Kensington High Street & Roof Gardens - 24 May 2010

So, today, let’s go shopping in the Kensington High Street. I saw a bit of it when I was walking with Clara couple of weeks ago, and now I want to check it out up close and personal. So off I go.

Just stepping out from the Tube station is thrilling. Look at these buildings:

Giant Buildings Outside Kensington High Street Station

Kensington High Street Buildings

I wander around, popping into this shop and that. There’s one particular store that I really like, called Accessorize. It’s full of little baubles, scarves, bags, etc. It’s actually a chain. There are lots of them around, and each one’s a bit different. But the reason I like it is because they use a portion of their profits to help disadvantaged women all over the world make a better life for themselves. It started out as one little store, and now there are lots of them, each one doing it’s little bit to make the world better. The one in the Kensington High Street is fun, and I spend quite a bit of time in there.

The High Steet in Kensington is incredibly crowded. I walk for about a mile, up and down the street, checking out stores and people watching. And suddenly I’m starving. It’s about 4pm now, a strange time to be eating—not quite dinner but well past lunch. I found a restaurant/bar that was serving. On the menu was something I’ve never seen in a restaurant in the US: chicken liver salad with poached egg and spinach.

Chicken Liver Salad on the Kensington High Street

I sort of had to hurry my lunch, because I wanted to see a place I’d read about in my guide book: the Kensington Roof Gardens.  They close at 6:00pm. I head over to the street, which is difficult to find, as it’s quite small, more like an alley than a street. I really don’t know what the place is, exactly, other than a garden on a rooftop. The building is a modern office structure, and the receptionist sends me to the top floor, about 6 or 7 floors up. I wander around the floor, seeing a restaurant and waiters dressed in black. Then I walk out the door to the gardens. It’s magical! Unbelievable!  The space is huge, with gardens, and a bar in the middle, a reflecting pool, and a whole semi-outdoor room across the way decorated in Moroccan style. Here are some pix:

Looking from the Building Into the Garden

On the Right, a Spire from a Nearby Saxon Church Rises to the Sky

The Moroccan Room

On the Left, A Balcony with a Beautiful Garden Frieze

Looking Back Toward the Restaurant, the Wisteria Covers the Whole Wall

The flowers in this garden are in perfect shape. Now remember, I’m standing 6 floors above one of the busiest parts of town. There are buses, taxis and cars. There is construction noise all up and down the Kensington High Street. There are thousands of people milling about. This roof garden was stunningly peaceful, if you’ll excuse my putting those words together in that way. It was such a joy to escape from all of that intensity below, to see flowers such as these:

Oranges and Purples

Palms and Bamboo in the Moroccan Room

Salmon Colored Poppies

Purple Delphinium (I think)

It’s not like I’ve never seen flowers like this before, but the setting is so gorgeous, and in such an unlikely place as the top of a random office building off the high street that I am swept away by the magic of it all. I stay for quite some time, sit in the Moroccan Room and wander around. I even see a mated pair of ducks who’ve chosen to live in the reflecting pond.

Lucky Ducks

On the way downstairs, in the ultra-modern elevator, I hear two very well-heeled women talking about how the space just wasn’t right for the party they are going to throw.  It’s just not new anymore, and besides, it’s just not the right part of town. So I get the idea that one can rent the space for events. On the way out I ask the receptionist just how much it would cost to rent the space for a night. She says it’s on the order of 6,000GPB, which I calculate to be about $8,800. It would be an excellent party, for sure, and at that price, it had better be! I bring home a brochure, in case I decide to celebrate there at some point in the future.  Ha!

The building the roof gardens are on is at the back of a small street, and just at the end of that is a little square. There are many of these private little gardens in London, belonging to housing estates. This one is particularly lovely, but it isn't quite as removed from all the noise of the city as the roof gardens had been. 

Square Off Kensington High Street 

This has been a great day, full of crowds and shopping, interesting food and magical gardens. London has it all, and I'm ever so grateful to be here experiencing it. I'm also thankful that I bought the DK London Guidebook. It's the one that had the little paragraph about the Kensington Roof Gardens, and I've found it to be extremely helpful all 'round.