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Kensington — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Geography

The focus of the area is Kensington 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. However, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City.

Kensington's second group of commercial buildings is at South Kensington, with several streets of small- to medium-sized shops and service businesses near South Kensington tube station. This is also the southern end of Exhibition Road, the location of the area's museums and educational institutions.

The boundaries of Kensington are not well defined; in particular, the boundary of the southern part of Kensington with Chelsea (another ancient manor) varies depending on whether electoral or postal, or other definitions are used; they have similar architecture. To the west, a boundary is clearly defined by the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West 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 the large public Royal Park of Kensington Gardens (contiguous with its eastern neighbour, Hyde Park). The other main green area in Kensington is Holland Park, on the north side of the eastern end of Kensington High Street. Many residential roads have small communal garden squares, for the exclusive use of the residents.

The sub districts of Kensington: South Kensington and Earl's Court also consist largely of private housing. North Kensington and West Kensington are largely devoid of features to attract the visitor.

Kensington is, in general, an extremely affluent area, like its neighbour Chelsea. 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 of Holland Park, for over £20 million. Brompton is another definable area of Kensington.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density has come about through the subdivision of large mid-rise Georgian and Victorian terraced houses (generally of four to six floors) into flats. The less-affluent northern extremity of Kensington has high-rise residential buildings, while this type of building in the southern part is only represented by the Holiday Inn's London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road, a 27-storey building.

Notable attractions and institutions in Kensington include Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, the Royal Albert Hall opposite the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, the Royal College of Music, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Heythrop College, Imperial College, the Royal College of Art, and Kensington and Chelsea College. The Olympia Exhibition Hall is just over the western border in West Kensington.

Transport

Kensington is crossed by three main roads, the most important of which is the A4 Cromwell Road which connects it to Central London on the east and to Hounslow and Heathrow 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 and Hounslow to the area. To the south is Fulham Road, which connects South Kensington with Fulham 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 by public transport. Most of Kensington is served by three stations in the London fare zone 1: High Street Kensington, Gloucester Road and South Kensington. All three are served by the Circle line which connects them to London's railway terminals. The District line also serves all three stations, albeit on different branches; it links the latter two to Westminster and the City. The Piccadilly line also links South Kensington and Gloucester Road to the West End in about 10 minutes, and in the other direction to Chiswick, Ealing, Hounslow and Heathrow Airport in around 20–40 minutes, depending on the area of choice. In addition Kensington (Olympia) in London fare zone 2 serves the western part of Kensington, with District line trains to Earl's Court and High Street Kensington. Nearby West 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 the London 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. 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.

Notable people

Renée Asherson (1915–2014), actress

Shaun Bailey, Baron Bailey of Paddington (born 1971), politician and former journalist

Jeremy Bamber (born 1961), convicted mass murderer

Robert Bentley (1821–1893), botanist.

Ivan Berlyn (1867–1934), film and stage actor

Antonia Bird (1951–2013), film director

Howard Blake (born 1938), composer, conductor and pianist

Betty Boo (born 1970), singer and songwriter

Frank Boys (1918–2003), first-class cricketer

Les Champelovier (1933–2023), amateur footballer

Lady Sarah Chatto (born 1964), member of the British royal family

George Cohen (1939–2022), professional footballer

Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877–1958), artist

Daniel Day-Lewis (born 1957), Academy Award-winning actor

Dido (born 1971), singer and songwriter

Carmen Ejogo (born 1973), actress and singer

Evangeline Florence (1867–1928), soprano

Justine Frischmann (born 1969), musician

Percival Gale (1865–1940), cricketer

Michael Gove (born 1967), Scottish journalist and politician

Carey Harrison (1944–2025), novelist and dramatist

Natasha Hausdorff (born 1989), barrister, international law commentator, and Israel advocate

Mary Headlam (1873–1959), artist

Tom Holland (born 1996), actor

William Leach (1883–1969), first-class cricketer

Rotha Lintorn-Orman (1895–1935), fascist activist

James Longman (born 1986), ABC News chief international correspondent

Montague MacLean (1870–1951), cricketer

Freddie Mercury (1946–1991), frontman of the British rock band Queen

Jimmy Page (born 1944), guitarist of the British rock band Led Zeppelin

Una-Mary Parker (1930–2019), journalist and novelist

Frank de Pass (1887–1914), officer in the British Indian Army, recipient of the Victoria Cross

Reginald Popham (1892–1975), cricketer and footballer

Sir John Richard Robinson, journalist and editor

Christopher Stanger-Leathes (1881–1966), rugby union international

Jason Vale (born 1969), lifestyle coach and author

Frank Ward (1888–1952), first-class cricketer

Frank Westerton (1866–1923), stage and silent-film actor

Dennis Wise (born 1966), footballer and manager

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