Kensal Green
| Kensal Green | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
| File:Church of the Transfiguration, Chamberlayne Road - geograph.org.uk - 2841061.jpg Church of the Transfiguration, Chamberlayne Road | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ235825 |
| Location: | 51°31’51"N, 0°13’29"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 14,915 (2011) |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | NW10, W10, NW6 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Brent / Westminster / Kensington & Chelsea |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Queen's Park and Maida Vale |
Kensal Green, also known as Kensal Rise, is an urban village in Middlesex, beside Kensal Town, to the north of Kensington.
To the west, beyond Harrow Road, is Harlesden, while in the opposite direction are Maida Hill and Westbourne. Queens Park and Brondesbury are to the north-east, Willesden is to the north-west, and Notting Hill stands to the south.
Kensal Green is best known for the Grade I listed Kensal Green Cemetery.
Residents and businesses
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the area had seen significant gentrification, attracting people from surrounding areas such as Notting Hill and Queen's Park. It was characterised by numerous independent stores, restaurants, pubs and cafes, and was earning a reputation as a "celebrity haunt-meets-Nappy Valley."[1]
In 2009, Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise was named the "hippest street in Europe" by Vogue magazine. Luxury goods maker Mulberry named a bag 'Kensal' and launched an advertising campaign with Cara Delevingne.[2] The area is characterised by numerous independent stores, restaurants, pubs, and cafes. There are also various sports clubs, gyms and health studios such as Moberly Sports Centre and Gracelands Yard, as well as nearby Queens Park. The area also boasts Britain's first independent boutique cinema and social enterprise, The Lexi Cinema. It is staffed by local volunteers and its profits go to an eco-village in South Africa.[3]
The village has traditionally been popular with those working in the media and creative industries but those buying properties increasingly include people working in the financial and technology industries, and others moving from nearby Notting Hill in search of more space. The area also attracts Americans thanks to The American School in London in neighbouring St John's Wood, as well as being popular with the French, partly due to a Lycée Français opening in Brent's former town hall.
Kensal Green Cemetery
- Main article: Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is the first of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries around London.
This is the resting place of members of the royal family, including Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and scores of figures in history including Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Babbage, and William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland. Architects buried there include, Decimus Burton, Philip Charles Hardwick, and John Shaw Jr. From the Arts are playwright, Harold Pinter, actor Mario Fabrizi, William Makepeace Thackery, and Anthony Trollope. The family plot of engineers Marc Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel is also here.
The cemetery is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[4] Many buildings and memorials listed structures.
History
Originally part of one of the eight manors within the district of Willesden, Kensal Green is first mentioned in 1253, translating from old English meaning the King's Holt (King's Wood). In the 15th century the then Archbishop of Canterbury Henry Chichele (1414–1443), acquired lands in Willesden and Kingsbury. In 1443 he founded All Souls' College, Oxford and endowed it with the same lands in his will. As a result, most of Willesden and Kensal Green remained largely agricultural until the mid-1800s, well into the Victorian era. In 1805, the construction of the Grand Junction Canal passed through the district to join the Regent's Canal at Paddington.
There were two dairy farms in Kensal Green by the early 1800s, which expanded greatly after the 1864 Act of Parliament which made it illegal to keep cattle within the City of London. Although by the late 1800s residential development had greatly reduced the farmland, still in the 1890s many sheep and pigs were raised in the district. One of the farms later became a United Dairies creamery, supplied by milk trains from Mitre Bridge Junction.[5]
St. John's Church was built on the corner of what is now Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane in 1844 and was extensively refurbished in 2017 and fitted with new bells in anticipation of the 175th anniversary in 2019. The church was followed by a school, now Bales College, and more inns including The Plough on the opposite corner of the junction. In 1832 Kensal Green Cemetery was incorporated by Act of Parliament and opened in January 1833. This led to a revaluation of the surrounding lands, and in 1835 ecclesiastical commissioners were appointed by the Crown, who reported in 1846 that: "the larger portion of the Prebendal Estates possess, in our opinion, a value far beyond their present agricultural value."
With enough people living locally to create a new parish, in 1844 St John the Evangelist Church in Kilburn Lane was consecrated. The 1851 census records just over 800 people living in the new parish. In the 1860s, Kensal Green manor house, situated where Wakeman Road joins Harrow Road, was demolished. Rapid increase in residential development followed, firstly with land west of Kilburn High Road, followed by the sale of Banister's Farm leading to the development of Bannister Road and Mortimer Road.
Unfortunately at this time Kensal Green was suffering huge social problems and had a reputation of being a slum, with 55% off its residents living in poverty and squalor, despite being neighbours to thriving Queen's Park. The rapid residential development led to local commissioners reporting in 1880 that there was inadequate drainage and sewerage facilities, with most houses having only improved access to what were the old agricultural drains. In that same year, All Souls' College started to develop its lands north-west of Kilburn Lane, including All Souls' Avenue and College Road, with adjacent roads being named after leading Fellows of the college, and the installation of new sewerage facilities across the district. The college donated lands on which to build Kensal Rise Reading Room, to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in 1897. Opened by American author Mark Twain in 1901, it was later extended and renamed Kensal Rise Library.
The developments of the streets around Kensal Rise railway station date from the last 10 years of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. Although opened in April 1873 as Kensal Green at Chamberlayne Wood, then a remote, dead-end road; it was renamed Kensal Rise on 24 May 1890. Just north of the station the National Athletic Ground (one of the many early grounds of Queen's Park Rangers) opened in 1890. The ground which was later renamed the Kensal Rise Athletic Stadium also hosted cycling and athletics competitions before being turned over to housing in the 1920s. For a brief period before 1914 the Aeroplane Building and Flying Society had its headquarters at Kensal Rise and flew test gliders from the site. Kensal Green also boasted the Electric Pavilion Cinema [6] which opened in November 1914 and was located on the corner of Chamberlayne Road and Bannister Road.
The construction of the Great Western Railway started in 1835, with the first 22.5 miles (36.2 km) of line, from Paddington station to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. In 1901, its major carriage washing and servicing facilities and locomotive depot were developed at Old Oak Common, bringing further employment and more immigrants to the district.
As of June 2014 the area had seen significant gentrification as people had been priced out of surrounding areas such as Notting Hill. In 2015 it was described as 'celebrity haunt-meets-Nappy Valley'.[1]
Outside links
- Kensal Green: The 'Survey of London' Vol 37, pp 333-339
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Phillips, Caroline (4 June 2014). "Kensal Rise has risen". Evening Standard. http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/area-guides/greater-london/kensal-rise-has-risen.
- ↑ "'Great War Fashion': Ox bile, split ends and frump – what Downton didn't show you". The Daily Telegraph. 15 November 2013. http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10450588/Great-War-Fashion-Ox-bile-split-ends-and-frump-what-Downton-didnt-show-you.html.
- ↑ "Our Charity" (in en-US). https://thelexicinema.co.uk/our-charity/.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1000817: Kensal Green (All Souls) Cemetery (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens)
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ "Odeon Kensal Rise in London, GB". Cinema Treasures. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/15212.