York Mansions
York Mansions is one of the seven Victorian blocks of flats on Prince of Wales Drive, London, between Albert Bridge Road and Queenstown Road, in Battersea, in the London borough of Wandsworth. The building is four storeys tall and is of a Victorian High Gothic Revival style. It is portered.
York Mansions was designed by Frederick Thomas Pilkington, and was constructed on the former gardens of the defunct The Albert Palace. Pilkington incorporated the very latest thinking in his design.
Construction began in 1897 and was completed in 1901 – Pilkington did not see the completion of York Mansions, as he had died in October 1898. The first work undertaken was the laying of the drains in May 1897. Construction was completed from west to east, and the building was constructed from and Yorkstone.
When built, York Mansions consisted of 100 flats, which were arranged around 3 internal courtyards. The flats at the front of block overlooked Battersea Park, whereas flats at the back of the building overlooked Battersea Polytechnic. Flats measured approximately 1,500 square feet (140 m2) for a 3-bedroom flat, and 1,800 square feet (170 m2) for a 4-bedroom flat, and included a drawing room, dining room, bathroom and rooms for a maid to live and work.
A below-ground corridor ran the full length of the building, which provided internal access to the three separate courtyards and also acted as a servant’s corridor (servants did not use the main entrance to the building). In addition, the building was equipped with service lifts which led directly from the courtyards to the kitchens.
As had become standard, a small servant’s corridor was separated off within each flat and a separate servant’s lavatory (but no bathroom) was provided. 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.
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