West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the

London Borough of 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 borou ...

, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the

London postal area The London postal district is the area in England of to which mail addressed to the London post town is delivered. The General Post Office under the control of the Postmaster General directed Sir Rowland Hill to devise the area in 1856 and throu ...

of W14, including the area around

Barons Court tube station Barons Court is a London Underground station in West Kensington in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Greater London. This station serves the District line and the Piccadilly line. Barons Court is between West Kensington and Hamme ...

, and is defined as the area between

Lillie Road Lillie Road is a street in the north of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. A mixed residential and commercial road, it is the westerly continuation of Old Brompton Road, running from Lillie Bridge to the A219 Fulham Palace ...

and Hammersmith Road to the west, Fulham Palace Road to the south, Hammersmith to the north and

West Brompton West Brompton is an area of south-west London, that straddles the boundary between the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The centuries-old boundary was traced by Counter's Creek, now lost b ...

and

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

to the east. The area is bisected by the major London artery the A4, locally known as the Talgarth Road. Its main local thoroughfare is the North End Road. It is predominantly a dense residential area with the Queen's Club in its midst and is bordered by the Lillie Bridge railway depot, the now defunct

Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue just west of central London. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, ...

site,

Olympia Exhibition Centre Olympia London, sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. A range of internationa ...

and the commercial centres at Fulham and

Hammersmith Broadway Hammersmith Broadway is a major transport node and shopping centre in Hammersmith, London. History The shopping centre opened in 1994, on the site of many now-demolished buildings, including The Clarendon Hotel (a music venue) and Palmers De ...

Name

"West Kensington" is an early marketing construct, a ploy by two Victorian developers who found they had trouble selling their rapidly erected estate of terraced housing in the hamlet of North End on the outskirts of the village of

Walham Green Walham Green is the historic name of an English village, now part of inner London, in the parish of Fulham in the County of Middlesex. It was located between the hamlet of North End (now renamed West Kensington) to the north, and Parsons ...

. In 1876 William Henry Gibbs and John P. Flew, builders from

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, decided to capitalise on their modest success in Kensington, by speculatively building 1,200 houses on the market gardens west of the

West London Railway The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 18 ...

in Fulham. However, the housing slump of the 1880s left them with many unsold properties. They succeeded in persuading the

Metropolitan Borough of Fulham The Metropolitan Borough of Fulham was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was merged with the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith to form the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was a riverside ...

to have North End renamed 'West Kensington' to attract new investors to their empty houses.

History

Margravine Cemetery in London, spring 2013 (7)

From the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...

, the hamlet of North End in the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouring ...

was mainly farmland and market gardens, with a few scattered houses along North End Lane which wound its way from Walham Green to the trunk road linking the parishes of Hammersmith and Kensington. The main topographical feature was

Counter's Creek Counter's Creek, ending in Chelsea Creek, the lowest part of which still exists, was a stream that flowed from Kensal Green, by North Kensington and flowed south into the River Thames on the Tideway at Sands End, Fulham. Its remaining open water ...

, a tributary of the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, rising in Kensal Green, which marked the parish boundary. Among the notable residents who had settled in this quiet rural retreat were

Samuel Richardson Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...

Samuel Foote Samuel Foote (January 1720 – 21 October 1777) was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager. He was known for his comedic acting and writing, and for turning the loss of a leg in a riding accident in 1766 to comedic opportunity. Early ...

Francesco Bartolozzi __NOTOC__ Francesco Bartolozzi (21 September 1727, in Florence – 7 March 1815, in Lisbon) was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London. He is noted for popularizing the "crayon" method of engraving. Early life B ...

, Sir John Lillie and then in the late 19th century, the artists Edward and Georgiana Burne-Jones. The quiet of North End was sorely disturbed from 1824 onwards when local landowner William Edwardes, 2nd Baron Kensington, along with several others, decided to cash in on the already waning canal boom by converting a section of Counter's Creek into the

Kensington Canal The Kensington Canal was a canal, about two miles long, opened in 1828 in London from the River Thames on the parish boundary between Chelsea and Fulham, along the line of Counter's Creek, to a basin near Warwick Road in Kensington. It had one l ...

