Kensington
Kelso Place
Kelso Place is a small cul-de-sac consisting mainly of two and three-storey Georgian-style terraced houses, most of which have bare brick facades.
The west side of the street has a more modern terrace consisting of three-storey red-brick houses and off-street parking.
Kelso Place was part of the Vallotton Estate. Kelso Place used to be called Merton Road.
In 1851 Nos. 1-6 Kelso Place - three pairs of semi-detached houses - were built by George Smith Stredder, who was also involved in Stanford Road. (Nos. 4-6 were demolished when the Metropolitan and District Railway was constructed.) Stredder also built Nos. 14-17. After the construction of the railway, Thomas Hussey inserted the present terrace of Nos. 4-13 Kelso Place in 1873 . He also added No. 18.
In 1852 Stredder took a lease of the whole of the west side of Kelso Place on which he planned to build fifteen houses. But it was taken over by John Inderwick (see the Inderwick Estate) who built sixteen houses on the site between 1853 and 1854. At least six of them were built for him by J. Cherry, a Kensington builder. Most of the houses were lost during the railway work. No. 26 survives. To the South, neo-Georgian terraced houses were built in the 1960’s. To the north are four houses, Nos. 28-31 built by Hussey in 1874.
There is an east-west extension of Kelso Place at the north end which then proceeds further east and upwards to a small mews-like cul-de-sac which at one time opened into Southend Row. Here Kensington Studios (now numbers 40-50 Kelso Place) were built by Charles Liney, a local builder, in the 1880’s. They were originally studios. Nos. 32-39 Kelso Place to the south is a more recent set of brick-faced houses and flats dating from 1970’s, designed by Ronald Fielding Partnership.
