The Kensington District | Page 7

by the gardens of the Horticultural Society, and the Imperial Institute now stands on the site. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (see p. 66) was followed by another in 1862, which was not nearly so successful, and this was held on the ground now occupied by the Natural History Museum; it in turn was followed by smaller exhibitions held in the Horticultural Society's grounds.
In an old map we see Hale or Cromwell House standing, as above indicated, about the western end of the Museum gardens. Lysons gives little credence to the story of its having been the residence of the great Protector. He says that during Cromwell's time, and for many years afterwards, it was the residence of the Methwold family, and adds: "If there were any grounds for the tradition, it may be that Henry Cromwell occupied it before he went out to Ireland the second time." This seems a likely solution, for it is improbable that a name should have impressed itself so persistently upon a district without some connection, and as Henry Cromwell was married in Kensington parish church, there is nothing improbable in the fact of his having lived in the parish. Faulkner follows Lysons, and adds a detailed description of the house. He says:
"Over the mantelpiece there is a recess formed by the curve of the chimney, in which it is said that the Protector used to conceal himself when he visited the house, but why his Highness chose this place for concealment the tradition has not condescended to inform us."
In Faulkner's time the Earl of Harrington, who had come into possession of the park estate by his marriage with its heiress, owned Cromwell House; his name is preserved in Harrington Road close by. When the Manor of Earl's Court was sold to Sir Walter Cope in 1609, Hale House, as it was then called, and the 30 acres belonging to it, had been especially excepted. In the eighteenth century the place was turned into a tea-garden, and was well patronized, but never attained the celebrity of Vauxhall or Ranelagh, and later was eclipsed altogether by Florida Gardens further westward (see p. 32). The house was taken down in 1853.
The Natural History Museum is a branch of the British Museum, and, though commonly called the South Kensington Museum, has no claim at all to that title. The architect was A. Waterhouse, and the building rather suggests a child's erection from a box of many coloured bricks. The material is yellow terra-cotta with gray bands, and the ground-plan is simple enough, consisting of a central hall and long straight galleries running from it east and west. The mineralogical, botanical, zoological, and geological collections are to be found here in conformity with a resolution passed by the trustees of the British Museum in 1860, though the building was not finished until twenty years later. The collections are most popular, especially that of birds and their nests in their natural surroundings; and as the Museum is open free, it is well patronized, especially on wet Sunday afternoons. The South Kensington Museum, that part of it already standing on the east side of Exhibition Road, is the outcome of the Great Exhibition, and began with a collection at Marlborough House. The first erection was a hideous temporary structure of iron, which speedily became known as the "Brompton Boilers," and this was handed over to the Science and Art Department. In 1868 this building was taken down, and some of the materials were used for the branch museum at Bethnal Green.
The buildings have now spread and are spreading over so much ground that it is a matter of difficulty to enumerate them all. The elaborate terra-cotta building facing Exhibition Road is the Royal College of Science, under the control of the Board of Education, for the Museum is quite as much for purposes of technical education as for mere sightseeing. Behind this lie the older parts of the Museum, galleries, etc., which are so much hidden away that it is difficult to get a glimpse of them at all. Across the road, behind the Natural History Museum, are the Southern Galleries, containing various models of machinery actually working; northward of this, more red brick and scaffolding proclaim an extension, which will face the Imperial Institute Road, and parts have even run across the roads in both directions north and westward. The whole is known officially as the Victoria and Albert Museum, but generally goes by the name of the South Kensington Museum. The galleries and library are well worth a visit, and official catalogues can be had at the entrance.
From an architectural point of view, the Imperial Institute is much more satisfactory than either of the above. It is of gray stone, with a high tower called the Queen's Tower,