Royal Crescent is marked on
the maps of the beginning of the nineteenth century as Norland Crescent;
Addison Road was then Norland Road. Further westward is the square of
the same name, on the site of old Norland House.

[Illustration: KENSINGTON DISTRICT--SOUTH HALF.

Published by A. & C. Black, London.]

Addison Road leads up to St. James's Church, designed by Vulliamy, and
consecrated in 1845; it has a square tower of considerable height, with
a pinnacle at each corner. The chancel was added later. St. Gabriel's,
in Clifton Road, is an offshoot of this church, but, curiously enough,
it does not come within the parochial boundaries. It was built in 1883.
Following the road on the north side of the square, we pass the West
London Tabernacle, a brick building in the late Romanesque style. Close
by are St. James's Schools.

St. John's Place leads us past Pottery Lane, a reminiscence of the
potteries once here, round which sprang up a notoriously bad district.
The brickfields were hard by, and the long, low, red-tiled roofs of the
brick-sheds face a space of open ground known as Avondale Park. The Park
stands on a piece of ground formerly known as Adam's Brickfield. It was
suggested at one time that this should be used for the site of a
refuse-destroyer, but it was bought instead by the Vestry for the sum of
L9,200 to be turned into a public park. The late Metropolitan Board of
Works provided L4,250 towards the sum, and the Metropolitan Public
Gardens and Open Spaces Association gave L2,000. The laying-out of the
ground, which covers about 41/2 acres, cost L8,000 more, and the Park
was formally opened June 2, 1892, though it had been informally open to
the public for more than a year before this date. The most has been made
of the ground, which includes two large playgrounds, provided with
swings, ropes, seesaws, etc., for the children of the neighbouring
schools, who come here to the number of three or four hundred. Just at
the back of the Park, on the west side, lie St. Clement's Board Schools,
and on the east St. John's Church Schools. Returning through Pottery
Lane, we see facing us at the upper end large brick schools covered with
Virginia creeper, adjacent to a small brick Gothic church. This is the
church of St. Francis, a Roman Catholic Mission Church, in connection
with St. Mary of the Angels, in Westmoreland Road. It was built about
thirty-three years ago by Rev. D. Rawes at his own cost, and contains
some v