Lancaster Gate is a mid-19th century development in the Bayswater district of

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

, immediately to the north of

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Pa ...

History

It consists of two long terraces of houses overlooking the park, with a wide gap between them opening onto a square containing a church. Further terraces back onto the pair overlooking the park and loop around the square. Until 1865 the terraces were known as Upper Hyde Park Gardens, with the name Lancaster Gate limited to the square surrounding the church. The development takes its name from Lancaster Gate, a nearby entrance to Kensington Gardens, itself named in honour of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

Duke of Lancaster The dukedom of Lancaster is a former Peerage of England, English peerage, created three times in the Middle Ages, which finally merged in the Crown when Henry V of England, Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the ...

. The terraces are

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed and are in an eclectic classical style featuring

English Baroque English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...

details and French touches. The church, known as Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, was an asymmetrical gothic composition with a needle spire. The architects were F. & H. Francis. The church was one of the best-known in London, but when dry rot was discovered in the roof the decision was taken to demolish most of the building and redevelop the site. The last service in the church was on 6 March 1977, and demolition began on 15 August 1977; only the tower and spire survive. The rest of the building was replaced by a housing scheme called Spire House in 1983. Lancaster Gate stands alongside Hyde Park Gardens as one of the two grandest of the 19th-century housing schemes lining the northern side of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The development was planned in 1856–57 on the site of a nursery and tea gardens, and construction took at least 10 years. The terraces overlooking the park were designed by Sancton Wood and those around the square by John Johnson. The exteriors are largely complete, with just a couple of 20th-century infills, but many of the interiors have been reconstructed behind the facades. Many of the properties are still in residential use and command very high prices. Others are used as embassies (such as the Embassy of Costa Rica),

office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

s, or

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s. For many years, the headquarters of

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

were located in Lancaster Gate and the term was often used as a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...

for the organisation, but it later relocated to Soho Square and is now based at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Royal Lancaster Hotel, opposite the Italian Gardens of Hyde Park, was built in 1967. Lancaster Gate is also an electoral ward of

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,195.

Gallery

File:Paddington Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg, A map showing the Lancaster Gate wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington as they appeared in 1916. File:Lancaster Gate 2.jpg, The Lancaster Gate of

File:Spire House (formerly Christ Church, Lancaster Gate) front (= South face).jpg, South face of Spire House (formerly Christ Church, Lancaster Gate) File:London - Lancaster Gate - View South on Spire House 1983 (former Christ Church).jpg, Spire House File:London - Lancaster Gate - View North on statue & former Christ Church Spire.jpg, Memorial to Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath (South face), artist Joseph Hermon Cawthra, (Spire House in background) File:Brabazon memorial Lancaster Gate, portrait and main inscription.jpg, Meath memorial, detail of

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

and main inscription File:Back (North side) of Brabazon memorial, Lancaster Gate.jpg, Back (North face) of Meath memorial, showing view of Kensington Gardens to the south File:Brabazon (Meath) memorial, Lancaster Gate, West face.jpg, West face of Meath memorial (viewer facing east).Inscription reads "Duty, Sympathy, Self-Sacrifice"

References

Notes Bibliography *Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1999) ''The Buildings of England. London 3: North West'' London: Penguin

External links

*{{commonscat-inline, Lancaster Gate, London Housing in London Streets in the City of Westminster Bayswater

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links