Kensington, Liverpool

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 53.4046
longitude= -2.9522
official_name= Kensington
population=
metropolitan_borough= Liverpool
metropolitan_county= Merseyside
region= North West England
constituency_westminster=
post_town= LIVERPOOL
postcode_district = L6, L7
postcode_area= L
dial_code= 0151
os_grid_reference= SJ368912
map_type= Merseyside

Kensington is an inner city area of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England. It is an area primarily of housing situated east of the city centre, bordered by Edge Hill, Everton and Fairfield. It is statistically one of the poorest areas of Liverpool and is considered one of the most deprived districts in the United Kingdom. It is known locally as "Kenny".

Etymology

Unlike Kensington in London, this has a different origin: the name is from the Old English personal name "Cyneræd" + -"inga" "people of" + "tun" "farm", suggesting "farm of Cyneraed's people". The name was recorded as "Ceneresintune" in 1139.

Description

The area is made up largely of Victorian terraces. A number of local shops such as newsagents exist along Kensington, Prescot Road and Edge Lane, the area's two main roads. Many shop fronts have been refurbished by the Government's New Deal for Communities programme. There are an increasing number of new shops serving the new communities - Africans and Polish people in particular. It has a high crime rate although this is falling as a result of the hard work of the Neighbourhood Community Police teams and average incomes are well below the national average. Residents of the area have a 50% chance of dying below the average UK life expectancy.

There are few nightlife attractions in Kensington, though the area does boast a number of true Liverpool pubs. A new Southern Indian/Sri Lankan restaurant has opened on Kensington, proof that the area is becoming increasingly more cosmopolitan. Once an all-white neighbourhood, some estimates indicate that 25% of the population are now from the BME community, principally attracted by the lower cost housing.

Community and regeneration

In recent years due to an influx of money from the 'The Kensington Regeneration' programme, improvements have been made, with rundown houses redeveloped and street monitors being put in place to keep a good social order.

[http://www.kensingtonvision.org KensingtonVision] , a Social Enterprise Community Interest Company setup in May 2007, has been producing videos and other media related projects about the area, including the Venture Housing Green Apprentices Video. KensingtonVision gave away free broadband connections and piloted connection to broadband via Freeview set top boxes to local residents.

In November 2007, Kensington had its own temporary community radio station KVfm 87.7(KensingtonVision). The radio station was run on an RSL (a temporary radio licence from OFCOM). The studio was built in the local McDonalds restaurant and ran live radio broadcasts from 8am to 8pm each day, with numerous community organisations taking part. As well as broadcasting on FM (picked up in Skelmersdale and the Wirral), it was streamed on the internet, with listeners as far afield as the US and Slovak Republic. Funding was put together by Steve Faragher (Director of KensingtonVision and a local resident) from various sources including C7 local social landlord, and the National Lottery. Despite spending ten months trying to get funding from local regeneration company Kensington Regeneration, KVfm was unsuccessful.

Kvfm had its' entire broadcast podcasted on www.kvfm2007.mypodcast.com and a new fortnightly show is being produced and podcasted on www.kvfm2008.mypodcast.com. The South bank Show comes from the secret underground lair semwhere near Edge Lane and is presetned by Steve Faragher and Sheila mcCoy, and sometimes aided by Marek Chleb their Polish Security Guard and general factotem.

Transport

There are regular buses (numbers 8, 9, 10 and variants thereof) providing services to the city centre, as well as to Huyton and St Helens.

The Merseytram System (Line 2) was due to run through Kensington, but this has now been cancelled after funding from the British Government was denied.

This district has recently started installing new WRTL Arc post-top streetlights to replace the old sodium-based GEC streetlights that were existent. However, Philips streetlighting is commonplace as well on side-streets: but the Thorn Beta 5 streetlight is also used, on side-entry streetlights.

Cultural references

The area was described in the song "Streets of Kenny" on the "HMS Fable" album by Liverpudlian band Shack. The song's main theme centres around the availability of heroin and cannabis in the area.

Millionaire John Elliott spent ten days in the district living in a council flat under state benefits as part of the Channel 4 programme "The Secret Millionaire" (episode broadcast 6 December 2006). He assisted a family living in a council house as well as paying several thousand pounds to a local asylum centre. Strictly, the road he lived on throughout his stay, Balmoral Road, is in the Fairfield district.

Notable residents

* Atomic Kitten member Natasha Hamilton grew up in Kensington.
* Shack's frontman Mick Head was born and raised here.
* The McGann brothers grew up in Kensington.
* Former Liverpool F.C. player Phil Thompson was born in Kensington.

External links

* [http://liverpoolstreetgallery.com/thumbnails.php?album=6 Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 6]
* [http://liverpoolstreetgallery.com/thumbnails.php?album=10 Liverpool Street Gallery - Liverpool 7]
* [http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Images/tcm21-29269.pdf Liverpool City Council, Ward Profile: Kensington & Fairfield]

* [http://www.kensingtonvision.org KensingtonVision Community Interest Company]