The focus of the area is
Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared London's second best shopping street in February 2005 due to its wide range and number of shops. However, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the
Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensington's second group of commercial buildings is at
South Kensington, where several streets of small to medium-sized shops and service businesses are situated close to
South Kensington tube station. This is also the southern end of
Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare which serves the area's museums and educational institutions. The boundaries of Kensington are not well-defined; in particular, the southern part of Kensington has conflicting and complex borders with Chelsea (another ancient manor) whether electoral or postal definitions are used, and has similar architecture. To the west, a border is clearly defined by the line of the Counter Creek marked by the
West London railway line. To the north, the only obvious border line is Holland Park Avenue, to the north of which is the district of Notting Hill (another ancient manor), usually classed as within "North Kensington". in the summer In the north east is situated the large public
Royal Park of
Kensington Gardens (contiguous with its eastern neighbour,
Hyde Park). The other main green area in Kensington is
Holland Park, on the north side of the eastern end of Kensington High Street. Many residential roads have small communal
garden squares, for the exclusive use of the residents. The sub districts of Kensington:
South Kensington and
Earl's Court also consist largely of private housing.
North Kensington and
West Kensington are largely devoid of features to attract the visitor. File:Location map Kensington.png|thumb|left|Map of central Kensington ([//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Location_map_Kensington.png click to enlarge]) Kensington is, in general, an extremely affluent area, a trait that it shares with Chelsea, its neighbour to the south. The area has some of London's most expensive streets and garden squares, and at about the turn of the 21st century the Holland Park neighbourhood became particularly high-status. In early 2007 houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens, immediately east of
Holland Park, for over £20 million.
Brompton is another definable area of Kensington. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea forms part of the most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density has come about through the subdivision of large mid-rise
Georgian and
Victorian terraced houses (generally of four to six floors) into flats. The less-affluent northern extremity of Kensington has
high-rise residential buildings, while this type of building in the southern part is only represented by the
Holiday Inn's London Kensington Forum Hotel in
Cromwell Road, a 27-storey building. Notable attractions and institutions in Kensington include
Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, the
Royal Albert Hall opposite the
Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, the
Royal College of Music, the
Natural History Museum, the
Science Museum, the
Victoria and Albert Museum,
Heythrop College,
Imperial College, the
Royal College of Art, and
Kensington and Chelsea College. The
Olympia Exhibition Hall is just over the western border in
West Kensington. ==Administration==