Kensington District Visitor Briefing
What to expect for those contemplating staying in Kensington Gloucester Road Area
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| Harrods Kensington |
Kensington is a large district just to the west of the very centre of London. A short journey to most of London's main attractions.
There are various sub-districts within the Kensington area, broadly the further east you go towards the centre the more affluent and upmarket things become.
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| Bed & Breakfast |
| Mid Range Hotels |
| 4 Star Hotels |
| Kensington Hotel Map |
| Getting To Kensington |
| Earls Court Briefing |
On this page we look at the Gloucester Road, South Kensington, Kensington High Street district of Kensington. We have another page providing a briefing of Earls Court Kensington.
Kensington Gloucester Road Area
If you look at our Kensington hotel map, you will see that one of the focuses for hotels in Kensington has Gloucester Road Underground station at its centre. There are a lot of large chain 4 star hotels in the immediate vicinity including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Radisson and Millennium.
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The axis for this district is the Cromwell Road that come in from Heathrow and passes through this part of Kensington on its way into the very centre. The Piccadilly Line of the London Underground runs parallel with the Cromwell Road with stations at Earls Court, Gloucester Road, South Kensington and Knightsbridge.
Just 5 minutes walk to the west of Gloucester Road is the Earls Court district, mostly cheap independent hotel accommodation but with some good more upmarket options sprinkled in among them.
Immediately to the east of Gloucester Road is South Kensington, dominated for visitors by the South Kensington museums. The further you go east towards the centre the more upmarket it becomes culminating in Knightsbridge, one of the most select districts in Central London.
You can walk to the famous Harrod's department store from Gloucester Road in about 15 minutes.
Just to the north of Gloucester Road is Kensington High Street, arguably again more upmarket.
Getting To The Sights From Kensington Gloucester Road Area
With the notable exception of the South Kensington Museums you will be using the London Underground to get around. You should be able to get to most places you want to see in Central London within around 20-30 minutes using the Underground.
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| Big Bus Hop on Hop Off Tour Bus |
Most visitors should be purchasing an Oyster Card or Travelcard, the most convenient places in the district to buy from is from the ticket offices of the Underground Stations.
The Piccadilly Line takes you direct into the theatre/entertainment area of Central London whilst the Circle and District Line follows the River Thames and is good for many of the major sights like Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Tower of London.
Most visitors should be purchasing an Oyster Card or Travelcard, the most convenient places in the district to buy from is from the ticket offices of the Underground Stations.
A very popular option for visitors to get orientated with London is to use the hop on, hop off tour buses. There are two major operators, the Original London Tour and the Big Bus.
For those staying in the Kensington Gloucester Road Underground / Kensington High Street area, the Big Bus has an advantage as one of their main routes picks up at both these locations. For the competing Original London Tour you would need to walk about 5/10 minutes to the South Kensington Museums.
Shopping,Restaurants, ATM's, WiFi, Convenience Stores ...
There are no department stores or worthwhile dedicated shops along the Cromwell Road, for these go to Kensington High Street or Knightsbridge. What you do have is a lot of places supporting the more fundamental needs of the visitor.
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Waitrose Supermarket Gloucester Road |
Gloucester Road Underground station is at the corner off the intersection between the Cromwell Road and Gloucester Road. The Underground Station is part of a small shopping centre. Many of the large hotels have steep prices for food and drink so there is a good choice of places where you can get breakfast and drinks at more affordable prices. One of the cafe's in this shopping centre offers free WiFi, but there are more offering the same in the district.
The anchor store of the shopping centre is Waitrose, an upmarket supermarket. A few hundred yards west along the Cromwell Road is another larger supermarket called Sainsburys open until midnight most days. Further west again is a still larger supermarket called Tesco, the leading supermarket chain in the UK - this is open 24 hours except for Sundays.
As ever there is a good choice of pubs and a wide range of restaurants in the area. Around Gloucester Road the type of restaurant offering tends to reflect the hotel accommodation, mid market. If you want cheap, fast food type offerings head west towards Earls Court, all the global fast food chains are within sight of Earls Court Underground Station. If you want a 'special' restaurant best choice is around Kensington High Street and Knightsbridge, though check your credit card limit before entering.
For everyday needs, there is a Tesco Metro store opposite Gloucester Road Underground station that sets a benchmark for price on newspapers, drinks and basic foodstuffs and snacks.
On the opposite side of the road from the Underground Station at Gloucester Road is a choice of banks with ATM's.
Safety and Side Streets
The Kensington area is safe within the normal common-sense precautions applicable the world over. The Underground runs until around midnight and that too is safe to ride late at night.
Kensington Hotel Map & District Briefing
In addition to providing descriptions of hotels and instant reservations for each hotel, we have an accurate street map of Kensington with the locations of each hotel.
We have verified the locations by walking each street ourselves, they are not based on postcodes or automated mapping systems.
>> Kensington & Earls Court Hotel Map
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