The Royal Boroughs Of Kensington And Chelsea

It's certainly not the most 'happening' or 'edgy' spot in old London town but it's an area I always gravitate towards cos I know bits of it quite well. My big mate who works for Christies the Auctioneers got re-located to their South Kensington branch for a a couple of years and I used to hang out in his tiny studio flat just off Old Brompton Road loads.

Anyway, on Monday I found myself on my lonesome with a whole afternoon to kill before my 8 o'clock flight up the road and I set about wandering aimlessly from Gloucester Road tube down to Earls Court.

I had a brilliant day to myself. The architecture is stunning, the townhouses, the red-brick apartments, all those lovely big squares with their private gardens. I particularly liked stumbling accross the hidden cobbled streets with their mews cottages, beautiful two story buildings which look like they belong in the countryside and not in the heart of smelly London. Loads of interesting churches too including an Armenian one (???).

The people watching opportunities were great also. It was like a day out at the 'Fabulously Wealthy' zoo. On the one hand there's yer proper posh totty cutting about in summer-wear which always makes the view that bit better, then there was the manky old bloke in front of me in the queue at some cafe on the Kings Road who looked like he'd ran out of Big Issues but ordered his black coffee and copy of the Times in an accent that suggested otherwise.

The best part was stumbling accross a pub, tucked up a lane in Earls Court, that I'd found myself in 12 years previously and which I'd never been abe to find again any time I was in the area. It's the Kings Head on Kenway Road, SW5 if you're interested.

Sometimes it's great having a day in your own company, good for the soul and all that. I came home feeling that I'd had one of the best days of my year so far and that London may actually be my favourite big capital city.

Go London!!!!!

I agree. I was having a great time in Barcelona until everyone else showed up. Walking around the Gothic quarter, strolling through backstreets, looking for the nicest bars whose menu was either in Spanish or Catalunyan...

And then everyone else started to arrive...

One of my best days this year was spent on my own in Larrndon. I was in Kings Cross and had much the same time sauntering around little boutiques and cafes like a big London ponce. I saw a gay wedding and threatened to punch a persistant beggar who called me a cant when I wouldn't give him money for drugs. I brayed into my mobile in wine bar and called every woman I spoke to 'babes'. I spent £15 on a glass of wine in the best pub in the world and spat olive stones at a tree.

And that was just the day

I used to work in Knightsbridge and had a girlfriend that lived in Chelsea.

Elitist bollocks. Pay for parking by text ffs! Good fun throwing stones at the toffs though.

The best bit about being on your own is you've nobody to please but yourself. I can't think of anyone I know who would have been happy trudging around two square miles of residential sidestreets for five hours. No shops of any note, not that mant people kicking about mid-afternoon either. But to me it was fascinating.

That said, i'm not one of those types who could go on holiday on their own. I went to Bratislava on my own for three days in March to look at some properties. Come nightime I was choking to get out and get a lager down me and generally get involved. On the final night I did just that and despite being Jimmy-No-Mates I still managed to hit about 5 bars, a club, the casino and then my own bathroom floor which I decided to sleep on when I got back to the hotel. Rubbish doing that kinda stuff on your own though.

The only place I've ever felt happy to go out on my own in the evening is Amsterdam. I spent a few weeks there last year and never got bored of wandering the streets, calling into bars and restaurants and soaking up the sights and sounds. It's so easy to fall into good conversation there, and it's so interesting to sit and watch the world go by until you do. Being Amsterdam, hardly a night goes by without something unusual happening right in front of you. I'm sure you could write a book containing the conversations you overhear as you amble around.

Times like this I wish i lived somewhere else. I love to go walking aimlessly around, looking at architecture and watching the social interations of people.... however the cookie cutter landscape of track homes and shopping centers of California makes it pointless.

Someday I will have to check the places out you mentioned. Won't be for years til I can visit England, but it always has been top of the list, but never really knew where to go. Normal tourist traps bore me, I like to see people and places that are beautiful, yet also part of everyday life. Sounds like the perfect place.

I can imagine it being a decent way to spend an afternoon. Did something similar on a smaller scale in Liverpool, a few weeks back. Dragged a mate along to scope out some property around the Faulkner Square area of the city.

I'd been considering moving to the city centre. Having only visited there once before in about 1990, when a mate was seeing a student, who had digs in the area but never since.

I remember her flat backed onto a Square and there was a pub on it. Didn't find that and my mate was bored/tired. Went back on my own on my bike and still couldn't find the exact area.

It's an odd mix, amidst the Georgian splendour, you've got some 80's housing association flats and god awful Toxteth Community college. Faulkner Square itself was once a private park. It's about 1/2 a mile back from Hope Street.

This kind of place is often about 100 yards from a hell hole.

i had the opposite problem on a recent trip to the capital - too much bloody company. i was with someone i hadn't seen in, like, forever, and i had been really looking forward to chewing the fat, arguing the toss, starting a new minor religion. just the two of us.

complete strangers just kept joining us, everywhere we went, gravitating to our table like bears to marmalade. "do you mind if we just...?" i've never known anything like it, especially not in t'dirty smoke. we easily spent most of the time talking to these other people rather than each other. in the end i gave up, got trashed in the spirit of the thing and subsequently can't remember the ten minutes or so we did get alone at the end of the night.

what happened to the fabled southern hostility that evening?! (oh, now i come to think of it, most of these hangers-on were actually nothern. but, still. when in rome etc...)

honestly. friendly fuckers. can't be doing with it.

GlasVegas wrote: I can't think of anyone I know who would have been happy trudging around two square miles of residential sidestreets for five hours.

Great way to spend a day. Even better on the bike cos you don't need to use the tube to get there.

Sounds like you missed one little gem though. Round the back of the Antique Market on King's Rd there's a fantastic old School building on Upper Cheyne and then it's just a short walk down to the River. Great veiws of Chelsea Wharf and Battersea Power Station.

I too wander lonely as a cloud!With ALL the TIME i have on my hands at the MOMENT i need to get out and about.Sometimes i take mates on ROCKET tours of MANCHESTER to see the FACTORY related sites(what's LEFT!) but i do enjoy just going round MANC or Liverpool looking at the buildings.Great when i get down LONDON and stay with my mate in BARNES.But my main PASSTIME now i don't DRINK much is walking in the countryside.No building can ever match MOTHER NATURE.......well maybe the odd brick or two.

I fancy Cairo again sometime.Great city to wander around although i never made it to Elephantine Island when i was there last because i went down with a bout of Pharoahs curse I remember us going up some tower in a lift and glimpsing the Pyramids looming up large in the distance in the haze just before dusk.What an unforgettable sight seeing them for the first time.Other than that i like cycling 6 or 7 miles out into the Warwickshire countryside at the crack of dawn and taking in the sunrise over the hills and fields.Fit as fuck me like

A friend of mine has just moved to Earls Court I'll recommend that pub to him. :)

stayed in a youth hostel down the road from Kensington Gardens on my last visit in 1999. Calm, beautiful area from what I remember. I'd love tovisit again sometime.