South Kensington Property

Buying advice for property searching in South Kensington, London

Most of residential South Kensington lies to the south of the Cromwell Road. Knightsbridge begins, to the east, at Brompton Cross and the southernmost boundary is the Fulham Road.

Over the last twenty years South Kensington has become one of the very best residential areas of London as the Smith’s Charity Estate as it was (it is now owned by the Wellcome Trust) has been developed and improved. Onslow Gardens and Onslow Square are the prime areas and alongside them is the major development of the old Brompton Hospital that was completed at the end of the 1990s. Most of the shops and cafés are around South Kensington underground station which is about to be redeveloped into a major office and retail centre. Living close to this for the next few years will be noisy and dusty although planning permission has been slow and there is a temporary reprieve.

West of the underground station is a good residential area but it lacks the uniformity of the Smith’s Charity Estate. Stanhope Gardens and Queensgate have nice flats but suffer from road noise and, in the case of Stanhope Gardens, from its proximity to the Gloucester Road which is at its least glamorous at the point around the underground station where there are a number of large tourist hotels. These also affect the area towards Earls Court such as Collingham Gardens.

The majority of the property tends to be flats, though Pelham Crescent and Thurloe Square have some of the nicest houses in London. Most of the leases in the Wellcome Estate are now short to mid-term but the leasehold enfranchisement legislation has left a number of shared freeholds and much longer leases.

For more information on buying advice and property searching in South Kensington, London, contact the Property Vision London property search and advice team.