Four houses of a red-brick street laid out in 1886 on the Smith’s Charity estate in Brompton, built by Matthews Brothers and occupied by 1890. They are not listed buildings. The Survey of London dates the street and names its builders, and that is the story told here, kept apart from what only the hotel says.
At a glance
Egerton Gardens was cut through in 1886, when the trustees of the Smith’s Charity estate pulled down the late-Georgian houses that stood here and let the ground for rebuilding. Nos. 22–28 belong to the long run of even-numbered houses, Nos. 18–50, which the Survey of London describes as “back-to-front”: their principal fronts face south over the communal garden, while the street fronts have split storey levels. The houses were built by the firm of Matthews Brothers between 1887 and 1890, probably to the designs of their partner Maurice Charles Hulbert. Joined together, the four houses now form the hotel The Franklin. They are not on the National Heritage List for England; they stand inside the Thurloe Estate and Smith’s Charity Conservation Area.
Key facts
- Where: 22–28 Egerton Gardens, London SW3, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (the hotel gives its address as 24 Egerton Gardens)
- Street laid out: 1886, under a building agreement of 25 March 1886; course and name approved by the Metropolitan Board of Works in June 1886
- Built: between 1887 and 1890, by Matthews Brothers and Company (Andrew Rogers, Maurice Charles Hulbert, Henry Arthur Matthews)
- Architect: probably Maurice Charles Hulbert, according to the Survey of London; the borough’s 2016 appraisal attributes Nos. 20–48 to him
- Style: Queen Anne Revival, in red brick
- Protection: not listed. Within the Thurloe Estate and Smith’s Charity Conservation Area (appraisal adopted 25 October 2016)
- Current use: hotel, The Franklin
- Coordinates: 51.496052, -0.168663 · open in Google Maps
History
The first houses on this ground were put up by the architect Michael Novosielski, who took fourteen acres of the Smith’s Charity estate on building leases in 1785. Besides a long terrace on the Brompton Road, he began a shallow crescent of houses, opposite the site of today’s Egerton Crescent, that he meant to call Novosielski Street; after his death in 1795 it became Brompton Crescent. None of his houses survives. In the mid-1880s the trustees decided not to renew the leases on them, but to demolish them and let the land for building, accepting a loss of income in exchange for higher ground rents in the future.
The largest piece of ground, which included most of the future Egerton Gardens, was let on 25 March 1886 to Alexander Thorn, a builder of Cremorne Wharf in Chelsea. In June the Metropolitan Board of Works approved the course of the new street and its name, after the Honourable Francis Egerton, son of the first Earl of Ellesmere and one of the estate’s trustees. Thorn soon ran into financial difficulties, and in 1887 his interest passed to Matthews Brothers and Company, who were then building in Bramham Gardens. According to the Survey of London they built the rest of the street “with great despatch”: the first resident moved in during 1887, and by 1890 every house was occupied except No. 50.
One of the partners, Maurice Charles Hulbert, was an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and had practised as an architect. The Survey thinks it “inherently probable” that he designed the houses, except No. 31, which Thomas Henry Smith designed for its first occupant. The first residents were largely officers of the army and navy, with barristers, stockbrokers, merchants and several members of the aristocracy. One of them, the second Baron Romilly, died with two of his servants in a fire at No. 38 in 1891.
We have not found when Nos. 22–28 stopped being private houses. The English Wikipedia entry on the hotel says that four Victorian townhouses were joined into one hotel in 1992, and that it closed for renovation in 2009 and reopened in 2016; we have not confirmed these dates in a primary source. The hotel itself describes its home as a Victorian building and credits its interiors to the designer Anouska Hempel.
