Kensington and Chelsea

Kensington and Chelsea,

inner borough (1991 pop. 127,600) of Greater London, SE England. Kensington is largely residential with fashionable shopping streets and several luxurious hotels. Portobello Road is a well-known street market. The area has undergone extensive urban renewal and contains blocks of large, tall flats. In the borough are three bridges: Battersea, Albert, and Chelsea. A large park, Kensington Gardens, adjoins Hyde Park. The gardens originally were the grounds of Kensington Palace (Nottingham House), partially designed by Christopher WrenWren, Sir Christopher,
1632–1723, English architect. A mathematical prodigy, he studied at Oxford. He was professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London, from 1657 to 1661, when he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford.
..... Click the link for more information. , which was the home of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George I and George II. Holland HouseHolland House,
residence of the Holland family in Kensington, London, made famous in the first 40 years of the 19th cent. by the hospitality of Henry Fox, 3d Baron Holland, and his wife. Built in 1606, the mansion was bought in 1767 by Henry Fox, grandfather of the 3d baron.
..... Click the link for more information. was the residence of the Fox family and, for a time, of William PennPenn, Sir William,
1621–70, British admiral. In the English civil war he served in Parliament's naval forces, and he joined the pursuit (1651–52) of Prince Rupert in the Mediterranean.
..... Click the link for more information. . South Kensington is a center of colleges and museums; it is the site of the natural history section of the British MuseumBritish Museum,
the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography.
..... Click the link for more information. , the Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert Museum,
South Kensington, London, opened in 1852 as the Museum of Manufacturers at Marlborough House. It originally contained a nucleus of contemporary objects of applied art bought from the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the instigation of Prince Albert, and
..... Click the link for more information. , the Science Museum, the Royal College of Art, and the Royal College of Science, among others. Albert Hall, a concert hall, is also there. Chelsea is a literary and artistic quarter. Sir Thomas More, D. G. Rossetti, James Whistler, Charles Dickens, and many others were associated with it. Thomas Carlyle's house is there. Chelsea Old Church, part of which dates from the 13th cent., includes the Chapel of Sir Thomas More (1528). The church, as well as the Royal Hospital for Soldiers also designed (1682–92) by Wren, was badly damaged in World War II.