Kensington and Chelsea

Kensington and Chelsea is a compact London borough covering about 12 square kilometres. It combines residential streets, institutional sites and public parks. South Kensington hosts the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, while Kensington Gardens contains Kensington Palace. Notting Hill and Portobello Road Market lie to the north of Holland Park, and the borough includes riverside Chelsea along Cheyne Walk and the King’s Road. Streets of stucco-fronted terraces meet garden squares and narrow mews.

The borough also contains the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where the annual Chelsea Flower Show is staged each May, and the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673, on the river side of Chelsea. Sloane Square and the Cadogan estate shape retail and residential patterns around Sloane Street and King’s Road. Several diplomatic residences line Kensington Palace Gardens, and the area has a concentration of museums, private colleges and long-established residential conservation areas. Transport hubs include South Kensington and Sloane Square stations, linking the district to central London and other parts of the capital.