Exploring Kensington, London

This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to explore Kensington, London. I’ve lived in London for 3 years and he’s lived here for almost 30 years but there are still areas of the city that we have yet to explore. On Saturday we headed to Kensington and started our day with a trip to the Ivy Brasserie for some brunch. They also do an afternoon tea (or a champagne one if you’re feeling fancy) that I would have loved to try as I’m afternoon tea obsessed. I had the most moreish chocolate bomb for dessert that caved in the middle when hot caramel sauce was poured on top.

We then headed to Kensington Palace inside Kensington Palace Gardens which were BEAUTIFUL. We were lucky to have one of the last few days of sunshine, I felt like a princess standing outside the Palace. If any of my lovely readers are ever visiting London from outside the UK and are looking for a place to stay, there are lots of lovely hotels near Kensington that are worth checking out. Kensington is pretty central and easy to reach places like Westminster, Victoria & Oxford Circus.

Our next stop was the Design Museum. I’ve tried to go a heap of times before and was so glad I was able to visit this weekend. There is currently an exhibition for the infamous designer Azzedine Alaia aka ‘couture’s rebellious outsider.’ It’s the first UK solo exhibition of his work and I learnt that he handcrafted EVERY SINGLE garment he ever designed.

We then headed over to the Saatchi Gallery for a brand new exhibition that is on until the end of January called ‘Black Mirror’ with loose links to the TV series as it revolves around art’s role in social sattire – it’s definitely worth a visit!

We ended our day with a well earned drink at the K Bar  which has a plush, gentleman’s club vibe. I love trying new cocktails and they had a mix of classic options and their own contemporary mix. I tried the Brompton Tea Party that was made up of: Jasmine-infused Tanqueray 10, grapefruit infused Belsazar white, elderflower cordial, soda and tasted as delicious as it sounds!

I’ve always thought of Kensington as somewhere that just housed the V&A and Natural History Museum (which are of course worth a visit if you haven’t been before) but I discovered there is so much more to the Borough.

To my ever lovely readers, have any of you ever been to Kensington? If so, what are you favourite spots there?

Giulia

x

This post was a collaboration with Hotels.com. The spending money for this day out was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.