Kensington South (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates

Template:Infobox UK constituency Kensington South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Kensington district of west London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

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Kensington South in the Metropolitan area 1885-1918

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Kensington South in the Parliamentary County of London 1918-50

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Kensington South in the Parliamentary County of London 1950-74

File:Kensington Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg

Kensington Metropolitan Borough wards in 1916

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the February 1974 general election. In every postwar election until its abolition, it was the safest Conservative seat (excluding Northern Irish constituencies) in the country.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1885	Sir Algernon Borthwick	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1895 by-election	Lord Warkworth (known as Earl Percy from 1899)	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1910	Lord Claud Hamilton	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1918	Sir William Davison	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1945 by-election	Richard Law	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1950	Sir Patrick Spens	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1959	William Roots	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1968 by-election	Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams	Conservative
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Boundaries

Prior to 1885, the area was originally part of the Chelsea constituency. Following the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the new Kensington South seat was a single-member constituency consisting of all of the parliamentary borough of Kensington south of the Uxbridge Road.

Following boundary changes under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency was defined as consisting of the Royal Borough of Kensington wards of Brompton, Earl's Court, Holland, Queen's Gate, and Redcliffe.

In the 1950 redistribution, Brompton ward was transferred to the Chelsea constituency. The constituency was thus now defined as consisting of the Royal Borough of Kensington wards of Earl's Court, Holland, Queen's Gate, and Redcliffe. It then remained unchanged until its abolition in 1974.

In 1965, under major local government boundary changes, the London County Council area was absorbed by the new Greater London Council, and the constituency was included in a new London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This did not affect parliamentary boundaries for another nine years, however.

In the 1974 redistribution, this constituency disappeared. Earl's Court and Redcliffe wards became part of the redrawn Chelsea constituency, while Holland and Queen's Gate wards became part of the new Kensington constituency.