Kensington & Chelsea
Kensington & Chelsea is London’s smallest borough by area. But it packs a big punch with tourist draws like Portobello Road and a number of museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and Science Museum.
It includes some of London’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, such as Chelsea and Knightsbridge. But 2017’s catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington is a reminder of the borough’s high inequality.
Among the notable figures to have called Kensington & Chelsea home are poet and playwright Oscar Wilde and novelist Agatha Christie. Royals including Princess Margaret and Princess Diana have lived in Kensington Palace.
Up the road from there each August bank holiday, the streets come alive with Notting Hill Carnival. Beginning in 1966 as a celebration of the area’s Caribbean heritage and culture, it has evolved into one of the biggest street parties in Europe and draws millions of visitors each year.
Portobello Road in the Notting Hill area of Kensington & Chelsea
Blogs-And-Stories
Kensal Green Cemetery
How a prince made this graveyard a desirable resting place for the Victorian dead
Brompton Cemetery
A garden cemetery where artists, scientists and a Suffragette lay in peace
The origins of Notting Hill Carnival
London’s biggest street festival is a celebration of Caribbean culture and Black identity
Dub in London: Shops, sound systems & legends
In the 1970s and 1980s, London became the centre of Jamaica’s bassier, spacier sound
Building a Victorian underground railway
Henry Flather’s photos of the Metropolitan District Railway show a transport revolution in action
Katharine Hamnett shaped the style of the 1980s
Oversized silhouettes, worn-in denim, political slogans – Hamnett’s designs drove a new London look
Edward Enninful: A west London fashion force
Model, stylist, fashion director, editor-in-chief at British Vogue