.British History Online, ''The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments'', The Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, online a

/ref> It was not a success. Eventually the canal was filled in, and in mid 19th century it became a railway and the creek was turned into a sewer. With it came gradual urbanisation, which drew in various developers including Gibbs and Flew. Apart from their unsold houses, there was the problem of accessibility. A bridge was needed over the railways, but despite Gibbs and Flew trying to finance it, it led to their bankruptcy and the dissolution of the partnership in 1885. Gibbs and Flew thereafter carried on separate businesses with a measure of success in Fulham.

Barons Court

Gwendwr Gardens, Gwendwr Road W14 - geograph

Margravine Cemetery Margravine Cemetery, also known as Hammersmith Cemetery, is in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The closest London Underground station is Barons Court. History Designed by local architect George Saunders, Margravine Cemetery was ...

and some of the streets near Barons Court station, recall the brief sojourn in the

of the last Margrave of Brandenburg,

Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander (german: Christian Friedrich Karl Alexander; 24 February 1736 – 5 January 1806) was the last margrave of the two Franconian principalities, Principality of Bayreuth, Bayreuth and Principality of Ansbach, Ans ...

(1736-1806) and his second wife, the English Lady Elizabeth Craven, who in 1792 bought the handsome mansion on the Thames at Fulham, originally built by Sir Nicholas Crisp in the 17th century and renamed it "Brandenburg House". After the Margrave died, his wife, the Margravine, occupied it till her retirement to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in 1819. Between 1820 and 1822 it was lent by the Margravine to

Caroline of Brunswick Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Caroline Amelia Elizabeth; 17 May 1768 – 7 August 1821) was Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821, being the estranged wife of King George IV. She was Pri ...

, the estranged consort of King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

who lived and died there. After Queen Caroline's death, the Margravine first sold off the contents of the house, then had the property demolished and sold the grounds for industrial development. Part went to the Haig distillery, the rest was bought for a sugar refinery. St Andrew, St Andrews Road, West Kensington W14 - geograph

St Andrew, St Andrews Road, West Kensington W14 - geograph

Another local landowner and developer in the 19th century was the Irish-born politician Sir William Palliser. It is possible that the station built on Palliser's land and opened in 1874, was named after the Irish estate of the Earls of Abercorn,

Baronscourt Baronscourt, Barons-Court or Baronscourt Castle is a Georgian country house and estate 4.5 km southwest of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and is the seat of the Duke of Abercorn. It is a Grade A-listed building. The Ba ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

where Palliser may have had connections. As well as Palliser Road itself, a group of roads in West Kensington are named after members of his family. They include: Perham, Charleville, Gledstanes, Barton, Fairholme, Comeragh, Castletown and Vereker Roads and Challoner Street. He also owned the which would become the Queen's Club. However, as he was heavily in debt when he died suddenly in 1882, his family did not benefit from his deals. A contemporary of Palliser was Sir

Robert Gunter Sir Robert Gunter, 1st Baronet (2 November 1831 – 17 September 1905) was a British Army officer, property developer and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commo ...

whose family also left its mark on a number of streets that were built on his North End estate. They are Gunterstone Road, Edith Road and Edith Villas in memory of his daughter who died of scarlet fever, aged eight. After the severe bomb and landmine damage to the area during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Gunter estate donated Gwendwr Gardens, formerly the Cedars Lawn Tennis Club, to the public as a memorial to those who had perished.

Other developments

The railway developments at North End included the

Lillie Bridge Depot Lillie Bridge Depot is a historic English traction maintenance depot on the London Underground Piccadilly and District lines, situated between West Brompton and West Kensington stations in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is a ...

, an important historic engineering workshop with secondary access from Beaumont Avenue since 1872. The Earls Court Exhibition pleasure gardens, an international venue, was begun by

John Robinson Whitley John Robinson Whitley, (13 December 1843, Leeds – 22 March 1922, Condette, France) was a British entrepreneur who inaugurated the Earl's Court Exhibition Grounds in West London in 1887. After four major exhibitions on the site (1887–1892), ...

