South Kensington Living
Rosary Gardens
Rosary Gardens runs north from Old Brompton Road to Wetherby Place.
It is mainly four-storey red-brick Victorian houses (plus basement). Ground and first floor windows are protruding and there is a first floor balcony running along both sides of the terrace.
Rosary Gardens was built on land belonging to the Day Estate.
When Hereford Square had been developed, the Day estate still contained a number of large houses with grounds built in the 18th century. In the 1880s these were pulled down to make way for the next wave of development. In 1881 the Metropolitan Board of Works approved the layout of three new road which were to be Brechin Place, Rosary Gardens and Wetherby Place.
William Willett took the site of Rosary Gardens and completed the houses there in 1885. Beatrix Potter, who lived nearby, made a note in her journal in 1883, worrying where the rooks would go, since their trees were being chopped down to make way for the Rosary Garden development.
The estate surveyor at this time was Charles Moreing, now in his 80s. The role was then taken over by William Collbran and its possible he was the architect of many of the houses.
In 1882-3 Roland Mansions were built as a block of flats at the southern end of Rosary Gardens.
