Motley Talk about Notting Hill
Particularly about James Ladbroke's failed attempts to develop Notting Hill & Dale. It includes pigs & potteries.
Dear Motley Crew, Officers & Friends, northwest of Mayfair, just beyond Hyde Park, is Notting Hill. Nowadays it is a very wealthy area, close to the centre of London. In many ways its history reflects the East End; it also went from countryside to a slum, to becoming a desirable neighbourhood. The difference is that the East End was always an industrial area. Notting Hill was seen as prime real estate, and that it ended up as a slum area (nicknamed ‘Rotting Hill’) was the result of a series of disasters & bad luck.
The Ladbroke family owned the estate that included Notting Hill (a small hill) and Notting Dale (the lower valley), although they were absentee landlords. In the 19th Century James Ladbroke was the first to see the potential of the estate. As London rapidly expanded, he started making extravagant plans to build grand houses for the wealthy on his land.
Using the top of the hill as the centre, Ladbroke’s architect drew up plans for crescents of large houses with private gardens and access to private parks. This was an innovative idea, because the parks could only be accessed from the back of each house surrounding the park, and not open to (or seen by) the public.
By 1824 the first of the grand houses had been built and people bought 99-year leases on the houses. All seemed well. Until the 1825 stock market crash. Twelve banks failed, loans were almost impossible to get, and interest rates were high. Building in Notting Hill stalled, and Ladbroke failed to sell any more leases.
Ladbroke then decided to build smaller houses for the middle classes on the lower slopes, in Notting Dale. Sadly, his project manager had little experience or aptitude for the work and his developer was a con artist, who was eventually arrested for non-payment of debts and went to jail. The other problem was that in the fields beside the new houses there was a pig farm and brick works. Ladbroke had hoped these would move on as houses were built, but this did not happen, and potential residents were put off by the noise and the smell.
However, in 1834 Ladbroke had a lucky break. He managed to sell some land to John Whyte, who built the first racecourse in London. The grandstand was where St John’s Church is now, so the racegoers could see down the hill and over most of the course. The racecourse was called the Hippodrome – now the name of a couple of streets in the area. It was built and ready for the first race in 1837. Of course, it was a disaster. The ground was clay, which was too hard in the summer and too wet in the winter. After a storm the rain ran down the hill turning the course into a bog. This meant the course was too dangerous for horses to run. Whyte was unable to improve the course, and in 1841 the Hippodrome was closed and sold.
In 1847 James Ladbroke died, a sad man who had failed to realise his dreams. Felix Ladbroke inherited the estate and completed building the grand houses at the top of the hill. But he was not a good businessman either; he sold the rest of the estate and was living in ‘reduced circumstances’ near Victoria Station when he died.
Soon Notting Dale became infamous as a slum. It was known as ‘The Potteries’ as the number of kilns proliferated in the area, with the accompanying noise and smoke. The clay that was treacherous for horses was ideal for making bricks, which supplied the vast number of building projects in Victorian London.
By the second half of the 19th Century there were 3000 pigs and 1000 people living in the shanty town at the bottom of the hill. Oh, and their fierce dogs, used to protect the pigs and for dog fights, a popular ‘sport’ of the time. In the middle of the slum, there was a field called ‘the ocean’ because it was filled with foul-smelling slurry and pig swill. It was a dangerous part of London. Dickens wrote that the area was “scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London... In these hovels discontent, dirt, filth, and misery are unsurpassed.1”
By the late 1880s things started to change. The underground railway bought a lot of land, meaning the pig farmers struggled to rent enough land for their pigs, and at last they moved out. The land used by the potteries was also sold for houses. The ‘ocean’ was drained and is now the green & sweet-smelling Avondale Park (see map). But conditions in Notting Hill otherwise barely improved, as poorly built housing with cheap rents were now filled with unemployed labourers, who had lost their jobs as industry moved out of central London.
During World War One building new houses came to a standstill, resulting in a shortage of housing and rent increases. In response the Government froze interest rates and restricted the right of landlords to raise rents or evict tenants, unless in exceptional circumstances. The rent restrictions were eased a little in the 1920s but only if landlords improved their properties, which they could not afford to do. Then came the economic depression of the 1930s.
Even the elegant large houses at the top of the hill became dilapidated, as nobody could afford their upkeep. Landlords were anxious to keep collecting rents, so they broke the houses into smaller units, many without bathrooms or sinks, with one outside toilet for up to seven families. Rent restrictions were finally abolished in the 1950s but unscrupulous landlords continued to exploit the poor folk who lived in the area.
Because of the low rents Notting Hill attracted immigrants from the Caribbean. This was an unsettled time in Notting Hill, with a lot of racial tension (more in the Motley Extra about Afro-Caribbeans and the Notting Hill Carnival). Leases were coming to an end, so landlords tried to force rent control tenants out of their accommodation. They then give the place a lick of paint and let it at a higher rent to office workers who could pay more, and who needed to be close to the centre of London.
Many of the slums were cleared in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the 1980s, wealthy people have bought and renovated the houses on the hill. They are now very desirable, expensive, single-family homes, many of which back onto private community gardens.
In the 1950s Notting Hill became a cultural centre as artists and musicians moved into the area. Afro-Caribbean residents found themselves barred from nightclubs due to their colour, so they provided their own fun. They held parties where they played Caribbean music, sold illegal alcohol and ate goat stew.
By the 1970s music shops selling vinyl records sprung up in the area. One of the most famous was called ‘Rock on Records’. People visited from all over London, to buy a wide variety of music not available elsewhere. Thin Lizzy immortalised the shop in their lyrics to The Rocker:
“I love to rock and roll I get my records at the Rock On stall”
There were also several record labels in the area. One was Island Records, who moved to Ladbroke Grove in 1972.
Island Records re-mixed Bob Marley’s songs to make them more appealing to a wider rock & roll audience. This also led to Jamaican music and reggae becoming more widely heard and accepted.
In the 1970s the law gave squatters legal rights to occupy vacant buildings. Squatting in London became highly organised and the large, run-down houses in Notting Hill provided an ideal squat. Residents, new immigrants, students, and punks began to reclaim the area. People from other areas of London visited for the vibe and the music. Notting Hill was trendy!
But when the grand houses were restored the gentrification of the neighbourhood began. The run-down areas were improved, rents raised, and the artists & musicians moved on. There are still some pockets of council and housing trust flats at modest rents, but most of the houses are too expensive for the ordinary Londoner. The famous antique & vintage clothes market on Portobello Road continues every Saturday.
The market still thrives because the market traders (by law) only pay enough to cover the council’s expenses, while shop owners pay much higher rents. And of course, there is also the Notting Hill Carnival; the history of which is discussed in full in the July Motley Extra.2
As always, any links are provided to give the reader more information. I do not make any money from these links. Where possible permissions have been sought for the use of images and text, unless they are in the Public Domain. If there is an issue with copyright, please contact me. I am an amateur historian covering a wide range of subjects. I do careful research using secondary sources (books, articles, videos and a little bit of Wikipedia). If there are any mistakes I apologise and please let me know.
Charles Dickens, Household Words Vol 1, August 1850.
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