Earls Court Living
Coleherne Court
Coleherne Court is a large red-brick mansion block, split into several smaller blocks, which fronts Old Brompton Road, The Little Boltons and Redcliffe Gardens. There is a very large private communal garden at the rear and it is one of the biggest mansion blocks in Kensington. It is famous for being the home for a time of the late Princess of Wales.
Until the 19th century the land on which Coleherne Court now stands was made up of two distinct pieces of land. The western half, including part of Redcliffe Square’s land, was Coleherne House (sometimes also called Coleherne Court) which was a family house and garden. The eastern half (together with the land for Harcourt Terrace and Tregunter Road) was the site of a medieval gravel pit called Goodwin’s Field.
In Elizabeth I’s reign, Goodwin’s Field belonged to a family called Thatcher. By the time of Charles I it was owned by Samuel Arnold, whose family owned a great deal of property in the Earl’s Court area. At the height of the turmoil of the Civil War in 1641, Arnold was bankrupted and his creditors sold Goodwin’s Field to John Chaire. In 1680, his son, William Chaire, sold it to Charles Morgan, a grocer’s shop in Covent Garden. When he died in 1682 the property was bought by Peter Lavigne, who seems to have taken over Morgan’s Covent Garden grocery business.
Lavigne’s daughter inherited the property and sold it to Edward Williams, a Customs officer, in 1719. His son inherited the property in 1752 and sold it to George Campbell, a banker whose firm later became Coutts.
It is not known precisely when Coleherne House was built. In 1647 a house owned by Sir William Lister is referred to as “Cold Hearne". In 1653 “Coleherne House” was occupied by a James Floyde, followed by a Dr Ford in 1666. “Coleherne” was a name used for the whole area between Old Brompton Road and Fulham Road from at least 1430. The Coleherne House which survived to the 20th century may have been built by Henry Muddiman, an early journalist, who lived there from 1673 to 1691. It was later acquired by Peter Lavigne, the owner of Goodwin’s Field.
After Lavigne’s death, Coleherne House and its garden again became separated from Goodwin’s Field. In 1723, Lavigne’s son-in-law sold the house to Thomas Morgan, a lawyer in Lincoln’s Inn. In 1739 he sold it to Sibilla Edgerton, a lady from Soho, who in 1749 sold it on to another Soho lady, Ann Walwood.
In 1751 George Campbell bought Colehearne House from Ann Walwood and the future site of the present Coleherne Court finally reverted to single ownership.
When Campbell died, the property was purchased by William Boulton who was an official in the Post Office. In 1796, he died and his son, also William Boulton, inherited the land. In 1808 Philip Gilbert, a goldsmith, purchased Colehearne House and Goodwin’s Field from William Boulton. In about 1815 Philip Gilbert built Hereford House on the east side of the garden, and moved out of Coleherne House. In 1864 they sold both houses and Goodwin’s Field to James Gunter II.
The purchase of this land allowed James Gunter II to extend the house building which from Harcourt Terrace, north to Old Brompton Road. It seems that Gunter’s initial plan was to build over the entire site. But the developers, Corbett and McClymont went bankrupt in 1878 before any work could be carried out.
The site remained undeveloped for many years. Coleherne House was let to various tenants. Hereford House became a ladies cycling club, where races were held on Saturday afternoons.
But by the turn of the century James Gunter was ready to make proper use of the site. In 1899 to 1900 the two houses were demolished and Coleherne Court was constructed in their place. The plan was to construct three blocks of flats as a single estate. This was a dramatic departure from the development previously carried out by the Gunters, which had consisted almost wholly of streets of houses.
The developer was Henry Bailey, who financed the construction in return for a long lease, for which he paid a ground rent to the Gunter estate. Bailey used a Hornsey builder, T W Brown, to carry out the construction work. Bailey’s architect was Paul Hoffman, who liaised with Gunter’s architect, Walter Cave. There is no record of who designed the buildings but the external style appears to be Cave’s, judging by houses he designed on Gunter’s estate nearby.
The first occupants began to move in by 1903. The flats were designed to have five rooms, a servant’s bedroom, domestic offices, two WCs and a bathroom. They were originally let for £130 to £160 a year.
