Kensington
Pembroke Gardens
Pembroke Gardens is an L-shaped street stretching between Warwick Gardens and Pembroke Road. On the leg leading into Warwick Road there are some delightful old, artists studios, called Pembroke Studios, two storeys high in red brick, set well back behind a private garden and a tall hedge. On the south side, there are mainly four-storey (plus basement) Victorian houses although, at the western end, there is a rather attractive pair of semi-detached houses with external front shutters on the first floor and a second floor with slate facings.
The southern leg of Pembroke Gardens is wide and tree-lined. The houses on the west side are substantial three-storey (plus basement) semi-detached houses with small front gardens, some with privet hedges in front. There is a particularly unusual, very large, middle-eastern style house at the south end of the street.
On the east side the houses are smaller, consisting of one terrace of older houses painted white and a newer terrace in bare brick. They also have very attractive, albeit small, front gardens and also underground garages and off-street parking. The newer houses have very unusual bay windows split into five sections.
Pembroke Gardens was part of the Edwardes Estate. Pembroke Gardens is two short streets meeting at right angles.
The main builder was Richard Albion Holliday, a local builder. From 1863-8 Holliday built the houses on the north-south section. Nos. 1-12 on the east side have not survived, but Nos. 13-27 on the west side still exist. The houses are generally on 3 storeys above a basement, but had quite large plots. The terraced houses are flat-fronted but with Doric porches. The façades are stuccoed to below first floor level and are faced with grey brick above.
Prudential Assurance Company rebuilt many of the houses on the east side which were destroyed in the war. Some were built in 1951 as 2 storey houses with basement garages. The rest were built in 1966-8.
On the east-west arm of Pembroke Gardens, Nos. 24-27 are terraced houses similar to those Holliday built around the corner. Nos. 28-30 were built by Samuel Johns, a builder associated with him.
