London Life: Exploring Notting Hill & Kensington

Firstly, I must apologise for my very sparse blogging! This wedding season has been so full on, and trying to juggle it with a day job means blogging/social media uptake took a real hit! I can’t believe it took me so long to write this.. but here you go!

One of my new years resolutions was to explore London more, as its so easy to be lazy at the weekend, or just hang out around my local area. Back in May, on my last free weekend before wedding season madness started, I spent a beautiful sunny Sunday exploring Notting Hill & Kensington.

I followed A Lady in London’s walking guide to Notting Hill which I can definitely recommend doing. It took around an hour and a half (with plenty of stops to take photos), and took me through Portabello Market, around pretty hidden Mews, and up into the residential streets of Ladbroke Grove.

As I did it on a Sunday, Portabello Market was lovely and quiet – for once I wasn’t desperate to leave the crowds behind. Blossom was still out and the colours of the buildings were so vibrant. I also came across so many gorgeous classic cars.. which seemed like they had been parked to co-ordinate with their surrounding buildings!

After finishing the tour, I decided I would continue on to Holland Park, some where I have never been in my 10+ years of living in London! Around 15 minutes walk away, when I arrived I was surprised at how rural it felt, despite being right in the middle of time. I loved the Kyoto Garden, and can imagine on a week day it is lovely and peaceful (it was full of tourists so I didn’t stay long). Walking down through the Orangery, the flowers were in full bloom, with wisteria still hanging over the walkway.

From here, you can continue directly south to Kensington High Street, where I picked up a quick lunch and took it to Hyde Park to sunbathe. Wanting to enjoy the sun as much as possible, I walked through Kensington Gardens and up towards the Lido/Serpentine. One of these days I am going to have to try the lido – it looked like the perfect day for it as there was a pretty hefty queue! I eventually reached the other side of the park and made my way through Mayfair to get the tube home from Bond Street. I had walked for around 4 hours, covering 10km, and it was an absolutely gorgeous way to spend a Sunday. You get to see so much of London by walking, and I discovered parts of west London I have never seen before 🙂 This was also another outing for my new Fuji XT2 – its growing on me every time I take it out 🙂 The very shallow images were taken on my Canon 50mm and an adaptor.

What neighbourhoods should I explore next? Follow my board on Pinterest for ways to spend your weekend in London.

Caroline x

SaveSave

SaveSave