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Kensington Town Hall, London
Kensington Town Hall is a municipal building in Hornton Street, Kensington, London. It is the headquarters of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council. History The building was commissioned to replace the old town halls of Kensington and Chelsea following the amalgamation of the two boroughs to form the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1965. After both the old town halls had been rejected as inadequate for the council's needs, civic leaders decided to procure a new facility; the site selected for new building in Hornton Street had previously been occupied by two large residential properties: Niddry Lodge and the Red House. The construction work, which was undertaken by Taylor Woodrow Construction at a cost of £11.6 million, started in 1972. The architect, Sir Basil Spence, who had been commissioned to design the building in the Brutalist style, died just 10 days before the building was completed on 29 November 1976. The building was officially opened by Prince ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Gardens, containing the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery and Speke's monument. South Kensington and Gloucester Road are home to Imperial College London, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Albert Hall, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Science Museum. The area is also home to many embassies and consulates. Name The manor of ''Chenesitone'' is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, which in the Anglo-Saxon language means "Chenesi's ton" (homestead/settlement). One early spelling is ''Kesyngton'', as written in 1396. History The manor of Kensington, in the county of Middlesex, was one of several hundred granted by King William the Conqueror (1066-1089) to Geoffrey de Montbray (or Mowbray), Bishop of Coutances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sequoioideae
Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. Description The three redwood subfamily genera are '' Sequoia'' from coastal California and Oregon, '' Sequoiadendron'' from California's Sierra Nevada, and ''Metasequoia'' in China. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. These trees can live for thousands of years. Threats include logging, fire suppression, climate change, illegal marijuana cultivation, and burl poaching. Only two of the genera, ''Sequoia'' and ''Sequoiadendron'', are known for massive trees. Trees of ''Metasequoia'', from the single living species '' Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', are much smaller. Taxonomy and evolution Multiple studies of both morphological and molecular characters have strongly supported the assertion that the Sequoioideae are monophyletic. Most modern phylogenies place ''Sequoia'' as s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In The Royal Borough Of Kensington And Chelsea
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artisti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Spence Buildings
Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also known as sweet basil or Genovese basil. Basil is native to tropical regions from Central Africa to Southeast Asia. In temperate climates basil is treated as an annual plant, however, basil can be grown as a short-lived perennial or biennial in warmer horticultural zones with tropical or Mediterranean climates. There are many varieties of basil including sweet basil, Thai basil (''O. basilicum'' var. ''thyrsiflora''), and Mrs. Burns' Lemon (''O. basilicum var. citriodora''). ''O. basilicum'' can cross-pollinate with other species of the ''Ocimum'' genus, producing hybrids such as lemon basil (''O. × citriodorum'') and African blue basil (''O. × kilimandscharicum''). Etymology The name "basil" comes from the Latin , and the Greek (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Murray (artist)
Thomas Murray or Murrey (1663 – 1734) was a prominent Scottish portrait-painter. Life Thomas Murray received his first lessons in art from one of the De Critz family. Subsequently, he became a pupil of John Riley; like his master, Murray was just a face-painter, leaving the rest of the picture to be completed by others. Murray was successful financially. He died in June 1734, leaving no children, and bequeathed his money to a nephew, with instructions that his monument, with a bust, should be erected in Westminster Abbey, provided that it did not cost too much. His nephew, however, taking him at his word, buried him in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and found the monument too expensive to erect. Works Murray contributed a self-portrait to the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, on a visit to Italy in 1708. Like many of his portraits, it was engraved. Among his sitters were: *King William and Queen Mary (hung in Fishmongers' Hall, London), and Queen Anne (full length, seated, hung in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum, London. He was elected to the Royal Society at the age of 24. Sloane travelled to the Caribbean in 1687 and documented his travels and findings with extensive publications years later. Sloane was a renowned medical doctor among the aristocracy, and was elected to the Royal College of Physicians at age 27. Though he is credited with the invention of chocolate milk, it is more likely that he learned the practice of adding milk to drinking chocolate while living and working in Jamaica. Streets and places were later named after him, including Hans Place, Hans Crescent, and Sloane Square in and around Chelsea, London – the area of his final residence – and also Sir Hans Sloane Square ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Richard, Duke Of Gloucester
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (Richard Alexander Walter George; born 26 August 1944) is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as well as the youngest of the nine grandchildren of King George V and Queen Mary. He is currently 30th in line of succession to the British throne, and the highest person on the list who is not a descendant of George VI, who was his uncle. At the time of his birth, he was 5th in line to the throne, behind his first cousins Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret, his father, and his elder brother Prince William of Gloucester. He practised as an architect until the death of his elder brother placed him in direct line to inherit his father's dukedom of Gloucester, which he assumed in 1974. He married Birgitte van Deurs Henriksen in July 1972. They have three children. Early life Prince Richard was born on 26 Augu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princess Alice, Countess Of Athlone
Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline; 25 February 1883 – 3 January 1981) was a member of the British royal family. She is the longest-lived British princess of royal blood, and was the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria. Princess Alice was the chatelaine of Rideau Hall in Ottawa from 1940 until 1946, while her husband Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, served as Governor General of Canada. Early life Princess Alice was born on 25 February 1883 at Windsor Castle, the only daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (the youngest of the four sons of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort) and his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her younger brother and only sibling, Prince Charles Edward (later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), was born on 19 July 1884. She was christened in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on 26 March 1883, and named Alice after her late paternal aunt Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilever can be formed as a beam, plate, truss, or slab. When subjected to a structural load at its far, unsupported end, the cantilever carries the load to the support where it applies a shear stress and a bending moment. Cantilever construction allows overhanging structures without additional support. In bridges, towers, and buildings Cantilevers are widely found in construction, notably in cantilever bridges and balconies (see corbel). In cantilever bridges, the cantilevers are usually built as pairs, with each cantilever used to support one end of a central section. The Forth Bridge in Scotland is an example of a cantilever truss bridge. A cantilever in a traditionally timber framed building is called a jetty or forebay. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oriel Window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor. Oriel windows are seen in Arab architecture in the form of mashrabiya and in Turkish are known as ''şahnişin'' or ''cumba''. In Islamic culture, these windows and balconies project from the street-front of a house, providing an area in which women could peer out and see the activities below while remaining invisible. Origins According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''oriel'' is derived from Anglo-Norman ' and Late Latin ', both meaning "gallery" or "porch", perhaps from Classical Latin ' ("curtain"). * Oriel College, Oxford, took its name from a balcony or oriel window forming a feature of a building which occupied the site the college now stands on. * Oriel Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clementine Churchill
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, (; 1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977) was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility make her paternal parentage uncertain. Clementine (pronounced Clemen-teen) met Churchill in 1904 and they began their marriage of 56 years in 1908. They had five children together, one of whom (named Marigold) died at the age of two from sepsis. During the First World War, Clementine organised canteens for munitions workers and during the Second World War, she acted as Chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund, President of the Young Women's Christian Association War Time Appeal and Chairman of Maternity Hospital for the Wives of Officers, Fulmer Chase, South Bucks. Throughout her life she was granted many titles, the final being a life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
