Scarsdale Villas

Notable residents

• The artist John William Waterhouse grew up at no.1, which was his parents’ house.
• The architect Frank Chesterton lived there, at least in 1911.
• The actor, writer, director and broadcaster Val Gielgud, brother of the actor John Gielgud, lived "for the most part uncomfortably" in "a tiny house", "what could more accurately have been described as one of a row of Victorian workmen's cottages than a house", in Scarsdale Villas prior to 1933. This is an odd description, since most properties in Scarsdale Villas appear to be four storeys high if one includes the basement area. His cat Bronx was buried in the front garden beneath a stone reading "BRONX, a Good Cat". He later wrote "I have often wondered if that little stone is still standing in that patch of earth. But I have never had the nerve to go and see. It is long odds that as a result of some Local Building Improvement Scheme the house itself exists no longer". In fact there is no obvious evidence of post-1933 demolition anywhere along the street.
• The musician and comedian Michael Flanders lived there; his problems with getting safely out of his car in a wheelchair forms the introduction to the song The Gnu.
• The satirist and cartoonist Willie Rushton was living there in 1961, and in his bedroom there, the first issue of Private Eye was created.