Last Updated on July 1, 2024
Art, Craft, Heritage and Design for Christmas
If, like me, you prefer a gentler and perhaps less commercialised Christmas shopping and festive break experience than the mayhem of Oxford Circus, Bond Street and Piccadilly, Kensington might just be the ticket.
It’s a part of London where you’ll find all the major high street shops but where you’ll also find some unique and individual experiences. And it’s somewhere you can do a lot more than just shop! We went along to check out some of the places you might like to visit over the Christmas break, to enjoy a contemporised and elegant pub lunch and to do a little shopping too.
For a start, we popped into the Design Museum. Spread over multiple floors, they have special exhibitions in the basement and ground floor and two permanent exhibitions on the floors above. Right now if you happen to have a fashion-conscious person with you (or be one yourself) over Christmas, there’s no better place to explore.
It’s the 30th anniversary of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN programme – and this exhibition is a tribute to that. There are nearly 100 fashion looks including the swan dress worn by Björk at the 2001 Oscars – and there’s also a section where you can see yourself as a NEWGEN model…
Elsewhere in the Design Museum, you might find yourself reminiscing about the Walkman or the Olivetti Typewriter – it’s a place that is full of past and present design heroes. Or, finally understanding the difference between stone and brick construction – and as one of the guides said – spotting techniques we’ve used for hundreds of years to improve insulation and make our homes more energy efficient.
And, if you need an excuse to go in the run-up to Christmas – there’s an excellent selection of gifts that would work well for any design-conscious recipient, from stunning prints and tote bags to The Design Book – a compendium of great design icons spanning the last five centuries and from a beautiful clouds chess set to a quirky NEWGEN elephant backpack from designer Yang Du.
Many of those beautiful Victorian mansions you see around Holland Park have a fascinating heritage for anyone interested in art and design. They are part of what was known as the Holland Park Circle, a group of ten studio houses built on Holland Park Road and Melbury Road.
The best known, Leighton House, has been open to the public for as long as I can remember and is also a venue for concerts and special exhibitions. It was built by Frederick Leighton(RA), the most eminent British artist of the late 19th century and has been kept very much as it would have been when he lived there. Prepare to be stunned by the Arab Hall – an extension made towards the end of the 1870s which was more expensive to build than the whole of the original house.
Inspired by Leighton’s travels around North Africa and the Middle East, it is used to create a wonderful space to display his exceptional collection of Syrian tiles. You can immerse yourself in Leighton’s world, from the main studio and light-filled winter studio where he would have worked, to his austere bedroom.
The house is full of stunning works of art – both by Leighton and his contemporaries. And, there’s a charming gift shop where you can buy unique presents, some of which like the blue and gold Kashmiri dubi trinket box are pretty enough to have been worthy collectables for Leighton himself.
Walk across Holland Park and perhaps take a brief detour to visit the Japanese Garden there. A traditional Japanese garden there is a tiered waterfall and other water features including a stunning pond full of koi carp. You might spot a peacock or two, or perhaps a few rabbits grazing on the grass. The Kyoto Garden was opened in 1991 as a gift from Kyoto to commemorate the long friendship between Japan and Great Britain, while the adjacent Fukushima Memorial Garden opened in July 2012 as a thank-you for British support after the disasters of 2011.
On the other side of Holland Park, you’ll find Sambourne House, the home of Linley Sambourne (1844-1910) an illustrator and cartoonist for Punch. It’s another building which has been preserved much as it would be when Linley and his wife Marion lived there with their children Roy and Maud.
A fascinating insight into Victorian family life that also provides an insight into how Sambourne created his cartoons so effectively. By photographing everyone and everything in various poses he had a readymade gallery to work from when he needed to create a new cartoon at short notice.
Once again there’s a gift shop packed with books, scarfs, homeware and more – all perfect for gifting to that someone special.
If you need a break from shopping and cultural sightseeing, we can heartily recommend a nearby pub, The Holland where we feasted on Cornish Pollack with shellfish bisque and confit fennel and on roasted cauliflower with smoked celeriac and chilli peanut crisp.
before moving on to enjoy the treacle and prune pudding with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream
It’s a charmingly traditional pub that serves contemporary-style British seasonal food at reasonable prices and has a mix of cocktails, wines and beer on tap. Oh, and although you’ll pay £2.00 for filtered still or sparkling water, that buys unlimited refills!
If you are still looking for Christmas gifts, Kensington has some excellent independent shops and we recommend making your way to Kensington Church Street. You’ll find the main road and side streets are lined with quirky galleries, gift shops and independent grocery stores.
For the impossible-to-buy-for hedonist, we found a life-sized model of Betty Boop in a Christmas outfit – and close by, Reindeer Antiques had a fabulous collection of cartoons and prints for sale.
Cologne and Cotton has a great selection of exquisite linens and quirky china, together with more Christmas fairies than we’ve seen in one place before.
Stop off at Bayley and Sage for an extensive range of gourmet foods – everything you might need for Christmas from candy canes to gold coins – and a veritable mountain of pannetonne!
Just walking into this shop made us hungry – so many delicious treats to indulge in
Don’t forget to visit the flower stall outside St Mary Abbott’s Church where you can have a bespoke wreath made to your specification or just pick up Christmas foliage and a tree to ‘Deck your Halls’
And, make your way back to the Japan Centre where you can explore many aspects of Japanese culture and visit their special exhibition, Ainu Stories, before shopping for everything from themed Christmas gift boxes to quaint papier mache animals. If you need help wrapping your presents they have a Furoshiki wrapping demonstration on 14th December – and there’s a 15% discount across the store.
Finally, if you’ve left things a little late, like me, you’ll find more fabulous Christmas decorations and luxurious gifts at Kensington Palace from 14th December. And, once your shopping is all done, from 11-15 December you can snuggle up for a classic Christmas film at Kensington Palace’s Pavilion where the programme includes festive indoor screenings of several Christmas classics. Creating the magic of the holiday season, films include “Elf” and “Love Actually” – both of which are celebrating 20 years since their release, as well as “The Holiday”, “Miracle on 34th Street”, the “Muppet Christmas Carol” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. A choice of comfortable seating and yuletide refreshments will complete the ultimate festive cinema experience.
Tickets are bookable in advance via https://www.thelunacinema.com/winter
So, if you love Christmas but hate the Oxford Circus pantomime, head for Kensington instead, where you’ll find plenty of seasonal treats and some unique gifts – but where you can combine shopping with culture, design and heritage! For more about what’s happening check the Opportunity Kensington website
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