Ifield Road was originally known as Honey Lane, a name that still survives as the name of a building across the road from the Finborough Arms. The name Ifield comes from the village of Ifield in Sussex, possibly because Corbett and McClymont’s solictor’s brother was the vicar there. Until 1909, the section of Ifield Road north of Adrian Mews was known as Adrian Terrace. Ifield Road was, to some extent, the poor relation of the Redcliffe development in that it was the only street with predominantly working and lower middle class residents, possibly because the upper classes did not wish to live so close to the cemetery.
Ifield Road was the scene of a smallpox epidemic in 1881. The outbreak had important epidemiological consequences, due to the detailed case studies made under the direction of Thomas Orme Dudfield, Medical Officer for Kensington from 1871 to 1908, which went some way to proving that the spread of the disease was not caused by the proximity of the Fulham Smallpox Hospital, built in 1876-77.
No 16 First World War – Harry George and Mary Ann Porter. Their son Private Henry Walter Porter of D Company, 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, was killed in action on 28 March 1915 at the age of 20. He is buried at Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium.
Left: Henry George Darbyshire (1885-1915), Credit Jan Moloney.
No 18 First World War – Henry George (1858-1918) and Mary Darbyshire (1862-1940), of 18, Ifield Road, Kensington. Their son, Private Henry George Darbyshire, was born in Chelsea in 1885. He was a Private in the 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales’ Own) when he died on 13 May 1915 at Ypres at the age of 30. He married Susannah Joan Petch (1887-1967) on 24 April 1908, and had two children. He lived at 19 Ewald Road, New Kings Road, Fulham. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ypres.
No 22 First World War – Serjeant W. J. Smith, MM [Military Medal], Lincolnshire Regiment. Son of Alfred Smith, of 22, Ifield Road, South Kensington; and husband of F. C. M. Smith, of 12, Hereward St., Rasen Lane, Lincoln. He died on 11 April 1917 and is buried in Wancourt British Cemetery, Arras.
No 38 – Actress Dame Diana Rigg (1939-2020).
No 40 First World War – Mrs. F. E. Noble, of 40, Ifield Road, Fulham Road, South Kensington. Her brother Private Frederick J. Eastwood of the Middlesex Regiment was killed on 8 August 1916 at the Battle of the Somme. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, France.
No 44 in 1971-1972 – The first Sivananda Vedanta yoga ashram in the UK opened. The classes grew from two students to overflowing capacity within six weeks. In 1972, the ashram moved to 16b Wharfedale Street with its main teaching space at 175 Finborough Road.
No 50 First World War – Mr F. Wise. His son Rifleman Edward Charles Wise of the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) was killed in action on 11 May 1915 at the age of 21. He is buried at Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France.
No 51 First World War – George and Louisa James, of 51, Ifield Road, West Brompton, London. Their son Private George Francis James of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) died at the age of 20 on 7 November 1918. He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen.
No 60 First World War – Mrs. E. Roberts. Her son Private W. C. Roberts of the 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers died on 17 September 1918. He is buried in Cambrin Military Cemetery, France.
No 75 First World War – George and Mary Bird. Their son Lance Corporal Percy G. W. Bird of Unit: No. 1 Special Company, Royal Engineers, died of wounds on 23 August 1917 at the age of 19. He is buried in Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery, Belgium. His inscription reads “In fond memory of our dear son Percy.”
No 75 in 1934 – Thomas William Kimpton, a valet, born in Portsea, Portsmouth, in 1864. He married twice – to Ann Hamblin at St James Church, Milton, Portsmouth, in 1889, and, following her death, to Amy Louisa Flood in 1918. He was knocked down by a car and killed in Cromwell Road. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery.
No 78 First World War – George Barsby and his wife, Ethel May Barsby.
