Ossington Street

Coordinates: 51°30′39.2″N 0°11′33.3″W / 51.510889°N 0.192583°W / 51.510889; -0.192583

Picture of the street sign at the south end of Ossington Street, London, W2, also showing the sign for The Champion pub.

Ossington Street is a quiet one-way street in London, W2, leading from Moscow Road at its north end to the Bayswater Road / Notting Hill Gate at its south end.

Ossington Street forms part of the border between the boroughs City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with the east side of the street belonging to Westminster and the west side to Kensington. It is possible that the street was named after Viscount Ossington.

Despite its minor nature, Ossington Street is one of the more notable 'runs' of The Knowledge in the area, as a route for taxi drivers to get from Westbourne Grove to Notting Hill Gate.

The nearest Tube station to Ossington Street is Notting Hill Gate, followed by Queensway and Bayswater.

History

Ossington Street was originally laid out from the then Uxbridge Road to Moscow Road on part of Gravel Pit field in the 1830s. It was known at the time as Victoria Grove, and was renamed to Ossington Street in 1837 and transferred to Kensington. The buildings to the west side were in the form of terraced cottages of two storeys and basement, with a mews behind. Victoria Grove Mews retains its name to this day.

Several of the terraced houses to the south were leased to William Ward, a Marylebone builder, who also filled a space along the Uxbridge Road between Victoria Grove and the then boundary of Paddington with an inn and five shops, nos. 1 to 6 Wellington Terrace, around 1840. The inn is that shown in the present day photograph above.

By 1865, almost all of Bayswater had been built up and the only sites for infilling were south of Moscow Road and in particular along the east side of Victoria Grove. This was built up as Palace Court, whose west side backs on Ossington Street and offers some of the most interesting late Victorian domestic architecture in the area.

References

C R Elrington (Editor), T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton, Patricia E C Croot (1989). "Paddington: Bayswater". A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington. Victoria County History series. pp. 204–12. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22666&strquery=palace%20court.