In 1679 King William III was thoroughly fed up of living in Whitehall Palace, Westminster, and went house shopping for a place in the “country”.
His search brought him to Nottingham House, a relatively modest Jacobean mansion, which he picked up for £20,000. He then called in the architects Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor to upgrade it.
After the King’s death the palace was passed down to Queen Anne, and Kings George I and II, and III. It remained the monarch’s principal home until Queen Victoria decided Buckingham Palace was better suited to her needs. Kensington Palace became a royal overspill property, home to everyone from a young Prince Philip, who lived here with his grandmother in the 1930s while at school, to Princess Margaret. Princess Diana filmed her infamous interview with Martin Bashir in the sitting room of her palace apartment.
Today the Prince and Princess of Wales call the lavish four storey Apartment IA their London home.
Kensington itself has changed beyond all recognition during the royal tenure, from country village to chic urban destination.
Its earliest houses were built during the 17th century by developers who knew aristocrats would want to live close to the royal palace. By the end of the 19th century Kensington High Street was a popular shopping destination surrounded by streets and squares lined with large townhouses.
In the swinging sixties Kensington became a groovy hotspot – the first Biba store was on Abingdon Road and Kensington Market was a mecca for the young and fashionable (Freddie Mercury once had a stall there).
Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd played at Olympia, and when John Lennon lived at 13 Emperor’s Gate the building was regularly besieged by hysterical fans.
Sandwiched between Kensington Gardens and Holland Park, Kensington is a super location, within a short walk of the bars and shops of Notting Hill, the museums in South Kensington, and the designer stores of Knightsbridge.
Kensington High Street can be uncomfortably busy, although it does have good range of shops – its cavernous Whole Foods Market, where Prince Harry and Meghann Markle shopped when they lived in Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
Its roster of chain stores and restaurants are useful rather inspiring, and locals prefer to find their fun off the beaten track.
Kensington has some great local pubs – the flower-smothered Churchill Arms is an Instagram favourite, The Builders Arms serves an excellent Sunday roast, and the Scarsdale Tavern, on Edwardes Square, has stylish interiors and a small but very pretty terrace.
For dinner, Launceston Place is an elegant modern European restaurant with outstanding food, while Locanda Ottomezzo is a charming old school Italian gem. And Kitchen W8 has got to be the most relaxed Michelin-star restaurant in town, with fabulous tasting menus.
Explore the Design Museum, the world’s leading museum devoted to contemporary design – current shows include one devoted to the evolution of the Barbie doll.
Join the Serpentine Swimming Club, and enjoy open water swimming in the heart of the Royal Parks. Club membership allows you entry to the annual Christmas morning race, held annually since 1864. If that sounds too hardcore, you could simply hire a rowboat to explore the lake.
Enjoy opera in the open air at the critically-acclaimed Holland Park Opera. The season runs from May to October, with a gala dinner and special Christmas performances later in the year.
From July until September the Royal Albert Hall hosts the world’s greatest classical music festival, the BBC Proms, which culminates in an iconic end of season party, The Last Night Of The Proms.
The Serpentine Summer Party is the highlight of Kensington’s summer season, hosted in the Serpentine Pavilion, an annual installation created by a roster of the world’s greatest architects. Expect champagne and cocktails, music, art, fabulous fashion, and some very famous faces.
The annual Goffs London Sale, held on the eve of Royal Ascot, allows buyers to bid for horses which will be racing at Ascot. Expect a garden party atmosphere and some very beautiful horses, and if you do buy a horse you could find yourself at the winners’ enclosure within days.
Kensington possesses some of the prettiest housing stock in central London, from grand Italianate villas to pretty little pastel-painted cottages, tall and skinny townhouses, and mansion flats. But not all Kensington addresses are equal.
Buyers need expert advice to get to know the pros and cons W8’s key hotspots like the Phillimore Estate, Abingdon Village, located south of Kensington High Street, and Victoria Road, which is prized for its low, wide houses. And although its mansion blocks often look similar, some are far better quality, and better run than others.
Black Brick recently helped American clients who regularly visit London find am perfect bolthole. They wanted a lateral flat with three bedrooms, and supply of large apartments in good quality buildings is short.
Nonetheless we found them an immaculate 2,600 sq ft apartment in Kensington Court Gardens, one of the best mansion blocks, and secured it for just over £2,200 per sq ft before it hit the open market: https://www.black-brick.com/expertise/case-studies/kensington-court-gardens-2/
Prime Central London has had a challenging decade, with Brexit, tax changes impacting overseas and second home owners, political instability, the pandemic, and global headwinds all conspiring to keep average prices down.
At a more micro level, however, both best in class trophy homes, apartments in sought after buildings, and family houses sell strongly and can attract competitive bidding.
As an experienced buying agent in London, Black Brick recently found itself the low bidder in the race for a two bedroom flat on Cheniston Gardens for an Australian client looking for a London pied-a-terre. This is where reputation comes into play.
After initially accepting a higher offer the vendor switched to our clients after a few weeks after the high bidder failed to progress the sale. This meant we were able to secure a period flat with two balconies in a beautiful building for £1.7m: https://www.black-brick.com/expertise/case-studies/chendiston-gardens/
Homes close to good quality open space tend to carry a premium, and those surrounding Kensington Gardens, have an average sale price of £1.5 million, some 40% more than homes in surrounding postcodes according to research by Foxtons estate agents. This kind of budget would buy you a two bedroom apartment in one of Kensington’s mansion buildings. If you have your eye on a more substantial property you will need to spend considerably more.
When Freddie Mercury’s former home, Garden Lodge, a low built detached house with seven bedrooms on Logan Place, went on sale at the start of 2024 it was listed for offers in excess of £30m.
Winston Churchill’s former home, with six bedrooms, on Hyde Park Gate, was listed in summer 2024, for just under £20m.
One of Black Brick’s Kensington clients came to us for help looking for a larger family home. They were keen to find a property where they could add value, but had struggled to find good quality stock, and had become frustrated with the unrealistic price expectations of many vendors.
We took over the search and found them an off-market house on Bedford Gardens, which had been in the same family for many years, and came with planning consent to add a basement as well as side, rear, and loft extensions. The asking price was £5.9m but after negotiation we secured it for £4.85m: https://www.black-brick.com/expertise/case-studies/bedford-gardens/
But by far the most expensive address in Kensington, and indeed probably in London, is Kensington Palace Gardens. Its lavish Italianate mansions, on a private road owned by the Crown Estate and overlooking Kensington Palace, command extraordinary price tags of between £50m and £100m-plus.
Formula 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone, ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, Princess Haya of Jordan, and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal all have properties there. It also contains a number of high-profile foreign embassies, including those of Russia and Israel. Both ends of the avenue have gates and checkpoints with armed guards.
We would be delighted to hear from you to discuss your own property requirements. For a non-obligatory consultation, please contact us.
