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Kensington & Chelsea

Themes	Explorers and Adventurers	Nobel Prize Winners
Actors and Directors	Famous People	Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes	Historic Events	Prime Ministers
AONB (National Landscapes)	Inventors and Scientists	Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects	Monarchs	World Heritage Sites
Composers and Musicians	National Parks	Writers and Poets

Nature

London
Wildlife Trust

Books
	Set in 1948 in Earls Court, the novel tells the story of two very different couples. The newly arrived Jamaicans Gilbert (as former RAF has arrived on the Empire Windrush ship from the Caribbean) and his wife Hortense lodge in the house of Queenie and her absent husband Bernard. Despite their different perspectives they all have one thing in common: post-war London is not how they had imagined it.	SMALL ISLAND by Andrea Levy (2004)

London | Kensington & Chelsea

The County of London was formed in 1889 from parts of the ancient counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey, with the City of London remaining an independent body.

In 1965 Greater London was formed, taking in the rest of Middlesex (which no longer existed as a county) together with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire and further areas of Kent and Surrey.

Greater London is made up of 13 Inner and 19 Outer London boroughs together with the City of London.

Kensington and Chelsea once lay in Middlesex and is today one of the 13 boroughs making up Inner London. It lies on the River Thames running along its southern border and with the City of Westminster to its east.

London Boroughs

Actors and Directors

The stage and film actor John Gielgud was born as Arthur John Gielgud in South Kensington in 1904. A member of the famous Old Vic theatre, he made many critically acclaimed performances there. He also acted in many films winning an Academy Award late in his life for his supporting role in the 1981 film Arthur.

John Gielgud

The stage and film actor Jack Hawkins died at a hospital in Chelsea in 1973. His film career included such classics as The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 and Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. He was interred at Golders Green Crematorium.

Jack Hawkins

In 1976 the film director Carol Reed died at his home on the King's Road in Chelsea, where he had lived since 1948. In 1949 he had directed The Third Man in Vienna and in 1968 was awarded an Academy Award for his musical Oliver!.

Carol Reed

The stage and screen actor Maggie Smith died at a hospital in Chelsea in 2024. Two Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978) plus recurring roles in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey meant she remained at the top of her profession for seven decades.

Maggie Smith

Anglo-Saxons and Danes

Anglo-Saxon Kings

Danish Kings

The borough once lay in Middlesex which once formed the kingdom the kingdom of the Middle Saxons, so named because their kingdom lay between those of the East Saxons (Essex) and the West Saxons (Wessex).

Artists and Architects

William Turner died at 119 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea in 1851 and is buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

William Turner

Famous people buried at St Paul's Cathedral

The architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens was born in 16 Onslow Square, Chelsea in 1869. On his death - also in the capital - in 1944 his ashes were interred at St Paul's Cathedral.

Edwin Landseer Lutyens

Famous people buried at St Paul's Cathedral

Famous People

The reformer William Wilberforce died at 44 Cadogan Place in Chelsea in 1833. He had campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade and is buried at Westminster Abbey.

William Wilberforce as a boy
William Wilberforce in later life
William Wilberforce
Anti-slavery movement
Famous people buried at Westminster Abbey

Monarchs

Kensington Palace

Mary II died of smallpox at Kensington Palace in 1694. She was buried in Westminster Abbey. She had ruled jointly with her husband and cousin William of Orange since the Glorious Revolution of 1689.

Mary II

Glorious Revolution

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

William III died at Kensington Palace after a riding accident at Hampton Court Palace in 1702. He had been born in The Hague, in the Netherlands in 1650. He ruled with his wife from the Glorious Revolution of 1689 until her death in 1694 and then alone until 1702. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

William III

Glorious Revolution

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

Queen Anne ruled from 1702 until her death in 1714 at Kensington Palace, bringing the Stuart rule of England to a close. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Queen Anne

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

George II, the last British monarch to appear on a battlefield when he fought at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, died at Kensington Palace in 1760. He had been born in Hanover, Germany in 1683 and had succeeded his father in 1727. He was the last monarch to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

George II

Monarchs buried at Westminster Abbey

In 1819 Queen Victoria was born as Alexandrina Victoria at Kensington Palace. In 1840 she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at St James's Palace. She became the longest reigning monarch in British history (1837-1901) and the last from the House of Hanover.

