History

St Petersburgh Place, 1900

St Olaves Court is located in St Petersburgh Place, Bayswater just by Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The name Bayswater originates from Bayard's Watering Place, first recorded in 1380 as a place where horses refreshed their way out of or into London. At this watering place a stream called the Westbourne passed under the Uxbridge Road which is now known as the Bayswater Road.

There were several variations of the name Bayard's Watering Place. The form Bayswater occurred as early as 1659.

In the 1600s, Bayswater consisted of a few houses with out buildings and stables. At its eastern edge, near the watering place, was an inn called The Crown - currently the Royal Lancaster Hotel.

Further west along the Uxbridge Road was a settlement in both sides of the road known from the 17th until the 19th century as Kensington Gravel Pits. It is now called Kensington and Nottinghill Gate.

By 1807, Bayswater was still only a small hamlet and was noted for its tea gardens, water supply and a lying-in hospital, soon to be know as Queen Charlottes hospital further to the West.

Edward Orme, a former print supplier in Bond Street, eventually made his money from the gravel pits in the area, which furnished his speculative building projects.

He paid for the construction of Bayswater Chapel in 1818, to serve the houses which he had presumably erected in Petersburgh (later St Petersburgh) Place and Moscow Cottages, soon to be called Moscow Road.

Bayswater Chapel, 1818. View towards Moscow Cottages, now Moscow Road

(Collage, The London Picture Archive)

The two roads were said to commemorate Orme's business dealings with Russia but may have been merely in honour of Tsar Alexander I's visit to England in June 1814 for the Allied Sovereigns' visit to England to celebrate peace following the defeat of France and the abdication of Napolean Bonaparte in April 1814.

Orme Square was built between 1823 and 1826.

Orme Square, 1900

Places of Worship

St Petersburgh Place is dominated by several houses of worship. The New West End Synagogue was built between 1877-79 and is one of the oldest synagogues in the country. St Matthews church was built between 1880-82 to replace the old Bayswater Chapel and around the corner The Greek Cathedral, Aghia Sophia on Moscow Road was completed the same year in 1882. John Oldrid Scott was the architect and the lawyer Edwin Freshfield of the Freshfield firm of solicitors, assisted the Greek community in its' task to build the Cathedral. The cathedral is laid out in the form of a Greek cross with a dome at the centre. The English artist AG Walker designed the mosaic in the dome in the 1880s and the Russian mosaicist, Boris Anrep, designed the rest of the mosaics. He had also worked on Westminster Catherdral, the National Gallery and other notable buildings of the time. During World War II, London became the seat of the Greek government in exile and so the Aghia Sophia became the Cathedral of the Greek nation. It was bombed during the Blitz but was subsequently repaired.

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The Dome of the Greek Cathedral

Interior of the Greek Cathedral

9/11, St Petersburgh Place, Paddington, W

St Olaves Court was built on a site that had been left empty since the Blitz, where two substantial homes had previously been destroyed.

At Number 9, the 1911 Census shows that a William E Miller, 59 lived at number 9 together with his wife Mary, 65 and their cook Sarah Otway, 47 and housemaid Alice Penny 32. William E Miller's occupation is noted as painting artist and he was born in Italy. William Edward Miller was known for his portrait figure painting. The 1939 electoral register shows him still living at this address.

To view William E Miller's artwork

Meanwhile next door at Number 11, the 1911 Census records a young couple Edgar Lermitte Coles, 28 and his wife Sybil, 26 who had only been married for one year. They lived together with house parlour maid Elizabeth Schaefer, 27 from Nurenburg, Germany and cook Alice Beavan, 30. Edgar is a stockbroker at the London Stock Exchange. Seven years later Lieut.Edgar Lermitte Coles of the 5th Bn, Royal West Surrey Regiment was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry on 23rd August, 1918 during the attack on Tara Hill in France.

Going further back in time, at Number 9, the 1901 Census records an Oldfield Thomas (1858-1929) as Civil Servant, assistant at the British Museum. He was a Zoologist and worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species for the first time. He married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune which gave him the finances to hire collectors. Mary shared her husbands interest in natural history and accompanied him on collecting trips abroad.

To learn more about Oldfield Thomas

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