What you see
We have not found a free photograph of Nos. 22–28 that we could publish, so this description follows the Survey of London and the borough’s appraisal, which describe the houses of the street as a group rather than these four one by one. The houses have basements, three or more usually four main storeys and high attics behind gables of different shapes and sizes. The fronts are red brick with some ornamental brickwork, relieved in places by bands and arches of Portland cement, and most houses have canted bays rising through two or three storeys. The terraces are tied together by continuous balconies with iron railings on large brackets, but symmetry is carefully avoided.
The even-numbered houses from 18 to 50, which include the hotel, turn their principal fronts to the south, over the communal garden; on the street side the borough’s appraisal notes closet-wing-like bays between the canted bays. The Survey observed in 1983 that some upper storeys had been altered and that the bright white paint on the cement bands had produced a striped effect the builders never intended.
Practical information
- The building is a hotel, The Franklin; the interiors are for guests.
- The street fronts can be seen from Egerton Gardens at any time. The garden fronts face a private communal garden and are not open to the public.
- The houses are not listed; what is described here is their history, not a protected interior.
Getting there
Egerton Gardens opens off the south side of the Brompton Road, a short walk from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Brompton Oratory. South Kensington Underground station (Piccadilly, District and Circle lines) is about a ten-minute walk to the south-west; Knightsbridge station (Piccadilly line) lies further east along the Brompton Road. Buses run along the Brompton Road.
Nearby
- 11 Thurloe Place, The Rembrandt, Delissa Joseph’s Edwardian hotel of 1910–11, about 100 metres to the west.
- Holy Trinity Brompton, about 200 metres to the north, across the Brompton Road.
- Michelin House, the tiled headquarters Michelin built on the Fulham Road in 1911, about 300 metres to the south.
- Egerton Crescent, the stuccoed crescent of the 1840s designed by George Basevi, close by, whose houses are listed Grade II (list entries 1190582, 1293723 and 1080649).
Do you know more?
On this page we have published what the Survey of London and the borough’s conservation-area appraisal record about the houses of Egerton Gardens. We have no photograph of Nos. 22–28 that we are free to publish, and we could not confirm who the first residents of these four houses were, the name of the architect beyond the Survey’s “probable” attribution, or when the houses became a hotel. If you know something — a name, a date, the people who lived here, an old photograph, a document, a book that mentions these houses — or if you can send us a photograph of the building, write to Sofia, who looks after these pages.
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Please start your message with the title of this page, so it reaches the right file. Every contribution is checked against independent sources before it goes on the page, and we always say where a piece of information came from.
Sources
- F. H. W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London, vol. 41, Brompton, London, 1983, “The Smith’s Charity Estate: Brompton Road and Egerton Gardens area”, pp. 120–126 (British History Online): the demolition of Novosielski’s houses, the agreement of 25 March 1886 with Alexander Thorn, the approval and naming of the street, the transfer to Matthews Brothers, occupation by 1890, the probable attribution to Hulbert, the description of the houses and of the “back-to-front” Nos. 18–50, and the first residents.
- Survey of London, vol. 41, “The Smith’s Charity Estate: Development up to the early nineteenth century”, pp. 87–91 (British History Online): Novosielski’s leases of 1785, Brompton Crescent, his death in 1795.
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Thurloe Estate and Smith’s Charity Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted 25 October 2016, paragraphs 3.100–3.104: Egerton Gardens built in the 1880s in the Queen Anne Revival style, Nos. 20–48 and 27–49 attributed to Maurice Charles Hulbert for Matthews Brothers.
- Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed building points, open data): no entry for any house in Egerton Gardens; entries 1190582, 1293723 and 1080649 for Egerton Crescent.
- The Franklin London, Starhotels Collezione, official website: the hotel’s description of a Victorian building, address 24 Egerton Gardens, interiors by Anouska Hempel.
- Wikipedia (en), Franklin Hotel, London: address 22–28 Egerton Gardens, four townhouses joined as a hotel in 1992, closure in 2009 and reopening in 2016 (not independently confirmed).
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: position, returned as The Franklin London, 24, Egerton Gardens, Hans Town, Chelsea.
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