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Holland Park, in the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, is now one of the most expensive
residential areas of London. This mews is a pretty cobbled street sandwiched
between two roads (both called Holland Park) lined with grand detached
double-fronted Victorian villas. Construction started in the 1860s and finished
in 1879.
When the 1871 census
took place, around 35 houses were already occupied, with more still in
construction. Half of the people living in those houses were servants, and
there were more servants, such as coachmen and grooms, living in the mews
buildings.
One of those
servants was Louisa Atkinson, a kitchen maid aged about 19, from the
wonderfully named Follifoot in Yorkshire. She was one of 13 servants listed at
18 Holland Park, the home of a metal merchant and his large family.
Not far away, in Pimlico,
footman David Waller and nine others served the Wyvill family at 22 Warwick
Square. David was 24 and he came from Norfolk
Somehow, the two of
them met. In 1872, Louisa and David married. They settled in Cambridgeshire,
where David became a fireman with the Great Eastern railway, and they went on
to have a family.
I know this because
they are my husband’s great great grandparents, and we have been researching our
family tree. It’s taken us to some interesting places, and it’s always exciting
if the buildings our ancestors lived in are still there. I wonder what modern
day servants are living in those beautiful homes of the excessively rich today?
