Kensington***** The Royal Village – 262 Five-Star Reviews

High Street Kensington underground station, London (meet by the Wasabi restaurant at the end of the shopping arcade that links the station with the High Street))

Guided by Adam or David or Sam Bond

Adult: £20 · Students & Seniors: £15 · Children: £5

Walk Times

Day	Walk Type	Start Time	End Time
Thursday	Weekly	2 pm	4 pm	Winter Summer	Reserve Online
Saturday	Weekly	2 pm	4 pm	Winter Summer	Reserve Online

Why go on the Kensington Walk?

1. Kensington specialises in hiding the best of itself
2. Kensington Palace
3. Kensington Gardens
4. Kensington Palace Gardens aka Millionaires’ Row
5. London’s finest Conservation Area
6. Byways and hidden lanes
7. Georgian townhouses
8. 1,000 years of history
9. No end of famous people, past and present
10. Grace and Favour Apartments aka The Old Stable Block
11. The Kensington eyrie – London’s nonpareil penthouse
12. Private art galleries
13. Kensington Square – much-loved, dignified, time-honoured (17th-century)
14. Hidden in plain sight – Kensington High Street’s architectural prodigies and secrets*
15. London’s one-of-a-kind mews
16. Pub perfection
17. Street furniture that tells many a tale
18. The Victorian mortuary
19. Tiny, tucked-away specialist shops
20. A-List cafes and restaurants, international cuisine
21. St Mary Abbots Church – “the cathedral of parish churches”
22. Paved in gold – the UK’s wealthiest neighbourhood
23. Paved in literary gold – poets’ and novelists’ Kensington
24. Abundant trace evidence of Kensington’s past
25. A fine collection of Ascot hats
26. The Kensington airstrip
27. Where they interrogated Nazi war criminals
28. Well-connected guides – the locals know David and Adam
29. Location, location, location**
30. Bragging rights – anyone for sitting on a seat that’s held a royal bottom?
31. A stunner – the only house in London designed by the Bridge of Sighs architect
32. Japanese loos
33. The three green men

*As Brynjulf put it in his review, “to look at buildings I have seen many times before without thinking much about them, and then being told to notice details and learning about art and history through these is really an eye-opener. The variety in the area is amazing…”

**Location, location, location because Kensington cup runneth over with wonderful museums, galleries and cultural institutions: Leighton House, Sambourne House, the Design Museum, the Royal College of Music Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Museum Quarter on the aptly named Exhibition Road in South Kensington (the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum), Imperial College, the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, etc.

The fit is perfect to make a whole day of it: a museum visit, a spot of lunch, the Kensington Walk and, well, how does tea at the Royal Albert Hall sound? Or pack some refreshments and enjoy the delights of Holland Park or Hyde Park and the Serpentine, Kensington Gardens or even the fascinating churchyard on Kensington Church Walk. The point being Kensington is perfect for making the best possible use of your time.  As Alain de Botton says, we should be seeking not so much to lengthen time as densify the time we have left. There’s no place better to do that than Kensington.

The Kensington Time Capsule

And speaking of making a day of Kensington…

Here’s a podcast about one of Kensington’s great hidden treasures: Linley Sambourne House in Stafford Terrace, the extraordinary preserved home of the great Punch cartoonist.

But really it’s about something larger: the pleasures of lingering in Kensington and making a real day of it. A museum in the morning, lunch somewhere civilised, the Kensington Walk at 2 pm, Kensington Gardens afterwards, perhaps tea at the Royal Albert Hall.

In short, not merely tourism but experience.

Give it a listen.

Ok, that’s your checklist. Now let’s put it rather more mellifluously.

“What will I see?”

“Try this for a shortlist: the most remarkable small literary house on the planet; London’s most palatial residential street; the ensemble of townhouses that are the final flowering of ‘the Restoration idiom’ (aka the signature London house for 220 years); a Victorian mortuary; Brigitte Bardot; Prince William’s apartment; four sub-villages; details on the High Street that nobody else sees (there’s a shocking amount of violence there if you know where to look); London’s most delightful cul de sac; centuries-old barracks…

“That’s a very short shortlist. There are getting on for 150 ‘point-outs’ on the walk. But the walk’s not just a magic lantern. In the immortal words of John Constable, “we see nothing until we understand it.” By walk’s end you’ll have seen Kensington because you’ll understand it. Understand what it is about Kensington – understand how and why it’s the wealthiest district in the country. Understand the skull beneath the skin. Understand that all-important house in Holland Street – the one the famous actor lives in – ‘if you understand this one house in Kensington you understand London.”

