St Ann's Villas (also written as St Anns Villas) is a street in the Notting Hill area of London. Located 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 ...

, it runs northwards from

Royal Crescent The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping Crescent (architecture), crescent in the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is a ...

. It is intersected by Queensdale Road. The land was part of the

Norland Estate The Norland Estate was an historic estate of fifty-two acres north of Holland Park Avenue (formerly the Uxbridge Road) and bounded in the east by the roads now known as Portland Road and Pottery Lane, and in the west by the borders of the paris ...

which was redeveloped in the early Victorian era into affluent housing for the expanding population of London. Addison Avenue and

Norland Square Norland Square is a garden square in the Notting Hill area of London. Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, runs northward from Holland Park Avenue to Queensdale Road. The mews street Norland Place runs eastwards of the Square. ...

were both laid out around the same time as St Ann's Villas. The

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and former Member of Parliament for Penryn Charles Stewart was heavily involved in the development. The southernmost stretch of St Ann's Villas continued the original style of

Robert Cantwell Robert Emmett Cantwell (January 31, 1908 – December 8, 1978), known as Robert Cantwell, was a novelist and critic. His first novel, ''Laugh and Lie Down'' (1931) is an early example, twenty years before Jack Kerouac, of the American classic ge ...

but on reaching Queensdale Road the architectural style changes. Built as semi-detached villas in the Tudor Gothic style, it provides a distinct contrast to the rest of the estate, which uses 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 ...

terracing. A number of the buildings are 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 ...

. The

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

performer

Albert Chevalier Albert Chevalier (often listed as Albert Onésime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis Chevalier); (21 March 186110 July 1923), was an English music hall comedian, singer and musical theatre actor. He specialised in cockney related humour based on life ...

was born in the street in 1861 and is now commemorated by 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 ...

. The name may refer to a planned but never built St Ann's Church for the new development.Bebbington p.283 Instead the church serving the new district St James' Church was located in the nearby St James' Gardens. The street continues north as St Ann's Road for some distance, then becomes Bramley Road shortly before reaching

Latimer Road tube station Latimer Road is a London Underground station in North Kensington, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines between Wood Lane and Ladbroke Grove stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2. Loca ...

. Also first laid out in the Victorian era, very few of the original buildings now survive.

References

Bibliography

* Bebbington, Gillian. ''London Street Names''. Batsford, 1972. * 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. Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Notting Hill {{London-road-stub