Kensington is an affluent district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of central London.
Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Canadian group Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908. The flagship store on London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and opened 15 March 1909. Other Selfridges stores opened in the Trafford Centre (1998) and Exchange Square (2002) in Manchester, and in the Bullring in Birmingham (2003).
Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
The year 1972 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd was an English architect, town planner and landscape designer.
Kensington Roof Gardens is a private roof garden covering 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) on top of the former Derry & Toms building on Kensington High Street in central London.
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.
Sir Geoffrey Allan Jellicoe was an English architect, town planner, landscape architect, garden designer, lecturer and author. His strongest interest was in landscape and garden design.
Anouska Hempel, Lady Weinberg is a film and television actress turned hotelier and interior designer. She is a noted figure in London society.
Cadogan Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including Cadogan Estates Limited, are British property investment and management companies that are owned by the Cadogan family, one of the richest families in the United Kingdom, which also holds the titles of Earl Cadogan and Viscount Chelsea, the latter used as a courtesy title by the earl's eldest son. The Cadogan Group is the main landlord in the west London districts of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, and it is now the second largest of the surviving aristocratic freehold estates in central London, after the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estate, to which it is adjacent, covering Mayfair and Belgravia.
Ralph Hancock was a Welsh landscape gardener, architect and author. Hancock built gardens in the UK in the 1920s, 30s and 40s and in the United States in the 1930s. A few are well known – the roof gardens at Derry and Toms in London and the Rockefeller Center in New York, the garden at Twyn-yr-Hydd House in Margam and the rock and water garden he built for Princess Victoria at Coppins, Iver, England.
Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the Australian colonies collectively became the Commonwealth of Australia.
Derry & Toms was a London department store that was founded in 1853 in Kensington High Street and was famous for its Roof Garden which opened in 1938. In 1973 the store was closed and became home to Big Biba, which closed in 1975. The site was developed into smaller stores and offices.
Edwin Thomas Hall (1851–1923) was a British architect known primarily for the design of the Liberty & Co. department store, the Old Library at Dulwich College (1902–03) and various hospitals. He was the brother of the architect George Alfred Hall and father of Edwin Stanley Hall, also a noted architect.
James William Wild was a British architect. Initially working in the Gothic style, he later employed round-arched forms. He spent several years in Egypt. He acted as decorative architect to the Great Exhibition of 1851, and designed the Grimsby Dock Tower, completed in 1852. After a considerable break in his career he worked on designs for the South Kensington Museum, and designed the British embassy in Tehran. He was curator of the Sir John Soane's Museum from 1878 until his death in 1892.
Barkers of Kensington was a department store in Kensington High Street, Kensington, London. It began as a small drapery business, John Barker & Company, founded by John Barker and James Whitehead in 1870. Barkers grew rapidly to become one of London's largest and most well-known department stores. The company played a significant role in establishing Kensington High Street as one of London's principal shopping destinations for most of the twentieth century. The business was purchased by House of Fraser in 1957. Barkers closed permanently in 2006. Part of the former flagship building now contains a branch of Whole Foods Market (2019).
Pontings was a department store based in Kensington High Street, London and operated from 1863 to 1970. It was seen as the least prestigious of the big three Kensington department stores.
Percy Richard Morley Horder was an English architect who worked from offices in London. His work included the designing of new country houses or partially rebuilding existing houses. He also designed country house gardens and is noted for laying out Highfields Park, Nottingham together with the adjacent Nottingham University Campus. His early work was in the Arts and Crafts style, but after the First World War his buildings were increasingly in the Neo-Georgian fashion. He undertook architectural work in many parts of the British Isles including Ireland and at Thurso in Caithness. He is probably best remembered for the Trent Building in the University of Nottingham. and for design of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His work at Upton House, Warwickshire for Viscount Bearsted is notable, but it is his work for Jesse Boot, both the Boot’s the Chemists stores, but most importantly the Trent Building and the laying out of the Nottingham University Campus, which influenced design at other English universities, for which he must take the greatest credit.
Henry Louis Florence was a British architect, arts benefactor and member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), of which he was also vice-president (1897-1899) and Fellow of the Geological Society. He was a member of the Junior Athenaeum and the Arts Club. He also served in the Rifle Volunteers from 1871 to 1892, retiring from it with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Ralph George Covington Covell was an English modern architect, active during the post-war period to the early 1970s.
Derry and Toms Store today
Barkers store today
Close up of Barker Tower
