Kensington Square


Kensington Square is a garden square in Kensington, London, W8. It was founded in 1685 and is the oldest such square in Kensington. The homes facing, split among №s 1–45 have statutory protection and recognition in the initial, mainstream category.

History

In 1685, Thomas Young, a woodcarver, acquired land in Kensington which he sought to develop, and as he later described it in 1701, "did sett out and appoint a considerable part thereof to be built into a large Square of large and substantial Houses fit for ye Habitacion of persons of good Worth and Quality, with Courts and Yards before and Gardens lying backwards".
In London, St. James's Square, Soho Square and Golden Square are a few years older, but in contrast with these Kensington Square still retains its residential character.

Garden

The communal gardens were laid out in 1698 and are in size. The garden is private and not open to the public, though it has taken part in the annual Open Garden Squares Weekend.

Heythrop College

№ 23 was Heythrop College, University of London until 2018, "the Specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London," which included a library originally established in 1614 in Louvain by the Society of Jesus for those studies.

Former residents

;Blue plaque holders
The square includes the former homes of:
Other homes belonged to, or were rented as their family home by:
Between 1831 and 1896 Kensington School occupied two sites: № 31, then №s 25–29. It is notable as one of the founders of the Football Association in 1863. The school built classrooms and fives courts in the gardens of the houses; all that remains is № 27a, the cottage or small house behind № 28.

In popular culture

In the 2016 film The Exception, protagonist Mieke de Jong coyly inscribes a copy of landmark philosophical work Beyond Good and Evil with: