Borough in London, England
Kensington and Chelsea
A royal palace, a blue whale skeleton and Europe's biggest street party all share one of Britain's most densely populated boroughs.
Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 143,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- roughly 4.7 square miles
- Known for
- Kensington Palace, the South Kensington museums, the Royal Albert Hall, the Chelsea Flower Show, King's Road, Portobello Road and Notting Hill Carnival
- What locals are called
- Kensingtonians and Chelsea locals
- Famous people
- Queen Victoria, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Carlyle, Mary Quant
- Football clubs
- Chelsea
About Kensington and Chelsea
The Victorian prince who built a museum quarter
The profits from the Great Exhibition of 1851 were spent on a patch of land in South Kensington, and the area has been educating and amusing the public ever since. People nicknamed it Albertopolis, after Prince Albert, whose idea it was. The Natural History Museum opened its doors in 1881. Today a blue whale skeleton named Hope hangs in its main hall, the Hintze Hall. The Victoria and Albert Museum grew from the same exhibition money, and the Science Museum sits alongside them. Then there is the Royal Albert Hall, opened by Queen Victoria in 1871. It has hosted the Proms since 1941, when the concerts moved there after their previous home was destroyed in the Blitz.
The palace where a teenager became queen
Kensington Palace became a royal home in 1689, when William III and Mary II bought it. It is the birthplace of Queen Victoria, born there on 24 May 1819. She was woken in the palace on 20 June 1837 and told that she was queen. She was 18. Princess Diana later lived there too, and the gates became a shrine of flowers after her death in 1997. The palace gardens run into Kensington Gardens, where the Peter Pan statue stands near the Long Water. J. M. Barrie had it put up in 1912, and it appeared so suddenly that many people assumed it had come overnight.
Chelsea, where the pensioners wear scarlet
Chelsea's most distinctive residents are the Chelsea Pensioners, army veterans who live in the Royal Hospital. Charles II founded the hospital, and Christopher Wren designed it. It opened for its first veterans in 1692, and the scarlet coats are still worn on ceremonial days. The hospital grounds have hosted the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show since 1913. Nearby, the Chelsea Physic Garden has been growing medicinal plants since 1673. There is even a Chelsea bun, the sticky, currant-packed spiral that was sold at the Chelsea Bun House in the 18th century. Chelsea Football Club completes the local fame, and its fans carry the name round the world.
From miniskirts to punk on one road
King's Road was once a private royal route. In the 1950s and 60s it turned into a fashion catwalk. Mary Quant opened her shop Bazaar there in 1955, and the miniskirt became a symbol of Swinging London. A decade later the same road produced something louder. Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood ran their shop at 430 King's Road, which was known as SEX by 1974 and helped shape the look of punk. Chelsea has long attracted writers and artists. Thomas Carlyle lived in Cheyne Row, and Oscar Wilde lived in Tite Street. Mick Jagger later took a house on Cheyne Walk.
Portobello Road and the carnival that took over the streets
Portobello Road is named after Porto Bello in Panama, which Admiral Vernon captured in 1739. A farm in the area took the name, and the lane that led to it kept it. Today the road is known for its antiques stalls, its Saturday market and the pastel houses that appeared in the 1999 film Notting Hill. Every August bank holiday weekend the area hosts Notting Hill Carnival, one of the biggest street festivals in the world. Its roots lie in the 1960s, when the Caribbean community, many of them Windrush-generation families, turned local celebrations into a procession of steel bands, sound systems and costumes. Rhaune Laslett's 1966 street festival is often seen as a starting point. The carnival smells of jerk chicken, rice and peas, and patties, and you can hear the bass from streets away.
Small borough, big shadow
The borough is small, but its places are known around the world. Harrods draws crowds on Brompton Road, the Holland Park peacocks wander through the Kyoto Garden, and Leighton House shows off Victorian artistic excess. The borough also holds painful memories. The Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington on 14 June 2017 killed 72 people. The community still marks the loss and continues to campaign for justice. Since 1901 the name has carried the title Royal Borough, and the pairing of Kensington's palace and Chelsea's veterans fits it well.