Westbourne is an area in West London. It has a manorial history spanning many centuries, within a more broadly defined Paddington, before shedding its association in the mid-19th century. It is named after the west bourne, West Bourne, or River Westbourne, a Thames tributary which was encased in 19th-century London in the 1850s. The spring-fed

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

and associated manor have led to the place names

Westbourne Green Westbourne Green is an area of Westbourne, London, the centre of the former hamlet of Westbourne, at the north-western corner of the City of Westminster. It is named for its location west of a bourne (small stream). Traditionally a rural area, s ...

, Westbourne Park and more narrowly: Westbourne Gardens, Westbourne Grove, Westbourne Park Road, Westbourne Park tube station, Westbourne Studios and the name of a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

. Westbourne forms or resembles an electoral

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of the local authority which is, since 1965,

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

, and an ecclesiastical parish in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. Westbourne

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

is a smaller area, designated by the local authority, in Planning Law.

Early history

The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Westbourne was a High Middle Ages (mid-medieval) settlement, centred on Westbourne Green. It included a mansion house and a farmhouse. It is recorded as Westeburn in 1222 and as Westborn in 1294. The green is recorded as Westborne Grene in 1548, Washborne Green in 1680 and Wesborn Green in 1754.

Modern name and definitions

The manorial bounds of Westbourne were kept alive by business names and residents' groups and associations after housing development. A short-lived

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

station existed from 1866 until 1871, when it was replaced by one nearby, to the east. Until 1992, the station had extra platforms on its north side for the overground

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of t ...

. To the north and east were extensive railway yards. Excellent transport and ease of access of fashionable commerce such as in Marylebone encouraged many City of London affluent workers and the political class of Westminster to live in the area. More recently, the Westbourne Park bus garage was built, replacing railway yards north-east of the station, across the Western Avenue, London. Use of "Westbourne", unsuffixed by "Park" or "Green", has faded but not passed; it has an electoral and a planning definition. #The area resembles and can be defined loosely as Westbourne

, one of twenty Westminster City Council electoral districts, north of the Westway and around the Great Western Road. Wards are drawn by an independent commission to aim for equality of electorate, instead of containing interrelated housing, to avoid

malapportionment Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionmen ...

. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,759. #A narrower definition is the Westbourne

identified since the late 20th century to maintain coherent

classical architecture Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Ancient Greek architecture, Greek and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De archit ...

building schemes in Planning Law; its history, structure and layout mirrors the bulk of neighbouring Bayswater.

Manor and parish

The manor of Westbourne was distinct from the manor of Paddington but, lacking a church, it did not form its own parish. Instead, it was western part of the parish of Paddington through which it paid tithes and received the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

's administration such as in the poor law. The River Westbourne, running north to south, delimited Westbourne from Paddington. In later years the manorial courts sat across Bayswater and Hyde Park in

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

; the manor became known as "the Manor of Westbourne with Knightsbridge".T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Paddington: Westbourne Green', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington, ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 198-204. In the collaborative historians'

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

projects. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp198-204

Buildings and famous residents

In 1746, Westbourne Green had five main houses, the largest of these being Westbourne Place (also known as Westbourne House), which had been rebuilt as an elegant Georgian mansion in 1745 by the architect Isaac Ware. The mansion had three storeys, with the frontage divided into three parts widthwise, and nine windows. The middle portion was topped by a large pediment and contained the further pedimented main door. Each end of the lower two storeys were formed into tri-windowed bays. Residents in turn included: baronet Sir William Yorke, a Venetian ambassador, architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell (a distant relative of diarist

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

) and General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill ( Commander-in-Chief of the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, 1828–39). Hill gave his name to Lord Hill's Bridge and left the house in 1836. Following Hill's departure, the mansion was demolished and replaced by the current gardened houses of Westbourne Park Villas. Lord Hill's Bridge remains abutting the Villas; it accommodates Royal Oak tube station and joins Porchester Road with

Harrow Road Harrow Road is an ancient route in London, North West London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction towards Harrow, London, Harrow. It is also the name given to the immediate surrounding area of Queen's Park, London, Queens Par ...

below the Westway. Westbourne Farm was centred where the Westway, Harrow Road and Paddington Arm, a canal, converge; in 1815–17 home to actress

Sarah Siddons Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known Tragedy, tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified". She was the elder siste ...

and her daughter. The actress was buried and has a headstone at St Mary's Church on Paddington Green (then the area's parish).

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

lived in this area, mainly at 16 Westbourne Park Villas, his home 1863–67. The radio presenter and DJ Nihal Arthanayake used to live in Westbourne Park, near the Harrow Road.

Brunel, Westmead and Wessex Gardens Estates

By the 1960s many of the mansion houses with large grounds had become part of

Peter Rachman Perec "Peter" Rachman (16 August 1919 – 29 November 1962) was a Polish-born landlord who operated in Notting Hill, London, England, in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, with the word "Rachmanis ...

's property empire; they were demolished by the local authority after his death to make way for two large housing estates mainly based on meeting

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

needs: the Brunel estate (1970s), and the Wessex Gardens estate (1978), named for the fictional county of many of Hardy's works.''Westbourne Park''
CityWest Homes, accessed 2014-06-18 In Wessex Gardens the first of 300 homes (dwellings) planned for 1,116 people were ready in 1978. Westmead was built, as 148 homes in 1974, to replace a relatively low-quality segment of housing.

References

External links

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Map of the ecclesiastical parish of St Stephen with St Luke Paddington in the Diocese of London: the remaining church being St Stephen's, Westbourne Park. The Church of England Westbourne, London, Areas of London Districts of the City of Westminster