to 1902. Roberts’ adverts for these houses mentioned as a particular feature their “perfect freedom from sewer gas”.
In 1886-7 James Whitaker of Hammersmith built Nos. 1-11 (odd) Barkston Gardens. But then in 1887 he went bankrupt as a result of being unable to sell some terrace houses he had built in Bramham Gardens. Another builder, William Cooke, took over in his absence and constructed Nos. 83-101 (odd) Barkston Gardens in 1886-7.
However, Whitaker was back in operation by 1890 when he put up two blocks of flats between Barkston Gardens and Earl’s Court Road which are Nos. 103-121 (odd) and Nos. 48-60 (even) Barkston Gardens.
