Lennox Gardens : A History
We have over the years completed multiple projects in Lennox Gardens. We also manage tenanted & private homes in the garden square. The history of Lennox Gardens is notable and goes back many hundreds of years….
For many years Chelsea was open countryside, and even as London expanded, Chelsea was known for its ‘sweetness of air and pleasant situation’.
By inheritance and acquisition, much of the land in Chelsea came to be owned by the Cadogan Family. The first major development for Chelsea was in the late 19th Century and covered ‘Hans Town’ which included the land between Knightsbridge and the Kings Road, within which Lennox Gardens now stands.
In 1777, the Earl of Cadogan, granted a lease to Henry Holland for the development of Hans Town. Holland set aside 3 acres for himself to build The Pavilion [pictured] with a further 16 acres of meadows in which Lennox Gardens sits.
In 1854 the Princes Club was founded on Holland’s estate and served as a members only gentleman’s rackets and real tennis club and a few years later the Prince’s Cricket Ground was added, including a croquet lawn, lawn tennis and lastly a roller-skating rink used in the winter.
The area was being absorbed into the ever-expanding mass of central London and many of the long leases were expiring, including Holland’s grand estate, The Pavilion.
The Cadogan estate favoured the development of buildings into a Queen Anne style of red brick and stucco, which become known as ‘Pont Street Dutch’
54 houses were constructed in Lennox Gardens on the site of Holland’s former cricket ground and completed in 1886.
Today Lennox Gardens is considered one of the finest addresses in London and is still owned and managed by the Cadogan Estate.
