Within the church the walls are thickly covered with memorial tablets, and on the north and south walls are rows of them set in coloured marble. The reredos is a representation of the four evangelists in mosaic work in four panels, enclosed in a Gothic canopy of marble. On the north side of the chancel is a fresco painting enclosed in marble, presented by the Archbishop of York on leaving the parish. On the south side there is also a small fresco painting, but the greater part of the wall is occupied by the sedilia. The transept on the south side of the nave contains numerous memorial tablets and two brasses: nearly all of these belong to the eighteenth century. The monument of the Rich family is against the west wall in this transept, and is a conspicuous object. A large marble slab against the wall bears the name of Edward Rich, last Earl of Warwick and Holland (died 1759), his wife Mary, who survived him ten years, and their only child Charlotte, who died unmarried. Above are the names of the Rich family, and below is the statue of the young Earl of Warwick and Holland, the stepson of Addison, who died in 1721, aged twenty-four. He is in Roman dress, life-size, and is represented seated with his right elbow resting on an urn.

On the further side of the south door we have a curious old white marble monument to the memory of Mr. Colin Campbell (died 1708). This was in the old church, and was placed in its present position by a descendant of the Campbell family. The font, a handsome marble basin, stands in the north aisle. Near it is a marble bust of Dr. Rennell, a former vicar of Kensington, by Chantrey. In the north chapel there is a large marble tablet to the memory of William Murray, third son of the Earl of Dunmore. The pulpit is of dark carved oak, and stood in the old church. The west porch is very handsomely ornamented with stonework. In the churchyard are buried several persons of note, including Mrs. Inchbald, the authoress; and a son of George Canning, whose monument is by Chantrey.

Among other entries in the registers may be noticed the marriage of Henry Cromwell, already mentioned. There are many records of the Hicks (Campden) family, also of the Winchilsea and Nottingham, Lawrence, Cecil, Boyle, Howard of Effingham, Brydges, Dukes of Chandos, Molesworth, and Godolphin families. The plate belonging to the church is very valuable. The oldest piece is a cup dating from 1599, and a silver tankard is of the year 1619. A full description of the plate was given by Mr. Cripps in the parish magazine in 1879.

The church owes its additional name of Abbots to the fact of its having belonged to the Abbot and convent of Abingdon, as set forth in the history of the parish. Bowack says: "It does not appear that this church was ever dedicated to any saint, nor can we find, after a very strict search, by whom it was founded, though we have traced its vicars up to the year 1260."

It has already been explained that Aubrey de Vere made a present to the Abbot of the slice of land on which the church stands, and that this formed a secondary manor in Kensington. This transfer had been made with the consent of Pope Alexander, but without the consent of the Bishop of London or the Archbishop. In consequence of this omission the title of the Abbey to the land was disputed, and it was at length settled that the patronage of the vicarage should be vested in the Bishop. This was in 1260. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbot's portion became vested in the Crown, from which it passed to various persons; and when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor a special arrangement had to be made with Robert Horseman, who was then in possession.

So much for the history. The actual fabric has been subject to much change, and has been rebuilt many times. It is known that a church was standing on this site in 1102, but how old it was then is only matter for conjecture; in 1370 it was wholly or partly rebuilt. And this church was pulled down about 1694, with the exception of the tower, and again rebuilt; but in seven years the new building began to crack, and in 1704 the roof was taken off, and the north and south walls once more rebuilt. After this Bowack describes it as "of brick and handsomely finished; but what it was formerly may be guessed by the old tower now standing, which has some appearance of antiquity, and looks like the architecture of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries." In his encomium he probably spoke more in accordance with convention than with real approbation, for this church has been described by many other independent persons as an unsightly building, with no architectural beauty whatever; and as far as may be gathered from the prints still extant this is the true judgment. In 1811 it showed signs of decay, and underwent thorough restoration; and in 1869 it was entirely demolished, and the present church built from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott. The spire, added a few years later, is only exceeded by two in England—namely, those of Salisbury and Norwich Cathedrals.

There are many parish charities, which it would be out of place to enumerate here, and among them are several bequests for the cleansing and repair of tombs.

The fine shops on the south side of the street inherit a more ancient title than might be supposed. Bowack, writing in 1705, speaks of the "abundance of shopkeepers and all sorts of artificers" along the high-road, "which makes it appear rather like a part of London than a country village."

Leaving aside for the time Church Street and all the interesting district on the north, we turn to Kensington Square, which was begun about the end of James II.'s reign, and from the very first was a notably fashionable place, and more especially so after the Court was established at Kensington Palace. In Queen Anne's reign, "for beauty of buildings and worthy inhabitants," it "exceeds several noted squares in London." The eminent inhabitants have indeed been so numerous that it is difficult to prevent any account of them from degenerating into a mere catalogue. "In the time of George II. the demand for lodgings was so great that an Ambassador, a Bishop, and a physician were known to occupy apartments in the same house" (Faulkner).

The two houses, Nos. 10 and 11, in the eastern corner on the south side are the two oldest that look on to the square. They were reserved for the maids of honour when the Court was at Kensington, and the wainscoted rooms and little powdering closets speak volumes as to their bygone days; these two were originally one house, as the exterior shows. Next door is the women's department of King's College. J. R. Green, the historian, lived at No. 14 until his death, and in No. 18 John S. Mill was living in 1839. Three Bishops at least are known to have been domiciled in the square: Bishop Mawson of Ely, who died here in 1770; Bishop Herring of Bangor, a very notable prelate, who was afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; and in the south-western corner Bishop Hough of Oxford, Lichfield, and Worcester had a fine old house until 1732. The Convent of the Assumption now covers the same ground in Nos. 20 to 24. The original object of the convent was prayer for the conversion of England to the Roman Catholic faith, but the sisters now devote themselves to the work of teaching; they have a pleasant garden, more than an acre in extent, stretching out at the back of the house. In the chapel there is a fresco painting by Westlake.

No. 26 is the Kensington Foundation Grammar School. Talleyrand lived in Nos. 36 and 37, formerly one house. He succeeded Bishop Herring in the occupancy, after a lapse of fifty years, and the man who had abandoned the vocation of the Church to follow diplomacy was thus sheltered by the same roof that had sheltered a