This fascinating selection of historic photographs documents the dramatic transformation that has taken place over the last 150 years in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The book gives an unforgettable impression of familiar streets and districts as they developed, and it offers an insight into the lives and living conditions of the residents in the last years of Queen Victoria's reign and the early years of the twentieth century. The pictures tell the story of how a cluster of nineteenth-century villages became one of the best-known and most populous areas of London.

The Royal Borough has since been noted as a centre of arts, commerce and fashion, as the scene of many historic occasions and as the home of famous personalities from public life. But the book also preserves the memory of ordinary people - passengers crowded into a horse-drawn bus, road sweepers standing with their brooms, a schoolgirl crossing the street carrying a violin case, a baker's boy pulling a handcart. The charming collection of historic photographs will add to the knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of anyone who takes an interest in this part of London.