Areas of London: Kensington

Kensington is usually divided into South Kensington, West Kensington and sometimes High Street Kensington is also considered an area on its own. I'm going to treat the whole Kensington as the same area. It's a posh neighbourhood to the west of Hyde Park. It's got some nice parks, atmospheric pubs and expensive shopping. The amount of tourists and drunken men in suits is a bit annoying, but if you look under the surface, you might find some nice places here.

Parks:

Holland Park is just a little way to the west from Hyde Park. It's a great park with forest areas, geometric gardens and a really nice Japanese style Kyoto Garden. In Holland Park you can also find a house with a tower, which hosted the recording of some of the Led Zeppelin albums. One of the best parks in London.
Kensington Roof Gardens is a members club garden on the

roof above the busy streets of Kensington High Street. There are three parts, Spanish garden, Tudor garden and English garden. There are some pelicans in there and a cafe and a restaurant. You can visit on selected days even if you're not a member. Follow the website for when you can visit.

Drinking & entertainment:

Famous 3 Kings is an oddity in West Kensington. It is a pub that shows Ice Hockey on screen. Sometimes even with Finnish commentary. At those times the pub might be full of drunken people in Finland hockey shirts though.
The Scarsdale Tavern is an atmospheric pub on a small alley. The pub has quite good beer selection and food isn't too bad either. Candlelight, old wooden furniture and a fireplace.
The Troubadour is a nice place for a night out. The upstairs pub is full of weird decorations and pictures of rock stars. Downstairs they have cavern-like club with brick walls, german beers and live music.
The Curtains Up - Geronimo Inn is a great pub with some tasty beers on tap and that classy West London atmosphere. In the cellar, there is a theatre showing small-production plays.
The Colton Arms is a pub that is like a journey couple of hundreds of years back in time. There's a fireplace, horseback riding equipment on the walls and changing ale on tap. It's a small and quiet place with loads of history.
The Hand & Flower is quite a fancy looking gastro-pub with excellent beer selection and fancy English menu for food. They also have a small hotel upstairs.

Eating:

Who would've thought that one of the best vegetarian restaurants would be found in West Kensington? Well, 222 Veggie Vegan serves delicious vegan dishes. The menu has so many delicious things that it's really hard to make up your mind.
Down to Earth is a great vegan restaurant. Half of the menu consists of raw foods and the other one from cooked foods. It's a bit expensive as you might expect from this area, but th food is good.

Sights:

If you want to check out where William and Kate live, go to the western part of Hyde Park and look for Kensington Palace.
Leighton House is a beautiful house of late Lord Leighton. He was a painter and collected a huge collection of arabic tiles. His house is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. It costs a few pounds to get in, but I think it's worth it if you're into architecture, weird rich interiors and art.