Interesting facts about Kensal Green

July 2015 

We're really enjoying living in Kensal Green. So much so, I thought it might be interesting to get together some "facts" about the area - beginning with the name.

The area is variously called either Kensal Green or Kensal Rise. There doesn't seem to be an "official" name for it, so the most common usage seems to be to use the closest train station as a reference (we're smack bang in the middle but always use Kensal Green, so that's where we live). Kensal Rise station is on  a small hill, and Kensal Green station is near the cemetery, which might explain their names.

A train going past Kensal Green in the 1920s - our road is just to the left out of frame.

Chamberlayne Road, the main drag in Kensal Rise.

Terraced houses in Kensal Green.

Close by is Kensal Green Cemetery, one of London's largest cemeteries with over 65,000 graves and 250,000 interments. It's also the final resting place of many, many famous and well know people. I actually don't recognise many of the luminaries listed here but apparently they're all very famous. The cemetery was also immortalised in a famous poem which ends:

"For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green."

Oh and some obscure rock singer named Fred (last name Mercury or something?) was cremated at the cemetery, with his ashes scattered in Montreaux, Switzerland. Rach was very, very excited when I told her that, especially after she did some digging and found there may have been a commemorative plaque there. And of course, we had to track down the spot (which we did). 

Kensal Green station often has classical music playing quietly inside, and has a whiteboard with funny, inspirational or interesting literary quotes, which make a nice change from the normal drab and colourless commute through the Tube stations.

Kensal Green station is on the Bakerloo line, which is coloured brown on the Tube maps - for good reason. The Bakerloo line is probably the noisiest Tube line, with high pitch screeching reaching a deafening volume at times. The trains themselves were built in the 1960s and definitely look and feel like it. Rach often says the train seems to be struggling and heaving itself around the corner to come into the station, where trains on other lines seem to glide in. But hey, Bakerloo is over 100 years old and yet it's still reliable and runs on time - which is more than you can say about most public transport in New Zealand.

The cover photo for Amy Winehouse's album "Back to Black" (incidentally a very good album) was taken in a room in Kensal Rise.

Close by is the Grand Union Canal, built in the 1800s to help link Birmingham and London for cargo boats. It's now home to some very colourful canal boats and canalside pubs, like the Union Tavern.

The green slime/growth isn't always there.

It's not really summer until you have photos of alcohol in the sun - beer to the left, Pimms to the right.

Our nearest park is Queen's Park, a 10 minute walk away. It's got a small golf course, tennis courts and sometimes has a little set up of fair rides. It's also a really nice spot to enjoy the long English summer twilights - if the weather plays nice. 

It'll be very interesting to see whether our good experiences of London and Kensal carry through to when winter kicks in.