London - West London Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - West London

The leafy Bayswater Road sidles west between the northern edge of Hyde Park and one of London’s most contradictory areas. At its tip, Sussex Gardens isolates an exclusive enclave of stately mansions and expensive squares from Paddington station. Further north, beyond the Westway flyover and the Harrow Road, Little Venice is a watery and genteel haven on the Grand Union Canal. West of Lancaster Gate, one of the most attractive entrances to Kensington Gardens via the Italian gardens, Bayswater is an almost uniform stretch of crumbling stucco and porticos labouring under the weight of a population continually on the move. Queensway is the tacky hub of the area, so gawdy that it’s really quite good, buzzing with business. Next door, Notting Hill basks in celebrity status, even if sometimes for all the wrong reasons. One of London’s original and now more successful gentrified multicultural districts, its sloping terraces may not be the most attractive in town but the fashionable types patrolling its boutiques, galleries, cafés and bars probably are. Most famously, once a year at the Carnival on the last weekend of August these spectacularly cool media darlings give way to the biggest and most uninhibited street party in Europe. Just to the east, in the west end of Kensington Gardens, stands one explanation for the persistence of the area’s cachet, Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana and still the second most important Royal residence in London after Buckingham Palace.

Sights

Camden Waterbus Company, T 020-7482 2660. No need to book, pay on the boat. M Warwick Av.

Blomfield Road is one of the most attractive of the canalside streets in this quiet residential area. A good reason for a visit are the narrowboat trips courtesy of the Camden Waterbus Company up to the Zoo, Regent’s Park and Camden Lock.

M Bayswater or Queensway.

A strange mixture of cheesy shops, palatial houses and dodgy hotels, Bayswater’s main drag is the fiercely unfashionable Queensway heading up to Westbourne Grove. The Queens Ice Rink, T 020-7229 0172, the shopping mall of Whiteleys, T 020- 7229 8844, and the Porchester Spa, T 020-7792 3980, nevertheless make an impressive trio of attractions along with any number of restaurants and cafés.

M Notting Hill Gate, but for Portobello Rd, Ladbroke Grove is nearer.

Notting Hill Gate tube station straddles the street at the point where Kensington Church Street dips south to High Street Kensington and the Pembridge Road heads north to the Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove. Portobello Road Market continues to pull in the punters every Saturday for its antiques, groovy secondhand clothes and bric-a-brac. The Portobello Road gradually goes downmarket as it approaches the Westway flyover and continues beyond. This is the end to look for most of Notting Hill’s more happening retailers and restaurants, right up to the Golborne Road near Kensal Town.

T 020-7937 9561, http://www.royal.gov.uk. Daily Nov-Feb 1000-1700 (last admission 1500), Mar-Oct 1000-1800 (last admission 1600). Adult £10.50, concession £8, under 16s £7, under 5s free. Price includes audio guide. M Notting Hill Gate or Kensington High St.

Queen Victoria’s birthplace is one of the most significant and evocative of the Royal palaces, unfortunately all the more so since the death of Princess Diana, who lived here after her separation from Prince Charles. The Palace itself has been open to the public for at least a century, the 20 or so rooms on the one and a half hour audio-guided tour including the antique-stuffed King’s State Apartments, William Kent’s trompe l’oeil ceilings and staircases, a considerable selection of old master paintings from the Royal Collection in the Long Gallery and some fine views over the lakes and gardens. Also on display is the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, which now rather ghoulishly contains some of the dresses that Diana wore on state occasions, as well as the gilded pageantry of the 19th century. As the Palace is keen to point out, everything that can be seen is the genuine article. What any of it really represents is more of a mystery.

Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Rd, T 020-7602 3316. Mon, Thu- Sun 1100-1730. £3, concessions and under-16s £1. M Holland Park.

Kensington is a quieter, more residential and family-friendly continuation of Knightsbridge west of Museumland. Holland Park to its north is west London’s treasured green space, with rose gardens, lots of squirrels and a meditative Japanese garden. On its southern edge, Leighton House is an exquisite, pre- Edwardian, redbrick treat with its extensive pre-Raphaelite collection of Millais, Burne- Jones and of course, Lord Leighton’s own paintings. The private house was built between 1864-79 by the Royal Academy President – his salon conjours up the heady whirl of Arabian spice and Oscar Wilde salaciousness. The central fountain in the Arab hall with its opulent gilt mosaic frieze and intricate Isnik tiles are a thrilling miniature Alhambra despite being run by the local council, and as far from the magic of the Moors as leafy Holland Park can be.

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