Aside from a little segment of South Kensington, SW5 is mainly Earls Court. In its time it has been the Polish Corridor, the Bedsit Jungle, Saudi Ken, the Gay Capital of London and Kangaroo Valley. Now this land of transients is being ousted by the gentrifying thrusts of Chelsea, Fulham and Kensington. Yet old reputations die hard, and the mention of Earls Court will be guaranteed to raise a smile on many lips for many years to come.
HousingIt dominates the brick and stucco villas around the squares which in turn have been long split into converted flats. Of all SW5 it is here that gentrification is strongest, with hotels making their way back to their original purpose, housing. A few rows of mews can be found here in the lee of Cromwell Road.
The rural tone of Earls Court was swept away after 1860 by the arrival of the Metropolitan Railway. The original aim of a high-class suburb did not last long, and multioccupancy was on the map here even before the First World War.
A pleasing number of market-gardeners' cottages survive from late Georgian times in the area between Earls Court Road, Cromwell Road and Kenway Road, known as the village. Only as you get to Cromwell Road is the pattern broken by Eighties' flats of varying standards.
South of the village a few late-19th century terraces mark the transition to the great Victorian mansion blocks. Again, a few communal gardens provide relief for the residents who, like their neighbours in the village, live in clam streets away from the non-stop action of Earls Court, Old Brompton and Cromwell Roads.
Between Earls Court Road and the Exhibition Centre on Warwick Road the domination of hotels can still be felt. The two squares are, however, exceptions. Nevern Square has just the one hotel. Earls Court Square, ringed by ornate stucco, is subdivided into flats. The three crescents and gardens that face out west from Warwick Road to the Exhibition Centre are a mixed bag of styles and the care lavished upon them has been similarly varied down the years.
FacilitiesEntrepreneur J. Whitley ran entertainment grounds on the site from 1887 to 1914, and in 1937 what was then the world's largest concrete building covered 12 acres and begin the life of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
Owned by the same company, Earls Court works in harmony with the nearby Kensington Olympia, but this is the bigger of the pair. Together, Earls Court One and Two (opened in 1991) can be combined to provide 60,000 square metres of space in a hall spanning 250 feet and capable of accommodating 22,000 people. Hospitality suites and a conference centre can be supplied to those hosting more intimate affairs.
Like the Olympia there are no shortage of users for Earls Court. Perhaps most infamous for overblown gigs by rock dinosaurs, a typical winter schedule seeing the likes of jewellers, dogs, cattle, Kiss FM, the Daily Mail, computer game designers, sailing folk, caravaners, toddlers and Neil Diamond all beating a path to this vast hulk.
If only by virtue of the Exhibition Centre this is a part of London which will stay busy and provide food and accommodation. But the near-triangle that makes up SW5 is acquiring a more stable populace attracted to the many and varied outlets based largely on Earls Court Road, Old Brompton Road and the local high street, Kenway Road.
Gourmets are on to a good thing here. They can call on Italian, French, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese and seafood on which to excite their palates. The food shops here can be equally eclectic, with stores from the Phillipines and Kashmir joining the multifarious convenience shops and the late night Sainsbury's.
SW5 has been called a mini-United Nations and the enduring reputation of its Australian ties remains in the first pub colonised by travellers from Down Under, the Prince of Teck on Earls Court Road. Predating the Antipodean invasion was the internment of German and Italian residents at Earls Court and Olympia in the Second World War and the nearby settling of Polish refugees.
A Polish bookshop remains on Kenway Road and language schools abound in the area. In the Seventies the district gained a name as a gay area and as Saudi Ken, the choice of residence for many Arab incomers.
The latter have left their mark at South Kensington Mosque on Old Brompton Road, founded by three Moroccans in 1981 and still overwhelmingly patronised by nationals of that country. On the far side of SW5, on Cromwell Road, is Britain's swankiest private hospital, the Cromwell. It boasts 400 consultant specialists in 50 different specialities and, appropriately for the area, a team of interpreters for international patients. The siting is apt, for Earls Court was once the home of John Hunter, the pioneer of surgery.
TransportIts parallel neighbour to the south is Old Brompton Road and it also begins at Knightsbridge before heading into the heart of Fulham. Both roads are intersected by the A3220, here called Warwick Road, linked to the Westway by the M41 West Cross Route before heading south to Albert and Battersea Bridges.
The main tube station here is Earls Court. It is versatile in having two entrances far apart on Earls Court Road and Warwick Road. It is also quite unlike any other tube station in London with its wide open platforms, antiquated (but popular) leader boards and its nature as a junction. While the Piccadilly Line brings its fair share of souls into the station, it is the five-way District Line which accounts for most of the traffic here.
Heading north-west from the station is the branch to Kensington Olympia. South-west is the line to Wimbledon while east takes you to the Embankment, Monument and ultimately east London. West will take you to Ealing Broadway or Richmond via Turnham Green and north-east is the line to Edgware Road via Notting Hill Gate.
West Brompton is SW5's other tube station, on the Earls Court to Wimbledon District Line branch. It is also on a railway line running from Rugby in the north to Brighton in the south, taking in Gatwick Airport, Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes.
Steve Roberts
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