Introduction
South Kensington has been firmly established as a jewel in the London property market since the early Victorian era. The Great Exhibition of 1851 put the area on the map as a centre of great cultural and scientific importance. The surplus funds generated by the event (over £33 million in today’s money) were used to found the Science Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum on Exhibition Road, institutions that today attracts over 20 million visitors to South Kensington each year.
Imperial College, the Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Art draw an international and affluent student base toSouth Kensington, ensuring a constant stream of demand for rental apartments and one/two-bedroom pied-a-terres. There is a particularly high proportion of French expats in this area (which is sometimes referred to as Paris’s 21 starrondissement) thanks to the presence of the Lycée Français and the French cultural institute, as well as a plethora of chic French restaurants, cafés and bakeries. For families, excellent prep schools like Glendower and Thomas’sKensington abound and the proximity of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens add further appeal.
£2.28 million
average property price
£7 million
average price of semi-detached house
Property market
Although most of the enormous stucco mansions that were built shortly after the Great Exhibition have now been converted into smart flats, there are still four-bedroom and five-bedroom houses to be foundon pretty terraced streets and garden squares west of South Kensington tube station – for those with deep pockets.
According to Rightmove, properties in SouthKensington had an overall average price of £2,280,761 over the last year. The majority of sales were flats, selling for an average price of £1,684,911. Terraced properties sold for an average of £4.8 million, with semi-detached properties fetching an average of just over £7 million.
London Richmond purchased 139 Old BromptonRoad, a grade II listed period property in the heart of South Kensington in 2024. Average prices for this type of house currently stand at around £4.75million, so we were delighted to secure our property for the price of £1.83million, representing a significant discount to the market value. The property is being renovated to create 4-luxury apartments.
Things to do
No visit to South Kensington would be complete without a visit to at least one of its three world-famous Victorian museums:the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. As well as vast permanent collections that can be perused for free, these institutions also host a programme of paid exhibitions – the V&A’s blockbuster fashion exhibitions focusing on the likes of Alexander McQueen andGabrielle Chanel reliably attract glittering press coverage and hundreds of thousands of visitors. The Natural History Museum is famous for its stunningGothic Revival architecture and extensive collection of dinosaur skeletons. Its extraordinary Diplodocus skeleton (affectionately dubbed ‘Dippy) filled the museum’s cathedral-like entrance hall until 2017, when it was replaced with the equally dramatic suspended skeleton of a blue whale.
Another iconic Victorian cultural destination is The Royal Albert Hall, a spectacular concert hall with a glazed dome that can seat over 5,000 people. The venue has hosted a dizzying array of major events, from pop concerts to boxing matches to award ceremonies, and luminaries from Frank Sinatra to Nelson Mandela have graced its stage.
French expats and enthusiastic Francophiles find plenty to love in South Kensington.
Librairie La Page is the oldest French bookstore in the capital, while the Art Deco Ciné Lumière on Queensbury Place offers regular screenings of new releases and classic French films as well asan annual French film festival.
“South Kensington has been firmly established as a jewel in the London property market since the early Victorian era”
Shopping
The luxury retail hub of the area is undoubtedly the salubrious Brompton Cross, where design stores like Molteni andB&B Italia are interspersed with high-end clothing designers like Chanel, Joseph and Stella McCartney – the latter’s store, spread over two generous floors with the basement dedicated to evening wear, shoes and the designer’s incredibly popular lingerie range, is particularly worth a visit. Daylesford Organic, where the fresh produce is delivered every morning from the Daylesford farm in the Cotswolds, stocks artisan bread and pastries, seasonal fruit and vegetables, pasture-raised meat, fresh fish and cheeses, along with ready-to-cook meals, pantry essentials and organic wines – there’s also a cafe that serves delicious salads and quiches if you need a pitstop.
While one might not immediately associate them with this urbane central London location, South Kensington is home to two delightful farmers’ markets. The South Kensington Farmers’ Market is held eachSaturday on Bute Street – look out for traditional sausages from Parsons Nose, fresh fish from Les Lawrence’s day boats and a fantastic array of soft fruit in the summertime. Bute Street itself hosts some great food shops including a fabulous ice cream parlour and excellent fishmongers. On Tuesdays, the Queens LawnFarmers’ Market takes place on the Imperial College campus (non-students welcome), offering artisanal sourdough, fresh fruit and veg and a fantastic array of lunch options, from wood-fired pizza to chicken katsu. Everything on the market either comes direct from farms or uses local, sustainable ingredients.
Pamper and exercise
The Other House South Kensington offers its guests access to a gym, sauna, steam room and a vitality pool, warmed to 31degrees and designed to relax the body and calm the mind. Non-guests can book a variety of treatments via the hotel’s wellbeing concierge, including shiatsu massages, a one-on-one Vinyasa Flow yoga class and Reiki healing. For something a little different, The Other House offers ‘sound baths’ in which you lie down cocooned between two of the UK’s largest gongs, accompanied by crystal bowls, to experience an hour’s meditation through sound. Each session is hosted by two sound practitioners (one at your head and one at your feet) and includes a curated aromatic experience with bespoke blends of essential oils, resins and hydrosols to deepen your experience.
For something more strenuous, Retrofit onHarrington Road offers state-of-the-art equipment within stylish industrial interiors. The Body & Soul studio has a Himalayan pink salt wall –breathing salt-enriched air offers benefits like improved respiratory and skin health, stress relief and immune system boosting. Class group sizes are kept deliberately small so that the experience can be tailored to each member of the class, regardless of ability or fitness. For an even more bespoke experience, head to FitLabs, where elite personal trainers are on hand to whip you into shape with carefully planned and focused sessions. Everything is by appointment and the maximum group size is six people, meaning you’ll achieve maximum results in minimum time
Dine
A bona fide London institution, Bibendum in the Michelin Building is one of London’s most iconic dining rooms with its stained glass windows in shades of sapphire. Since 2017 it has been helmed by chef Claude Bosi, whose dizzyingly technical and dazzlingly creative signature style has already earned the restaurant two Michelin stars. A concise, protein-focused menu includes Torbay prawns with toasted rice consommé andMuntjac deer with wild blueberries.
Just around the corner from South Kensington tube station one finds Polish restaurant Daquise, a quiet grande dame on theLondon restaurant scene since 1947. Once very traditional in style, the room has now been updated for an airy, shabby chic brasserie look and its larger tables are consistently filled with groups of elegant millennials working their way down the list of vodkas. But the Polish classics can still be relied upon, with the mouth-watering pierogi and succulent confit goose some of the highlights from the menu.