 Christie's Auction Room at South Kensington
Photo: Ian Dunster, GNU Free Documentation License
South Kensington is a district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is 2.4 miles to the west southwest of Charing Cross.
Within South Kensington are notable institutions such as the National History Museum, Science Museum, Baden-Powell House, Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Music. Foreign students including a large number from France, Spain and Italy contribute to the international flavour of this area.
South Kensington was largely agricultural will into the mid 19th century. After the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Hyde Park, an 87-acre site was purchased by the commissioners of the exhibition to create a home for institutions of arts and sciences. This is how the museums and universities in South Kensington was started. With the creation of new roads, adjacent landowners also start to develop their land. The Underground was extended to Gloucester Road and South Kensington in 1868, linking it to the centre of London.
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