Kensington Central Library

{{Short description|Public library in London, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox building

| name = Kensington Central Library

| image = Kensington Central Library 10.JPG

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| coordinates = {{coord|51.5015|-0.1945|type:landmark_region:GB-KEC|display=inline,title}}

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| location =

| address = Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk, Kensington

| location_city = London

| location_country = United Kingdom

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| opened_date = 13 July 1960

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| owner = Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

| architect = Vincent Harris

| website = {{URL|https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/libraries-0/libraries-and-room-hire/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.{{cite book|author1=Weinreb, Ben |author2=Hibbert, Christopher |title=The London Encyclopaedia |edition=reprint |year=1992 |publisher=Macmillan |page=405}} It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 13 July 1960.{{NHLE|num=1119724|desc=|accessdate=28 September 2015}} The building was designed in a traditional, English, renaissance-style.{{Cite web|last1=Walker|first1=David|date=3 March 2016|title=A Renaissance Library for All: Kensington's Central Library|url=https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/a-renaissance-library-for-all-kensingtons-central-library/|website=RBKC Library}} There were demonstrations against the project by those who advocated for the building to be in a modern style.{{cite book|last1=Denny|first1=Barbara|last2=Starren|first2=Carolyn|title=Kensington Past|date=1998|publisher=Historical Publications|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780948667503|oclc=42308455|page=153}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/leisureandlibraries/libraries/tri-borough.aspx|title=Tri-Borough|accessdate=10 September 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627210016/http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/leisureandlibraries/libraries/tri-borough.aspx|archivedate=27 June 2015}}

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.