Kensington and Chelsea Houses for Sale

Many people like to own houses in the exclusive areas of Kensington and Chelsea. They may want to own large houses or small houses. They may want to own houses that have a high status. Some may want luxury or cheap accommodation. Some may want to own famous house in a high status area of the two regions. Some may want to work or vacation in the regions. Some may want to own or rent an apartment, house, flat, mansion, cottage or home in the region. They may want to have high quality high status accommodation.

Homes in the region of Kensington and Chelsea are often in great demand. Many homes in the region can fetch high fees.

homes for sale kensington

Kensignton

Kensington is a district of West London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, located 2.8 miles west of Charing Cross. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.

To the north, Kensington is bordered by Notting Hill. To the east, Kensington is bordered by Brompton and Knightsbridge. To the south, Kensington is bordered by Chelsea and Earl's Court. To the west, Kensington is bordered by Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush.

Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Ce-nsiginga tu-n = "The village or enclosure of Keen-Victory's people".

The focus of the area is Kensington High Street, a busy commercial centre with many shops, typically upmarket. The street was declared London's second best shopping street in February 2005 thanks to its range and number of shops.

Kensington's second activity centre is South Kensington, where a variety of small shops are clustered close to South Kensington tube station. This is also the southern end of Exhibition Road, the thoroughfare that links the area's museums and educational institutions together.

The edges of Kensington are not well-defined; in particular, the southern part of Kensington blurs into Chelsea, which has a similar architectural style. To the west, a transition is made across the West London railway line and Earl's Court Road further south into other districts, whilst to the north, the only obvious dividing line is Holland Park Avenue, to the north of which is the similar district of Notting Hill.

In the north east, the large Royal Park of Kensington Gardens (contiguous with its eastern neighbour, Hyde Park) is an obvious buffer between Kensington and areas to the north east. The other main green area in Kensington is Holland Park, just north of Kensington High Street, whilst Kensington has numerous small residential garden squares.

Notable attractions and institutions in Kensington (or South Kensington) include: Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, the Royal Albert Hall opposite the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, the Royal College of Music, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Heythrop College, the Royal College of Art, Imperial College London and Kensington and Chelsea College. The Olympia exhibition hall is just over the western border in West Kensington.

The manor of Kensington, Middlesex, was granted by William I of England to Geoffrey de Montbray or Mowbray, bishop of Coutances, one of his inner circle of advisors and one of the wealthiest men in post-Conquest England. He in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishop's heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus and his vast barony was declared forfeit. Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St. Marys Abbots.

South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles (3.9 km) west south-west of Charing Cross. It is hard to define notional boundaries for South Kensington, but a common definition is the commercial area around the tube station and the adjacent graceful garden squares and streets (such as Thurloe Square, opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum). The smaller neighborhood around Gloucester Road tube station can also be considered part of South Kensington, as well as the institution area around Exhibition Road, which includes such famous names as the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Baden-Powell House, Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Royal College of Music, although this part is officially part of the small area known as Knightsbridge. Although the postcode SW7 stands for South Kensington, some parts of Kensington also fall under this postcode. Only the area south of Cromwell Road is regarded as South Kensington.

Chelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square tube station. The modern eastern boundary is Chelsea Bridge Road and the lower half of Sloane Street, including Sloane Square. To the north and northwest, the area fades into Knightsbridge and South Kensington, but it is safe to say that the area north of King's Road as far northwest as Fulham Road is part of Chelsea.

The word Chelsea means "landing place [on the river] for chalk or limestone" (Old English). Anglo-Saxon Cealc-h3ð = "chalk wharf". The first record of the Manor of Chelsea precedes the Domesday Book and records the fact that Thurstan, governor of the King's Palace during the reign of Edward the Confessor, gave the land to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. Abbot Gervace subsequently assigned the manor to his mother, and it passed into private ownership. Modern-day Chelsea was the site of the Synod of Chelsea in 787 AD. In the ancient records, it is written as Chelchith, which Norden, a writer of considerable note, derives from the Saxon words ceale or cele, meaning "coldness", and hyd, meaning "port" or "haven".

King Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea from Lord Sandys in 1536; Chelsea Manor Street is still extant. Two of his wives, Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves, lived in the Manor House; Princess Elizabeth – the future Queen Elizabeth I – was a resident; and Thomas More lived more or less next door at Beaufort House. James I established a theological college on the site of Chelsea Royal Hospital, which was later founded by Charles II.
Figure Court of Royal Hospital Chelsea

By 1694, Chelsea – always a popular location for the wealthy, and once described as "a village of palaces" – had a population of 3,000. Even so, Chelsea remained rural and served London to the east as a market garden, a trade that continued until the 19th-century development boom which caused the district to finally absorb into the metropolis. The street crossing what was known as "Little Chelsea", Park Walk, linked Fulham Road to King's Road and continued to the Thames and Local Ferry down Lover's Lane, renamed "Milmans Street" in the 18th century.
Statue of King Charles II on the site of the Chelsea Flower Show

King's Road was named for Charles II, recalling the King's private road from St James's Palace to Fulham, which was maintained until the reign of George IV. One of the more important buildings in King's Road is Chelsea Town Hall, a fine neo-classical building containing important frescos. Part of the building contains the Chelsea Public Library. Almost opposite is the former Odeon Cinema, now Habitat, with its iconic façade which carries high upon it a large sculptured medallion of the now almost-forgotten William Friese-Greene, who claimed to have invented celluloid film and cameras before any subsequent patents.

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "the better residential portion of Chelsea is the eastern, near Sloane Street and along the river; the western, extending north to Fulham Road, is mainly a poor quarter". This is no longer the case, although Housing trusts and Council property do remain. The areas to the west also attract very high prices.

The memorials in the churchyard of Chelsea Old Church (All Saints), near the river, illustrate much of the history of Chelsea. These include Lord and Lady Dacre (1594–1595); Sir John Lawrence (1638); Lady Jane Cheyne (1698); Francis Thomas, "director of the china porcelain manufactory"; Sir Hans Sloane (1753); Thomas Shadwell, Poet Laureate (1692). Sir Thomas More's tomb can also be found there.

Chelsea was once famous for the manufacture of Chelsea buns (made from a long strip of sweet dough tightly coiled, with currants trapped between the layers, and topped with sugar). The area is still famous for its "Chelsea China" ware, though the works, the Chelsea porcelain factory – thought to be the first workshop to make porcelain in England – were sold in 1769, and moved to Derby. Examples of the original Chelsea ware fetch high values.

The best-known building is Chelsea Royal Hospital for invalid soldiers, set up by Charles II (supposedly on the suggestion of Nell Gwynne), opened in 1694. The beautifully proportioned building by Christopher Wren stands in extensive grounds, where the Chelsea Flower show is held annually. There was also until recently the Duke of York's Barracks off King's Road; now the Duke of York's Square, it was redeveloped into shops and cafes and is the site of the weekly farmers' market. The Saatchi Galleray will be opening in the main building in spring 2008. Chelsea Barracks, at the end of Lower Sloane Street, was also in use until recently, primarily by ceremonial troops of the Household Division. Situated on the Westminster side of Chelsea Bridge Road, it was bought by a property group for re-development.

Chelsea's modern reputation as a centre of innovation and influence originated in a period during the 19th century, when the area became a veritable Victorian artists' colony (see Borough of artists below). It became prominent once again as one of the centres of 1960s "Swinging London".

Chelsea consists of two main postcodes (SW3 and SW10) but also includes small sections of SW1. All of Chelsea is, by definition, in the London borough of "The Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea" (RBKC). On the eastern side RBKC meets the equally fashionable and expensive borough of the City of Westminster (COW), this meets at Lower Sloane Street where the postcode is SW1W, with one side of the road being in COW and the other in RBKC. However it does give the strange result that some of RBKC is in SW1W. The Moore Park Estate in SW6 is also considered to be part of the Fulham/Chelsea border.

The vast majority of Chelsea is SW3. The far west of Chelsea is SW10 and SW5 but due to the absence of tube coverage in large parts of the Borough, most people in SW10 use Earls Court or Fulham Broadway tube stations.

The most desirable part of Chelsea is around Sloane Square and Knightsbridge tube. Around here, Chelsea meets Knightsbridge. This property market attracts considerable (international) attention, and is a very complex market as it consists mainly of short leases under Earl Cadogan as freeholder. Much of Chelsea is now viewed as a "Global Ultra Prime Residential Area".

Kensington and Chelsea Houses for Sale

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