Able Seaman George Barsby died at the age of 29 on HMS Cressy on 22 September 1914. The Action of 22 September 1914 was an attack by the German U-boat U-9 which sunk three obsolete Royal Navy cruisers – Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy – of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, manned mainly by reservists and sometimes referred to as the Live Bait Squadron, in the southern North Sea. George Barsby is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.
No 88 in the 1950s and 1960s – The site of Nick’s Diner, one of the most fashionable haunts of Swinging London. Fay Maschler (born 1945), food critic of the Evening Standard for more than 50 years, worked there in the evenings in the 1960s. She wrote “It was one of the few little bistros that was run by someone who had actually been to France.”
No 91 First World War – Thomas Frederick Horne and Eliza Horne. The Horne family lost two sons in the same year of the First World War – Stoker 2nd Class George Horne, Royal Navy, of HMS Princess Irene was killed on 27 May 1915 at the age of 20 when his ship blew up in the Medway Estuary; and Rifleman Henry James Horne of the 12th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, was killed in action on 25 September 1915 at the age of 28, probably at the Battle of Loos. He is buried in Aubers Ridge British Cemetery, Aubers, France.
No 91 First World War – George Richards. His son, George Henry Richards, a theological student, enlisted in the Australian Army in September 1915 as an ambulance driver. He survived the war and returned to Australia in March 1918.
No 92 basement flat in 1975 – Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the UK 1997-2007, in a flatshare with Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, future Lord Chancellor and later the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.
No 93 First World War – Henry Russell Barton and his wife Elizabeth. Serjeant Henry Russell Barton of the Royal Field Artillery served in the Boer War. He died on 18 June 1916 at the age of 29, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.
No 96 in 1876 – Mrs Maria Strong (nee Thumwood) died at 96 Ifield Road in July 1876, aged 35, the mother of seven children. She was buried in a common grave in Brompton Cemetery. She was the great-great-great-great grand-aunt of Neil McPherson, author of this website, and a current resident of Ifield Road.
No 99 First World War – Mr. J. Collins, of 99, Ifield Road, Fulham Road, London. His nephew Rifleman George Thomas King of “D” Coy. 1st/18th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) died on 23 August 1918 at the age of 21. He is commemorated on the Vis-En-Artois Memorial, France.
No 105 First World War – E. C. Wood and his wife Gertrude Annie Wood.
Private E. C. Wood of the 10th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), died on 26 November 1917, aged 33. He is buried in Guildford (Stoke) Old Cemetery, Surrey, England.
No 109 on 15 June 1884 – Frank William Auton Eveleigh, licensed victualler (i.e. probably a pub landlord), died at age 45.
Newspaper report of inquest in West London Observer, 21 June 1884:
“Wife mentioned but not by name, she said they had only moved there the day before the death after he had disposed of his business in Westminster. Friends paid for the removal of the body so possible money problems, he was said to be a drinker.”
No 113 on 2 April 1911 – The census return for 1911 provides a good indication of the type of residents in Ifield Road at that time:
Martha Ingham Cram. A 62 year old widow from Newcastle Upon Tyne was the Lodging House Keeper.
And her lodgers:
Henry Edwin Thomas Sims. A 43 year old widower, occupied as a Postman, born in Hammersmith, London.
And his children:
Dorothy Grace Sims. Age 16. No Occupation. Born Chelsea, London.
Arthur Edwin Ernest Sims. A 14 year old schoolboy. Born Chelsea, London.
Mabel Emily Sims. A 11 year old schoolgirl. Born Chelsea, London.
Henry Jack Sims. A 10 year old schoolboy. Born Chelsea, London.
and
Thomas Young. A 45 year old General Packer, born in Birmingham.His wife, Louisa Young, age 49, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
And their son, Thomas Henry Young, a 16 year old clerk, born in Chelsea, London
and
Maurice Edwin Ross Jewell. A 28 year old restaurant chef, born in Stratton, Cornwall.
His wife, Bessie Kate Jewell, a 26 year old housewife from Weymouth, Dorset.
