Brit is an international general insurance and reinsurance group specialising in commercial insurance. It was acquired by Fairfax Financial in May 2015.
33-610: The Design Museum in Kensington , London, England, exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award . The museum operates as a registered charity , and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in curating new exhibitions. The museum was founded in 1989 by Sir Terence Conran , with Stephen Bayley as inaugural CEO , after
66-630: A busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared London's second best shopping street in February 2005 due to its wide range and number of shops. However, since October 2008 the street has faced competition from the Westfield shopping centre in nearby White City. Kensington's second group of commercial buildings is at South Kensington , where several streets of small to medium-sized shops and service businesses are situated close to South Kensington tube station . This
99-484: A purpose-designed space for a programme of talks, seminars, debates and public and private events throughout the year. The basement accommodates a collections store, exhibition preparation spaces and a locker area for visitors. The Design Museum has an award scheme which Brit Insurance sponsored from 2003 until 2011. Designs produced over the previous 12 months worldwide are eligible. A number of design experts are invited to nominate up to five projects each, falling into
132-606: A trait that it shares with Chelsea, its neighbour to the south. The area has some of London's most expensive streets and garden squares, and at about the turn of the 21st century the Holland Park neighbourhood became particularly high-status. In early 2007 houses sold in Upper Phillimore Gardens, immediately east of Holland Park , for over £20 million. Brompton is another definable area of Kensington. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea forms part of
165-450: Is Holland Park , on the north side of the eastern end of Kensington High Street. Many residential roads have small communal garden squares , for the exclusive use of the residents. The sub districts of Kensington: South Kensington and Earl's Court also consist largely of private housing. North Kensington and West Kensington are largely devoid of features to attract the visitor. Kensington is, in general, an extremely affluent area,
198-676: Is Kensington High Street , running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Gardens , containing the Albert Memorial , the Serpentine Gallery and Speke 's monument. South Kensington and Gloucester Road are home to Imperial College London , the Royal College of Music , the Royal Albert Hall , Natural History Museum , Victoria and Albert Museum , and Science Museum . The area
231-756: Is also home to many embassies and consulates. The manor of Chenesitone is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, which in the Anglo-Saxon language means "Chenesi's ton " (homestead/settlement). One early spelling is Kesyngton , as written in 1396. The manor of Kensington, in the county of Middlesex , was one of several hundred granted by King William the Conqueror (1066–1089) to Geoffrey de Montbray (or Mowbray), Bishop of Coutances in Normandy, one of his inner circle of advisors and one of
264-400: Is also the southern end of Exhibition Road , the thoroughfare which serves the area's museums and educational institutions. The boundaries of Kensington are not well-defined; in particular, the southern part of Kensington has conflicting and complex borders with Chelsea (another ancient manor) whether electoral or postal definitions are used, and has similar architecture. To the west, a border
297-646: Is clearly defined by the line of the Counter Creek marked by the West London railway line . To the north, the only obvious border line is Holland Park Avenue, to the north of which is the district of Notting Hill (another ancient manor), usually classed as within "North Kensington". In the north east is situated the large public Royal Park of Kensington Gardens (contiguous with its eastern neighbour, Hyde Park ). The other main green area in Kensington
330-516: Is well served by public transport . Most of Kensington is served by three stations in the Travelcard Zone 1 : High Street Kensington , Gloucester Road and South Kensington . All three are served by the Circle line which connects them to London's railway terminals. The District line also serves all three stations, albeit on different branches; it links the latter two to Westminster and
363-591: The City . The Piccadilly line also links South Kensington and Gloucester Road to the West End in about 10 minutes, and in the other direction to Chiswick , Ealing , Hounslow and Heathrow Airport in around 20–40 minutes, depending on the area of choice. In addition Kensington (Olympia) in Travelcard Zone 2 serves the western part of Kensington, with District line trains to Earl's Court and High Street Kensington. Nearby West Kensington station takes its name from
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#1732772793434396-502: The City of London . The building also houses Lebedev's TV channel London Live , with its news studio situated in part of the former department store, using St Mary Abbots church and Kensington Church Street as live backdrop. Kensington is crossed east–west by three main roads, the most important of which is the A4 Cromwell Road which connects it to Central London on the east and to Hounslow and Heathrow Airport on
429-577: The Combined Counties Football League . Brit Insurance The Company was founded as Benfield & Rea Investment Trust in 1995. In 1996 it acquired Stewart Syndicates Limited and in 1999 it went on to buy Wren PLC . In 1999 it ceased to be an investment trust and relisted as Brit Insurance Holdings PLC . Achilles Netherlands Holdings B.V., a company formed by funds managed by private equity firms Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners , agreed to acquire
462-859: The Holiday Inn 's London Kensington Forum Hotel in Cromwell Road , a 27-storey building. Notable attractions and institutions in Kensington include Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, the Royal Albert Hall opposite the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, the Royal College of Music , the Natural History Museum , the Science Museum , the Victoria and Albert Museum , Heythrop College , Imperial College ,
495-601: The Royal College of Art , and Kensington and Chelsea College . The Olympia Exhibition Hall is just over the western border in West Kensington . Kensington is administered within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and lies within the Kensington parliamentary constituency. The head office of newspaper group DMGT is located in Northcliffe House off Kensington High Street in part of
528-503: The great hall of a manor house but in a courthouse. In order to differentiate it, the new sub-manor granted to Abingdon Abbey became known as Abbot's Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots . The original Kensington Barracks , built at Kensington Gate in the late 18th century, were demolished in 1858 and new barracks were built in Kensington Church Street. The focus of the area is Kensington High Street ,
