Old Money London Tour

Old Money

LONDON

After Thomas Cubbit success developing Balgravia in the 1820s the rural Kensington plus Chelsea got developed for the nepo babies of the time: scientist, poets and diplomats; while Queen Victoria cleaned the Opium money with cultural institutions known as Albertopolis (plus Hyde Park) setting the stage for the booming British Elite — and today you can pretend to be a rich kid from the Victoria Era.

Time period: 1800-now

Movie/book: 101 Dalmatians (1961)/The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Soundtrack: Matt Monroe/Adele’s music

Fashion: blue-red-white outfit, nice blazer plus a cravat

Budget:

G.W. Bacon: New Map of London; London 1890

This walking tour would take you through the streets of Kensington: the neighborhood where industrialist, scientists, and nobles used to live and meander during the Victoria Era; and where Albertopolis got built after the International Exhibition of 1951. The area is characterized by: Beaux-Arts architecture, private parks and cultural institutions.

Kensington Palace became the royal residence for much of the Hanover Dynasty from 1714 to 1837 (and still is being used by some members of the British royal family) attracting other nobles and colonialist to build their Georgian Mansions in what used to be the country side of London — away from the pollution of the Thames and the factories of East London. But during the Victorian Era (1837-1901) the country side of Kensington got developed, implementing the practices of industrialization but now in housing thanks to Thomas Cubbit, who introduce to the rich the mass produced “white stucco-fronted terraces” townhouses of Balgravia in the 1820s. Also known as White Townhouses, they were conceived as mini white Italian villas using mass produce bricks, doors and windows with a small front porch plus a mini garden in the back with a shared-private garden crossing the street. It was a success! and by 1870 South Kensington got filled with them specially after the 1851 Great Exhibition. The neighborhood not only got filled with residences but also with cultural institutions known as Albertopolis named after Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. Funded by profits from the exhibition (and opium); the cultural center included: the Museum of Manufacturers (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) innagurated in 1851, the Royal Albert Hall (1867), different campuses of the Imperial College, and the Natural History Museum (1881) — attracting a wave of artist, rich kids and scientists to the area at the turn of the XX century. The nearby Chelsea became the hipster/bohemian neighborhood of London with painters, poets and radicals living a working there. But the nepo babies of industrial London rejected the standardization of the time with the Arts and Crafts movement (the English art nouveau) characterized by: crafty goods, organic shapes and cozy colors applied to furniture, toys and wallpapers. As the amount of rich residents grew, so did the size of Harrods: the biggest department store in Europe after its reconstruction in 1905. Here you can literally find anything: from Dali sculptures to Prada Chocolates and even affordable souvenirs; but the best part is its architecture: from the baroque exterior to the campy Egyptian staircase and the contemporary lux interiors — its huge and iconic. By 1965 the modern Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea got formed, and it got gentrified by the Saudi Royal Family along Russian oligarchs with many embassies in the area — but don’t worry, it hasn’t lost its elegance and prestige. The neighborhood still has some of the most expensive real state in the city, particularly the mansions on Kensington Palace Gardens. The tour suggest visiting the Kensington Palace & Gardens in the morning; a monumental walking tour around the Queens Gate neighborhood plus the Victoria & Albert Museum in the afternoon; and to finish the day some shopping and dining in the iconic department store Harrods plus window shopping in Sloan Street.