Kensington
Hillgate Place
Hillgate Place runs either side of Hillgate Street. The area itself is known as ‘Hillgate Village’.
The houses are small Victorian terraced houses consisting mainly of two storeys plus basement, and painted in different shades of cream, pink and blue. There is a particularly unusual building at the western end of the street, consisting of a three-storey construction a bit like a tower, looking down the street with a cobbled arched entrance below.
Some of the houses have small bay windows and the street is particularly quiet, given its proximity to Notting Hill Gate.
You should read the history of the Racks to the point where William Johnson and Joseph Clutterbuck began turning what had been a brickfield into a residential area.
Clutterbuck died in about 1851 having made a start on development, using other builders to carry out the work. William Johnson continued selling off plots. Over 200 houses were built in the following decade, with a large number of individual builders constructing a few houses each.
Clutterbuck, or builders appointed by him, were responsible for the construction of houses in Hillgate Place (formerly Dartmoor Street). John Jones who sold the land to the Johnsons had apparently quarried stone on Dartmoor for his construction business.
Most of the houses in this area were put in multiple occupation and it was really close to being a slum.
