Kensington (UK Parliament Constituency) - Constituency Profile

Constituency Profile

Kensington is a residential seat west of central London. One of the most solidly Conservative seats in the country, the housing is largely expensive gardens, squares and Georgian terraces. Kensington High Street is an upmarket shopping hub, Kensington Palace is the residence of several members of the Royal Family, and Kensington Palace Gardens is the site of many embassies and a few private residences for the super-rich. South Kensington is the museum district, home to the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert, and is somewhat more cosmopolitan.

As well as Kensington itself the seat covers Earls Court, Brompton, Holland Park and Notting Hill. Earls Court is far more run-down and cheaper than its richer neighbour and while it is undergoing rapid gentrification and includes its own areas for the super-rich, there are still cheap areas of run-down hotels and bedsits around Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which straddles the boundary between this constituency and the Hammersmith seat. Notting Hill is an affluent and trendy area which hosts the Notting Hill Carnival, led by the area's vibrant Afro-Caribbean community. It is a highly cosmopolitan area, but having fallen on hard times in the twentieth century and become associated with dingy flats and multiple-occupancy homes it has undergone rapid gentrification. While the old Victorian private houses are sought after and extortionately expensive, there is much social housing and tower blocks and there remains a large ethnic population and areas of deprivation in North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove.