Time Walk
A Triangle of Villas
Three streets meet here to form a triangle, and Moorland Road is one of its sides. Walk its length today and the big stuccoed villas, with their porches held up on square columns, still line the road much as they did when they were built. At the junction with Loughborough Park a small wedge of grass survives, protected since 1931.
Underneath the quiet houses is a piece of Victorian suburb-building, and the numbers on the villas today once belonged to a different street name entirely. That earlier identity is where the street's story properly begins.
Name Origin
An Unexplained Name
The sources used here do not explain why this road was named Moorland Road. What they do record is that its houses were once addressed differently: the odd numbers from 5 to 23 Moorland Road were formerly 52 to 70 Loughborough Park, placing the road within the wider Loughborough Park development before it carried its own name.
History
Villas for a Middle-Class Market
Moorland Road was built for people who could afford a detached house with a basement and an attic. It went up alongside Loughborough, Barrington and Millbrook Roads in the 1840s and 1850s, laid out and built for a middle-class market. Nos. 1-25, standing two storeys over a basement with an attic above, were given fully stuccoed fronts and porches carried on square columns.
In the space of a few weeks in March 1981, the road gained formal protection twice over: first a terrace of its houses was listed, then its east side was drawn into a new conservation area.
The small grass triangle where Moorland Road meets Loughborough Park has been protected under the same 1931 law that safeguards London's historic garden squares.
Today
Still Part of the Triangle
Moorland Road remains one of three roads that together form the heart of the Loughborough Park Conservation Area. Its listed villas still carry the fronts and porches built for the road's first middle-class residents.
On the Map
Moorland Road Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Moorland Road?
The sources consulted here do not explain the choice of name. What is recorded is that its villas were once numbered as part of Loughborough Park before Moorland Road existed as a separate address.
What is Moorland Road known for?
Its Grade II listed Victorian villas, built in the 1840s and 1850s for a middle-class market, and its place within the Loughborough Park Conservation Area, designated in 1981.
When were Moorland Road's houses built?
The houses on Moorland Road were laid out and built in the 1840s and 1850s, alongside those on Loughborough, Barrington and Millbrook Roads.