Kensington Palace Gardens

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Kensington Palace Gardens is a street in west central London which contains some of the grandest and most expensive houses in the world.

The "most exclusive address" in London, according to Knight Frank, is Kensington Palace Gardens, a tree-lined avenue half a mile long in the heart of embassy land. It is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, and has long been known as "Billionaires Row", due to the wealth of its private residents, although the majority of its current occupants are embassies and ambassadorial residences.

It is immediately to the west of Kensington Gardens and connects Notting Hill Gate with Kensington High Street. The southern section of Kensington Palace Gardens is called Palace Green.

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[edit] Background

It was built from the 1840s onwards, on part of the grounds of Kensington Palace and the freehold still belongs to the Crown Estate. The palace, which is the residence of the Duke & Duchess of Kent, the Duke & Duchess of Gloucester and Prince & 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.

For much of the 20th century a large proportion of the houses were occupied by embassies and ambassadors' residences. Some still are, but others have been renovated by the Crown Estate and sold to private buyers on long leases. One of these was purchased in 2004 by the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who in 2006 was listed by Forbes Magazine as the fifth richest man in the world. The sale was widely misreported at £70 million,[1] before accurate figures were available from HM Land Registry, where records state that on 30 June 2004, 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens, along with three mews houses at the rear of the property, sold for £57,145,967[2]

Formerly, this house was owned by Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One racing boss. On October 8th, 2001 he purchased the house from Iranian scholar and philanthropist Dr David Khalili for £50 million. This was substantially less than the asking price of £85 million when it was placed on the market by Savills in spring 2001. However, it was reported that Ecclestone's wife, Slavica, never liked the 55,000 square foot, 18 bedroom mansion so they never moved in.

Khalili spent three years and more than £20 million turning the two houses into one, building a swimming pool and indulging in his taste for marble floors and pillars (with marble from the same quarry as that used for the Taj Mahal).

Paul Reuter, the founder of the Reuters news agency, was also a former resident.

No 8 was used as an interrogation centre for German POWs during World War II and was known as the London Cage. The house is now divided into four apartments. Flat 3, which has been designed by international architect David Chipperfield, is currently on the market as a three bedroomed apartment valued at a minimum of £13.25 million through Knight Frank.

[edit] Current occupants

Current occupiers and residents include:

Palace Green

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "$128M Spend for London House", MSNBC, April 12, 2004.
  2. ^ "Super rich", The Guardian, April 17, 2006.

[edit] External links

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