Queen Victoria

Places of Interest

Historic Locations

Kensal Green Cemetery was opened in 1832 the first of what became known as the "Magnificent Seven", seven new London cemeteries needed due to the booming population of London. All were built within a decade: the last in 1841, Tower Hamlets Cemetery.

Opened in 1840 Brompton Cemetery was the sixth of the "Magnificent Seven".

Stately Homes and Palaces

Kensington Palace was first used as a residence by William III in 1689 to escape the polluted air at Westminster Palace. The Palace remained the monarchs main residence until the death of George II in 1760.

Prime Ministers

Prime Ministers

20th Century

Andrew Bonar Law became Prime Minister in 1922-23. He died at his home at 24 Onslow Gardens in Chelsea in 1923. His ashes are interred at Westminster Abbey.

Andrew Bonar Law

Famous people buried at Westminster Abbey

In 2013 the ashes of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Minister from 1979-90, were interred at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher Foundation

I am not a consensus politician. I'm a conviction politician.
(1975)

I like Mr Gorbachev. We can do business together.
(Interview, 1984)

We have become a grandmother.
(The Times, 1989)

Royal Consorts and Heirs

Chelsea

Anne of Cleves died in 1557 at Chelsea. In 1540 she had become Henry VIII's fourth wife but in the same year the marriage was annulled and Henry remarried. She had survived Henry and all his other five wives and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Anne of Cleves

Royal consorts buried at Westminster Abbey

Kensington Palace

The husband of Queen Anne, George of Denmark died at Kensington Palace in 1708. They had married in 1683 at St James's Palace and he had been royal consort since her becoming Queen in 1702. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

George of Denmark

Royal consorts buried at Westminster Abbey

Mary of Teck was born in 1867 at Kensington Palace. She married the future George V in 1893 after being engaged to his elder brother who had died. She gave birth to the future Edward VIII in 1894 and George VI in 1895 and in 1910 her husband acceded to the throne and ruled until his death in 1936. She died in 1953 at Marlborough House the year following the accession to the throne of her granddaughter, the present Queen Elizabeth II. She is buried with her husband in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Mary of Teck

Writers and Poets

In 1810 Elizabeth Gaskell was born as Elizabeth Stevenson at 93 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. In 1832 she moved to Manchester where she saw first-hand the conditions in which people worked and lived in one of Britain's major industrial centres. It was these experiences which she used to write her novels.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Gaskell Society

The writer William Makepeace Thackeray was buried in 1863 at Kensal Green Cemetery.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Famous London cemeteries

The children's book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter was born as Helen Beatrix Potter in South Kensington in 1866.

Beatrice Potter

Beatrix Potter Society

The author of Middlemarch George Eliot, died at her home at 4 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea in 1880 and was buried at Highgate Cemetary.

George Eliot

Famous London cemeteries

"Character" says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - "character is destiny."
The Mill on the Floss (1860)

The historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle died in 1881 at his home in Cheyne Row where he had lived since moving to London in 1834. He was buried in Scotland in Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire, the village of his birth.

Thomas Carlyle

The writer Anthony Trollope was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in 1882.

Anthony Trollope

Famous London cemeteries

Those who have courage to love should have courage to suffer.
The Bertrams (1859)

A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.
Ayala's Angel (1881)

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.
Autobiography (1883)

It is admitted that a novel can hardly be made interesting or successful without love ... It is necessary because the passion is one which interests or has interested all. Everyone feels it, has felt it, or expects to feel it.
Autobiography (1883)

In 1889 Wilkie Collins; author of the novels The Woman in White and The Moonstone, the first English mystery books written; was buried at Kensal Green Cemetary.

Wilkie Collins

Famous London cemeteries