The Kensington DistrictMitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
History
The Kensington District
Mitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
Kensington (London, England) -- Description and travel
Church Street sweeps to the west a little further on, and at the corner
stands a Roman Catholic orphanage, where fifty or sixty girls are
provided for. There is a chapel within the walls, and night-schools are
held, which are attended by children from outside. The continuation of
the road northward, which becomes Brunswick Gardens, was made in 1877,
and as the old vicarage stood right in the way it had to be pulled down.
Bowack says that the vicarage was "valued yearly in the Queen's [Queen
Anne's] Book at L18 18s. 4d., but is supposed to be worth near L400 per
annum." In Vicarage Gate northward is a small church (St. Paul's) served
by the clergy of St. Mary Abbots. The origin of the name Mall in this
part of Kensington is not definitely ascertained. It of course refers to
the game so popular in the reign of the Stuarts, and there may have been
a ground here, but there is no reference to it in contemporary records.
In the Mall there is New Jerusalem Church, with an imposing portico. It
was formerly a Baptist Church, and was bought by the Swedenborgians in
1872. A bright red-brick church of the Unitarians is a little further
on. Behind the Mall is Kensington Palace Gardens--really a slice of the
Gardens--a wide road with immense houses, correctly designated mansions,
standing back in their own grounds. This road is only open to ordinary
traffic on sufferance, and is liable to be closed at any time.
The part of Kensington lying to the west of Church Street and extending
to Notting Hill Gate was that formerly known as the Gravel Pits, and
considered particularly healthy on account of its dry soil and bracing
air. Bowack says that here there are "several handsome new-built houses,
and of late years has been discovered a chalybeate spring." Swift had
lodgings at the Gravel Pits between 1712 and 1713, and Anne Pitt, sister
of Lord Chatham, one of the bright bevy of Queen Caroline's maids of
honour, is reported to have died at her house at the Gravel Pits in
1780.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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