Knightsbridge and South Kensington: Prince Albert‘s Lasting Legacy

In 1851, London‘s Hyde Park was home to the Great Exhibition, the first World‘s Fair anywhere in the world. As the world united to showcase and celebrate the latest in technological innovation, Prince Albert was determined to use the fair‘s success to transform a rural part of London into a cultural quarter known as Albertopolis where the legacy of The Great Exhibition would live on forever. Albert tragically died before completing the project, leaving Queen Victoria to take over.

On this walking tour, you‘ll see how successful the Victorians were at transforming the area of Knightsbridge from a quiet rural place next to Hyde Park to one of the world‘s most expensive and luxurious districts. We‘ll trace the metamorphosis of this borough starting from the Mandarin Oriental and passing through Knightsbridge. We‘ll pop past Harrods department store to hear its colourful history and about its owners. We‘ll then enter Albertopolis and I‘ll show you all the cultural monuments housed within its borders. After skirting around some of the city‘s poshest neighborhoods, we‘ll end our tour in Kensington where I‘ll tell you about its curious tropical birds.

On this London walking tour, you‘ll:

• Stroll past some of the most expensive properties in London
• See the city‘s museum district and take in the Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Science Museum
• Enjoy grand architecture from mansion blocks to the Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Palace
• Discover what it‘s really like to live in this exclusive enclave of London and see some of the quieter residential streets
• Marvel at one of central London‘s few Catholic Churches, the London Oratory which sits next to the Anglican Holy Trinity Brompton
• Take in Kensington Gardens‘ Albert Memorial and learn how long it took to complete
• Be shocked as you learn why when you ‘buy‘ a house around here, you don‘t really own it
• Catch a glimpse of one of the most high-security roads in London

By the end of this hour-long walk, you‘ll have discovered a side of the city you never knew existed and learnt about all the famous locals who have lived here.

Cover photo by Heather Cowper.