The world’s richest neighbourhood where stunning homes start at £150 million
Kensington Palace Gardens is an exclusive street in west London, near Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace.
Entered through gates at either end and guarded by sentry boxes, it was the location of the London Cage, the government’s MI19 prisoner of war facility during the Second World War and the Cold War.
The tree-lined avenue half a mile long is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, and has long been known as “Billionaires Row”, with homes reportedly selling for £150 million.
This is due to the huge wealth of its private residents, although in fact the majority of its current occupants are either national embassies or ambassadorial residences.
The palace, which is the residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Duke of Kent and Duchess of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, fronts the southern part of the street on the eastern side.
The houses at the northern end are mostly Italianate, while those at the southern end are mostly in the Queen Anne style. The street is lit by Victorian gaslight streetlights.
Some of the houses have been renovated by the Crown Estate and let to private buyers on long leases. One of these was bought in 2004 by the Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who Forbes magazine said in 2008 was the fourth richest man in the world.
HM Land Registry records state that in June 2004, 18–19 Kensington Palace Gardens, along with three mews houses at the rear of the property, sold for £57 million.
Number 8 was demolished in 1961 and was replaced by a glass-and-steel block of four apartments. The three-bed flat 3 sold in 2006 for £10 million after being valued at £13 million.
It connects Notting Hill Gate with Kensington High Street. The southern section of Kensington Palace Gardens is called Palace Green.
