Hyde Park Gardens Mews

The High Commission of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලය, ලන්ඩනය Shri Lanka Maha Komasaris Karyalaya Landanaya) in London is the diplomatic mission of Sri Lanka in the United Kingdom. There has been a Sri Lankan High Commission in London since 1948, which was called the High Commission of Ceylon until 1972.

The Victoria is a Grade II listed public house at 10a Strathearn Place in Bayswater, London W2 2NH. It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.The pub was built circa 1840–50, and has four above ground storeys, with bars on ground and first floors, plus a dining room on the first floor. It has a rounded frontage on an acutely angled corner site between Strathearn Place and Sussex Place, extended by two bays to the former and one to the latter side. The pub's ground-floor interior was remodelled circa 1897-8, although it does include some remnants of the original interior. The first floor rooms, and especially the Theatre Bar, contain many interior elements from the Gaiety Theatre, installed in the pub circa 1958, after the theatre had been demolished.The pub is owned and operated by Fuller, Smith & Turner, trading under the Fuller's brand.

Hyde Park Gardens, also known as Hyde Park Terrace consists of two roads running adjacent to the north western corner of Hyde Park, Westminster, Greater London. Number 1 Hyde Park Gardens runs up to Number 23 with a large private communal garden and then the road separates to allow access to The Ring and into Hyde Park and the neighbouring Kensington Gardens. This section contains the High Commission of Sri Lanka. Numbers 24 to 31 continue on a private gated road also with their own communal gardens buffering them from the busy Bayswater Road. They are amongst the most exclusive properties on the northern side of Hyde Park and date from the early 19th century. Grand white stucco fronted houses now converted into equally grand flats. Access is strictly controlled via 24-hour porterage. Hyde Park Gardens is listed Grade II in two groups on the National Heritage List for England, as 1–24, and 25–38 are jointly listed with 22-35 Stanhope Terrace.An early resident of 18 Hyde Park Gardens was Maria Drummond, widow of Thomas Drummond and the adopted daughter of Richard "Conversation" Sharp. Here is a description of a party that took place there on 18 March 1844: ...Dined with the Bunburys. We left early & went to a party at Mrs Drummond's, which was very pleasant. Lady Morley was there, and Miss Lister, to whom she introduced me; Westmacott, whom I do not think Mrs Drummond – from her open praise of him - has an idea of marrying; the Sydney Smiths, Milmans, Mr Babbage, Faraday, Professor Wheatstone – who is a little man, young with spectacles, whom I should never have looked at had I not been told he was a lion. Faraday was there to look at the lamps, which are his own sort and consume their own smoke, and are twice as brilliant as any others. Mrs Drummond's house is quite lovely. Sydney Smith's idea is perfect – that the drawing room is the nearest thing to the Arabian Nights he ever saw. The walls are painted, the ceiling painted and gilt, the chairs white and gold, and looking glasses in all directions. Mrs Drummond was pleasant, as I think she generally is, and keeps her people well alive by always moving. The library, designed by the architect Decimus Burton, was said to be the most beautiful feature of this particular house, where Macaulay and Archbishop Whately were also welcome visitors, and a further description of the downstairs accommodation has also survived, as follows: The drawing room ceilings were painted in the 'Pompeian' manner, with a wealth of detail and a softness of colour which could be appreciated by looking into the tables of looking-glass provided for the purpose. Aubusson carpets, gilt chairs and sumptuous crimson brocade curtains completed the decoration. On the ground floor, a long library – fitted with birds-eye-maple book-cases and ornamented with Dresden china plaques, held Sharp's calf-bound books. Fine copies of classical bronzes stood on tables, and on the mantelpiece of rare Italian marble, and gave the room a somewhat learned and very pleasing appearance. Flowers from Fredley, sent up regularly by road, formed an important part of the decoration. Hyde Park Gardens Mews lies behind the houses and originally served as stables for Hyde Park Gardens.

Chester House on Clarendon Place in Paddington, London is a detached house that was designed by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott as his personal residence. Gilbert Scott lived in the house from its completion in 1926 until his death in 1960. It has been Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England since April 1975. The Historic England heritage listing for Chester House notes the "Restrained carefully proportioned stripped Renaissance design". The house was the recipient of the annual medal for London street architecture of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1928.Bridget Cherry, writing in the 1991 London: North West edition of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, described Chester House as one of a "few fine individual buildings in the Classical tradition" that were built in North West London in the 1920s and 1930s, alongside Oliver Hill's 40 and 41 Chelsea Square. An English Heritage Blue Plaque was erected on the house in 1990 to mark Gilbert Scott's residency.

