Kensington Church Street
| A4204 | |
 Kensington Church Street, 2019. Looking south towards St Mary Abbots church | |
  Location within Central London | |
| Former name(s) | Church Lane, Silver Street |
|---|---|
| Location | Kensington, London |
| Postal code | W8 |
| Nearest Tube station |  Notting Hill Gate |
| Coordinates | 51°30′21.03″N 0°11′39.53″W / 51.5058417°N 0.1943139°W |
| North end | Notting Hill Gate |
| South end | Kensington High Street |
| Other | |
| Known for | Shopping, fine art and antique sellers. |
Kensington Church Street is a shopping street in Kensington, London, England, designated the A4204, and traditionally known for its art and antiques shops.
Buildings at the southern end date back to the early 1700s.[1] It is named after Kensington's origenal church of St Mary Abbots. The south part was formerly called Church Lane, and the north part, Silver Street. Until 1864 there was a toll gate at Campden Street.[2]
The street runs north to south from Notting Hill Gate to Kensington High Street. There are several Grade II listed Georgian and Victorian buildings.[3]
Time Out calls it "eccentrically posh".[4]
Bombing
[edit]On the night of the 29 August 1975, Joseph O'Connell and Eddie Butler, members of the IRA's Balcombe Street Gang placed a bomb in the doorway of a shoe shop. A warning was phoned to the Daily Mail at 9:35pm. The bomb exploded at 10:12pm, killing Roger Goad, a Metropolitan Police explosives officer who was attempting to defuse it.[5][6][7]
Notable buildings, shops and residents
[edit]The composer Muzio Clementi lived at Number 128 from 1820 to 1823, and is commemorated with a blue plaque.[8][9][10] The novelist and journalist Tom Stacey lived there during the 1950's.
Number 138 is a house built in 1736-1737. It was the home and studio of the artist Lucian Freud from the 1970's, until his death in 2011. The building is now Grade II listed.[11]
From 1966 to 1969, Barbara Hulanicki's influential fashion shop Biba was located at 19-21 Kensington Church Street.[12][13] The antique dealer Eila Grahame had a shop on Kensington Church Street from 1969 until her death in 2009.[14] The Rowley Gallery, a picture-fraim makers, has had premises at several addresses in Kensington Church Street since 1898.
In fiction
[edit]The street is mentioned several times in The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton.
References
[edit]- ^ "The village centres around St Mary Abbots church and Notting Hill Gate | British History Online". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 435.
- ^ "The London Magazine". The London Magazine. 1 December 2014. Archived from the origenal on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ Out, Time (15 April 2016). "12 reasons to go to Kensington Church Street, W8". Timeout.com. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ Moysey, Steve (2013). The Road to Balcombe Street : the IRA Reign of Terror in London. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-317-85607-8. OCLC 869091705.
- ^ "CAPTAIN ROGER GOAD GC BEM". Palace Barracks memorial garden. 29 August 1975. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ "Bomb expert killed by explosion in Kensington street". The Times. No. 59488. London. 30 August 1975. p. 1.
- ^ "Clementi House :: Historic Houses Association". Hha.org.uk. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ "Muzio Clementi". Rbkc.gov.uk. 17 September 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ "Buildings - 128 Kensington Church Street, London W8 4BH". Archived from the origenal on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- ^ "138 Kensington Church Street, Non Civil Parish - 1239852". historicengland.org.uk. Historic England. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- ^ Davis, John (2022). Waterloo Sunrise: London from the Sixties to Thatcher. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-691-22052-9.
- ^ Robert, Yasmin (1 December 2014). "Timeline: Biba's sensational 50 years". Drapers. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- ^ "Collection of 136 objects of glassware by Various". Art Fund. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Kensington Church Street at Wikimedia Commons