Kensington Central Library is a Grade II* listed building on Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, 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 b ...

, London. It was built in 1958–60 by the architect

E. Vincent Harris Emanuel Vincent Harris (26 June 1876 – 1 August 1971), often known as E. Vincent Harris, was an English architect who designed several important public buildings in traditional styles. Early life He was born in Devonport, Devon, and e ...

on the site of The Abbey, a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

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 Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

on 13 July 1960. The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style. There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style. The public library is within the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...

and is managed as part of a tri-borough integrated library and archive service, alongside those of Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham. On the south side of the library, facing Phillimore Walk, are two statues of a lion and a unicorn, both holding the

Royal Arms of the United Kingdom The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, or the royal arms for short, is the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently King Charles III. These arms are used by the King in his official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom. Varia ...

. They were sculpted by William McMillan in order to reflect the "Royal" status of the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

References

Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Libraries in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Buildings by Vincent Harris Buildings and structures completed in 1960 Grade II* listed library buildings {{London-struct-stub