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 known officially as the Victoria and Albert Museum, but generally goes by the name of the South Kensington Museum. The galleries and library are well worth a visit, and official catalogues can be had at the entrance.

From an architectural point of view, the Imperial Institute is much more satisfactory than either of the above. It is of gray stone, with a high tower called the Queen's Tower, rising to a height of 280 feet; in this is a peal of bells, ten in number, called after members of the royal family, and presented by an Australian lady. The Institute was the national memorial for Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and was designed to embody the colonial or Imperial idea by the collection of the native products of the various colonies, but it has not been nearly so successful as its fine idea entitled it to be. It was also formed into a club for Fellows on a payment of a small subscription, but was never very warmly supported. It is now partly converted to other uses. The London University occupies the main entrance, great hall, central block, and east wings (except the basement). There are located here the Senate and Council rooms, Vice-Chancellor's rooms, Board-rooms, convocation halls and offices, besides the rooms of the Principal, Registrars, and other University officers. At the Institute are also the physiological theatre and laboratories for special advanced lectures and research. The rest of the building is now the property of the Board of Trade, under whom the real Imperial Institute occupies the west wing and certain other parts of the building.

The Horticultural Gardens, which the Imperial Institute superseded, were taken by the Society in 1861, in addition to its then existing gardens at Chiswick. They were laid out in a very artificial and formal style, and were mocked in a contemporary article in the Quarterly Review: "So the brave old trees which skirted the paddock of Gore House were felled, little ramps were raised, and little slopes sliced off with a fiddling nicety of touch which would have delighted the imperial grandeur of the summer palace, and the tiny declivities thus manufactured were tortured into curvilinear patterns, where sea-sand, chopped coal, and powdered bricks atoned for the absence of flower or shrub." Every vestige of this has, of course, now vanished, and a new road has been driven past the front of the Institute.

The Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871, and, like the other buildings already mentioned, is closely associated with the earlier half of her reign. The idea was due to Prince Albert, who wished to have a large hall for musical and oratorical performances. It is in the form of a gigantic ellipse covered by a dome, and the external walls are decorated by a frieze. The effect is hardly commendable, and the whole has been compared to a huge bandbox. However, it answers the purpose for which it was designed, having good acoustic properties, and its concerts, especially the cheap ones on Sunday afternoons, are always well attended. The organ is worked by steam, and is one of the largest in the world, having close on 9,000 pipes. The hall stands on the site of Gore House, in its time a rendezvous for all the men and women of intellect and brilliancy in England. It was occupied by Wilberforce from 1808 to 1821. He came to it after his illness at Clapham, which had made him feel the necessity of moving nearer to London, that he might discharge his Parliamentary duties more easily. His Bill for the Abolition of Slavery had become law shortly before, and he was at the time a popular idol. His house was thronged with visitors, among whom were his associates, Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay, and Romilly. What charmed him most in his new residence was the garden "full of lilacs, laburnum, nightingales, and swallows." He writes:

In 1836 the clever and popular Lady Blessington came to Gore House, and remained there just so long as Wilberforce had done—namely, thirteen years. The house is thus described in "The Gorgeous Lady Blessington" (Mr. Molloy):

Kensington