Kensington
Nokes Estate
18 acres of farmland, known as Wattsfield was owned in the 18th Century by the Greene family. In 1810 it was sold to Samuel Hutchins. Essentially, it included part of Earls Court Lane (now Earls Court Road) and Barrow’s Walk (now Marloes Road) and contained an orchard and several fields on which Abingdon Villas, Scarsdale Villas and neighbouring roads were later built .
In 1850 William Nokes bought Wattsfield from Samuel Hutchins’ widow. Development was carried out by his son, George Nokes, and also to a lesser extent the elder son, James Wright Nokes. They went into the building business as timber merchants and brick makers. They generally granted building leases to other builders rather than actually carry out the development themselves.