Short read: London’s royal village.

Medium read: This one’s a special favourite. It’s rarely the first – or even the second or third walk people go on but when they do get round to taking it they often say it’s the one they liked the most. And no wonder, because“Royal Kensington is London at its best – picturesque, stimulating and full of character.”

Long read: Nestled between Notting Hill to the north, Knightsbridge to the East, Earls Court to the south and Hammersmith to the West, affluent Kensington is paired with the equally posh Chelsea in one royal borough. There’s good reason it’s home to royalty, embassies, VIPS and the rich and famous. It’s the birthplace of Queen Victoria and both she and her husband, Prince Albert are remembered here, with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Albert Memorial, Queen’s Gate Mews and the Royal Albert Hall to name but a few.

Its parts are as delightful as London can provide: Europe’s most exclusive residential street; warmly handsome old Kensington Palace, home to the late Diana, Princess of Wales (and, latterly, Princes William and Harry); Kensington Gardens (all meadows, shaded walks, bowers and flower gardens, it might be the grounds of a stately home in some rural shire except for the parakeets – the reason why apples are pierced onto the railings)…

London’s prettiest and most unusual mews; its most delightful cul de sac; cobbled little soigné lanes, girt with pretty cottages and charming old shops; regal avenues, beautifully kept squares and a clutch of the world’s greatest museums.

Let alone Europe’s largest (and most astonishing) roof garden, the secluded townhouse of the greatest Londoner of the 20th-century, a matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls) of Kensington mini-neighbourhoods, grace and favour apartments, the most important centre outside Germany for the Nazi war trials, a “rising room,” an artistic tour de force made out of 41,300 matchsticks, the most exotically beautiful garden in London, ghostly figures behind a balustrade, the four great rivers of the Old Testament, the most remarkable small literary house on the planet, a secret eyrie and more history and colourful characters than you can shake a stick at.

Guided by David or Adam

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING

   

N.B. the above is just a sampling of what’s mostly served up on David’s walk – this being London Walks, Adam’s walk will be stamped with its owner’s character and interests.

Want more? Here’s David’s Podcast about how he sometimes starts the walk and a good bit about Kensington 1,000 Years Ago

For good measure, here’s David’s podcast about “a nondescript corner of Kensington where you have 500 years of Kensington in the palm of your hand.”

And here are David’s Where to Eat in Kensington recommendations.

KENSINGTON WALK – THE PRACTICALS

The Kensington Walk takes place at 2 pm on Thursdays * and 2 pm on Saturdays. The meeting point is High Street Kensington Tube. When you come up the steps and go through the ticket barrier at High Street Kensington Tube you’ll see, directly in front of you, a short shopping arcade that leads out to the High Street. At the far end – the pavement (sidewalk) end – of the shopping arcade, just before it debouches out onto the High Street, is a Wasabi restaurant. The meeting point is on the pavement (sidewalk) directly outside the shopping arcade, right by the Wasabi restaurant.

The royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea boasts an impressive 13 tube stations including South Kensington, Gloucester Road, Holland Park and Knightsbridge. Make sure you head for High Street Kensington underground station for this walk.

*To be on the safe side always check the date on the calendar. Or heed the top-level announcements that read: Click for dates this walk does not take place.

On Thursdays, the walk is guided by Adam or David. On Saturdays, it’s guided by David. N.B. the walk ends back at High Street Kensington tube – or a few minutes walk away.  

THE WEATHER

Here’s what you need to know…

LONDON WALKS ADDED VALUE

Be sure to ask Adam or David or Corin for a toothsome recommendation or two if you’re feeling peckish after the walk

Or click here to listen to David’s Where to Eat in Kensington podcast.

And here’s David’s podcast about the Conservation Area David explores on his Kensington Walk.

CODA

Not in London but fancy going on this walk? Try the Sights & Secrets of Kensington Virtual Tour.

Want more walks like this? Check out our other literary tours of London.

 

Don’t just take it from us…

These are a distillation of David’s and Adam’s 161 reviews –

For the full monte, scroll down…