Decorating Pembroke Villas

Pembroke Villas is a short, secluded residential road in south Kensington between Warwick Road and Earl's Court Road, developed in the mid-Victorian period with an attractive mix of semi-detached and terraced villas in yellow London stock brick. The street has a pleasantly domestic scale that contrasts with the wider Victorian thoroughfares nearby, and its proximity to Pembroke Square and Edwardes Square gives the area an unusually village-like feel for central London. Many of the original villas retain their period bay windows, decorative stucco dressings and mature front garden planting.

The yellow stock brick of Pembroke Villas is best left unpainted where possible, but stucco window surrounds, sills and decorative cornices require regular repainting in period-appropriate colours. Several properties have been rendered over the original brickwork in previous decades, making breathable masonry paint and careful crack bridging essential to maintain a sound finish.