Bayswater

{{Short description|Inner-city district of west Central London}}

{{Other uses}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2024}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox UK place

| country = England

| map_type = Greater London

| region = London

| population = 12,363

| population_ref = (2020 estimate)

| official_name = Bayswater

| constituency_westminster = Kensington and Bayswater

| post_town = LONDON

| postcode_area = W

| postcode_district = W2

| dial_code = 020

| os_grid_reference = TQ255805

| coordinates = {{coord|51.5095|-0.1929|display=inline,title}}

| static_image_name = Bayswater Rd - geograph.org.uk - 2593692.jpg

| static_image_caption = View from Bayswater Road

}}

Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London.{{cite web|url=http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/LP2011%20Chapter%202.pdf|title=London's Places|work=London Plan|publisher=Greater London Authority|year=2011|page=46|access-date=27 May 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906090756/http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/LP2011%20Chapter%202.pdf|archive-date=6 September 2015}} It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and Notting Hill to the west.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Much of Bayswater was built in the 1800s, and consists of streets and garden squares lined with Victorian stucco terraces; some of which have been subdivided into flats. Other key developments include the Grade II listed 650-flat Hallfield Estate, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, and Queensway and Westbourne Grove, its busiest high streets, with a mix of independent, boutique and chain retailers and restaurants.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Bayswater is also one of London's most cosmopolitan areas: a diverse local population is augmented by a high concentration of hotels. In addition to the English, there are many other nationalities. Notable ethnic groups include Greeks, French, Americans, Irish, Italians, Brazilians, and Arabs, amongst others.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}

Etymology

The name Bayswater is derived from the 1380 placename "Bayards Watering Place", which in Middle English meant either a watering place for horses, or the watering place that belonged to the Bayard family.{{cite book |last=Mills |first=A. D. |title=A Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-283131-3 |page=28}}

History

Historically, Bayswater was located to the west of London on the road from Tyburn towards Uxbridge. It was a hamlet in the seventeenth century close to the Kensington Gravel Pits. By the end of the eighteenth century Bayswater remained a small settlement, although the gradual expansion of London westward into Mayfair and Paddington brought it closer to the outskirts of the city. During the Regency era new suburbs were rapidly constructed to cope with the growing population of the city. An important early developer in Bayswater was Edward Orme who constructed Moscow Road and St. Petersburgh Place, which he named in honour of Alexander I of Russia. Both Bayswater and Tyburnia to the east developed independently of each other. Gradually over the following decades the remaining open spaces were built on and it became an urban area of affluent residential streets and garden squares.{{cite web | url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp204-212 | title=Paddington: Bayswater |website=British-history.ac.uk}}