His mother, Mrs Elizabeth Ann Jewell, aged 64 of no occupation, born in Holsworthy, Dover, Kent.
And a visitor – Arthur Warner, a 29 year old male nurse-valet, born in Bennington, Nottinghamshire.
No 114 First World War – Mrs. Florence Phillips. Her son Private Henry William Phillips M.M. of the 9th Battalion of the Welsh Regiment was killed in action on 7 July 1916 during the attack on Contalmaison (itself part of the Battle of the Somme) at the age of 20. He lived in Wales at Glanwern, Felinfach, before the war, and enlisted at Aberystwyth. He took part in the opening day of the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915, and his Division fought continuously for the entire first week of the Battle of the Somme – being in the second wave of the attack on Ovillers-La Boiselle, capturing the village at heavy cost, on the 1 July 1916. He was awarded the Military Medal.
No 115 First World War – Frederick Charles Ridler and his wife Lily Josephine Ridler (1889-1973), and their child Joan Elsie M. Ridler (1918-2010).
Lance Serjeant Frederick Charles Ridler of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) was born in South Kensington in 1886. In 1911, he lived at 181-183 Cromwell Road and worked as a waiter. He enlisted in September 1914, and was wounded in action a number of times in 1916. He was posted as missing, presumed killed, on 26 March 1918 at the age of 32. He is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, France.
No 126 on 12 October 1940 – The five houses that originally stood on the existing playground were destroyed by a bomb during the Blitz on 12 October 1940. At 126 Ifield Road, 84-year-old Henry Jennings (a retired Naval Pensioner who was working for Vickers as a Master Gunner in 1911), his 63-year-old wife Edith, and his disabled sister-in-law 59-year-old Gertrude Urban were killed.
No 128 – Arthur Corr (born c. 1914), barman of The Finborough Arms pub, who was sentenced to three months imprisonment for stealing the takings from the Finborough Arms.
No 138 First World War – Frederick and Catherine Cooke. Their son, Lance Corporal C. Cooke of 1st Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) died on 24 March 1915 at the age of 27. He is buried at Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres, France.
No 142 pre-First World War to 1943 – Edward Peter Jury (born Wittersham, Kent, 4 May 1844 – died 142 Ifield Road 16 December 1937) and his wife, Selina (nee Greentree) (born Stepney 15 November 1856 – died St Mary Abbots Hospital, Kensington, 18 February 1943). Both are buried in Brompton Cemetery.
Their son Serjeant Frederick Thomas David Jury of “A” Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action on 31 July 1917 at the start of the Third Battle of Ypres at the age of 29. He was born on 11 April 1888 in Chelsea, and originally enlisted in the army in December 1908. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ypres, Belgium.
and
No 142 in the 1960s-1970s – Jonathan Cecil (1939-2011), his wife actress Lorna Heilbron (born 1944) and, for five years during the early 1970s, their lodger, actor Christopher Biggins.
No 170 in 1965 – Bob Guccione (1930-2010) founded adult magazine Penthouse and ran it from number 170. Journalist and novelist Lynn Barber (born 1944) worked for Penthouse for seven years until 1974. She was successively editorial assistant, literary editor, features editor and deputy editor.
Other residents of Ifield Road have included:
Germaine Greer.
John Kasmin (born 1934), art dealer and collector.
Henry and Mary Wilson whose son Private J. H. Wilson of the 24th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele on 6 November 1917 at the age of 22. He is buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.
1972-1974 – Aung San Suu Kyi (1945- ), State Counsellor of Myanmar (a position equivalent to prime minister). She played a vital role in Myanmar’s transition from military junta to partial democracy for which she won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Her leadership though has come to be defined by the treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. She resided in Ifield Road with her husband, historian Michael Aris (1946-1999), during which she gave birth to to their first child, Alexander Aris (1973- ).
This article originally appeared on the Finborough Theatre website.
Earl's Court Local History 