, visited by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

in her Jubilee year, and subsequently frequented by the Royal Household. The royal connection continued through the decades and Diana, Princess of Wales opened the barrel-shaped Earls Court II hall, which in 1991 straddled the boundary between

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 ...

and Kensington and Chelsea; but after a confidential decision taken by the two boroughs in 2008, demolition began in 2015. The entire venue was closed down in 2014. Other notable structures on the site were the giant

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

(1895-1907) and the 6,000 seat ''Empress Hall'' (1894), built for impresario Imre Kiralfy, both long gone. The campaign for a bridge into West Kensington from nearby Earl's Court was taken up by local residents and the West Cromwell Road bridge was eventually commenced in 1938 and, interrupted by

, was opened in 1942.

Housing stock

West Kensington is primarily a residential area consisting mainly of Victorian

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s, many of which are subdivided into flats. There are some interesting examples of

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

, with several houses and some entire streets

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

– including the imposing mansion blocks of Fitzgeorge Avenue (off North End Road) and the mansion blocks around Avonmore Road including, Glyn Mansions (Built 1897), Avonmore Mansions and Avonmore Gardens (Built 1893) which is located next to the new Kensington Village development. West Kensington Court was purpose built and completed in 1938 with a view of providing what were considered at the time luxury flats for young professionals and families wishing to move from older-style properties. There are also a number of ex-local authority and local authority buildings around the North End Road, including the recently renovated Lytton Estate. Many of buildings have been sold off. A more recent private development, St Paul's Court, was built in 1980 on part of the vast former site of St Paul's School. Since much of the housing is in the rented sector, West Kensington has become a cosmopolitan enclave. There are significant populations of Arabs, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Irish, Italians, Spaniards, and French, encouraged by nearby private schools teaching in their native language can be found around Brook Green. The area also has a large student population, serving

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central L ...

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

, Hammersmith and other Central London Universities. Avonmore Road. built in the 1880s, has been dubbed "Kensington Village".

Whiteleys Whiteleys was a shopping centre in Bayswater, London. It was built in the retail space of the former William Whiteley Limited department store, which opened in 1911 as one of London's first department stores, and was one of the main department ...

Furniture Repositories, laundry and stables, built along the West London line, belonged to London's first department store in Westbourne Grove. The high-ceilinged Warwick Building was used as a depository for Whiteleys-sourced furnishings (grand pianos, chaise longues, oriental room dividers, mahogany wardrobes) for the use of customers who were resident in the colonies. Kensington Village now consists of a blend of modernised Victorian buildings, such as the Warwick Building, and modern additions such as the Pembroke Building, built in a similar style with London stock brick and red lintels and full-height glazing.

Commerce, education and religion

Local business consists of small shops, offices and restaurants, with the

nearby. West Kensington is within easy reach of

, and the Broadways of Fulham and Hammersmith. There are several pubs and hotels, including ''The Albion'' public house, which is reputedly haunted. The Baron's Court Theatre is located in the basement of ''The Curtains Up'' bar and restaurant. One of the oldest extant Polish Patisserie-delicatessens in London, ''Prima'', was opened in North End Road in 1946. For several decades after

, the editorial offices of the Polish Daily, the UK's oldest Polish language paper, were located in Charleville Road. The Carnival Store is a longstanding fancy dress and costume shop in Hammersmith Road and family owned for the past 40 years. In February 2009, the W14 postcode became the first London postal area without a post office, until a sub-post office agreement was reached with the retail outlet, ''North End News''.

Education

West Kensington once had on its fringes the dominating presence of a terracotta cluster of

Neo Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

buildings amid lush playing fields, of St Paul's School backing onto the Talgarth Road, between 1884 and 1968. It has since migrated to its fifth set of buildings now south of the Thames river in Barnes, since it left, centuries ago, the old cathedral cloister in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. A junior feeder school which moved with it, was the preparatory

Colet Court St Paul's Juniors (formerly Colet Court) is an independent preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in Barnes, London. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Juniors pupils progress at the age of 13. The School w ...

