The Kensington District | Page 7

of the Earls of Egmont. A large part of it was cut off in 1675
to form a nursery garden, the first of its kind in England, which
naturally attracted much attention, and formed a good strolling-ground
for the idlers who came out from town. Evelyn mentions this garden in
his diary at some length, and evidently admired it very much. It was
succeeded 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