July 2, 2024
Knightsbridge Fire Station functioned from 1907 to 2014.
These stunning terracotta columns and pilasters are on the backside of Harrods. The front of the building is a riot of ornamentation, but it is also scaffolded and is undergoing a large restoration.
Cadogan Hotel
The Cadogan, a five-star hotel, holds the legacy of Oscar Wilde and Lillie Langtry.
Wilde was a frequent guest and entertained many friends, including artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, at the Cadogan. Most famously, however, the Cadogan Hotel is where Oscar Wilde was arrested in Room 118, an event immortalized by the poet laureate John Betjemen in the ‘Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’ and Betjemen’s address from the arresting officer: “Mr. Woilde, we’ave come for to take yew where felons and criminals dwell. We must ask yew to leave with us quoietly, for this is the Cadogan Hotel!”
In 1895, Lillie Langtry’s townhouse became part of the Cadogan Hotel, and Lillie continued to reside in her old bedroom as part of the expanded hotel. You can book the Langtry room, which the hotel has maintained the suite for over a century.
A lovely caryatid on an upscale apartment building in Kensington
St James the Less
The above is just the top 2/3’s of the campanile to St James the Less. The church was donated by Jane Emily and Penelope Anna Monk in honor of their father.
It was designed by George Edmund Street.
It is a lovely little church in what was originally a very upscale part of town that saw a downturn and, by the 1890s, had become a slum. It is now a lovely upper-middle-class neighborhood.
The iron fence around the church
The entry arch in the campanile that leads to the church
Interesting brickwork throughout
The column capitals all told a story of some miracle.
Minton tile throughout on the walls as well as the floors
I was fascinated with the stone inlaid with mastic. It can be found throughout the church and is very unique. Mastic is a resin obtained from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus).