, started in Edith Road in 1881, then on Hammersmith Road and is now renamed

St Paul's Juniors St Paul's Juniors (formerly Colet Court) is an independent preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in Barnes, London. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Juniors pupils progress at the age of 13. The School w ...

in Barnes. Part of the old St Paul's site in Hammersmith is occupied by one of four campuses of the FE Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, and by the Parayhouse Educational facility. West Kensington has two St James Independent Schools, for juniors and senior girls. Fulham Boys School, a new independent school, has been temporarily housed in a former Local education authority special school on Mund Street W14, while the Fulham Police station site off Fulham Broadway becomes the school's new premises. The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), one of UK's leading theatre schools, moved in 2005 into the former premises of the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...

at 153-155 Talgarth Road, after years in

Religion

St Mary, Edith Road, London W14 - geograph

Despite its name, the church of St Andrew's, Fulham Fields is located in West Kensington. It was built by Newman and Billing in 1873, consecrated in 1874, and enlarged by

Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in pa ...

and Ingress Bell in 1894. West Kensington's main parish church, St Mary's, is located in Hammersmith Road, near the junction with Edith Road. The original church building was built in 1813 and given its own

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

in 1836. In June 1944 the church building was completely destroyed by a V1 flying bomb. The present church building dates from the 1960s.

In popular culture

Blythe House Blythe House is a listed building located at 23 Blythe Road, West Kensington, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, UK. Originally built as the headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, it is now used as a store and archive by the V ...

has been used as a filming location for numerous films including

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has receive ...

. In the film '' Trainspotting'', the flat that Renton shows the young couple around when he gets the job as an estate agent and ultimately stashes Begbie and Sickboy in is 78A North End Road, opposite West Kensington tube station. The Nashville Rooms, now the ''Famous Three Kings'' pub, hosted many rock and punk concerts in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

The Sex Pistols ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Polic ...

all played there regularly. In

Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Early l ...

's novel The Buddha of Suburbia, the main character moves from the southern suburbs of London to West Kensington and lives by the Nashville. He witnesses one of the first presentations of a punk band, probably The Sex Pistols. The flat featured in the 1969 BBC series 'Take Three Girls' was at 17 Glazbury Road. The 2005

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

film

Match Point ''Match Point'' is a 2005 psychological thriller film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, and Penelope Wilton. In the film, Rhys Meyers' charac ...

was shot on location at Queen's Club and in the surrounding residential streets.

Heather Graham Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy '' License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaime ...

and

Mia Kirshner Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress, writer and social activist. She is known for television roles as Mandy in '' 24'' (2001–2005), as Jenny Schecter in ''The L Word'' (2004–2009), as Amanda Grayson in '' Star Trek: Di ...

play upper-middle-class dilettantes from West Kensington in the 2008 movie Buy Borrow Steal.

Notable people

* Edward and Georgiana Burne-Jones, he a Pre-Raphaelite painter, she a writer, resided at ''the Grange'', in what is now the Lytton Estate, West Kensington. * John Melhuish Strudwick, Pre-Raphaelite painter, resided at Edith Villas during the 1880s and into the 1890s. * Maude Goodman a.k.a. Matilda Scanes, artist, resided at Edith Villas until 1894, and then 7 Addison Crescent until her death in 1938. From 1938 to 1968 the Maude Goodman Studio operated musical recitals there with Dame Eva Turner as president. * Edward Compton,

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

lived and died at 54 Avonmore Road. * William Crathern, composer, was organist of St Mary's, West Kensington (at that time known as North End). * Edward Elgar, composer, lived at 51 Avonmore Road, W14, 1890–1891. *

Peg Entwistle Millicent Lilian "Peg" Entwistle (5 February 1908 – 16 September 1932) was a British stage and screen actress. She began her stage career in 1925, appearing in several Broadway productions. She appeared in only one film, '' Thirteen Women'', ...

, Broadway actress whose 1932 suicide from atop the Hollywood Sign forever tagged her as "The Hollywood Sign Girl", had her earliest childhood at 53 Comeragh Road. * Estelle, rapper, was born and raised in West Kensington; her song "1980" was written about growing up in the area. * Charles James Feret, Fulham historian, editor of the '' Fulham Chronicle'' and author of ''Fulham Old and New'' (1900), lived in Edith Road. *

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, lived on 20 Barons Court Road (West Kensington) while studying law. *

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

, Pan Africanist, founder of the

Black Star Line The Black Star Line (1919−1922) was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, the organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and other members of the UNIA. The shipping line was created to facilitate the transportation ...

shipping company and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, lived and died in West Kensington. GoossensFamilyBluePlaque

Eugène Goossens, fils Eugène Goossens (28 January 1867 – 31 July 1958) was a French-born conductor and violinist. Career Goossens was born in Bordeaux and studied in BrugesBanfield, StephenEugène Goossens (ii)Grove Music online (subscription required); accessed 1 ...

