Kensington
Phillimore Place
The houses on the north side of Phillimore Place are large semi-detached houses. They have basement, ground, first, second floors, and generally a dormer room in the steep mansard roof. Most have stuccoed fronts at ground and area level, with grooves cut into it to resemble blocks of stone. They have quite shallow ground and first floor balconies with a lot of the window space taken up by the stonework. Some have a balustrade for a balcony at second floor level above the first floor bay. The street door has a porch with attached undecorated columns. The upper floors have three-part windows consisting of a large central window flanked by narrow lights, which also appear to open. The central window is surmounted by a curved pediment.
On the south side many of the houses are entirely Gothic in style. They have basement, ground, first and second floors with bay windows up to first floor level. The front elevation is deliberately broken up to recall the buttresses and projections of Gothic church or castle, with the entrance door and the front rooms on either side all at different distances from the pavement. The second floor is partly contained in an extension with a forward-facing gable.
Phillimore Place was built as part of the development of the Phillimore Estate.
Joseph Gordon Davis, who was the principal builder in Essex Villas, built Nos. 3-17 (odd) in 1866. Houses had already been built on the end. Henry Burton built No. 1 in 1861 and Jeremiah Little built No. 19 in 1862. No. 19 was later knocked down and re-built as 19-21.
On the south side, Davis appears to have had the building leases.
