Kensington, Philadelphia

Kensington
Neighborhood of Philadelphia
Beatty's Mills Factory Building, a historic textile mill that is now the Coral Street Arts House, which provides artists with low-income housing[1][2]
Map
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Philadelphia
City	Philadelphia
Area code(s)	215, 267, and 445

Kensington is a neighborhood in the River Wards section of Philadelphia. Kensington is a primarily low income and working class area, and it experienced increasing poverty after the loss of its industries in the 1960s during deindustrialization. Disinvestment and general neglect has led to high abandonment in some parts of the neighborhood, catalyzing several grassroots actions from its residents.^[3] Simultaneously, its lower portions have experienced significant gentrification in recent years.^[4]

As with all neighborhoods in the city, the lack of any official designation means the boundaries of the area vary between sources over time and are disputed among locals. Sub-neighborhoods within Kensington include East (or Lower) Kensington, West Kensington, and Harrowgate. The adjacent Fairhill and Norris Square neighborhoods are more separate but may be included in Kensington; Fishtown and South (Olde) Kensington were historically included.^[5][6] The most conservative boundaries of the neighborhood, shown in the map below, are Front Street and 5th Street to the west, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the east, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south.

Kensington is home to a large population of Hispanic Americans, mainly Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, as well as African Americans and Irish Americans. Communities of Polish Americans and Asian Americans also make up the neighborhood. Additionally, there is a large population of homeless individuals. Particularly south of Lehigh Avenue, the neighborhood also recently has seen a large influx of primarily white young urban professionals and gentrification, particularly in Fishtown^[7] – which is no longer considered to be part of Kensington – and in Olde Kensington, Norris Square, and East Kensington.

Kensington is today frequently associated with its open-air drug market. Today, the epicenter of the drug trade is near the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny avenues, which by 2020 housed a billion-dollar drug market with rampant open drug use and dealing on sidewalks and in public parks, particularly McPherson Square.^[8] Kensington's troubles with the drug trade have attracted national and even international news coverage.^[9][10] The drug trade has existed in Kensington since the 1970s, likely due to its many vacant factory buildings (convenient for drug storage, sale, and use), location several miles away from the concentration of institutions, residents, and workers in Center City, and easy access to the neighborhood via both the Market-Frankford Line and Interstate 95.^[11] In 2024, Mayor Cherelle Parker proposed a policy plan to address issues caused by the market, shifting spending and priorities away from harm reduction strategies and towards increased law enforcement, including more enforcement of low-level drug offenses.^[12]

Simultaneously, the lower part of the neighborhood (particularly below Lehigh Avenue) has become a hotspot for real-estate development and gentrification. The 19122 and 19125 ZIP codes, both of which include parts of Lower Kensington, are two of the top ZIP codes in Philadelphia for real estate development between 2021-2024, with new unit counts similar to the much more densely populated 19103 ZIP code in Center City Philadelphia.^[13] Recently, large developments have initiated north of Lehigh Avenue, in what is typically considered the heart of Kensington.^[14]