Notable residents

{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}

  • Damon Albarn
  • Brett Anderson
  • Mike Atherton
  • J. M. Barrie, playwright and novelist, and his wife, Mary, lived at 100 Bayswater Road.
  • Tony Blair
  • Winston Churchill
  • Richard Cobden, lived on Westbourne Terrace{{Cite web|url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/morley-the-life-of-richard-cobden|title=The Life of Richard Cobden | Online Library of Liberty|website=Oll.libertyfund.org}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.artwarefineart.com/gallery/portrait-richard-cobden-mp-1804-1865|title = Portrait of Richard Cobden, MP 1804 – 1865 |website=Artwarefineart.com}}
  • A. J. Cronin
  • Umaru Dikko, former Nigerian minister of transportation
  • Tim Dry has lived in Bayswater since the early 1980s.
  • Ade Edmondson
  • Stephanie Beacham
  • Roger C. Field, inventor and designer whose first home was flat D, 15 Cleveland Square
  • Alexander Fleming
  • Mariella Frostrup
  • Ferdinand de Géramb
  • Reginald Gray, Irish artist, lived with his wife Catherine at 105a Queensway from 1958 to 1963.
  • J. B. Gunn, physicist, lived with his mother, the Freudian psychoanalyst L. F. Gunn/Grey-Clarke, at 14 Durham Terrace, in the 1940s
  • Francis Guthrie, whose observations led to the Four color theorem{{cite journal |title=Francis Guthrie: A Colourful Life |year=2012 |doi=10.1007/s00283-012-9307-y |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00283-012-9307-y.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323165516/http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00283-012-9307-y.pdf |archive-date=2014-03-23 |url-status=live |access-date=2 June 2020|last1=Maritz |first1=Pieter |last2=Mouton |first2=Sonja |journal=The Mathematical Intelligencer |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=67–75 |s2cid=121812208 |hdl=10019.1/70384 |hdl-access=free }}
  • Alice Hart-Davis
  • Thora Hird
  • Paul Johnson
  • Dylan Jones
  • Jonathan King
  • Keira Knightley
  • Guglielmo Marconi, the pioneer of wireless communication, lived at 71 Hereford Road between 1896 and 1897 with his mother upon arrival in England (marked by a blue plaque).
  • Rik Mayall
  • Stella McCartney
  • Queen Noor of Jordan
  • Dermot O'Leary
  • Irfan Orga, exile and writer, lived at 29, 35 and 21 Inverness Terrace from 1942 until the mid-1950s, publishing his memoirs Portrait of a Turkish Family in 1950.
  • Nick Ross
  • Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez, terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal
  • Jennifer Saunders
  • Tony Selby, lived at Basement, 1, Stanhope Place, W2 2HB
  • Paul Simonon
  • Sting occupied a basement flat at 28A Leinster Square in the late 1970s during the formative years of The Police. Trudie Styler, now his wife, lived in a basement flat two doors down.{{cite web |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,768378,00.html |title=Interview: Trudie Styler | Magazine | the Observer |access-date=2006-02-24 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313122407/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0%2C11913%2C768378%2C00.html |archive-date=13 March 2007 }} observer.guardian.co.uk
  • Georgina Castle Smith (pseudonym Brenda), children's writer born and bred in BayswaterCharlotte Mitchell: Smith, Georgina Castle... Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004/2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-41041?rskey=8xWYL9&result=1 Retrieved 2 April 2018.]
  • Luigi Sturzo, Catholic priest and politician, and one of the fathers of Christian democracy and a founder of the Italian People's Party (1919)
  • John Tenniel, artist and cartoonist, was born at 22 Gloucester Place, New Road, Bayswater on 28 February 1820.L. Perry Curtis jun., "Tenniel, Sir John (1820–1914)" [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36458 Retrieved 25 February 2014, pay-walled.]
  • Jeremy Thorpe
  • Kwasi Kwarteng

{{Div col end}}

Local politics

The Bayswater area elects a total of six councillors to Westminster City Council: three from the eponymous Bayswater ward,{{cite web

|url=http://Westminster.gov.UK/workspace/assets/publications/Bayswater-2013-Ward-Profile-1375456199.pdf

|title=Westminster.gov.UK: Bayswater Ward profile

|work=Bayswater Ward's councillors, boundary map and demographics.

|publisher=Westminster City Council

|date=July 2013

|access-date=3 September 2013

}}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and three from Lancaster Gate ward.{{cite web

|url=http://Westminster.gov.UK/workspace/assets/publications/Lancaster-Gate-2013-Ward-Profile-1375694982.pdf

|title=Westminster.gov.UK: Lancaster Gate Ward profile

|work=Lancaster Gate Ward's councillors, boundary map and demographics.

|publisher=Westminster City Council

|date=July 2013

|access-date=3 September 2013

}}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Following the 2022 Westminster City Council elections, five members belong to the Labour Party, and one to the Conservative Party, with Bayswater being fully represented by Labour, and Lancaster Gate being split between the two parties. Lancaster Gate can be considered as a marginal ward.{{Cite web |title=Bayswater |url=https://www.westminster.gov.uk/about-council/democracy/elections-referendums-and-how-vote/local-elections-5-may-2022/bayswater |access-date=2022-10-09 |website=Westminster.gov.uk|language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Lancaster Gate |url=https://www.westminster.gov.uk/about-council/democracy/elections-referendums-and-how-vote/local-elections-5-may-2022/lancaster-gate |access-date=2022-10-09 |website=Westminster.gov.uk|language=en}}

Education

{{For|education in Bayswater|List of schools in the City of Westminster}}

Nearest places

Nearest tube stations

File:Bayswater Tube Station London.jpg

The stations within the district are Bayswater and Queensway. Other nearby stations include Paddington (Bakerloo, Circle and District lines and Circle and Hammersmith & City lines),{{Cite web|title = Queens Park Hotel Bayswater Tube Station|url = http://www.queensparkhotel.com/location.html|website = queensparkhotel.com|access-date = 2016-01-18|archive-date = 12 March 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160312104115/http://www.queensparkhotel.com/location.html|url-status = dead}} Royal Oak (in Westbourne) and Lancaster Gate (to the east).

Places of interest

References in fiction

{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2024}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}