South Kensington

Coordinates: 51°29′28″N 0°10′37″W / 51.4912°N 0.1769°W / 51.4912; -0.1769

South Kensington is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area 2.4 miles (3.9 km) west- south-west of Charing Cross. It has become the epicentre of the rapidly growing French community in London.

Geography

It is hard to define boundaries for South Kensington, but a common definition is the commercial area around the tube station and the adjacent garden squares and streets (such as Thurloe Square, opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum). The smaller neighbourhood around Gloucester Road tube station can also be considered a part, and Albertopolis around Exhibition Road, which includes the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Baden-Powell House. Other institutions such as the Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal College of Art, the Royal College of Music are within the City of Westminster, but considered to be in South Kensington. Although the postcode SW7 mainly covers South Kensington, some parts of Knightsbridge are also covered.

Kensington

Coordinates: 51°30′00″N 0°11′24″W / 51.500°N 0.190°W / 51.500; -0.190

Kensington is a district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. The north east is taken up by Kensington Gardens, once private as the name suggests, but today a public park which has Italian and Dutch gardens, public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery and Speke's monument.

Its commercial heart is Kensington High Street. This affluent and densely populated area contains the major museum district of South Kensington, which has the Royal Albert Hall for music and nearby Royal College of Music. The area is home to many of London's European embassies. Cementing Kensington's indicators of connections with France, the area has the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, French Consulate, French Embassy Cultural Department and the London Oratory on the borders with diminutive Knightsbridge.

Name

The first mention of the area is in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as "Chenesitone", which has been interpreted to have originally been "Kenesignetun" (Kenesigne's land or meadows) in Anglo-Saxon. A variation may be Kesyngton, in 1396.

Notting Hill

Coordinates: 51°30′35″N 0°12′15″W / 51.5096°N 0.2043°W / 51.5096; -0.2043

Notting Hill is a district in west London, located north of Kensington within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. The Edward Woods Estate, on the southwestern edge of the district, is located within the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and is more closely associated with neighbouring Shepherds Bush rather than Notting Hill due to its location. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and being home to the Portobello Road Market.

Very run-down until the 1980s, Notting Hill now has a contemporary reputation as an affluent and fashionable area; known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses, and high-end shopping and restaurants (particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross). A Daily Telegraph article in 2004 used the phrase the 'Notting Hill Set' to refer to a group of emerging Conservative politicians, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, now respectively Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, who were once based in Notting Hill.

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, lying within western central London. The park covers an area of 111 hectares (270 acres). The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James's Park together form an almost continuous "green lung" in the heart of London between Kensington and Westminster.

Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Background and location

Kensington Gardens are generally regarded as being the western extent of the neighbouring Hyde Park from which they were originally taken, with West Carriage Drive (The Ring) and the Serpentine Bridge forming the boundary between them. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park. Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round, which includes many hours of darkness.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often abbreviated to RBKC) is an inner London borough of Royal borough status, to the west of the centre. As the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England, this urban area is one of the most densely populated in the United Kingdom, just behind the London Borough of Islington.

The borough is immediately to the west of the City of Westminster and to the east of Hammersmith & Fulham. It contains major museums and universities in Albertopolis, department stores such as Harrods, Peter Jones and Harvey Nichols, and embassies in Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Kensington Gardens. It is home to the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest. It contains many of the most expensive residential districts in London and even in the world, as well as districts with high levels of social housing and poverty.

The local authority is Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council. The borough's motto is Quam Bonum in Unum Habitare, which can be roughly translated as 'How good to dwell in unity'.