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.^[1] It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 13 July 1960.^[2] The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style.^[3] There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style.^[4]

Kensington Central Library
General information
Address	Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk, Kensington
Town or city	London
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	51.5015°N 0.1945°W / 51.5015; -0.1945
Opened	13 July 1960
Owner	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Vincent Harris
Website
www.rbkc.gov.uk/libraries-0/libraries-and-room-hire/kensington-central-library

The public library is within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is managed as part of a tri-borough integrated library and archive service, alongside those of Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham.^[5]

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. They were sculpted by William McMillan in order to reflect the "Royal" status of the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.^[2]