Kensington is an area ofLondon in theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around 2.9 miles (4.6 km) west ofCentral London.[a]
The district's commercial heart isKensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up byKensington Gardens, containing theAlbert Memorial, theSerpentine Gallery andSpeke's monument.South Kensington andGloucester Road are home toImperial College London, theRoyal College of Music, theRoyal Albert Hall,Natural History Museum,Victoria and Albert Museum, andScience Museum. The area is also home to many embassies and consulates.
Themanor ofChenesitone is listed in theDomesday Book of 1086,[2] which in theAnglo-Saxon language means "Chenesi'ston" (homestead/settlement). One early spelling isKesyngton, as written in 1396.[3]
Themanor of Kensington, in the county ofMiddlesex, was one of several hundred granted by KingWilliam the Conqueror (1066–1089) toGeoffrey de Montbray (or Mowbray),Bishop of Coutances in Normandy, one of his inner circle of advisors and one of the wealthiest men in post-Conquest England. He granted the tenancy of Kensington to his followerAubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor from him asoverlord in 1086, according to theDomesday Book. The bishop's heir,Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against KingWilliam II and his vastfeudal barony was forfeited to the Crown.Aubrey de Vere I thus became atenant-in-chief, holding directly from the king after 1095, which increased his status in feudal England.[4] He granted the church and an estate within the manor toAbingdon Abbey inOxfordshire, at the deathbed request of his eldest son Geoffrey.[5] As the de Veres becameEarls of Oxford, their principal manor at Kensington came to be known as Earl's Court, as they were not resident in the manor, and their manorial business was not conducted in thegreat hall of amanor house but in a courthouse. In order to differentiate it, the new sub-manor granted to Abingdon Abbey became known asAbbot's Kensington and the churchSt Mary Abbots.
The originalKensington Barracks, built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858 and new barracks were built in Kensington Church Street.[6]
The focus of the area isKensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared London's second best shopping street in February 2005 due to its wide range and number of shops.[7] However, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from theWestfield shopping centre in nearby White City.[8]
Kensington's second group of commercial buildings is atSouth Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops and service businesses are situated close toSouth Kensington tube station. This is also the southern end ofExhibition Road, the thoroughfare which serves the area's museums and educational institutions.
The boundaries of Kensington are not well-defined; in particular, the southern part of Kensington has conflicting and complex borders with Chelsea (another ancient manor) whether electoral or postal definitions are used, and has similar architecture. To the west, a border is clearly defined by the line of the Counter Creek marked by theWest London railway line. To the north, the only obvious border line is Holland Park Avenue, to the north of which is the district of Notting Hill (another ancient manor), usually classed as within "North Kensington".
In the north east is situated the large publicRoyal Park ofKensington Gardens (contiguous with its eastern neighbour,Hyde Park). The other main green area in Kensington isHolland Park, on the north side of the eastern end of Kensington High Street. Many residential roads have small communalgarden squares, for the exclusive use of the residents.
The sub districts of Kensington:South Kensington andEarl's Court also consist largely of private housing.North Kensington andWest Kensington are largely devoid of features to attract the visitor.
Kensington is, in general, an extremely affluent area, a trait that it shares with Chelsea, its neighbour to the south. The area has some of London's most expensive streets and garden squares, and at about the turn of the 21st century the Holland Park neighbourhood became particularly high-status. In early 2007 houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens, immediately east ofHolland Park, for over £20 million.Brompton is another definable area of Kensington.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density has come about through the subdivision of large mid-riseGeorgian andVictorian terraced houses (generally of four to six floors) into flats. The less-affluent northern extremity of Kensington hashigh-rise residential buildings, while this type of building in the southern part is only represented by theHoliday Inn's London Kensington Forum Hotel inCromwell Road, a 27-storey building.
Notable attractions and institutions in Kensington includeKensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, theRoyal Albert Hall opposite theAlbert Memorial in Hyde Park, theRoyal College of Music, theNatural History Museum, theScience Museum, theVictoria and Albert Museum,Heythrop College,Imperial College, theRoyal College of Art, andKensington and Chelsea College. TheOlympia Exhibition Hall is just over the western border inWest Kensington.
Kensington is administered within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and lies within theKensington parliamentary constituency.
The head office of newspaper groupDMGT is located in Northcliffe House off Kensington High Street[9] in part of the largeBarkers department store building. In addition to housing the offices for the DMGT newspapersDaily Mail,Mail on Sunday andMetro, Northcliffe House also accommodates the offices of the newspapers owned byEvgeny Lebedev:The Independent,The Independent on Sunday, and theEvening Standard.[10] Thei newspaper, sold to Johnston Press in 2016,[11] is still produced from offices in Northcliffe House. Most of these titles were for many decades produced and printed inFleet Street in theCity of London.
The building also houses Lebedev's TV channelLondon Live, with its news studio situated in part of the former department store, usingSt Mary Abbots church and Kensington Church Street as live backdrop.
Kensington is crossed east–west by three main roads, the most important of which is theA4Cromwell Road which connects it toCentral London on the east and toHounslow andHeathrow Airport on the west. Parallel to the north is Kensington Road (of which Kensington High Street forms the eastern part), linking central London and Hammersmith andHounslow to the area. To the south is Fulham Road, which connects South Kensington withFulham to the south-west. North-south connections are not as well-developed and there is no obvious single north–south route through the area.
Kensington is well served bypublic transport. Most of Kensington is served by three stations in theTravelcard Zone 1:High Street Kensington,Gloucester Road andSouth Kensington. All three are served by theCircle line which connects them to London's railway terminals. TheDistrict line also serves all three stations, albeit on different branches; it links the latter two toWestminster and theCity. ThePiccadilly line also links South Kensington and Gloucester Road to theWest End in about 10 minutes, and in the other direction toChiswick,Ealing,Hounslow andHeathrow Airport in around 20–40 minutes, depending on the area of choice. In additionKensington (Olympia) inTravelcard Zone 2 serves the western part of Kensington, with District line trains toEarl's Court and High Street Kensington. NearbyWest Kensington station takes its name from the former boundaries with Hammersmith and is not in the Borough.
A number of local bus services link Kensington into the surrounding districts, and key hubs are Kensington High Street and South Kensington station. These bus services were improved in frequency and spread from 2007 until 2010 when the western extension of theLondon congestion charge area existed (which required drivers of cars and vans during the charging hours Monday-Friday to pay a daily fee of £8).
In 2020 a temporary cycle lane on Kensington High Street caused a nationwide media stir.[12][13] The temporary cycle lane was installed by the local council in September 2020 with £700,000 in funding from central government grants, but it was removed in December 2020.[14]
Kensington has one football team,Kensington Borough F.C., which currently plays in theCombined Counties Football League.
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