South Kensington
Sumner Place
Sumner Place is an attractive road which runs between Old Brompton Road and Onslow Square.
It is tree lined on the west side and the four-storey white stucco houses have attractive porticoed entrances and are well set back from the road.
The façades are stuccoed and have rhythmical window dressings.They have small paved gardens at the front many with attractive potted shrubs and they all have an attractive wrought-iron balcony at first floor level. There is a very attractive first floor glass conservatory style building at the south west end.
The northern arm of Sumner Place has lost its crowning balustrade
In April 1844 the trustees of the Smith's Charity estate entered into an agreement with Charles Freake to build Onslow Square. One of the new roads to be constructed off the square was Sumner Terrace (named after George and William Holme Sumner, trustees of the Smith’s Charity at the time). Sumner Terrace was later renamed Sumner Place. The development was begun in 1849 and completed by 1851.
Houses in Sumner Place were sold for prices between £1,500 to £1,700, but records show that some of the houses were still not occupied ten years after they had been built, so they may not have been easy to sell for some reason. The houses Freake constructed are now numbered Nos. 25-34 Sumner
