A Century of Christian Service : Kensington Congregational Church, 1793-1893 (English Edition)

Of the Kensington of 1793 I need not say much; for most of those who read this little book will be quite familiar with the astonishing change that has come over this locality since then. We like to recall the fields and woods through which the first seat-holders of Hornton Street Chapel walked to worship on the Sunday, even though the thought suggests melancholy reflections on our own loss in this respect. We are more content to have a century of time between ourselves and the footpads who infested the road that led to London. It appears that in 1820, when Mr. Faulkner was completing his history, a new church had been erected in Marylebone; and we are congratulated on the fact, because the joint parishes of Kensington and Paddington contain as many as twelve thousand people! And as for some years previous the great increase in the population had been causing considerable anxiety, and even alarm, we may easily estimate the paucity of the population of Kensington in 1793.