51°30′54.2″N 0°11′42.3″W / 51.515056°N 0.195083°W / 51.515056; -0.195083

Westbourne Grove

Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, an area of west London. Its western end is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its eastern end is in the City of Westminster; it runs from Kensington Park Road in the west to Queensway in the east, crossing over Portobello Road. It contains a mixture of independent and chain retailers,[1] and has been termed both "fashionable" and "up-and-coming".[2]

The Notting Hill Carnival passes along the central part of Westbourne Grove.

Shopping

Baynards on the corner with Chepstow Place, formerly Bradleys.

There are a number of popular shopping destinations located on Westbourne Grove and adjoining streets, pre-eminently: Portobello Market, Queensway and Ledbury Road.

On 9 August 1997, authoritative weekly newsagent-magazine Time Out featured West London, selecting Westbourne Grove as the half-city's representative: "Seeking a key shopping road symbolic of western aspirations, we decided that preposterously fashionable Westbourne Grove, or 'Westbourne Village', has it all. It was here that Madonna headed during breaks in filming "Evita" - to the funky boutiques, the avant-garde florists, the designer jewellery and futuristic furniture (at millennial prices)."

In February 2004, the London Plan was first issued and, paired with Queensway, designated Westbourne Grove as one of Greater London's major centres.[3]

Around 2007, the road's eastern Bayswater-end, underwent a rapid period of transformation, east of Chepstow Road. Upon lease expiry, rents increased significantly and pricing-out many incumbent family businesses, which were replaced by fashionable / prestige restaurants and shops.[citation needed]

History

Westbourne Grove Church (2009)

The development of Westbourne Grove began in the 1840s and proceeded from the east (which lay in Bayswater) to the west, where it became the principal east–west artery into the Ladbroke Estate. The far western end of the street only became known as Westbourne Grove relatively recently in 1938, having previously been called Archer Street. In 1929, the novelist A.J. Cronin opened his own medical practice at 152 Westbourne Grove.

Westbourne Grove takes its name from Westbourne Green – a settlement that developed to the west of the bourne that later took the name River Westbourne.[4] This river currently runs underground at Ossington Street. The area is first recorded in 1222 as Westeburn. Westbourne Green is first recorded as Westborne Grene in 1548. Westbourne Green formed part of the parish of Paddington.

There was a small settlement to the north of what is now Westbourne Grove at Westbourne Green. It had five main houses. The largest of these was Westbourne Place or Westbourne House, which was rebuilt in 1745 by the architect Isaac Ware as an elegant Georgian mansion of three storeys with a frontage of nine windows divided into three parts. The central third was topped by a large pediment and contained the main door, which also had a pediment over it. The lower two storeys were formed into bays at each end, which contained three windows each. Amongst the well-known residents of this house were Sir William Yorke, baronet; the Venetian ambassador; the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell (a great great nephew of the diarist Samuel Pepys); and the General Commander in Chief of the Army, Viscount Hill, who left in 1836 (and who gave his name to the modern road bridge north of Westbourne Grove called Lord Hill's Bridge). The house was demolished in 1836 to make way for the houses and gardens of what is now Westbourne Park Villas. Thomas Hardy lived in this area, mainly at no 16 Westbourne Park Villas, which was his home 1863–67.

Also north of what is now Westbourne Grove was Westbourne Farm which was the home, between 1815 and 1817, of the actress Sarah Siddons, who lived there with her daughter. The Farm was at the point where the Harrow Road, the Westway and the canal converge. Mrs Siddons was buried at St Mary's Church, the main church of Paddington, on Paddington Green, where her grave can still be seen.

Though now popular and expensive for home-buyers, much of the area had become run-down in the 1950s, when it was the centre of the activities of notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman, after whom the phrase "Rachmanism" was coined. He was known for his violent evictions of tenants with legally fixed rents. He replaced them—in what had become overcrowded multi-occupied housing—mainly with recent migrants from the West Indies who, because of discrimination and council tenant restrictions, could not find accommodation. He operated from an office in Westbourne Grove.[5] Part of the area, including streets between Ledbury Rd & Shrewsbury Road to the south of Westbourne Park Road, became derelict and was consequently compulsorily purchased and demolished.[6]

Notting Hill Post Office, in Westbourne Grove, finally closed in a storm of controversy during early 2005. However, the Royal Mail retained its sorting office on the site.

John Lanchester, in The Guardian (6 January 2012), observed Westbourne Grove to be "an area that in the last couple of decades has gone from slightly rough to full-on trustafarian to total bankerisation."[7]

