![Kensington Central Library 10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Kensington_Central_Library_10.JPG)
Kensington Central Library is a Grade II* listed building on
Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk,
Kensington, London. It was built in 1958–60 by the architect
E. Vincent Harris on the site of The Abbey, a
Gothic house which had been constructed for a Mr Abbot in 1880 and destroyed by bombing in 1944. It was opened by the
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 13 July 1960.
The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style.
There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style.
The public library is within the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is managed as part of a tri-borough integrated library and archive service, alongside those of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
and
Hammersmith and Fulham
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The bor ...
.
On the south side of the library, facing Phillimore Walk, are two statues of a lion and a unicorn, both holding the
Royal Arms of the United Kingdom. They were sculpted by
William McMillan in order to reflect the "Royal" status of the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
References
Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Libraries in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Buildings by Vincent Harris
Buildings and structures completed in 1960
Grade II* listed library buildings
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