Earls Court Living
Longridge Road
This was part of the Edwardes Estate. The Edwardes family came from Pembrokeshire originally and Longridge Road was named after a village there. In 1873 Lord Kensington agreed to lease the land on which Longridge Road would be built, to Charles Hunt, a Kensington builder. Hunt had to construct the roads and sewers and a minimum number of houses, which had to be built by 1878 to plans approved by Lord Kensington’s surveyor.
Building work was not carried out by Hunt himself. Nos. 2-24 (even) on the north side from Earls Court Road to Templeton Place were built by George Edward Mineard. These were constructed by 1874. Opposite, on the south side, Nos. 3-25 (odd) were built by William Hopping of Kilburn and were completed slightly later in 1875. No. 1 was shoehorned into a smaller site at the end, and occupied by Charles Hunt himself. These two facing terraces are very similar. They have semi basements and three upper storeys, and attics in the roof. (Nos. 23 & 25 at the Templeton Place have one extra storey). The houses were constructed with shared porches in the Doric style and bay windows right up to the first floor level. Mineard’s houses were built using gault bricks; Hopping used stock bricks.
Building moved onto the next section between Templeton Road and Nevern Road in 1874 and the houses on both sides were completed by 1877. Charles Hunt built most of the houses on the north and the south side, although Hopping built No. 27 and W. Hunt (presumably a relative) built several of the houses in each terrace. The final stretch between Nevern Road and Warwick Road was built between 1877 and 1881 by Charles Hunt. They are generally larger than the other houses in the street. The most evident difference is that they have façades made to look like stonework, in contrast with the brick façades earlier in the street.
The actress Ellen Terry lived at No. 33 from about 1878 until 1889.
