Emma Dent Coad’s ‘love letter to Kensington’ is nothing of the sort

Few places can rival the London borough of Kensington in diversity. In the 19th century, new mansions sat alongside the cholera-ridden slums around the piggeries and brick claypits. A speculative racecourse came and went. More recently, postwar slum clearance created new housing divides and Portobello Road became a key London destination. Racial tensions erupted in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, and in the 1970s the Westway motorway sliced through the north of the borough, reinforcing its landlocked character and poor transport links to the rest of London.

In 1965, following a major reorganisation of London’s government, Kensington was combined with Chelsea to create a new borough. In 2013, I became the leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council. Emma Dent Coad, the author of One Kensington, soon became the opposition leader, before going on to serve as MP for Kensington from 2017-9. She has now bounced back to lead the Labour party on the council again, doubtless with an eye to another crack at parliament.