Transport
Kensington is well-served by public transport and is located in London's Central Zone of the public transport network. Three Underground lines serve the district via stations at High Street Kensington, Gloucester Road and South Kensington. All three are served by the Circle and District Lines, and South Kensington and Gloucester Road are served by the Piccadilly Line. Together, these stations link Kensington to all of the central areas of London (e.g. the West End can be reached in less than 15 minutes) and offer links to London's major airports (e.g. Heathrow Airport can be reached in about 45 minutes.
In addition to the Underground, Kensington is also served by a number of local bus services, linking Kensington into the surrounding districts. Key bus hubs are Kensington High Street and South Kensington station.
Transport for London Website (www.tfl.gov.uk)
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens and has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. Today it is the official residence of Zara Phillips, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Prince & Princess Michael of Kent.
The nearest Underground stations are High Street Kensington, Queensway, Bayswater and Gloucester Road.
Historic Royal Palaces Website (www.hrp.org.uk)
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens, covering 275 acres (1.1 sq. km) and once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. The park was famous to past generations of British schoolchildren for being the setting of J.M. Barrie's story of Peter Pan (1902).
Generally regarded as being part of the neighbouring Hyde Park from which they were originally taken, Kensington Gardens were laid out by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are other public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, Peter Pan statue, the Serpentine Gallery, and Speke's monument.
The Royal Parks Website (www.royalparks.gov.uk)
Royal Albert Hall
Situated in in the South Kensington area of London, the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences is an arts venue dedicated to Queen Victoria's husband and consort, Prince Albert. The hall was originally to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria when laying the foundation stone.
The hall forms the practical part of a national memorial to the Prince Consort - the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by the heavy traffic along Kensington Gore. The hall also accommodates the largest pipe organ in the UK, and is the home of The Proms.
Royal Albert Hall Website (www.royalalberthall.com)
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Natural History Museum
Renowned for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons, particularly the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the entrance, the Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road.
The museum is home to life and earth science collections comprising some 70 million items forming the five main collections of Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. There is also a wildlife garden containing native fauna and flora.
The closest London Underground station is South Kensington, which has a tunnel from the station that emerges close to the entrances of all three museums. Admission is free, although there are donation boxes in the foyer.
Natural History Museum Website (www.nhm.ac.uk)
Science Museum
A major London tourist attraction, the Science Museum, adjacent to the Natural History Museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry.
The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including famous items such as Stephenson's Rocket, the first jet engine, James Watson's model of DNA, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine and the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits. A recent addition is the IMAX 3D Cinema showing science and nature documentaries, some of them in 3-D. The Science Museum has a dedicated library and, until the 1960's, was Britain's National Library for Science, Medicine and Technology. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars world-wide.
The closest London Underground station is South Kensington, which has a tunnel from the station that emerges close to the entrances of all three museums. Admission is free, although there are donation boxes in the foyer.
Science Museum Website (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk)
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria & Albert Museum is on the corner of Cromwell Gardens and Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London.
Specialising in applied and decorative arts, the museum has a huge range of collections of European, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Islamic decorative arts, totalling 4 million items, and has galleries for sculpture, glass, jewellery, church plate, armour, weapons, costume, textiles, musical instruments, wrought iron, stained glass, metalwork, ceramics, furniture, architecture, photography, British watercolour artists and much more. The museum also houses Britain's national collection of sculpture up to 1900, including Bernini's fountain of Neptune & Triton and Canova's The Three Graces, and the national collection of Photography.
The closest London Underground station is South Kensington, which has a tunnel from the station that emerges close to the entrances of all three museums. Admission is free, although there are donation boxes in the foyer.
Victoria & Albert Museum (www.vam.ac.uk)
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