Kensington Palace Gardens in London

27 December 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  8 minutes

Entrance area to Kensington Palace Gardens © Oxfordian Kissuth/cc-by-sa-3.0

Entrance area to Kensington Palace Gardens © Oxfordian Kissuth/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kensington Palace Gardens is an exclusive street in Kensington, west of central London, near Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. Entered through gates at either end and guarded by sentry boxes, it was the location of the London Cage, the British government MI19 centre used during the Second World War and the Cold War. Several foreign diplomatic missions are located along it. A tree-lined avenue half a mile long studded with embassies, Kensington Palace Gardens is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, and has long been known as “Millionaires Row”, due to the huge wealth of its private residents, although in fact the majority of its current occupants are either national embassies or ambassadorial residences. As of late-2018, current market prices for a property in the street average over £35 million. It connects Notting Hill Gate with Kensington High Street. The southern section of Kensington Palace Gardens is called Palace Green.   read more…

Belgravia in London

3 December 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  15 minutes

Chesham Street © No Swan So Fine/cc-by-sa-4.0

Chesham Street © No Swan So Fine/cc-by-sa-4.0

Belgravia is an affluent district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the ‘Five Fields’ during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous place due to highwaymen and robberies. It was developed in the early 19th century by Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster under the direction of Thomas Cubitt, focusing on numerous grand terraces centred on Belgrave Square and Eaton Square. Much of Belgravia, known as the Grosvenor Estate, is still owned by a family property company, the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Group, although owing to the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, the estate has been forced to sell many freeholds to its former tenants.   read more…

Kensington in London

20 March 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  6 minutes

Serpentine Gallery © Mark Ahsmann/cc-by-sa-3.0

Serpentine Gallery © Mark Ahsmann/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. The district’s commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east-west axis. The north east is taken up by Kensington Gardens, containing the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery and Speke‘s monument. South Kensington is home to Imperial College London, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall. The area is also home to many European embassies.   read more…

Chelsea in London

7 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  11 minutes

Clabon Mews © flickr:com - Cristian Bortes/cc-by-2.0

Clabon Mews © flickr:com – Cristian Bortes/cc-by-2.0

Chelsea is an affluent area in West London, bounded to the south by the River Thames. Its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square tube station. The modern eastern boundary is Chelsea Bridge Road and the lower half of Sloane Street, including Sloane Square. To the north and northwest, the area fades into Knightsbridge and Brompton, but it is considered that the area north of King’s Road as far northwest as Fulham Road is part of Chelsea. The football club Chelsea F.C. is based at Stamford Bridge in neighbouring Fulham.   read more…

Victoria and Albert Museum in London

1 August 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  10 minutes

Victoria and Albert Museum entrance © Davild Iliff/cc-by-sa-3.0

Victoria and Albert Museum entrance © Davild Iliff/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), London, is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as “Albertopolis” because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001. Since 2001, the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation programme, which has seen a major overhaul of the departments, including the introduction of newer galleries, gardens, shops and visitor facilities.   read more…

Albertopolis in London

8 June 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Albertopolis © Andreas Praefcke

Albertopolis © Andreas Praefcke

Albertopolis is the nickname given to the area centred on Exhibition Road in London, named after Prince Albert, spouse of Queen Victoria. It contains a large number of educational and cultural sites. It is in South Kensington, split between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster (the border running along Imperial College Road), and the area bordered by Cromwell Road to the south and Kensington Road to the north. The closest tube station is South Kensington, linked to the museums by a tiled tunnel beneath Exhibition Road constructed in 1885. The tunnel originally continued as a covered route to the south porch of the Royal Albert Hall via a second tunnel, subsequently used for a period as Imperial College’s shooting range, emerging into the arcades and conservatory of the former gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society.   read more…

The Portobello Road in London

20 March 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London, Shopping Reading Time:  5 minutes

Portobello Road sign © Arnoprepa1/cc-by-sa-3.0

Portobello Road sign © Arnoprepa1/cc-by-sa-3.0

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. Every August since 1996 the Portobello Film Festival has been held in locations around Portobello Road.   read more…

The Imperial College London

23 June 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  6 minutes

Imperial College London - Royal School of Mines © Pyrope

Imperial College London - Royal School of Mines © Pyrope

Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine. Formerly a constituent college of the federal University of London, Imperial became fully independent in 2007, the 100th anniversary of its founding.   read more…

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