| Kensington Central Library | |
| Coordinates: | 51.5015°N -0.1945°W |
| Location City: | London |
| Location Country: | United Kingdom |
| Opened Date: | 13 July 1960 |
| Destruction Date: | --> |
| Owner: | Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea |
| Architect: | Vincent Harris |
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. The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style.[2] There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style.[3]
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.[4]
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.