Holiday Apartment in Kensington And Chelsea: Royal Heritage and Museums

Kensington And Chelsea leads into a setting where Kensington and South Kensington combine royal heritage, world-famous museums, green spaces, shopping streets, restaurants and cultural attractions. Between palace history, carefully designed gardens, significant collections and lively venues, very different facets are found in close proximity here.

Culture

Kensington Palace was the birthplace and childhood residence of Queen Victoria. Visitors can tour the King’s State Apartments there; the Jewel Room displays gemstones that Queen Victoria commissioned from Albert. Kensington Palace also offers an Afternoon Tea as a royally inspired culinary experience. Leighton House was the former home and studio of the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton. The house includes the Arab Hall, with a collection of tiles that comes largely from Damascus and dates predominantly from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Leighton House also holds a collection of around 700 sheets of drawings by Frederic Leighton.

The Royal Albert Hall also combines history and the present day. Its official opening ceremony took place on 29 March 1871. Today, among other events, the hall hosts the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts every summer. The Royal Albert Hall archive preserves and makes accessible the performance history of the hall and its Grade 1 listed building.

V&A South Kensington presents exhibitions and collections relating to art, design and performance. The areas displayed there include the Cast Courts and the United Kingdom’s largest permanent photography gallery, as well as a collection of historic jewellery. The Design Museum presents iconic designs from fields ranging from product design to transport design and offers learning workshops for adults and young people, as well as inspiring talks.

Gardens

Kensington Gardens originally belonged to Kensington Palace and are now open to everyone. Historic avenues of trees, expansive views and flower-filled paths characterise the grounds. The Italian Gardens within Kensington Gardens are distinguished by their symmetrical design and cascading fountains. The Albert Memorial, a significant visitor landmark, stands in the same garden landscape. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens includes a sturdy wooden pirate ship.

Museums

The Natural History Museum offers an audio-guided tour of the outstanding exhibits in Hintze Hall. Its family offerings include the Dinosaur Gallery and an earthquake simulator. The Science Museum complements this range with a free gallery on the past, present and future of human spaceflight, where iconic spacecraft and other special objects can be seen. It also includes an interactive family gallery with hands-on experiments and more than 50 exhibits.

The V&A is only a short walk from the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, allowing all three museums to be visited in one day. This means that Kensington and South Kensington offer different collection and exhibition focuses in a clearly recognisable spatial relationship with one another.

Also make sure to check which services are included, how the price is composed and which booking or cancellation conditions apply.

For further exploration, you can also select Kensington.

For the higher-level travel overview: Greater London.

More Destinations

More places within the same destination:

Bexley, Lambeth, Ealing, Merton, Hounslow, Southwark, Richmond Upon Thames.