Randolph Avenue is a street in Maida Vale in London. Located in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

, it is a long

avenue Avenue or Avenues may refer to: Roads * Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees) * Avenue Road, Bangalore * Avenue Road, ...

running from north to south. The southern end is located in

Little Venice Little Venice is a district in West London, England, around the junction of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, the Regent's Canal, and the entrance to Paddington Basin. The junction forms a triangular shape basin. Many of the buildi ...

near to the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal. The street runs northwards, crossing Clifton Gardens,

Sutherland Avenue Sutherland Avenue is a street in Maida Vale in London, England. Located in the City of Westminster on the northern edge of Little Venice. it is an Avenue (landscape), avenue running east to west from the Edgware Road to Harrow Road. Along the rou ...

(near to its junction with Warrington Crescent),

Elgin Avenue Elgin Avenue is a street in Maida Vale in London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs east to west from the A5 road (Great Britain), A5 road close to Maida Vale tube station west to the Maida Hill area where it meets the Harrow Road. Su ...

and Carlton Vale. The road then continues as Randolph Gardens until it meets Kilburn Park Road. The Edgware Road runs directly parallel to Randolph Avenue to the east. The street was part of an ambitious plan for the area laid out by the architect George Gutch in the 1820s to accommodate the expanding population of the capital. Development took several decades with many buildings constructed in the first half of the Victorian era, particularly the 1860s. For much of its existence it was known as Portsdown Road, but was renamed in 1939. It is a largely residential street. The southern end of the road features white

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

terraces but these give way to brick-fronted buildings further north including redbrick

mansion blocks An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

. Maida Vale tube station was opened in 1915 at the junction of the street and Elgin Avenue and is now

Grade II listed 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 ...

. A number of other properties in Randolph Avenue are also listed. Notable residents of the street have included the painter

Eliza Anne Leslie-Melville Eliza Anne Leslie-Melville, or Melville, (''nee'' Smallbone; 17 March 1829 - July 1919) was a British painter in oils of genre and portraits. She became known as a painter in 1854 and continued to paint until 1900. She is celebrated for her po ...

and the

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

John Tenniel. Tenniel's residence had a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

, placed by the London County Council, on it from 1930 until 1959 when the house was demolished for redevelopment.Morris

References

Bibliography

* Bebbington, Gillian. ''London Street Names''. Batsford, 1972. * Cockburn, J. S., King, H. P. F. & McDonnell, K. G. T. & ''A History of the County of Middlesex''. Institute of Historical Research, 1989. * Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''London 3: North West''. Yale University Press, 2002. * Hibbert, Christopher Weinreb, Ben, Keay, John & Keay, Julia. ''The London Encyclopaedia''. Pan Macmillan, 2011. * Morris, Frankie. ''Artist of Wonderland: The Life, Political Cartoons, and Illustrations of Tenniel''. ISD LLC, 2023. Streets in the City of Westminster Maida Vale {{London-road-stub