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Kensal Town
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Kensal Town
Kensal Town is a district of North West London, located partly in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and partly in the City of Westminster. The Grand Union Canal, which passes through it, forms the boundary of the two boroughs. The area lies four miles north-west of Charing Cross and is part of the W postcode area. Kensal Town was an exclave of Chelsea from the middle ages through to 1900.
The origin of the area was as a well wooded, 144 acre, exclave of the Manor and Ancient Parish of Chelsea, since at least the time of Edward the Confessor, prior to the Norman Conquest, when oaks from the area were used to build Westminster Abbey. It was then known as Chelsea-in-the-Wilderness or the Hamlet of Kensal Town.
The name 'Kensal' is derived from Kingisholt, meaning 'King's Wood', first recorded in 1253. The Wood was probably located in the exclave of Chelsea now known as Kensal Town. The name 'Kensal Green' was first recorded in 1550 and applied to a long area of roadside common land, to the west of Kensal Town, in the ancient parish of Willesden. Commons were frequently situated next to coppice woodlands, and often took their names from those woods.
The Grand Junction Canal (now known as the Grand Union Canal) opened in 1801 and passed through the south of what was by then a deforested but still rural area. The Great Western Railway, skirting the very south of the exclave, opened in 1838.
The Kensal New Town estate was laid out shortly after the arrival of the railway, lying south of the canal and contained by the boundaries of the exclave. The name is first recorded on an OS map of 1876. Later the name Kensal Town was applied formally to the whole of the exclave, while the name Kensal New Town remained limited to the area south of the canal and other adjacent areas of Kensington that also lay between the railway and the canal.
The newly built Kensal New Town Estate quickly attracted a large Irish community, and the surrounding area still has a significant number of Catholic churches. The Estate was disadvantaged by its position between the railway, the canal and the Kensal Green Cemetery. The area north of Harrow Road, where the Queens Park Estate was developed from 1875–81, was more prosperous.
During the 19th century, the dog dealer Bill George's 'Canine Castle' establishment was on the Kensal Road.
When the local MP for Chelsea, Emslie Horniman, presented an acre of ground between East Row and Bosworth Road to the London County Council in 1911 for recreational purposes, he stated that there was then "no place within a mile or more where children could play, except in the streets, nor anywhere for the mothers and old people to rest". The park was later expanded and is now known as Emslie Horniman Pleasance.
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Kensal Town
Kensal Town is a district of North West London, located partly in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and partly in the City of Westminster. The Grand Union Canal, which passes through it, forms the boundary of the two boroughs. The area lies four miles north-west of Charing Cross and is part of the W postcode area. Kensal Town was an exclave of Chelsea from the middle ages through to 1900.
The origin of the area was as a well wooded, 144 acre, exclave of the Manor and Ancient Parish of Chelsea, since at least the time of Edward the Confessor, prior to the Norman Conquest, when oaks from the area were used to build Westminster Abbey. It was then known as Chelsea-in-the-Wilderness or the Hamlet of Kensal Town.
The name 'Kensal' is derived from Kingisholt, meaning 'King's Wood', first recorded in 1253. The Wood was probably located in the exclave of Chelsea now known as Kensal Town. The name 'Kensal Green' was first recorded in 1550 and applied to a long area of roadside common land, to the west of Kensal Town, in the ancient parish of Willesden. Commons were frequently situated next to coppice woodlands, and often took their names from those woods.
The Grand Junction Canal (now known as the Grand Union Canal) opened in 1801 and passed through the south of what was by then a deforested but still rural area. The Great Western Railway, skirting the very south of the exclave, opened in 1838.
The Kensal New Town estate was laid out shortly after the arrival of the railway, lying south of the canal and contained by the boundaries of the exclave. The name is first recorded on an OS map of 1876. Later the name Kensal Town was applied formally to the whole of the exclave, while the name Kensal New Town remained limited to the area south of the canal and other adjacent areas of Kensington that also lay between the railway and the canal.
The newly built Kensal New Town Estate quickly attracted a large Irish community, and the surrounding area still has a significant number of Catholic churches. The Estate was disadvantaged by its position between the railway, the canal and the Kensal Green Cemetery. The area north of Harrow Road, where the Queens Park Estate was developed from 1875–81, was more prosperous.
During the 19th century, the dog dealer Bill George's 'Canine Castle' establishment was on the Kensal Road.
When the local MP for Chelsea, Emslie Horniman, presented an acre of ground between East Row and Bosworth Road to the London County Council in 1911 for recreational purposes, he stated that there was then "no place within a mile or more where children could play, except in the streets, nor anywhere for the mothers and old people to rest". The park was later expanded and is now known as Emslie Horniman Pleasance.
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