THE CONUNDRUM OF KENSINGTON

The allure is intoxicating, almost irresistible.

A succession of exquisitely beautiful townscapes, infinitely variable and constantly changing, yet somehow all coherent parts of a magnificent production, like a Mozart concerto.

Every view seems curated, polished and prepared. There’s no litter, no chewing gum, and no security guards! Yet this is traditional ‘public space’*

This is the central area of Kensington**, smallest yet most densely populated London borough, home to Grenfell Tower, and Kensington Palace.

It is simply great: no one would not want to live here. I promise you, by the time we reach ‘The Blackbird’ you will be ready to give up your Vow of Poverty, and move heaven and earth, to move here!

In fact, when our New Town Master Planners aspire to ‘urbanity’, in their new developments, Central Kensington might well be what they have in mind.

Part of the explanation is, of course, ‘money’. Oodles of it. Capitalism spends money to make money, and there’s ‘investment’ here: in every project, every house, every shop. It seems to have increased local authority spending too: York stone footways, in perfect condition, and most roadways recently resurfaced.

‘The Conundrum’ is, that this very high quality public realm seems to be unachievable elsewhere.

How has this come about? Do the best quality areas become unaffordable? Or does wealth lead to good quality?

It’s hard to believe, but in Kensington’s centre, from the High Street to Cromwell Road, and from Warwick Road to Queen’s Gate, there are, today, no socially rented homes at all, according to the official maps.

Today the borough has the lowest proportion of social housing in Inner London (22%), and some of its most expensive houses.

Across the whole borough, there are about 7K council-owned flats, plus the philanthropic providers' 12K more. But they are mostly in big estates in the southwest corner or far north: World’s End, Lancaster West and Dalgarno Gardens.

It was not always so. From 1726 there was a workhouse. In the 1860’s terraces were built in Blithfield*** Street for ‘the working classes’ made homeless by District Railway project, and some ‘workers’ cottages’ in Pembroke Place became ‘a notorious slum’, Wait ‘til you see them now.

And at the very edge of our area, in Warwick Road, Arup Associates more recently built 115 flats for the council: more than half are now ‘Right-to-Buy’ leaseholds.

To address ‘The Conundrum’, we’re going to meet at High Street Kensington Station, and walk through these, the oldest and most disorganised streets of the borough, from the ‘Old Court Suburb’**** nearest to Kensington Palace, heading south and west, following approximately the chronological path of the area’s development, from the earliest 2-storey terraces, to Victorian semi-detached villas, towering 7-storey stuccoed Italianate blocks, and late-Victorian and Edwardian mansion flats.

Now almost exclusively housing, the western parts of the area also once exhibited commercial, light industrial, and educational and healthcare activity, and along the way we’ll see the impact on the area of the the arrival of the District Railway in the 1870’s, the Cromwell Road extension just before WW2, and the West London Air Terminal in 1957.

Our walk leads directly to ‘The Blackbird‘ PH, opposite Earl’s Court Station, where our reserved table is being prepared.

Hope you can come!

Andy

*could it be that residents get straight into their cars, and don’t walk along the streets dropping litter and gum?

**= the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, created in 1965 from a merger of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Kensington, and its tiny neighbour, Chelsea.

***sic

****the development of Kensington Square in 1685, an urban space among the fields. It was actually started a few years before King William and Queen Mary moved their residence, for health reasons, to a mansion then called Nottingham House, now ‘Kensington Palace’.