Oakley Street looking south, May 2018.
Oakley Street is in the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London. It runs roughly north to south from
King's Road to the crossroads with
Cheyne Walk and the
River Thames , where it continues as the
Albert Bridge and
Albert Bridge Road . The street was named after
Baron Cadogan of Oakley .
[1]
[2]
History
Postcard showing Oakley Street and the Pier Hotel, c. 1910
Much of the street is on the site of the former
Winchester House , the one-time residence of the
Bishops of Winchester in London who had bought the 17th-century part of Chelsea Place from
Charles Cheyne in 1664 after the destruction of
Winchester Palace in the English Civil War.
[3] In 1821, after the house fell into disrepair, the bishop successfully sought an Act that allowed him to sell the house and its ground of 2.5 acres to the trustees of the
Cadogan Estate . In 1825, the trustees obtained a further Act to demolish the property and build new houses on the site. Demolition was complete by 1836, but the site was still vacant in 1847. By 1850, there were ten houses at the northern end, and four at the southern by 1851.
[4]
Notable buildings
Oakley Street area map (centre vertically)
Numbers 1–11, 14–25, 26 and 27, 28–35 and 101–108 Oakley Street are
listed grade II on the
National Heritage List for England .
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
Notable residents
No. 2 was owned by
John Samuel Phene , a noted property developer and local eccentric.
[2]
[10]
[11]
No. 9 was the home of pianist
Angus Morrison , where he was visited in the 1920s by
Sergei Diaghilev ,
Constant Lambert and
William Walton to run through ballet scores.
[12]
No. 29 was lived in by
Donald Maclean , one of the
Cambridge Five spy ring, in the latter 1930s.
[2]
[13]
No. 33 was the home of The Times chief music critic
Robin Legge during the 1920s and early 1930s.
[14]
No. 42 was where
Bob Marley moved to with his wife
Rita in January 1977, following an attempt on his life in Jamaica.
[15]
No. 56 was the home of Antarctic explorer
Robert Falcon Scott from 1904 to 1908, together with his mother and sister.
[16]
[17]
No. 57 was occupied by the 13th
Duke of St Albans in the 1960s.
No. 59 was used in 1926 as lodgings by composer
Constant Lambert , who rented out two rooms.
[18]
No. 74 was home to actress Dame
Sybil Thorndike and her husband
Lewis Casson in the 1930s.
[19]
[20]
[21]
No. 87 was home to
Oscar Wilde 's mother
Jane Wilde from 1886 until she died here in 1896. Oscar Wilde stayed here in April 1895, just before his trial at the Old Bailey. Many years later, the footballer
George Best also lived here.
[22]
No. 89 was the home of
David Bowie from 1973 to at least 1976.
[22]
[23]
[24]
No. 93 was home to
suffragettes in 1911, who refused to complete the
1911 census on the grounds of "no vote no census".
[25] However, the enumerator was able to confirm from the neighbours that the head of the house was Mrs
Alice Monck Mason , who lived there with her daughter, Winifred Alice Monck Mason (and others), an actress who went by the name of
Winifred Mayo .
[25]
Gallery
References
^
"Cadogan Estate" in
Christopher Hibbert ;
Ben Weinreb ; John Keay; Julia Keay (2008).
The London Encyclopaedia (3rd ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. p. 119.
ISBN
978-0-230-73878-2 .
^
a
b
c
"Simon's Walks" , At Home Inn Chelsea.
^
Landownership: Chelsea manor. British History Online. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
^
"Settlement and building: From 1680 to 1865, Chelsea Village or Great Chelsea" . Victoria County History . Retrieved 27 March 2018 .
^
Historic England .
"1–11, Oakley Street SW3 (1266229)" .
National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^
Historic England .
"14–25, Oakley Street SW3 (1225689)" .
National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^
Historic England .
"26 and 27, Oakley Street SW3 (1266230)" .
National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^
Historic England .
"28–35, Oakley Street SW3 (1225690)" .
National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^
Historic England .
"101–108, Oakley Street SW3 (1225691)" .
National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^
"Dr John Samuel Phene | 2 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London" , Notable Abodes.
^ Dave Walker,
"Dr Phene in his garden" , The Library Time Machine, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
^ Motion, Andrew.
The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit (2012), p.ii
^ Roland Philipps,
A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean , Bodley Head, 2018, p. 69.
^
The Musical Times , Vol. 73, No. 1071 (May 1932), p. 451
^ Robert L (11 May 2016).
"15 places in London with a Bob Marley connection" .
Time Out London . Retrieved 28 March 2018 .
^
a
b
"Captain Robert Falcon Scott" . www.rbkc.gov.uk . Retrieved 28 March 2018 .
^
"Scott, Robert Falcon (1868–1912) – English Heritage" . www.english-heritage.org.uk . Retrieved 28 March 2018 .
^ Lloyd, Stephen.
Constant Lambert: Beyond the Rio Grande (2014), p.79
^
"People at Home " . Oakley Street Residents' Association.
^ John Costella,
From Battersea to the Tower: Exploring Londons Thames Path , AuthorHouse, 2010, p. 23.
^ Jonathan Croall,
Sybil Thorndike: A Star Of Life , Haus Publishing, 2008.
^
a
b Melanie Backe-Hansen (6 April 2016).
"A place in history: Oakley Street" . The London Magazine . Archived from
the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2018 .
^ Olivia Waring (11 January 2016).
"Everyone is sharing David Bowie's bad ass mug shot from 1976" . metro.co.uk . Retrieved 27 March 2018 .
^ Wendy Leigh (2016).
Bowie: The Biography . Simon and Schuster. pp. 137–138.
ISBN
978-1-4767-6709-3 .
^
a
b
"The Suffragettes of Oakley Street" . house-historian.co.uk . 12 February 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2018 .
^ Dave Walker,
"Shepherd in Chelsea" , The Library Time Machine. Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, 2 October 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
^ Ordnance Survey map, 1868. Digimap. Retrieved 28 March 2018. (subscription required)
External links
51°29′0.73″N 0°10′2.3″W / 51.4835361°N 0.167306°W / 51.4835361; -0.167306