Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
board game Monopoly. Sandwiched
between Regent Street and Hyde Park, it's
convenient for London's best shopping and
reasonably close to the West End theatres,
yet removed from the peddlers and com-
merce of Covent Garden and Soho.
One of the curiosities of Mayfair is
Shep-
herd Market,
a micro-village of pubs, two-
story inns, restaurants, and book and food
stalls, nestled within Mayfair's grandness.
At the center of Mayfair,
Grosvenor Square
(pronounced
Grove
-nor) is nicknamed “Lit-
tle America” because it's home to a statue
of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S.
Embassy.
St. James's
The neighborhood begins at
Piccadilly Circus and moves southwest,
incorporating the south side of Piccadilly,
Pall Mall, The Mall, St. James's Park, and
Green Park. Often called “Royal London,”
St. James's basks in its associations with
everybody from the “merrie monarch” King
Charles II to the current Queen Elizabeth II
and Prince Charles. Be sure to stop in at
Fortnum & Mason
(p. 158), on Piccadilly
itself, the grocer to the Queen. Hotels in
this neighborhood tend to be expensive,
but if the Queen should summon you to
Buckingham Palace, you won't have far to
walk.
Trafalgar Square
(p. 93) lies at the
opposite end of the Mall to Buckingham
Palace, marking the district's eastern
boundary. Its north side is taken up by the
neoclassical facade of the
National Gallery
(p. 89), while in the middle stands Nelson's
Column, erected in honor of the country's
victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Tra-
falgar, in 1805.
WEST LONDON
Kensington
The Royal Borough lies west
of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park and
is traversed by two of London's major
shopping streets, Kensington High Street
and Kensington Church Street. Since 1689,
when asthmatic William III fled Whitehall
Palace for Nottingham House (where the
air was fresher), the district has enjoyed
royal associations. In time, Nottingham
House became
Kensington Palace
(p. 96), and the royals grabbed a chunk of
Hyde Park to plant their roses. Kensington
Palace was home to the late princesses
Margaret and Diana, and is still home to
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and
the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. With
all those royal associations, Kensington is a
wealthy neighborhood with some very
well-to-do hotels and shops. Although it
can feel like you've left central London
behind on its quiet residential streets, it's
just a few Tube stops from High Street
Kensington Station to the heart of the
action.
Paddington & Bayswater
Paddington
radiates out from Paddington Station,
north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gar-
dens. It's one of the major B&B centers in
London, attracting budget travelers who fill
the lodgings along Sussex Gardens and
Norfolk Square. Just south of Paddington,
north of Hyde Park, and abutting more
fashionable Notting Hill to the west, is Bay-
swater, also filled with budget B&Bs.
Paddington and Bayswater are “in-
between” areas. Stay here for moderately
priced lodgings (there are expensive hotels,
too) and for convenience to
Hyde Park
(p. 94) and transportation. Pick your hotel
with care; you'll find our favorites starting
on p. 185.
Notting Hill
Fashionable Notting Hill is
bounded on the east by Bayswater and on
the south by Kensington. Hemmed in
on the north by the elevated road known as
the Westway and on the west by the Shep-
herd's Bush roundabout, it has many turn-
of-the-20th-century mansions and small
houses sitting on quiet, leafy, recently gen-
trified streets, plus a number of hot restau-
rants and clubs. In the 1950s the area
welcomed a significant influx of Caribbean
immigrants, whose cultural heritage is
vibrantly celebrated each year at the
Not-
ting Hill Carnival,
Europe's largest street
party. Hotels are few, but often terrifyingly
chic. Notting Hill is also home to
Portobello
Road,
the site of London's most famous
street market (p. 152). Adjacent
Holland
Park,
an expensive residential neighbor-
hood spread around the park of the same
name, is a little more serene, but also more
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