Queen's Gate Living
Queen's Gate
Queen’s Gate is the centrepiece of the whole area. The street runs from Kensington Gore to Old Brompton Road. It has more the appearance of a boulevard than of a typical London street. It is a very grand through road. There are large trees on either side of the street and it’s sufficiently wide to allow cars to park in the middle, between the lanes.
At the north end of the street is a massive and ornate iron gate which leads into Kensington Gardens. Further south on the corner with Cromwell Rd is a statue of Lord Baden Powell. In the summer months the road is made particularly attractive by hanging flower baskets.
Queen’s Gate is mainly residential but with some hotels restaurants and embassies too. It is very close to the shops in South Kensington and Gloucester Road.
The buildings are mainly 5-storey white or cream-coloured stucco buildings with large columned porches. These are glorious architectural confections with beautiful proportions and elaborate features.
The houses have basements with their own entrances via stairs behind the front paved area and below the main building entrance. The main entrances on the ground floors have porticoed entrances. They are either separate, or in some cases paired so that three columns support the two porticoes. In between the porticoes are the main ground floor rooms.
Running right along front of the buildings at first floor level is a balustrade which forms a balcony outside the first floor windows and on top of the porticoes. Windows on the upper floors are elaborate constructions in stucco. There is usually an elaborate cornice above the third floor or at the very top of the façade. In many cases there is an attic floor in the roof itself.
In the north-east part of Queen’s Gate stucco gives way to red-brick. These later Victorian buildings, reminiscent of the Cadogan Estate in Kensington. These huge houses are exuberant experiments in brick, soaring up five storeys or more. Windows and porticoes picked out in contrasting white stucco and with ornate cast-iron balconies.
