Exhibition Road

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Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road South Kensington.jpg
Exhibition Road following opening of shared space scheme during 2012
Former name(s)Prince's Gate [1]
Namesake The Great Exhibition
Location Albertopolis, Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Postal code SW7
Nearest Tube station Underground no-text.svg South Kensington
Coordinates 51°29′56.3″N0°10′27.3″W / 51.498972°N 0.174250°W / 51.498972; -0.174250
North end Hyde Park (Alexandra Gate), Kensington Road
Major
junctions		 Imperial College Road, Cromwell Road
South end Thurloe Street, South Kensington tube station
Other
Known for Imperial College London, Science Museum, V&A, Natural History Museum

Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Contents

Overview

The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was held just inside Hyde Park at the northern end of the road. After the central road in the area, Queen's Gate, it is the second thoroughfare in what was once Albertopolis.

It provides access to many nationally significant institutions, including:

Shared space

A design competition for plans of how to improve the street's design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The competition was won by the architectural firm Dixon Jones for a shared space scheme for the road and surrounding streets which would give pedestrians greater priority whilst still allow some vehicular traffic at a reduced speed. [3] [4] The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape. [5] The scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. [6] Since the completion of the revised streetscape, its design has been criticised for increasing the accident rate in the locale, with reported conflict between motor vehicles and pedestrians due to the unified surface design across Exhibition Road. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington</span> District within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in central London

Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around 2.9 miles (4.6 km) west of Central London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria and Albert Museum</span> Art museum in London, England

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The Royal College of Science is a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it is a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Still to this day, graduates from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London receive an Associateship to the Royal College of Science. Organisations linked with the college include the Royal College of Science Union and the Royal College of Science Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington Gore</span> Thoroughfare on the south side of Hyde Park in central London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural History Museum, London</span> British museum established in 1881

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Kensington tube station</span> London Underground station

South Kensington is a London Underground station in the district of South Kensington, south west London. It is served by the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. On the District and Circle lines it is between Gloucester Road and Sloane Square, and on the Piccadilly line between Gloucester Road and Knightsbridge. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The main station entrance is located at the junction of Old Brompton Road (A3218), Thurloe Place, Harrington Road, Onslow Place and Pelham Street. Subsidiary entrances are located in Exhibition Road giving access by pedestrian tunnel to the Natural History, Science and Victoria and Albert Museums. Also close by are the Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, the Royal College of Music, the London branch of the Goethe-Institut and the Ismaili Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cromwell Road</span> Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England

Cromwell Road is a major London road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, designated as part of the A4. It was created in the 19th century and is said to be named after Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, who once owned a house there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albertopolis</span> Area in South Kensington, London

South Kensington is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the railways in the late 19th century and the opening and naming of local tube stations. The area has many museums and cultural landmarks with a high number of visitors, such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Adjacent affluent centres such as Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington, have been considered as some of the most exclusive real estate in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aston Webb</span> English architect (1849–1930)

Sir Aston Webb, was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in partnership with Ingress Bell. He was President of the Royal Academy from 1919 to 1924. He was also the founding Chairman of the London Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal School of Mines</span> Former mining college, now part of the Imperial College

The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioengineering are also housed within the building. The school as an organisation no longer exists, having been incorporated into the Faculty of Engineering since 2003. Today the Royal School of Mines refers to both the departments associated with the former school, and the Grade II listed Edwardian building by Sir Aston Webb, which is viewed as a classic of academic architecture. The building and relevant student union still carry the name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Cole</span> English design advocate (1808–1882)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851</span> Grant-making educational trust

The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, which was held in The Crystal Palace, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cromwell Gardens</span>

Cromwell Gardens is a short but major road in South Kensington, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. It joins the Cromwell Road at the junction with Exhibition Road to the west with the Brompton Road to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thurloe Square</span>

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College Faculty of Engineering</span>

The Faculty of Engineering is the engineering school of Imperial College London, and one of the three main faculties the college. It was formed in 2001 from the former City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines—two of the three original constituent colleges of Imperial College when the latter was formed in 1907. The faculty is ranked as the top engineering institute in the UK in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismaili Centre, London</span> Religious and cultural center for Ismailis

The Ismaili Centre, London, is one of six Ismaili Centres worldwide. Established in South Kensington in 1979, it is a religious, social and cultural meeting place for the Ismaili Muslim community, the first so designed in the Western world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College Road</span> Tree-lined road in South Kensington, London, England

Imperial College Road is a tree-lined road in South Kensington, London, England. It runs east–west with Queen's Gate to the west and Exhibition Road to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yalta Memorial Garden</span>

The Yalta Memorial Garden is a small triangular garden in South Kensington, west London, SW7. It is 0.0417 hectares in size. The garden contains Twelve Responses to Tragedy, a memorial located that commemorates people displaced as a result of the Yalta Conference at the conclusion of World War II. The memorial was dedicated in 1986 to replace a previous memorial dedicated in 1982 that had been repeatedly damaged by vandalism.

References

  1. ↑ Ordnance Survey. "XLII (City Of Westminster; Kensington; Paddington)" (1869). London (First Editions c1850s). National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019.
  2. ↑ Jagiellonian University London Study Centre
  3. ↑ "Albertopolis: 2012 Map of Dixon Jones scheme". RIBA. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Rowan Moore (29 January 2012). "Exhibition Road, London – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
  5. ↑ "The Exhibition Road Project". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  6. ↑ "Albertopolis: 2012 Architect's impressions". RIBA. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  7. ↑ Zorzut, Adrian (5 August 2023). "People 'can't tell road from path' on one of London's most famous streets". MyLondon. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
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