Kensington Vestry Hall

Last updated
Kensington Vestry Hall
Vestry-Hall-Kensington-20060330-027.jpg
The Kensington Vestry Hall in 2006
Kensington Vestry Hall
General information
Architectural style Elizabethan style
Classification
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated15 April 1969
Reference no. 1223748
Address Kensington High Street
Town or city London
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates 51°30′05″N0°11′33″W / 51.5015°N 0.1926°W / 51.5015; -0.1926 Coordinates: 51°30′05″N0°11′33″W / 51.5015°N 0.1926°W / 51.5015; -0.1926
Completed1852
Client Kensington Vestry
Design and construction
ArchitectBenjamin Broadbridge
Main contractorThomas Corby

The Kensington Vestry Hall is a former municipal building on Kensington High Street in Kensington, London, England. The structure, which was built for Kensington Vestry and now accommodates Bank Melli Iran is a Grade II listed building. [1]

History

In the first half of the 19th century parish leaders met in a room attached to St Mary Abbots Church. [2] In 1851, the newly appointed improvement commissioners decided that this arrangement was inadequate and chose to commission a purpose-built vestry hall; the site they chose had previously been used as a burial ground by the church. [2]

The new building was designed by the architect, James Broadbridge, in the Elizabethan style, [2] [3] [4] was built by Thomas Corby in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £5,000 and was completed in 1852. [3] [5] [6] Its completion was met with dismay by ratepayers, who complained about the outlandish railings. [7] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Kensington High Street with the end bays gabled and slightly projected forward; the central bay, which also slightly projected forward, featured an arched porch with a stone surround, a prominent bay window on the first floor and a heraldic frieze and an octagonal clock turret at roof level. [1] The unsightly railings were finally removed in 1880. [2]

By the 1870s the improvement commissioners were already finding the building too small and they relocated to a more substantial building in 1880. [8] The old vestry hall was then converted for use as the Kensington Central Library and was officially re-opened in that capacity by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll in November 1889. [9] The building remained in use as a library for much of the 20th century until the Kensington Central Library relocated to a new site on Hornton Street in 1960. [2] The old vestry hall was listed as Grade II by English Heritage on 15 April 1969 [1] and, by 1998, it was "the only substantial remnant" of what the street looked like during the Victorian era. [7] It subsequently became the home of Bank Melli Iran. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

Kensington District within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in central London

Kensington is an affluent district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of central London.

Fulham Area of west London, England

Fulham is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth, Putney ,Barn Elms and the London Wetland Centre in Barnes. on the far side of the river.

Metropolitan Borough of Kensington Metropolitan borough of England

The Metropolitan Borough of Kensington was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London from 1900 to 1965, which since 1901 was known as the Royal Borough of Kensington, following the death of Queen Victoria, in accordance with her wishes.

Samuel Palmer

Samuel Palmer Hon.RE was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral paintings.

Ullet Road Unitarian Church Church in Merseyside, England

Ullet Road Church is a Unitarian church at 57 Ullet Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool. Both the church and its attached hall are separately recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. It was the first place of worship in the United Kingdom to register a civil partnership for a same-sex couple. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians.

Sir John Barker, 1st Baronet British politician

Sir John Barker, 1st Baronet was a British entrepreneur of the late 19th and early 20th century. He was the founder of the Barkers department store in Kensington, London, United Kingdom.

Kensington Temple Church in England

Kensington Temple is a Pentecostal Church in the Notting Hill area of London, England. It is pastored by Reverend Colin Dye, and is the largest church in its denomination, the Elim Pentecostal Church.

St Mary Abbots Church in London, England

St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8.

James Heywood was a British MP, philanthropist and social reformer.

Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established when Dissenters still faced legal threat. As the birthplace of British Unitarianism, Essex Street has particularly been associated with social reformers and theologians. The congregation moved west in the 19th century, allowing the building to be turned into the headquarters for the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and the Sunday School Association. These evolved into the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which is still based on the same site, in an office building called Essex Hall. This article deals with the buildings, the history, and the current church, based in Kensington.

Union Street Baptist Church, Crewe Church in Cheshire, England

Union Street Baptist Church is in Union Street, Crewe, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. In addition to the church, the attached vestry, meeting rooms and offices, boundary wall and railing are included in the listing.

St Johns Cathedral, Parramatta Church in New South Wales, Australia

St John's Cathedral is a heritage-listed, Anglican cathedral in Parramatta, City of Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. St John's was given the status of provisional cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in 1969, and designated a Regional Cathedral in 2011 for the Western Region. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 March 2010.

Kensington Central Library

Kensington Central Library is a Grade II* listed building on Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk, Kensington, London. It was built in 1958–60 by the architect E. Vincent Harris on the site of The Abbey, a Gothic house which had been constructed for a Mr Abbot in 1880 and destroyed by bombing in 1944. It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 13 July 1960. Its construction was met with demonstrations because of opposition to its architectural design.

Victoria Road, Kensington

Victoria Road is a street in Kensington, London, that in 2015 was considered the most expensive street in the United Kingdom. The street runs north to south from Kensington Road, Kensington High Street in close proximity to Kensington Palace and the Royal Albert Hall. Victoria Road actually runs from Kensington Road and not from Kensington High Street as cited previously. There are 64 properties on the street including the Embassy of Vietnam.

Zetland Arms

The Zetland Arms is a pub in South Kensington, London, on the corner of Old Brompton Road and Bute Street.

Milestone Hotel

The Milestone Hotel is a five-star hotel at 1 Kensington Court, Kensington, London, United Kingdom. It overlooks Kensington Gardens.

Hornton Street

Hornton Street is a street in Kensington, London W8. It runs north to south from Sheffield Terrace to Kensington High Street.

Campden Hill Road

Campden Hill Road is a street in Kensington, London W8. It runs north to south from Notting Hill Gate to Kensington High Street.

Old Town Hall, Kensington

The old Town Hall was a municipal facility at Kensington High Street in Kensington, West London. It was demolished in 1982.

Chelsea Town Hall Municipal building in Kings Road, Chelsea, London

Chelsea Town Hall is a municipal building in King's Road, Chelsea, London. The oldest part is a Grade II* listed building and the later part is Grade II listed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Bank Melli Iran, Formerly Public Library (1223748)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1973). "The village centres around St. Mary Abbots church and Notting Hill Gate". Survey of London: Volume 37, Northern Kensington. London: London County Council. pp. 25–41. Retrieved October 3, 2016– via British History Online.
  3. 1 2 "Watercolour of Kensington Vestry Hall by the architect James Broadbridge, 1852". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ New Vestry Hall, Kensington. The Builder. 12 June 2021. p. 373.
  5. ↑ "New Vestry Hall, Kensington". Look and Learn. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Loftie, William John; Luker, William (2015). Kensington Picturesque & Historical. Palala Press. p. 196. ISBN   978-1341566011.
  7. 1 2 Denny, Barbara; Starren, Carolyn (1998). Kensington Past. London, U.K.: Historical Publications. pp. 7–8. ISBN   9780948667503. OCLC   42308455.
  8. ↑ "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 136. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Denny, Barbara; Starren, Carolyn (1998). Kensington Past. London, U.K.: Historical Publications. p. 152. ISBN   9780948667503. OCLC   42308455.
  10. ↑ "Iran's shrinking commercial empire in London". The National News. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  11. ↑ "Newspaper says Iran financed IRA". UPI. 21 August 1994. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.