Changing gear in Kensington

Walking from Kensington High Street to the Linley Sambourne House, we went down Argyll Street and it brought back memories of living in one of the fine houses there as a paying guest, fresh from small-town Nuneaton, in the early 1960s.

My hosts were the Bousfields. He had been Professor of English at Madras University and his wife was still working – at the Foreign Office in Whitehall. So most mornings she would drive me in her aged Austin 7 to my day job in the mail room at JWT in Berkeley Square.

The only problem, as I recall, was that she seemed unable to change gear. So, engine screaming, we stumbled along in first… along the High Street, through Knightsbridge… round Hyde Park Corner and into Piccadilly… where, quite relieved, I would be dropped off.

Arriving at 18 Stafford Terrace

How can I have missed 18 Stafford Terrace for so long? We went to visit it on Sunday for the first time and it was a revelation.

On a quiet street in Kensington, the house was bought in 1875 by the artist and Punch cartoonist Linley Sambourne, and his family lived there for the best part of a century, filling it with the eclectic and fascinating acquisitions of Linley and his successors.

But the most spectacular part of the visit was the performance by a brilliant unnamed actress as Linley Sambourne’s wife, Marion. She was note perfect, but who was she?

They only take small groups, so it’s advisable to book in advance: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/18staffordterrace1.aspx