York Mansions

York Mansions was designed by Frederick Thomas Pilkington, and was constructed on the former gardens of the defunct Albert Palace.

Except at the ends of the building where it would have been considered too public and unseemly, the servants lavatory was outside, accessed from the balcony beside the kitchen door.

No separate scullery was provided and the original plans show the kitchen sink in the same room as the range and always in front of a window.

When built the flats were modern, and had Queen Anne and Kate Greenaway style fire-surrounds, corrugated brass finger plates and plain ceilings.

Ceiling roses were still being installed in many new houses but, by this date, were increasingly being viewed as somewhat "lower middle class".

Although electricity appears to have been laid along Prince of Wales Drive, London at a very early stage, it was not extended into York Mansions until after the First World War.

The block had cast-iron fence railings across the front, but they were removed to make munitions during the Second World War, and have not been replaced.

Other notable residents of York Mansions included: E. W. Bullinger between 1905 and 1908, Pamela Colman Smith between 1907 and 1908, Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton, who was an early scholar of children's literature, in 1908 and Lady Mary Adele Hughes in 1908.