HISTORY

The area surrounding South Kensington Station has grown and evolved from a rural hamlet to the heart of London’s world-renowned museum and cultural quarter.

In the 19th century, fashionable terraces were constructed across the site, developed as part of London’s boom. These connected the hamlet of Brompton to Chelsea and Kensington.

Since 1868, when the first railway was designed and built to connect South Kensington to central London, the surrounding area has seen irregular development, with different neighbourhoods and streets emerging.

In the early 20th century, there were a number of upgrades to the station, including the signature Oxblood station building, followed by a new ticket hall and shopping arcade, along with shops at the ‘Bullnose’, referred to as such because of its unique horse shoe shape at the front of the station.

In the 1970s, an escalator to the Piccadilly Line was installed along Pelham Street, with shops adjacent to the Oxblood building demolished.

TODAY

The current station provides poor accessibility and is greatly in need of modernisation to ensure it provides a better experience for the around 34 million passengers that use it every year.

The Grade-II listed arcade needs careful restoration, while the site is surrounded by low and nondescript walls that are not in keeping with the local architecture.

The station currently provides a poor experience for passengers, with overfilled platforms and limited access to the ticket hall. Separate station upgrade works are being undertaken by Transport for London to deliver an improved ticket hall, a new platform and overall more positive experience for passengers. Those plans already have planning permission and are being designed and delivered by architect Weston Williamson.

Our wider plans for the improvements to the station buildings and the properties around it include plans to complete the delivery of step-free access from the platform of the District and Circle lines to the ticket hall and to the street. This will greatly improve accessibility for visitors to the station and London’s world-renowned museum quarter, providing for wheelchair users, those with mobility issues, and parents with buggies - creating safe, easy and efficient access from the station.

We also plan to provide 50 new homes, including 35% affordable, as well as highly quality retail and workspace, and plan to sensitively restore the station arcade to create a much-improved experience for those using the station.

PREVIOUS PROPOSALS

Since the 1980s, there have been five different proposals by previous developers and architects to redevelop the site to deliver new housing and commercial space.

These proposals varied in scale and style – some included tall buildings that were unsympathetic to the local area. Only one of those proposals received planning consent but it was not then carried through.

We therefore have an opportunity to learn from those past schemes and deliver a development that is sensitive to its surroundings and provides a wide-range of benefits to the local community as well as to the many visitors who come to London’s world-renowned museum and cultural quarter.

OUR PLANS

Since we first introduced our proposals in early 2019, we have conducted a wide range of consultation activities.

We have met RBKC planners, councillors, representatives of the cultural institutions, amenity forums, resident groups and the wider public. Through this, we have directly engaged more than 300 stakeholders and over 900 people attended our final exhbition on the plans in February 2020.

We submitted our planning application in summer 2020 and have since twice submitted further refinements to our designs, most recently in August 2021.

Following a planning committee meeting in November 2021, the plans for South Kensington Station are subject to an inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate. We are currently waiting for the decision of the Planning Inspector.

We believe our plans provide for a considered scheme that will help bring a renewed sense of place to South Kensington, creating an experience befitting the gateway to London’s internationally renowned museum and cultural quarter.

Affordable housing and step-free access to the station will be delivered in the first phase of the scheme.