Old Kensington Walking Tour

The Old Kensington Walking tour was with a company called London Walks.  They have dozens of walking tours all over London, everything from Westminster at War to guided walks of the British Museum to Harry Potter.  Each walk meets at a Tube stop and you don't need reservations.  I'm planning to go on several of these in the coming weeks and months. 

My apartment sits in the "Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea" which is a fancy way of saying that's where I pay my property tax and they collect my trash.  But I am very close to Kensington, so I like the idea of a tour in my neighborhood.  The guide shared tons of little facts about the architecture of the area, famous people who had lived here and demographics that have changed in the past 400 years.  I won't get into all those details (mostly because I can't remember all of them) but here are a few pictures and highlights. 

Kensington Roof Gardens - This is quite literally a garden that sits on top of an office building.  It was built by a department store in the 1930s.  There are three sections: an English woodland, a Tudor-style garden and a Spanish garden based on the Alhambra.  It is free to have a look around if open, although it is often closed for photo shoots or other private events.  There is a restaurant if you want to sit for awhile and enjoy the view.  There is grass, trees, flowers, plants, a pond, fountains and even real pink flamingos, imported from Chile!

Kensington Square - Built in the 1680s, one of the oldest squares in London.  Basically a garden in the center surrounded by townhomes.  This is where our guide spent some time talking about the architecture of the area.  Homes in this area range from the 1600s - 1900s and have been occupied by everything from immigrants and servants to wealthy merchants and famous literary figures (TS Eliot).  Now this area is one of the more expensive areas in London with townhomes selling at more than 10M pounds. 

St. Mary Abbots Church - The original Anglican church of the village of Kensington.  The current building is from the 1870s.  It is the third or fourth church built in the same location - as the population of the village grew they outgrew the building and kept having to rebuild.  This building had a new roof after the original one was destroyed in WW2 bombing.  The rest of the church survived. 

 

Kensington Palace - Sits in Kensington Gardens, which is the western end of Hyde Park. Royal residence where Queen Victoria lived as a child and Princess Diana lived before her death.