561-550: The 1930s. This was funded by many companies, designers and benefactors. The museum was principally designed by the Conran group, with exhibitions over two floors, and a "Design Museum Tank" exhibition space out by the waterfront. A large scale sculpture titled The Head of Invention by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was installed in the area between the museum and the Thames. In June 2011, Sir Terence Conran donated £17.5 million to enable
594-417: The atrium acts as an events space. A main staircase from the atrium gives access to all floors and offers views to the first and second floors and the hyperbolic paraboloid roof. A double-height space spanning the two lower levels, Gallery Two hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions dedicated to architecture, fashion, furniture, product and graphic design. The Bakala Auditorium seats 202 people and provide
627-526: The charging hours Monday-Friday to pay a daily fee of £8). In 2020 a temporary cycle lane on Kensington High Street caused a nationwide media stir. The temporary cycle lane was installed by the local council in September 2020 with £700,000 in funding from central government grants, but it was removed in December 2020. Kensington has one football team, Kensington Borough F.C. , which currently plays in
660-631: The firm for £888 million in October 2010. Its offer was declared unconditional in March 2011 and following this Brit Insurance was removed from the FTSE 250 Index. On 18 June 2012 Brit announced the sale of its subsidiary Brit Insurance Limited (BIL) to RiverStone Group. The company was subject to an initial public offering in March 2014. The company was acquired by Fairfax Financial in May 2015. Brit has
693-523: The former boundaries with Hammersmith and is not in the Borough. A number of local bus services link Kensington into the surrounding districts, and key hubs are Kensington High Street and South Kensington station. These bus services were improved in frequency and spread from 2007 until 2010 when the western extension of the London congestion charge area existed (which required drivers of cars and vans during
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#1732772793434726-545: The history of the museum. The Swarovski Foundation Centre for Learning is a suite of learning facilities including a design studio, creative workshop, two seminar rooms and a common room. The Design Museum offices and main reception, a meeting room and a film studio are also located on the first floor. On the ground floor, the largest gallery in the Design Museum showcases a programme of temporary exhibitions. Accessible from both Kensington High Street and Holland Park ,
759-471: The king after 1095, which increased his status in feudal England. He granted the church and an estate within the manor to Abingdon Abbey in Oxfordshire , at the deathbed request of his eldest son Geoffrey. As the de Veres became Earls of Oxford , their principal manor at Kensington came to be known as Earl's Court, as they were not resident in the manor, and their manorial business was not conducted in
792-699: The large Barkers department store building. In addition to housing the offices for the DMGT newspapers Daily Mail , Mail on Sunday and Metro , Northcliffe House also accommodates the offices of the newspapers owned by Evgeny Lebedev : The Independent , The Independent on Sunday , and the Evening Standard . The i newspaper, sold to Johnston Press in 2016, is still produced from offices in Northcliffe House. Most of these titles were for many decades produced and printed in Fleet Street in
825-465: The most densely populated local government district in the United Kingdom. This high density has come about through the subdivision of large mid-rise Georgian and Victorian terraced houses (generally of four to six floors) into flats. The less-affluent northern extremity of Kensington has high-rise residential buildings, while this type of building in the southern part is only represented by
858-488: The museum to move in 2016 from the warehouse to a larger site which formerly housed the Commonwealth Institute in west London. This landmark from the 1960s, a Grade II* listed building, designed by Robert Matthew / Sir Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners architects that had stood vacant for over a decade, was developed by a design team led by John Pawson . Fit-out of the Design Museum's new home
891-520: The seven categories of architecture, transport, graphics, interactive, product, furniture and fashion. Since 2015, there have been six categories: architecture, fashion, graphics, digital, product and transport. Beazley became exhibition sponsor in 2016. Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , around 2.9 miles (4.6 km) west of Central London . The district's commercial heart
924-621: The two men had collaboratively created the highly successful exhibition space known as The Boilerhouse at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The museum was originally housed in a former 1940s banana warehouse on the south bank of the River Thames in the Shad Thames area of London. The conversion of this warehouse altered it beyond recognition, to resemble a building in the International Modernist style of
957-470: The wealthiest men in post- Conquest England . He granted the tenancy of Kensington to his follower Aubrey de Vere I , who was holding the manor from him as overlord in 1086, according to the Domesday Book . The bishop's heir, Robert de Mowbray , rebelled against King William II and his vast feudal barony was forfeited to the Crown. Aubrey de Vere I thus became a tenant-in-chief , holding directly from
990-399: The west. Parallel to the north is Kensington Road (of which Kensington High Street forms the eastern part), linking central London and Hammersmith and Hounslow to the area. To the south is Fulham Road, which connects South Kensington with Fulham to the south-west. North-south connections are not as well-developed and there is no obvious single north–south route through the area. Kensington
1023-479: Was appointed as director and chief executive. The top-floor space under the museum roof houses a permanent display, Designer Maker User, with key objects from the museum's collection. A restaurant, members' lounge, residency studio and an events and gallery space are also located on the top floor. On the first floor, a design and architecture reference library is a resource for students, educators, researchers and designers. It also includes archive material relating to
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1056-404: Was carried out by Willmott Dixon Interiors. The Design Museum opened in its Kensington location on 24 November 2016. The move gave the museum three times more space than in its previous location at Shad Thames, with the new Swarovski Foundation Centre for Learning, 202-seat Bakala Auditorium and a dedicated gallery to display its permanent collection, accessible free of charge. The new building
1089-486: Was the subject of a profile on the Sky Arts programme The Art of Architecture in 2019. The move brought the museum into Kensington's cultural quarter, joining the Royal College of Art , V&A , Science Museum , Natural History Museum and Serpentine Gallery . Deyan Sudjic succeeded Alice Rawsthorn as director of the Design Museum in 2006. In 2016, Alice Black was appointed co-director. In 2019, Tim Marlow
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