Tyburnia is a part of Paddington created to an 1824 masterplan by Samuel Pepys Cockerell to redevelop the historic lands of the Bishop of London, known as the Tyburn Estate, into a residential area to rival Belgravia. It was the first part of Paddington to be developed.

Hyde Park Square is a residential, tree-planted, garden square one block north of Hyde Park fronted by classical buildings, many of which are listed and marks a crossover of Lancaster Gate and Connaught Village neighbourhoods of Bayswater, London. It measures (internally) 200 by 500 feet, of which the bulk is the private communal garden – the rest is street-lit, pavemented streets with low railings in front of the houses.

The Hyde Park pet cemetery (originally the London Hyde Park Dog Cemetery and advertised as The Secret Pet Cemetery of Hyde Park) is a disused burial ground for animals in Hyde Park, London. It was established in 1880 or 1881 in the garden of Victoria Lodge, home of one of the park keepers. The cemetery became popular after the burial of a dog belonging to Sarah Fairbrother, wife of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Some 1,000 burials were carried out before the cemetery was generally closed in 1903; sporadic burials were carried out thereafter until 1976. Most of the animals are dogs, though some cats, monkeys and birds were also buried. The site is owned by the charity The Royal Parks and not open to the public except as part of occasional tours.

Sussex Square is a garden square in Paddington in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is part of the Tyburnia area north of Hyde Park. Stanhope Terrace runs along its southern side. Tyburnia was developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, providing upmarket residential streets and squares for the expanding population of London. Although planned and laid out some years earlier, construction on Sussex Square did not commence until 1840. While many other streets in the area feature white stuccoed buildings that once would have been commonplace on Sussex Square, it was heavily redeveloped in the twentieth century. The square now features no buildings older than 1933.Like the nearby Sussex Gardens and Sussex Place, it takes its name from the title of the Duke of Sussex, younger brother of George IV and William IV. Mews streets are located on two sides of the square. While Sussex Mews East features modern buildings except for the Grade II listed Sussex Cottage, the design of Sussex Mews West retains the original style intact. Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister, lived at 2 Sussex Square in the early 1920s. A blue plaque commemorates the site where Churchill once lived, although the original house was subsequently demolished. Other former residents include Lord Coleridge, the Lord Chief Justice in the late Victorian era.

The Hyde Park Estate is a residential district in the Paddington area of London. It is an affluent area, characterised by a layout of squares and crescents, and is home to several embassies, prestigious businesses and celebrities.

Sussex Gardens is located in Paddington in Central London. It is a street that runs runs westwards from the Edgware Road, for most of the way as a broad avenue until it reaches an area near Lancaster Gate where it becomes a garden square. Part of the City of Westminster, it is located in the residential area of Tyburnia north of Hyde Park. Streets running off it include Westbourne Terrace, Talbot Square, London Street and Southwick Street. Sussex Gardens provides the main axis for the area.The street was originally known as Grand Junction Street, named after the nearby Grand Junction Waterworks. It was laid out as part of the ambitious street plan for Tyburnia in 1809, designed by the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell. Delays, partly caused by the Panic of 1825, meant that the street wasn't fully completed until the early Victorian Era to a revised plan by George Gutch. The first houses were available for lease in 1826 at the Edgeware Road end. The space in between it and the Uxbridge Road to the south was half laid out by 1839. Before long the street and surrounding terrain was a fashionable residential centre. St James's Church was constructed as the new parish church of Paddington, the current building of today designed in 1881-82 largely replacing an earlier building established in the early 1840s. By the twentieth century, the street had become known for the large number of boarding houses and hotels located on it. Like the nearby Sussex Square, Sussex Place and Sussex Mews, it derives its name from the title of the Duke of Sussex, younger brother of George IV and William IV.

Norfolk Square is a rectangular garden square in Paddington in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is part of the Tyburnia district north of Hyde Park. It runs east to west from London Street to Norfolk Place. Praed Street and Sussex Gardens are directly parallel to it north and south respectively. The street was developed on the site of a former waterworks of the Grand Union Canal. It was one of three located close to what became Paddington Station, another of them becoming Talbot Square. It was developed in the early Victorian era, and along with Talbot Square became a residential location for the wealthy. At the eastern end was All Saints' Church, built in 1847, but later demolished and replaced with the more modern Edna House apartments. At the western end of the square, across London Street, is the Sawyer's Arms pub. Numbers 2-22, terraces of 1840s stuccoed housing, are now Grade II listed as are the slightly later numbers 24–42. Notable residents have included the scientist Hertha Ayrton who live there from 1903 to 1923 and is now commemorated with a blue plaque.

The Marquis of Clanricarde is a Grade II listed public house at 36 Southwick Street, Paddington, London, W2.It was built in the early-mid 19th century.