Queen's Gate

For other uses, see Queensgate.

Buildings in the street.

Queen's Gate, a major southern gate of Kensington Gardens in the northern end of the street.

St Augustine's, Queen's Gate, London.

Queen's Gate is a major street in South Kensington, London, England. It runs from Kensington Road south, intersecting with Cromwell Road, and then on to Old Brompton Road.

The street is mostly in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but part of the east side falls into the City of Westminster. The municipal boundary follows Queen's Gate between Kensington Road and Imperial College Road.

History

The street was built on land purchased by the Royal Commissioners for the Great Exhibition under an agreement dated August 1855 between them: Henry Browne Alexander, whose family owned the land through which the road was to pass, and William Jackson, a building speculator. The road was originally known as Albert's Road, but was officially changed to Queen's Gate in 1859.

Places of interest

From north to south, places of interest visible from Queen's Gate include the Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, Baden-Powell House, Dana Centre and the Natural History Museum. The road also lends its name to an independent girls' school Queen's Gate School, which itself is situated on the road. The entire road, being more of a boulevard, is approximately 1 km in length with varying architecture in relation to the north central and south regions of the road. The north region, adjacent to Queen's Gate, a major southern gate of Kensington Gardens features grand terraced homes on the west side and independent designed attached buildings on the east side. The Huxley Building, built in honour of and named after biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, is the largest of many academic buildings based on the road itself, although other scientific buildings are also visible.

In the central region of the east side of Queen's Gate, major construction work has been ongoing at least since 1998, developing and creating major science research centres, the main one being the Darwin Centre, home to several dozen million animal specimens. The Darwin Centre phase II is currently under construction. both these buildings belong to and are of full use to The Natural History Museum. The public can visit the currently open Darwin Centre by appointment only.

Although there are churches in streets branching from Queen's Gate, the only one on the road is St Augustine's of Canterbury (Church of England). It is situated next to a major parking park, whose entrance is on Harrington Gardens, which is perpendicular to the road on both sides in the southern part. Although there are bars, restaurants and several hotels on the road, the entire area is essentially residential with the nearest shops at least 100 metres away (e.g., on Gloucester Road).

The entire length of Queen's Gate is divided with a central parking reservation, which has done much to ease space on road sides and has no major effect on traffic, as the road is already large and of little wider citizen use. At the northernmost part of the road, only metres away from the actual gate of Kensington Gardens, there is a statue of a man, Lord Napier, mounted upon a horse.

The buildings increase in architectural simplicity as one moves southward down the road. the nearest tube stations are South Kensington and Gloucester Road. Two minor bus routes operate on the street.

Five countries have embassies in Queen's Gate: the Embassy of Iraq is at no. 21, the Bangladeshi High Commission at No. 28, the Royal Embassy of Thailand is at Nos. 29-30 and the Embassy of Oman is at No. 167; and the Bulgarian Embassy is at Numbers 186-188.

Notable residents

• Gilbert Ledward, sculptor
• Dennis Gabor, physicist, 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Benny Hill, comedian and actor

External links

• Bangladeshi High Commission website
• Royal Thai Embassy website
• Omani Embassy website
• Bulgarian Embassy website