Stop 1: Kensington High Street

Since the 19th Century, the High Street has been one of London’s most notable shopping districts. Essentially London’s “Main Street,” the High Street contains a plethora of thriving businesses, from retail fashion stores, other shops, museums, restaurants, and a lively nightlife. In London, the “High Street” was a common term applied to streets in the town that were permitted to have shops and businesses located along them ("High Street"). Following the Great Fire of London in the 17th Century, four types of street were designated when they began rebuilding the city, one of which being the “high street” ("Kensington High Street, South Side"). Following the Industrial Revolution, as London began to urbanize, High Streets began to be dominated by department stores and larger retail locations, leading to a peak in their popularity as shopping centers in the 18th and 19th Centuries ("A Complete Guide to Kensington High Street").

This popularity as a shopping center is what seems to attract the sisters in The Romance of a Shop to visit there. High Street is only mentioned in The Romance of a Shop once, in chapter one, when the girls are discussing opening up their shop. Phyllis tells her sisters that she “would walk up and down outside, like that man in the High Street, who tells me every day what a beautiful picture I should make!" (Levy ch. I) As the sisters live in Kensington at the beginning of the novel, it is likely that they’re talking about Kensington High Street here, in which case Phyllis paints it as a bustling area by describing a man walking around outside calling at passersby.

High Street's popularity began to decline by the 20th Century, as large shopping malls came into style, and today faces the same threat that all retail shopping centers do: online shopping ("A Complete Guide to Kensington High Street"). This is all true of the notable Kensington High Street, where we find ourselves on this tour. We are located on the South side of Kensington High Street, where St. Mary Abbots Church separates High Street from Church Street. Kensington High Street has a history dating back for centuries; the first notable developments began there in the 15th and 16th Centuries as inns and ale houses for travelers heading to and from London, such as the Red Lion, the first thriving inn in the area which existed from the 16th Century to mid 18th Century ("Kensington High Street, South Side"). Lots of pubs had their place on South High Street, and around the beginning of the 18th Century, High Street began to become a more residential area as well, and as shops opened up on the street front, behind the thriving businesses there came to be several courts known for having cramped living conditions, poor sewage, and a very high concentration of laborers, many of whom were Irish immigrants ("Kensington High Street, South Side"). It was not well liked by the middle and upper class Londoners who frequented Kensington High Street for the shops and businesses that just through the alleys surrounding them, they would find working-class laborers living in incredibly poor conditions ("Plate 33: Kensington High Street"). This led to the enactment of the “Kensington Improvement Scheme” in 1866 to 1871, dedicated to clearing out the slums in the area with the arrival of a new railroad stop that made the shopping district there an even more profitable industry, and it soon became known as one of the most fashionable shopping districts in London ("Kensington High Street, South Side").

Sources:

1. Walker, Dave. "A Little Bit of Retail History: Kensington High Street at the Turn of Another Century." Wordpress, 9 May 2019, https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/a-little-bit-of-retai…;
2. "Kensington High Street, south side: Kensington Court to Wright's Lane." Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court. Ed. Hermione Hobhouse. London: London County Council, 1986. 77-98. British History Online. Web. 4 October 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol42/pp77-98.
3. "A Complete Guide to Kensington High Street." Park Grand, 31 May 2016, https://www.parkgrandkensington.co.uk/blog/a-complete-guide-to-kensingt…;
4. "Market Court, Kensington High Street, London." Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-im….
5. "High Street." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Street. 
6. "Plate 33: Kensington High Street." Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court. Ed. Hermione Hobhouse. London: London County Council, 1986. 33. British History Online. Web. 4 October 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol42/plate-33.
7. Levy, Amy. The Romance of a Shop. 1888.