Knightsbridge
Egerton Gardens
Nos. 17-25 (odd) Egerton Gardens four (sometimes three) main storeys from ground upwards. They also have basements and high attics set slightly back behind gables. Their façades are red-brick with little ornamentation. In some cases decoration is provided in the form of bands of Portland cement. The houses have canted bays on several floors. The terraces have continuous iron-railed balconies supported on large brackets. The effect is to make the terraces and houses seem identical but in fact there are deliberate variations intended to avoid monotony. The cement work at ground level is painted white.
Nos. 18-50 (even) were built so that in each case the "front" of the house would be facing the the communal garden, so the street side is really the back of the house, although it also has a normal looking facade.
The houses attracted the aristocracy. Among the earliest occupiers were members of the Cadogan family, a son of the ninth Earl of Galloway, the fourth Earl of Kenmare and the second Baron Romilly. Baron Romilly took No. 38 Egerton Gardens, but died in a fire there in 1891 along wih two of this servants. There was also a high military and legal presence among the earliest occupiers.
Mortimer House is one of a kind. Its style is in complete contrast to those around it. It is built in a pastiche of Tudor and Jacobean styles. The brickwork is red with lines of blue. The windows are mullioned and transomed like a Gothic church’s windows. There are a profusion of differently shaped gables with carvings, and tall brick chimneystacks
