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Tube: High Street Kensington. Shopper-thronged Kensington High Street is dominated architecturally by the twin presences of Sir George Gilbert Scott's neo-Gothic church of St Mary Abbots, whose 250-foot spire makes it London's tallest parish church, and the Art Deco colossus of Barkers department store, remodelled in the 1930s. Kensington's sights are mostly hidden away in the backstreets, the one exception being the Commonwealth Institute ( www.commonwealth.org.uk), housed in a bold 1960s building set back from the High Street. The whole place has recently undergone a massive restoration and refurbishment programme. Gone is the permanent collection with a section on each of the member states; instead, the Institute aims to put on more up-to-date, interactive temporary exhibitions focusing on a particular Commonwealth country. Two paths along the side of the Commonwealth Institute lead to densely wooded Holland Park , the former grounds of a Jacobean mansion (only the east wing still stands). Theatrical and musical performances are staged here throughout the summer, and several formal gardens surround the house, most notably the Japanese-style Kyoto Gardens, while the rest of the park is dotted with a newly-installed series of abstract sculptures. A number of wealthy Victorian artists rather self-consciously founded an artists' colony in the streets that lie between the High Street and Holland Park. It's now possible to visit one of the most remarkable of these artist pads, Leighton House (Wed-Mon 11am-5.30pm; free), 12 Holland Park Rd. "It will be opulence, it will be sincerity", Lord Leighton opined before starting work on the house in the 1860s - he later became President of the Royal Academy and was ennobled on his deathbed. The big attraction is the domed Arab Hall, decorated with Saracen tiles, gilded mosaics and woodwork drawn from all over the Islamic world. The other rooms are less spectacular but, in compensation, are hung with paintings by Lord Leighton and his Pre-Raphaelite chums.
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