London - Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Hyde Park Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Hyde Park

Like Mayfair and Belgravia, Knightsbridge is one of the wealthiest areas in London. South Kensington next door, favoured by cosmopolitan jet-setters, wayward little rich girls and anyone dressed up and on the pull, has a noticeable Middle Eastern, Far Eastern and American flavour with some distinct French, Italian and Polish ingredients.

Amid the fashion labels, deluxe hotels, expensive restaurants and private clubs of Knightsbridge stand three tremendous exceptions: the Victoria and Albert (V&A), Natural History, and Science Museums each deserve at least a day of anyone and everyone’s time. To the south, Chelsea merges seamlessly with South Ken via Brompton and the Fulham Road. At the top of Exhibition Road, the delightful green acres of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park harbour grand or whimsical memorials and the world-famous little Serpentine Gallery.

Sights

Serpentine Gallery, T 020-7402 6075, http://www.serpentinegallery.org.uk. Daily 1000-1800. Free. Royal Parks T 020-7298 2000, or call into the Old Police House information centre. M Hyde Park Corner or Kensington High St.

The open stretch of grass between Park Lane and the Serpentine often seems deserted, even in summer, except during the open-air concerts, demonstrations and Royal occasions. The Lido ( T 020-7298 2100), the more attractive of the two café-restaurants in the park, is a good place to hire a boat on the Serpentine Lake. The Lido can be reached across the bridge that divides the Serpentine from the Long Water and hence Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens. The path in Hyde Park along the north side of the Long Water, past the Henry Moore Arch, ends up among the fish ponds and fountains of the Italian Gardens at Lancaster Gate. Look out here for the classical arch known as Queen Anne’s Alcove, designed by Wren.

Over the Long Bridge though, towards the Lido, is Kensington Gardens’ prize asset, the Serpentine Gallery. The quiet gallery was completely refurbished in 1998, confirming a reputation steadily acquired since its opening in 1970 for being one of London’s most exciting small spaces for international contemporary art, charmingly at odds with its dinky situation.

Tree-filled Kensington Gardens spreads out behind the gallery, criss-crossed with signposted paths leading to the Round Pond, the Peter Pan statue beside Long Water and the Broad Walk in front of Kensington Palace. The latest suggested route is the seven-mile Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk through four of central London’s Royal parks.

T 020-7589 8212, http://www.royalalberthall.com. M High St Kensington.

Beyond the gallery on the right looms the Gothic spire and canopy of the Albert Memorial, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and finished in 1872. Much against his own wishes, Victoria’s far- from-pompous consort is surrounded by an excess of ardently imperialist statuary and fancy stonework recently renovated at huge expense. Across the road is his much more fitting memorial, the great domed oval of the Royal Albert Hall. The view from the Memorial down Rotten Row to the London Eye in the distance is stunning. Next up on Exhibition Road, however, is the first of the area’s main events in the form of the Science Museum and on the Cromwell Road next door to it the Natural History Museum.

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

T 020-7942 2000, information T 020-7942 8090, http://www.vam.ac.uk. Daily 1000-1745, last Wed and Fri of each month 1000-2200. Free. M South Kensington.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the world’s greatest museums. Surprisingly, considering its grand façade on Cromwell Road, it wears that greatness lightly. Originally founded in 1857 with the intention of educating the populace in the appreciation of decorative art and design it exhibited superb examples of what could be achieved in that field: the object lesson equivalent to the exemplary lives held up for emulation at the National Portrait Gallery.

Never a narrowly nationalistic enterprise, its remarkable collection was gathered, like the British Museum’s, from all corners of the globe. The overall impression it makes, though, is much more human and domestic. Many of the objects on display around its seven miles-worth of galleries would once have decorated or been in everyday use in people’s homes – very wealthy and powerful people’s homes for the most part – as well as in magnificent places of worship. And most are nothing like as ancient and remote as the antiquities in the BM. On making first acquaintance with the V&A, instead of trying to see as much as possible with a limited amount of time, wander slowly around it in the certain knowledge that you’ll find a rewarding number of amazing things.

Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Hyde Park
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