Neighbourhood guide · W8, W11
Kensington
Garden squares, cobbled mews and the palace across the park.
Kensington has the palace, the park and some of the most complete Victorian streets in London. Behind the high street the roads turn into quiet squares, cobbled mews and gardens that are almost hidden.
Living in Kensington
Between the palace and Holland Park
Kensington became fashionable when William III moved his court to Kensington Palace in 1689, and the town that grew around it is still arranged around the palace and its gardens. Kensington Square, laid out in the 1680s, is one of the oldest squares in London.
Most of the houses came later, in the great Victorian building years. The Phillimore family built the wide streets west of Kensington Church Street, with tall houses and gardens behind, and the mews behind them have become small, sought-after houses of their own.
Kensington suits people who want the city and the park in equal measure. Kensington Gardens is across the road, Holland Park and its Kyoto Garden are to the west, and the Design Museum sits on its edge. Kensington Church Street still has antique dealers all the way up the hill.
Streets we know
Four of our favourites
I
Phillimore Place
A wide Victorian street of family houses, a few minutes from the park.
II
Kensington Square
Laid out in the 1680s, with a private garden at its centre.
III
Edwardes Square
Late Georgian houses facing a large communal garden.
IV
Kensington Church Street
Antique dealers and galleries climbing towards Notting Hill Gate.
On the map
Kensington, close up
The houses we are selling here and the places our buyers ask about first: parks, shops, stations and the odd museum.
Good to know
Before you move
Kensington Palace from the gardens.
Autumn in the park across the road.
For sale and sold
Homes in Kensington
Off market
Not everything is listed
Tell us what you are looking for in Kensington and we will call you before a house comes to market.
From the journal
Stories from Kensington
House Stories
·
Eleanor Hart
Forty years in one house
In 1985 a young family bought a house in Kensington that had been cut into flats. Forty years later they are handing it on, whole again.
Read the story →
House Stories
·
Thomas Avery
Three windows onto the street
An apartment in a white Holland Park villa, owned by one family since 1979, sold after a single viewing. How we prepared it, and who bought it.
Read the story →
Keep exploring
Other neighbourhoods
Selling in Kensington?
We know who is looking here
A partner visits, walks every floor and gives you a written valuation within five working days.