References

External links

  1. Live @ Isle Of Wight Festival, UK 15 06 2019 - Fatboy Slim 01:12:50
  2. Live @ S2O Festival, Bangkok, Thailand 13 04 2019 - Fatboy Slim 01:08:38
  3. UK TOUR 2019 - Birmingham, UK [EXTRACTS] 22 02 2019 - Fatboy Slim 42:48
  4. Brighton Rooftop B2B Set 30 11 2018 - Fatboy Eats 01:40:26
  5. Live @ Creamfields 2018, UK 26 08 2018 - Fatboy Slim 31:37
  6. Live @ Tomorrowland, Freedom Stage (Week End 2) , Belgium 28 07 2018 - Fatboy Slim 01:27:45
  7. Live @ British Airways i360, Brighton, UK 30 07 2018 - Fatboy Slim 01:29:55
  8. Live @ Tomorrowland, Belgium 21 07 2018 - Fatboy Slim 01:26:30
  9. Live @ Tuesdays On Mars, Pacha Ibiza, Spain 03 07 2018 - Fatboy Slim 03:04:03
  10. All Night Long - Pacha Ibiza 19 05 2018 - Fatboy Slim 05:16:00
  11. Record Store Day Desert Island Disco Mix, BBC 6 Music, UK 15 04 2016 - Fatboy Slim 28:31
  12. Beat Up The NME 60 Knockout Minutes (1997) Fatboy Slim 01:00:47
  13. Live @ Electric Gardens, Serafino Winery, Adelaide, Australia [EXTRACTS] 26 01 2018 - Fatboy Slim 01:04:05
  14. Live @ Hultsfred, Sweden 14 06 1997 - Fatboy Slim 01:03:14
  15. Live @ Personal Fest '17, Buenos Aires, Argentina 12 11 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:34:54
  16. Live @ Beats for Love 2017 Festival in Ostrava, Czech Republic 05 07 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:14:04
  17. Live @ Ultra Music Festival 2012, Miami, USA 24 03 2012 - Fatboy Slim 58:51
  18. Live @ Float Your Boat, Ibiza, Spain 21 09 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:30:48
  19. Live @ Brixton Academy, London, UK [EXTRACTS] 20 12 2014 - Fatboy Slim 01:00:00
  20. Live @ Creamfields 2017, Liverpool, UK 27 08 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:31:43
  21. Live @ Café Mambo, Ibiza, Spain 05 08 2017 - Fatboy Slim 38:21
  22. Live @ Tomorrowland Festival 2017,Lost Frequencies & Friends Stage,Belgium 29 07 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:25:04
  23. Live At National Cardiff 01 01 2000 - Fatboy Slim 01:13:23
  24. Live @ Super Bock Super Rock Festival, Lisbon, Portugal 15 07 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:30:31
  25. Live @ Kappa Futur Festival, Torino, Italy 08 07 2017 - Fatboy Slim 01:29:26
  26. Live @ Electric Daisy Carnival, Tokyo, Japan 29 04 2017 - Fatboy Slim 30:25
  27. EDC Japan 2017 Mix Fatboy Slim 01:00:00
  28. Live @ Santa Cruz Boat Party, Ibiza, Spain 15 09 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:40:46
  29. Live @ The O² Arena, London, UK 17 12 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:28:37
  30. Beats 1 Radio Show #8 16 12 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:20
  31. Beats 1 Radio Show #7 02 12 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:56
  32. Beats 1 Radio Show #6 18 11 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:33
  33. Beats 1 Radio Show #5 04 11 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:25
  34. Beats 1 Radio Show #4 21 10 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:43
  35. Beats 1 Radio Show #3 07 10 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:51:05
  36. Beats 1 Radio Show #2 23 09 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:58:05
  37. Beats 1 Radio Show #1 09 09 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:49:55
  38. DJ SET WMF, Berlin, Germany 29 09 2000 - Fatboy Slim 01:49:50
  39. BACK TO THE ODD SCHOOL feat. FATBOY SLIM's Desert Eagle Disc top ten 27 11 2016 03:00:42
  40. Essential Millennium 1999 (Disc 2) Fatboy Slim 01:16:05
  41. Live @ Boiler Room, Brighton, UK 11 10 2016 - Fatboy Slim 02:55:40
  42. One Mix: Fatboy Slim - Ep27 20 01 2016 - Beats 1 59:55
  43. Live @ Bestival 2016, Essential Mix, BBC Radio 1, UK 17 09 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:59:48
  44. Celebrating 20 years of Better Living @ The Social, London, UK 13 09 2016 - Fatboy Slim 29:09
  45. Live At Carl Cox: Music Is Revolution, Space, Ibiza, Spain 10 08 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:57:43
  46. Live On A Night with Annie Nightingale, Maida Vale Studio, BBC Radio 1,UK 09 09 2010 - Fatboy Slim 21:29
  47. Live @ The House Of Blues, New Orleans, USA 25 03 2000 - Fatboy Slim 02:00:03
  48. Live @ Glastonbury 2016, UK 25 06 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:25:32
  49. From Punk Get Funk, BBC Radio 2, UK 06 06 2016 - Norman Cook 56:20
  50. Live @ The Metro, Chicago, USA 03 03 1998 – Fatboy Slim 02:03:33
  51. Live @ Club Cream 10th Birthday Special, Liverpool, UK 12 10 2002 - Fatboy Slim 41:51
  52. Live @ The Ultimate FSTVL House Party, Brighton, UK 21 04 2016 - Fatboy Slim 01:30:20
  53. Live @ HARD Haunted Mansion, Shrine Expo Hall, Los Angeles, USA 28 10 2011 - Fatboy Slim 01:11:55
  54. We Are 30 Mixed By Fatboy Slim (2013) Mixmag 01:05:29
  55. Fatboy Slim - The Legend Returns (2010) Mixmag 50:59
  56. Live At Newquay Beach, Essential Selection, BBC Radio 1, UK 21 06 2002 - Fatboy Slim & Eric Morillo 01:29:08