Harrington Gardens is a street which has a

communal garden A communal garden (often used in the plural as communal gardens) is a (normally formal) garden for shared use by a number of local residents, typically in an urban setting. The term is especially used in the United Kingdom. The centre of many cit ...

regionally sometimes known as a

garden square A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. ...

in the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...

in London. The street runs from

Collingham Gardens Collingham Gardens is a garden square in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Built between 1881 and 1888, the buildings on either side of the garden were designed by Ernest George and Peto, a firm that grafted Northern Europ ...

and Collingham Road in the east to Gloucester Road and Stanhope Gardens in the west. It is crossed by Ashburn Place and joined by Colbeck Mews on its north side. It contains several

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

including an important group of grade II* buildings on the south side numbered 35 to 45 (odd numbers only). In March 1954, Kenneth Gilbert (22) and Ian Grant (24), porters at the Aban Court Hotel at no 25, killed their colleague 55-year old night porter George Smart, and on 17 June 1954, they became the UK's last side-by-side execution when they were hanged at

HM Prison Pentonville HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury are ...

. After a long era in which double hangings were normal for partners in crime, the

Homicide Act 1957 The Homicide Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz.2 c.11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limi ...

ended the practice, making hangings simultaneous, but at separate prisons. Until early November 1959, the American poet

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

lived at the Alwin Court Hotel in nearby Gloucester Road and then the Aban Court Hotel, but "did not like the accommodations at either one".

Facilities

The Avni Kensington Hotel and the Millennium Gloucester London hotel and Grosvenor Casino are on the north side of the street. The Bentley Hotel is on the south side. The small Gloucester Park is midway along the street on the north side.

Listed buildings

* Numbers 24 and 26 on the north side are grade II listed. * Numbers 35 to 45 inclusive (odds only) on the south side are all grade II* listed. * Numbers 1 and 3 on the south side are grade II listed. * The entrance arch and flanking pavilions to Bailey's Hotel on the north side are grade II listed. * The pair of K6 telephone kiosks on the north side on the corner with Gloucester Road are grade II listed.

References

External links

Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea {{england-road-stub