South Kensington Living
Cranley Gardens
Cranley Gardens. Most of the houses are in an Italianate style, similar to those built by Freake in the later stages of Onslow Gardens.
Nos. 2-54 (even) Cranley Gardens have four main storeys, with basements and garrets as well. They generally have frontages twenty-five feet wide.
The facades are of grey stock brick with stucco dressings and with prominent stringcourses dividing each storey. There is a modillion cornice below the roof line at third floor level. There are Doric porches for the main doors.
A parapet wall with a balustrade runs along the roof line . The attic floors are clearly visible from the street and the dormer windows have ornate pediments over them.
There are three windows to a floor and the first floor windows have balconies with wrought iron balustrades. Frequently the middle window on the ground or first floor has a pediment, sometimes segmental but usually triangular. The end houses of the terrace have canted bays.
Nos. 1-13 (odd) Cranley Gardens are virtually the same but differ slightly in that the Doric porches come in pairs.
Nos. 15-37 (odd) Cranley Gardens to the south of St. Peter’s Church are entirely different in style. It seems that large Italianate houses were no longer the fashion and a more reserved style was demanded. These houses are built instead in, what was called, Queen Anne style. The houses are still four-storeys (plus a basement and attic) but are shallower than the other Cranley Gardens terraces. As a result there was room at the back of the houses for small individual gardens. The the facades are in red-brick, often with moulded brick patterns. The attic floors have high gables, which vary along the terrace between segmental and triangular forms.
In 1852 the Smith's Charity bought the acres which separated the Smith’s Charity’s developed estate in the east from its remaining undeveloped land to the west, called Brompton Heath, which was mainly occupied as market gardens and nurseries. This land had been part of the Harrington-Villars estate. When the estate was divided up in 1850-1, this land was put up for sale. For some reason the Smith's Charity trustees did not obtain it, and it was bought by the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851. But perhaps the Commissioners were playing a canny game because Smith’s Charity owned a strategic piece of land the Commissioners badly needed in order to complete their rectangle of museums between Queen’s Gate, Kensington Road, Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road. The two pieces of land were exchanged and this provided the land for the further expansion of development west. For the full story, read the history of the Harrington-Villars estate
Work began in 1875. In November 1880 notice was given to the district surveyor that building of the whole of the west side of the street and the short range to the north of St. Peter’s Church was about to begin. The houses built in this part of the development are just like Freake’s later Onslow Gardens houses, except that the balconies have iron railings rather than cement balustrades. But where the Onslow Gardens houses had been quickly occupied, these Cranley Gardens houses remained uncompleted or unoccupied for a considerable time. No. 38 apparently didn’t find a taker till 1900. It seems that the large Italianate houses in which Freake specialized had become unfashionable.
It seems that Freake was not slow to realise the way the market was moving. In 1883 he began the building of Nos. 15-37 (odd) Cranley Gardens to the south of St. Peter’s Church to more up-to-date designs. The houses were designed by Charles Henry Thomas, who was employed by Freake. His name appears on the firm’s applications to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1878, but from about 1880 he had his own architectural practice.
