Kensington

Neighborhood · Brooklyn

Kensington stretches from Fort Hamilton Parkway to 18th Avenue and from Dahill Road and 36th Street east to Coney Island Avenue, with Ocean Parkway running through its center.

  • 0.63 square miles
  • 41,758 residents, 2020 Census
  • 95 street corners
  • 2 subway stations
  • 10 bus routes

Named for the borough in west London, it held scattered farms until the Coney Island Plank Road, now Coney Island Avenue, was laid in the 1850s, and the name took hold after Ocean Parkway was completed in the late 1800s. The parkway, a city scenic landmark since 1975 and the site of the country's first bike path in 1894, is lined here by prewar brick apartment buildings, and elsewhere brick rowhouses mix with detached Victorian houses.

Sources: Kensington, Brooklyn (Forgotten New York); London's Calling: How Kensington Got Its Name (Brownstoner); Ocean Parkway Malls History (NYC Parks); Kensington, Brooklyn (Wikipedia).

Map

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Kensington borders four areas, and Church Avenue holds more of its corners than any other street, 11 of 95.

Street map of Kensington, Brooklyn, outlined among Flatbush (West)-Ditmas Park-Parkville, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace-South Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery, with its two subway stations.Windsor Terrace-South SlopeFlatbush (West)-Ditmas Park-ParkvilleBorough Park
  • Kensington
  • A neighboring area
  • Park
  • A station in the list
  • Another station

Neighborhood areas and streets: NYC Department of City Planning. Parks: NYC Parks. Stations: MTA.

Neighboring areas

Subway stations

  • Church Av lines F G accessible
  • Ditmas Av lines F

Getting around

Two subway stations and buses on ten routes stop in or at the edge of Kensington.

  • 2 subway stations
  • 1 of them listed by the MTA as fully accessible
  • 8 local bus routes
  • 2 express bus routes

Local bus routes

  • B8
  • B16
  • B35
  • B67
  • B68
  • B69
  • B90
  • B103

Express bus routes

  • BM3
  • BM4

Safety record

Between 2021 and 2025, its corners averaged fewer police-reported crashes than the average Brooklyn corner.

  • 956 police-reported crashes at its corners
  • 10.1 a corner, on average
  • 10.5 the average Brooklyn corner
  • 1 corner with a clean record

Signal or safety changes on City record, at 29 of its corners

Leading pedestrian intervals
20
Accessible pedestrian signals
15
Turn calming
7
Safety Improvement Projects
2
Barnes Dance all-way crossings
1

Camera tickets

In 2025 its corners had more school-zone speed camera tickets than bus-lane or red-light tickets.

  • 714 red-light camera tickets at one corner
  • 32,820 school-zone speed camera tickets at nine corners
  • 4,011 bus-lane camera tickets at one corner
Most red-light tickets
Coney Island Avenue & Dorchester Road, 714
Most speed tickets
Ocean Parkway & Ditmas Avenue, 10,716
Most bus-lane tickets
East 8th Street & Church Avenue, 4,011

People and homes

The 2020 Census counted 41,758 residents in Kensington, about 66,300 per square mile.

  • 14,804 homes, 2020 Census
  • 360 homes added since April 2010, net, by City Planning's count

Half of its 2,827 residential lots hold buildings from 1925 or earlier, and 91% of them date from before 1940, by the City's tax lot records.

Parks

Parkland
0.5 acre of Albemarle Playground, as NYC Parks maps it within Kensington

Streets and trees

Trees
2,496 in NYC Parks' records, most often London planetree, thornless honeylocust and Japanese zelkova
Street with the most corners
Church Avenue, with 11 of the area's 95
Height above sea level
From 33 feet at East 9th Street & Ditmas Avenue to 69 feet at 36th Street & Minna Street
Honorary street names
3 at its corners, enacted by local law

Schools

The City lists 17 schools in Kensington.

Public schools
5
Charter and private schools
12

Bike share

By the station list of October 3, 2026, 13 bike-share stations stand in Kensington.

  • 13 bike-share stations

Public safety

How complaints are counted

In 2025 the NYPD recorded 233 major felonies at places in Kensington.

Recorded by the NYPD at places in Kensington

  • 217 major felonies in 2024
  • 698 other felonies, misdemeanors and violations in 2025

In 2025, on the streets along the edge of Kensington, the NYPD recorded another 75 major felonies. Counting the streets along its edge, in 2025 the NYPD recorded 7.4 major felonies for every thousand residents the 2020 Census counted in Kensington.

Police precincts
66th (most of the area), 70th
Major felonies recorded at places in Kensington, 2021 to 2025

From January to June 2026 the NYPD recorded 104 major felonies at places in Kensington, against 112 in the same months of 2025.

Sources: the NYPD's Complaint Data Historic, updated April 28, 2026, and Complaint Data Current (Year To Date), updated July 27, 2026, on NYC Open Data. Figures to June 30, 2026.

Street corners

How the figures above are measured: Methodology.