Earls Court
Fawcett Mews
James Gunter II granted leases to Corbett and McClymont of the land where they built Fawcett Mews and No. 1 Fawcett Street in 1865 and Nos. 12-18 Fawcett Street in 1866.
Corbett and McClymont were also party to a series of arrangements in 1866 by which Gunter leased sites to other builders, who were presumably introduced by Corbett and McClymont, the main contractors, to handle construction when they were over-stretched themselves. Nos. 3-15 (odd) were leased to John Gibbings. Nos. 2-10 (even) were leased to John Beale.
The freehold of the part of Fawcett Street between Redcliffe Gardens and Finborough Road belonged to R J Pettiward, not the Gunters, but was being developed as part of the same overall enterprise. Pettiward granted Corbett and McClymont a lease of the site for Nos. 20-28 (even) Fawcett Street in 1866. It seems that Pettiward had also granted them a lease of the building site opposite, where Nos. 17-25 (odd) were to be built, but again presumably because of pressure of work elsewhere, they sub-let this site to John Gibbings in 1866.
Hollywood, Cecil and Fawcett Courts were built in 1902-5 to designs by the architect C J C Pawley.
The 1871 census tells us that on the day of the census, 25 houses had families in residence, and between them there were 87 family members and 32 servants. The house owners included a stock broker, a silk merchant, a professor of languages, an art dealer, an actress, and a policeman.
