CULTURE
Kensington is thrumming with culture. You can barely move for world-class museums, galleries and concert venues, and these are chief amongst them.
V&A
Having started life as a Museum of Manufactures in 1852, Queen Victoria later laid the foundation stone at its current South Kensington site in 1899. From David Bowie to Beatrix Potter; from Alexander McQueen to Dior, its vast collection spans some 5,000 years of human genius and creativity. Plus, it has one of the best museum shops anywhere. Explore more.
Serpentine Galleries
The Serpentine has been going since 1970, since which time it has been championing new ideas in the art world. Free to enter, its varied programme of shows spans art and architecture right through to technology. For many, though, it’s all about the annual Serpentine Pavilion, which sees a different architect each year design a temporary structure, a tradition which started in 2000 with an inaugural structure by Zaha Hadid. Look out for Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh’s effort coming in June 2023. Explore more.
Natural History Museum
No visit to Kensington with children is complete without a visit to the vast and hugely beguiling Natural History Museum. You could stay a year and still not see all of its collections, but we do recommend that you don’t come away without having stood in the shadow of the enormous hanging blue whale whose proportions have been astonishing children for generations. Similarly, don’t neglect to see Dippy the dinosaur who has been touring but is now home once more; and do, of course, line up to see the fearsome animatronic T-Rex. Explore more.
The Science Museum
The Science Museum is a dream destination for enquiring young minds who want to understand more about the world around them and how it works. With plenty of buttons to press, IMAX documentaries to watch and a Wonderlab (in which kids can watch science demonstrations as well as meet the museum’s science ‘Explainers’) to explore, this is a vast repository of learning and delight. Want to see lighting strike before your eyes? Play with forces on giant slides? Travel through space under a canopy of stars? You can do all that under The Science Museum’s sensational roof. Explore more.
Opera Holland Park
There is something uniquely magical about listening to opera in the park on a balmy summer’s evening. The tradition is thought to stretch back to 1605 when Holland House was first constructed. Its current incarnation, however, began life a little later in 1996, when the company was founded; it has since flourished and become a thriving charity. Whether you buy tickets to its summertime shows or you simply bring a picnic and sit outside while basking in the glorious singing, this is a truly enchanting offering. Explore more.
Design Museum
Now housed within the former Commonwealth Institute – complete with its distinctive cantilevered, sail-like roof – The Design Museum was originally founded by Terence Conran and Stephen Bayley and spent its first three-odd decades in Shad Thames. In its new Kensington High Street home, which scooped the European Museum of the Year Award in 2018, it is a temple to product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. Explore more.
Royal Albert Hall
Now in its 151st year of being ‘the nation’s village hall’, The Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871 in memory of her beloved late husband and has been delighting fans of music ever since, not least every summer at the BBC Proms. Explore more.
Leighton House Museum
While you’re in the area, do make time for the little-known but wholly mesmerising
Leighton House Museum in Holland Park. The image of the 19th-century artist starving in a garret is an attractively romantic one. But, as attests the eponymous Kensington home of aesthete and neo-classicist Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, a serious fortune awaited the more successful painters of the age (a title too, of course, always proved persuasive to the art-buying cognoscenti of the day; nor is it unlikely to have been a detracting factor in his appointment as President of the Royal Academy). An exploration of the house that was purpose-built for him by the architect George Aitchison speaks of his penchant for the eclectic, the exotic, the colourfully dramatic and the exquisite. Leighton would go on to tinker with it irresistibly over the three decades he lived there, right up to his demise; his was, after all, one of the most talked-about houses in the country. He called it his ‘private palace of art.’
The interior is the more striking for the surprise it presents. For Leighton House’s exterior – all plain, even austere red brick– is most reminiscent of a vaguely forbidding Italianate museum; the sole architectural flourish is a dome (also in red brick), the only hint at the thrilling treasures that lie inside. The sheer scale of those treasures magnifies the surprise and delight once inside. For quite beside his own works, the most famous of which reside elsewhere (Flaming June in Puerto Rico; Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence in the National Gallery), Leighton House is, as it was always intended to be, a showcase for collections amassed from Leighton’s extensive travels, especially in Italy and the Middle East. The pièce de résistance must, inarguably, be the Arab Hall, which was inspired by a 12th-century palazzo in Sicily. Explore more.
Kensington Palace
The former home of a whole clutch of royals – Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, whose death prompted an outpouring of grief and a sea of flowers in its gardens – this is a must-visit for anyone with an interest in The Firm. Alongside the resplendent State Rooms, there are also often exhibitions to take in, from the permanent, such as a look at the childhood of Queen Victoria, to the changing (Crown To Couture opens on 5 April, and will showcase the extraordinary garments worn by the likes of Lizzo and Lady Gaga.) Explore more.
EAT & DRINK
While Kensington might not be famed for its culinary offerings, there are a handful of really excellent restaurants if you know where to look.
Launceston Place
Once a great favourite of Princess Diana who lived a short skip away at Kensington Palace, Launceston Place is one you have to know about rather than stumble across, such is its tucked away location. But once you know, you know. It was awarded three AA rosettes in 2021, while Tatler named it as having the best wine list in London. Chef-patron Ben Murphy is at the pass, and diners can expect a succinct menu featuring the likes of ‘mushroom, tart, sherry, yolk’ and ‘ceviche, stonebass, calamansi, lovage’. Book it.
Cambio De Tercio
Crossing the threshold into this excellent restaurant is akin to feeling like you’ve entered a strange travel portal, left drizzly London and stepped out in the searing heat of Spain. The hot colours on the wall are complemented beautifully by the sublime creations in the kitchen. Think Andalucian-style squid and baby anchovies marinated in aged sherry vinegar. Book it.
Thali
This gorgeous curry house specialises in north Indian cuisine, under the watchful eye of Chef Dila Ram, who sharpened his skills in Delhi before opening the South Kensington hotspot. Do try the honey lemon duck and the grilled scallops. Book it.
Dishoom
Kensington High Street, long a culinary desert, has had a shot in the arm thanks to the arrival of Dishoom, the Indian-Iranian chain that continues to go from strength-to-strength. They say, ‘Begin your day at Dishoom with breakfast, which might be a Bacon Naan Roll, a Kejriwal or a Big Bombay. Then lunch lightly on Roomali Rolls and Salad Plates, or linger with a feast. Refresh your afternoon with a drop of Chai and a small plate or two. Dine early or dine late. Or just join us for a tipple – perhaps an India Gimlet, a Permit Room Old-fashioned, or our very good Dishoom IPA?’ Oh, go on then – all of the above. Book it.
Bibendum
If you’re looking for somewhere seriously fancy, the only place for it must, surely, be Bibendum. Housed on the first floor of Michelin House – one of most beautiful buildings in London – its huge stained glass windows and reassuring luxury are reason alone to go. But then there is the food, which comes courtesy of chef Claude Bosi. Simple and very fine, expect dishes such as English winkles and British game pie with coffee, hazelnut and pickled walnut. And do leave space for the sublime Bibendum chocolate souffle. Once finished, have a browse around the always-inspiring The Conran Shop below. Book it.
By Nancy Alsop
January 2022
