Block & Lot: London’s History-Steeped ‘Albertopolis’

Home to major museums, including the Victoria and Albert and the Natural History Museum, and best-in-class arts institutions, including the Royal College of Art, South Kensington is one of London’s most culturally bountiful areas. Throw in stucco-fronted townhouses—the stuff of Mary Poppins—excellent restaurants, new luxury developments like Lancer Square, and the iconic Royal Albert Hall, and you’ve got an endlessly fascinating neighborhood that effortlessly mixes old and new. One block—marked by Kensington Gore to the north, Exhibition Road to the east, Prince Consort Road to the south, and Queen’s Gate to the west—is particularly rich with history. 

Albertopolis Is Born

Before the mid-1800s, South Kensington was largely agricultural. Then Prince Albert—Queen Victoria’s husband and a man of soaring ambition and oversized ideas—came along and changed everything. 

One such idea was the Great Exhibition of 1851, a World’s Fair–type attraction that flaunted the innovation and might of the British Empire. It was hosted in a temporary structure nicknamed “The Crystal Palace,” erected in Hyde Park, where it exhibited early computers and a fountain crafted from four tons of pink glass. It was a phenomenal hit, and Albert used proceeds from ticket sales to purchase land immediately south. His goal? Create a minicity, of sorts, composed of museums, lecture halls, and schools. Though Albert’s untimely death meant he never saw its completion, by the turn of the century, “Albertopolis,” as the area is still known today, had become a veritable Xanadu of arts and culture.

Park Life and Pints

Immediately north of Kensington Gore is Hyde Park, 350 acres of gardens, lawns, and lakes. A few minutes’ walk through the park leads to the Serpentine Gallery, with its annual pavilion installation. Directly opposite is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (popular for cooling feet in the summer) and The Queen’s Arms, a local “boozer” down a mews hidden just off Queen’s Gate.