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

musician, his singer wife, Annie Cook and their children, Sir Eugène Goossens, conductor,

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

s, Sidonie Goossens and

Marie Goossens Marie Henriette Goossens (11 August 1894 - 18 December 1991) was an English harpist, a member of the famous Goossens musical family and the older sister of Sidonie Goossens, also a harpist. Born in London, she was taught at the Royal College ...

and brothers, Adolphe and Léon, horn and oboe players respectively, lived at 70, Edith Road West. A blue plaque commemorates them. *Sir

was a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

-based member of the wealthy landowning confectioners, the Gunter family, who developed large swathes of West London. Street names like Gunterstone and Edith commemorate Gunter family members. *

Henry Rider Haggard Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform t ...

, author, lived for several years in Gunterstone Road and wrote ''

King Solomon's Mines ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the ...

'' and '' She'' while there. * Adelaide Hall Jazz singer and entertainer lived at 54A Fairholme Road until her death in 1993. * Stephen Hester, chief executive, Royal Bank of Scotland *

James Hunt James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) ''Autocourse Grand Prix Archive'', 14 October 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007. was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in . After retiring from racing in ...

, Formula 1 champion, lived in Normand Mews, 1980–82. * James MacLaren, architect, designed 22 and 22A Avonmore Road for sculptor HR Pinker. * Stirling Moss, British former Formula One racing driver, was born in West Kensington in 1929 *Sir William Palliser, Irish-born conservative politician who built several terraced streets in North End. * Mary Ann Sieghart writer, broadcaster and assistant editor of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

was born in the area. *Sir

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and poli ...

(1820–1914), artist and cartoonist, lived at 52 FitzGeorge Avenue, West Kensington until his death on 25 February 1914. * William Worby Beaumont (1848-1929), engineer and inventor, lived at 76 Gunterstone Road. The local Beaumont Avenue is a memorial to him. *

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

lived in Edith Villas with his family in 1867.

Transport

West Kensington is well served by public transport. * There are three

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

stations: **

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

(

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...

) **

Barons Court Barons Court is a London Underground station in West Kensington in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Greater London. This station serves the District line and the Piccadilly line. Barons Court is between West Kensington and Hamme ...

(District and Piccadilly lines) ** Kensington (Olympia) (District line and

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...

) * There are seven more in the vicinity: ** Hammersmith (District and Piccadilly lines) ** Hammersmith (

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...

and Hammersmith & City line lines) **

(District and Piccadilly lines) ** High Street Kensington (District line) ** Fulham Broadway (District line) **

(District and London Overground) ** Gloucester Road (District, Circle and Piccadilly lines) ** Goldhawk Road (Hammersmith & City and Circle lines) ** Shepherd's Bush ( Central and Hammersmith & City lines) West Kensington station is on the

linking

Upminster Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural vill ...

with

Ealing Broadway station Ealing Broadway is a major single-level interchange station in Ealing in London, England. It is in the London Borough of Ealing, West London, and is served by the London Underground and also National Rail on the Great Western Main Line. On the U ...

and Richmond. There is a branch line (running between Kensington Olympia-Earl's Court-Kensington High Street) and the Piccadilly line from

, the Hammersmith & City line from Hammersmith tube station, and the Central line from Shepherd's Bush and Holland Park. * Overground: The

is available from

West Brompton station West Brompton is a London Underground, London Overground and National Rail station on Old Brompton Road ( A3218) in West Brompton, located in west London, and is on the District line and West London Line (WLL). It is immediately south of the de ...

