Kensington Central Library
General information
AddressHornton Street and Phillimore Walk, Kensington
Town or cityLondon
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates51°30′05″N 0°11′40″W / 51.5015°N 0.1945°W / 51.5015; -0.1945
Opened13 July 1960
OwnerRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Design and construction
Architect(s)Vincent Harris
Website
www.rbkc.gov.uk/libraries-0/libraries-and-room-hire/kensington-central-library

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.[1] It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 13 July 1960.[2] The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style.[3] There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style.[4]

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 and Hammersmith and Fulham.[5]

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.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 405.
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1119724)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Walker, David (3 March 2016). "A Renaissance Library for All: Kensington's Central Library". RBKC Library.
  4. ↑ Denny, Barbara; Starren, Carolyn (1998). Kensington Past. London, U.K.: Historical Publications. p. 153. ISBN 9780948667503. OCLC 42308455.
  5. ↑ "Tri-Borough". Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
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