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Established | 1953 |
---|---|
Founder | Gay Christiansen |
Type | Civic society |
Legal status | Charity |
Location |
|
Area served | Kensington, London |
Members | 700 [1] |
Key people | The Duke of Gloucester (patron) Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill (president) Amanda Frame (chairman) |
Main organ | Board of Trustees |
Affiliations | 33 affiliated societies [2] |
Website | kensingtonsociety |
The Kensington Society is a civic society for Kensington, London. It serves both as an individual membership organisation, with more than 700 members, and as an umbrella organisation for 33 affiliated residents' associations and conservation societies that cover specific areas of Kensington. [1]
The society's objectives are "to preserve and improve the amenities of Kensington for the public benefit by stimulating interest in its history and records, promoting good architecture and planning in its future development and by protecting, preserving and improving its buildings, open spaces and other features of beauty or historic or public interest.” [2]
The society was created in 1953 by a local resident, Gay Christiansen, who fought but lost a proposal to replace several historical houses on Young Street in central Kensington with a multi-storey car park. Realising that local opinion wasn't considered or reflected in the planning process, she started the Kensington Society and was its driving force for more than 40 years. [3]
Among the successful campaigns by the society since the 1950s are the preservation of Leighton House, the saving of the remaining east wing of the severely bomb-damaged Holland House, and a revision of the originally proposed Princess Diana memorial garden [4] [5] in Kensington Gardens after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. The proposal would have drastically changed large parts of the gardens. Instead, the compromise solution became the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, and the 7-mile (11 km) Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James's Park.
Since 1974, The Kensington Society is a registered charity. [6] Its president is radio and TV presenter Nick Ross.
Diana, Princess of Wales was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour, which made her an international icon, earned her enduring popularity.
Kensal Green is an area in north-west London, and along with Kensal Town, it forms part of the northern section of North Kensington. It lies north of the canal in the London Borough of Brent, and also to the south, within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about 4.4 miles (7.1 km) miles from Charing Cross.
Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, in western central London known as the West End. The gardens cover an area of 107 hectares. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park together form an almost continuous "green lung" in the heart of London. Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
The Serpentine is a 40-acre (16 ha) recreational lake in Hyde Park, London, England, created in 1730 at the behest of Queen Caroline. Although it is common to refer to the entire body of water as the Serpentine, the name refers in the strict sense only to the eastern half of the lake. Serpentine Bridge, which marks the boundary between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, also marks the Serpentine's western boundary; the long and narrow western half of the lake is known as the Long Water. The Serpentine takes its name from its snakelike, curving shape, although it only has one bend.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was an independent grant-giving foundation established in September 1997 after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to continue her humanitarian work in the United Kingdom and overseas. It was a registered charity under English law. The Fund closed at the end of 2012.
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century, and is currently the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank and their two sons. Kensington Palace is sometimes used as a metonym for the offices of royals who officially reside there.
Nunsthorpe is a suburb and housing estate in the western part of Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is situated between Laceby Road (A46) and Scartho Road (A1243), which respectively form its northern and eastern boundaries. The population is listed in the South ward of the North East Lincolnshire Unitary Council.
The Commonwealth Education Trust was a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational products and services to achieve both a beneficial and a financial reward to fund future charitable initiatives.
Wetherby School is a group of private schools for boys aged two to eighteen in Notting Hill, Kensington, and Marylebone, London, owned and operated by the Inspired Education Group. Its prep school is a member of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools.
West Heath Girls' School was an English girls' private school established in 1865, initially in London and from 1932 near Sevenoaks, Kent. It closed in 1997.
The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by law it must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition or structural alteration.
The Royal Parks make up land that was originally used for the recreation, mostly hunting, by the royal family. They are part of the hereditary possessions of The Crown, now managed by The Royal Parks, a charity which manages eight royal parks and certain other areas of parkland in London. The Royal Parks charity was created as a company limited by guarantee in March 2017 and officially launched in July 2017. Its chief executive is Andrew Scattergood.
Save Britain's Heritage is a British charity, created in 1975 by a group of journalists, historians, architects, and planners to campaign publicly for endangered historic buildings. It is also active on the broader issues of preservation policy. SAVE is a registered charity governed by a board of trustees.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a 7-mile (11 km) long circular walking trail in central London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Twentieth Century Society, founded in 1979 as The Thirties Society, is a British charity that campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. It is formally recognised as one of the National Amenity Societies, and as such is a statutory consultee on alterations to listed buildings within its period of interest.
The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, started on Saturday 6 September 1997 at 9:08 am in London, when the tenor bell of Westminster Abbey started tolling to signal the departure of the cortège from Kensington Palace. The coffin was carried from the palace on a gun carriage by riders of the King's Troop and escorted by mounted police along Hyde Park to St James's Palace, where Diana's body had remained for five days before being taken to Kensington Palace. The Union Flag on top of the palace was lowered to half mast. The official ceremony was held at Westminster Abbey in London and finished at the resting place in Althorp.
The Gardens Trust is a national membership organisation in the United Kingdom established to study the history of gardening and to protect historic gardens.
The Princess Diana Memorial is a memorial dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Vienna. It is located in the garden of Cobenzl Castle, located in Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna, Austria. The memorial consists of a plaque and bust of Diana. On the plaque, Diana is erroneously described as Lady Diana Spencer, a style she did not have at the time of her death and did not carry since her wedding in 1981. It is the first memorial dedicated to her in a German-speaking country.
A UK Holocaust Memorial and learning centre was first proposed in 2015 to preserve the testimony of British Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators and to honour Jewish and other victims of attempted extermination by Nazi Germany, including Gypsies and disabled people.