Kensington (Olympia) station Kensington (Olympia) is a combined rail and tube station in Kensington, on the edge of Central London. Services are provided by London Overground, who manage the station, along with Southern and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. O ...

and Shepherd's Bush. * Bus: Several Bus routes are available in the area including the 9, 23, 27, 28, 49, 306 and C1. Along Hammersmith Road, there are numerous buses linking the area to Acton,

Aldwych Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The street starts east-northeast of Charing Cross, the conventional map centre-point of the city ...

, Chiswick, Hammersmith, King's Cross,

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

, Richmond and

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

. The N9 bus also runs from Olympia to Heathrow Airport via Isleworth and West Middlesex Hospital. * Road: West Kensington is also close to the A4 (West Cromwell Road) with links to the West and Heathrow and High Street Kensington with links to the Central London/West End. A local transport-related curiosity (and not open to the public) is the London Underground training centre that contains a mock-up station called West Ashfield tube station. It is located on the third floor of Ashfield House. Despite its recent erection, it is scheduled for demolition as part of the Earls Court Regeneration Scheme.

Nearest locations and places of interest

* Queen's Club – home to The

Queen's Club Championships The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

, a green space in the area * The Ark, London, a notable ship-shaped office block *

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

central London sales room is located at the Olympia * Design Museum relocated from

Shad Thames Shad Thames is a historic riverside street next to Tower Bridge in Bermondsey, London, England, and is also an informal name for the surrounding area. In the 19th century, the area included the largest warehouse complex in London. Location Th ...

onto the site of the former

Commonwealth Institute The Commonwealth Education Trust is a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational pro ...

in Kensington High Street *

Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith) The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London.

Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having closed for redevelopment i ...

, an arts centre re-opened by the Thames at Hammersmith *

Hammersmith Bridge Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough ...

* Kelmscott House at 26 the Mall, Hammersmith, home of artist

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

stores and off-site facilities for Victoria & Albert, Science and British Museums * North End Road Market *

* Kensington High Street * Holland Park * Fulham Broadway *

* Hammersmith Apollo * Westfield London

Future redevelopment

The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea resolved in secret to go on to grant outline planning permission for developers' Capco Masterplan for the ''Earls Court Regeneration Project'', with Transport for London having a 30% interest, and with the surprising cooperation of

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

who were persuaded to grant a

Certificate of Immunity from Listing In England a Certificate of Immunity from Listing, generally known as a Certificate of Immunity (COI), is a document which guarantees that a building will not be statutorily listed (added to the National Heritage List for England (NHLE)) or be s ...

(COIL), to enable the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

structure to be demolished. The

was also in the frame and as it was claimed the Earls Court Project would bring considerable benefits to the area, it was recognised by the Mayor's London Plan, under

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

, as an Opportunity Area in July 2011. The project, expected to span 15–20 years, would involve the redevelopment of 80 acres of land around the Earl's Court Exhibition Centres and the West Kensington & Gibb's Green Estate and a swathe of private businesses and other homes. The proposals included the creation of "four new village centres" across North End Road, West Kensington, West Brompton and Earl's Court. There was strong local and international opposition to the project which put thousands of people's homes, employment and businesses at permanent risk. The prevailing political and economic climate not only blighted the area but also the project. The developers sold on their loss-making venture in December 2019, while Hammersmith and Fulham Council have arranged with the buyers, Delancey to buy back the two housing estates still occupied by residents.

Terrorism incident

On 26 February 1975, Stephen Tibble, a 22 year old police officer of the Metropolitan Police, was fatally shot by

Liam Quinn William Joseph Quinn, known as Liam Quinn, (born 1949) is a United States-born former Volunteer (Irish republican), volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who shot dead Murder of Stephen Tibble, Stephen Tibble, an off-duty police of ...

, a member of the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

, after a chase near

. It was later discovered that a flat on Fairholme Road was used by the IRA and Quinn himself as a 'bomb factory'.

References

External links

W14 Community Site

The Queen's Club

Aegon Championships

Earl's Court & Olympia

My Earl's Court Website
{{Geographic Location , Northwest = Shepherd's Bush & Hammersmith , North = Shepherd's Bush &

, Northeast =

& Holland Park , West = Hammersmith , Centre = West Kensington , East = Kensington , Southwest = Fulham & Hammersmith , South = Fulham &

, Southeast =

Areas of London Fulham Districts of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham