Built By Kinnaird Park Estate Company

Built By Kinnaird Park Estate Company

Last updated: December 2008

FIRST: A DISCLAIMER ABOUT BROMLEY AND BICKLEY

In Plaistow, to the north of Bromley, KPEC owned the land on which the following streets were laid out: Alexandra Crescent, Avondale Road, Gilbert Road, King’s Avenue, Kinnaird Avenue, Lake Avenue, Park Avenue and Quernmore Road. KPEC built on all those streets, but it also sold the land to other developers, in plots of one or more houses.

My source for KPEC’s planning permissions in Bromley is the Minutes of Proceedings of Bromley Urban District Council. Unfortunately, they list only the application number, the applicant and a very basic description like ‘house, Kinnaird Avenue’. Not even a house number is given. With a list of planning permissions granted, I’ve been through the local PO Directories, but as more than one company was building houses in the same street in the same year, it has been very difficult to identify with any certainty the houses built by KPEC in Plaistow. It was rather easier in Bickley.

And to add to my problems, new owners often changed the name of the house they had just moved into, so what’s clearly the same house has one name in one year’s PO Directory and a different one in the next. By the mid 1920s the PO was obviously having the same trouble I was, working out which house was which in Park Avenue: in 1928 they left off using house names and gave all the houses numbers, renumbering where necessary those houses that had a number already.

So the list below has severe limitations!

Built by KPEC in Plaistow:

Alexandra Crescent 1907 additions to a house then called Woodcroft, which was almost

certainly built by another firm

1907 the house then called Brambletye and one other, either Oakdene

or Eversley Cottage

Avondale Road KPEC built no houses at all in this street despite owning all the land there.

1914 a garage for the house then called Appin Lodge

Gilbert Road 1907 23, 25, 27, 29 on the south side

1909 18, 20. 31, 33, 35 on the north side

King’s Avenue 1905 12 houses including 1, 3, 9 and 11; and probably 5 and 7

1906 garage at the house called Carnoustie which was probably 1

1908 2, 4, 6 and probably 8

1909 Park Cottage, lived in at one stage by KPEC’s architect W J

Harrington

1930 either Newfield probably 28, or Dereham probably 34 on the

corner with Kinnaird Avenue

Kinnaird Avenue NONE

Lake Avenue 1908 Oak Cottage which was on the left side at the corner with Burnt

Ash Lane

1925 9

Park Avenue was a nightmare and I’m not completely sure that KPEC built any of the houses numbered below; they are all just possibles. The numbers are from after the 1928 renumbering.

1921 one of 11, 53, 57

1924 one of 29, 33, 38, 40, 50, 52, 54, 56, 60 62, 64, 66

1925 one of 17 , 44 or 48. 17's the most likely

1926 one of 20, 26, 44, 48

1927 two from 24, 28, 42, 46, 54, 56, 70b, 31, 35, 37, 51, 61

Quernmore Road 1924 3, which was lived in by W J Harrington; plus a garage for it in

1927

1926 2 houses between numbers 3 and 5, called at the time Bowood

and Malo

KPEC built two houses only in Sundridge Park, the next estate eastwards from the land owned by KPEC:

Garden Road 1925 2 houses on the left side next to Garden Lane: the house then

called Cornerways and the one called Wyndways

Built by KPEC in Bickley:

Amesbury Road 1912-16 2-28

Unknown 25-35

Bird-in-Hand Lane 1921 23, 27, 29, 35

1922 9-17, 21

Unknown 1-7, 37, 39

1923-27 10 then called The Croft, 12 then called Glenesk, 14 then

called The Hut

Nightingale Lane 1925-26 the houses then called Brendon, The Rise, Windermere and

Moana which were all between the houses then numbered

55 and 67

87, 91, 93 and a house called Coimbra which may have

been 89

Unknown 95-105

Page Heath Lane 1914 the houses then called Territet and Topsham which were on

the odd-numbered side

Tylney Road 1914-15 one house on the corner with Nightingale Lane; plus one other house and 1 shop;

26 December 2008: 121, 123, 125, 127; 121 is the shop

VERY FEW PROBLEMS IN CHISWICK

The Minutes of Proceedings of Brentford and Chiswick Urban District are a bit better at identifying which properties in any one street are receiving planning permission. In addition, the Grove Park area near Chiswick Station, where most of KPEC’s property development went on, is now a conservation area and in 2006 the UDC commissioned a report which identified all the properties built by KPEC and the dates they were built. The UDC report stated that the following houses were built by KPEC, to designs by L H Harrington rather than W J; L H was W J’s younger brother and - I suppose - took over from him in the early 1930s.

Built by KPEC in Grove Park:

Devonshire Gardens 1930 Semi-detached pairs 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/18, 20/22, 24/26, 28/30.

Grove Park Road c 1932 8-62 of which 8-18 were flats. Semi-detached pairs 20/22 and

24/26 were a different design to the others.

Using the PO directories I can be a bit more specific about the dates of some of them:

1933 6, 32-40

1934 60/62

Hartington Road 1930s 42-60, 39-57; and 59 and 61 which were individually designed detached houses.

Using the PO directories:

1931-32 42-60

1933-35 39-57

1935+ 59, 61

This information has been very useful: it establishes that KPEC continued to build houses after Henry Norris died (in July 1934).

Kinnaird Avenue c 1930 1-27, 2-30

Using the PO directories:

1931 9, 11, 13, 17, 21 and probably 15 and 19 but they didn’t have

people living in them yet

1932 2-18

1933 1, 3, 7; 20-28

1933+ 30, 23-27.

In addition KPEC built two houses that were on the other side of the railway. They are not in the Grove Park conservation area; as they don’t figure in the 2006 report, this is all my own work:

Sutton Court Road: in 1931 KPEC was given planning permission for 2 houses. Most of the road already existed at that stage but there were some gaps into which new houses could be put; and an empty space at the bottom end, nearest to Chiswick Station.

In 1931/32 numbers 154-160, 196 and 202 were built.

In 1932/33 numbers 71-77 and 204 were built.

I have no proof which two of those numbers were built by KPEC but my money is on 202 and 204 because they are next to the market garden at the end of the road nearest to Grove Park.

The 4 flats in Ellesmere Road seem to have been KPEC’s last planning application: permission was given for them on 27 September 1933. As at 4 May 2008 I haven’t identified them.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SOURCES OF ALL THIS INFORMATION, SEND ME AN EMAIL AND I’LL SEND YOU THE SOURCES FILE.

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