Best Restaurants, Bars and Things to Do in South Kensington, London

About South Kensington

South Kensington operates at two speeds simultaneously. The museum district along Exhibition Road draws millions of visitors each year and the restaurants nearby reflect that footfall, but away from the main tourist corridor the neighbourhood has a genuinely strong independent food and drink scene built around a permanent residential population, a large French expatriate community and the students and academics connected to the Imperial College campus.

The French character of parts of South Kensington is more than a cliche. The area around the Lycee Francais and the Institut Francais on Queensberry Place has genuine French bakeries, bistros and delis that serve a community rather than a tourist market, and the quality reflects that. Alongside this, the streets around Old Brompton Road and Brompton Cross have developed some of the better independent restaurants and wine bars in this part of London.

Lets Discover creators who cover South Kensington know the neighbourhood beyond its museum identity and their picks reflect an area that rewards the people who look past the obvious.

Old Brompton Road and the streets running off it provide the main concentration of independent restaurants and cafes in South Kensington, with a mix of French bistros, neighbourhood Italians and more contemporary openings that hold their own against anywhere in central London. The blocks around South Kensington station, particularly Thurloe Street and Pelham Street, have a dense cluster of cafes and restaurants that serve both the local population and visitors to the museums. Exhibition Road and the streets immediately adjacent are more geared toward the museum visitor trade but contain some worthwhile options. Brompton Cross, where Old Brompton Road meets Fulham Road, is one of the better junctions in this part of London for a spontaneous meal or a drink and has a reliable concentration of quality venues.

History and culture in South Kensington

South Kensington's identity as a centre of culture and learning was established by the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Hyde Park under the patronage of Prince Albert. The profits from the exhibition were used to purchase the land south of the park that became Albertopolis, the cluster of museums, colleges and cultural institutions that defines the neighbourhood today. The Natural History Museum, completed in 1881, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum were all built on this land and collectively make South Kensington one of the most concentrated cultural destinations in the world. The neighbourhood also developed a significant French community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attracted by the presence of French schools and cultural institutions, and this community remains a defining feature of the area's character. The Royal Albert Hall, just north of the museum district, has been one of London's principal concert venues since it opened in 1871.