Cute one-bedroom apartment in the best part of London - Chelsea.
APARTMENT BUILDING
The flat is on the lower ground floor of a private Art Deco apartment building with a weekday porter (doorman). It's well-maintained, but not five-star, so you're unlikely to bump into any members of the royal family here, even if you might see them shopping on Kings Road, a few steps from the flat.
People spotted less than two minutes from our apartment: Mick Jagger, Pippa Middleton (Kate's sister - both of them used to share an apartment together nearby), Maggie Smith (of Harry Potter fame), Emma Thompson, Gordon Ramsay (lives nearby), Nigella Lawson, Roger Federer... the list is vast.
Keep your eyes peeled when shopping in our local Waitrose supermarket (2 minutes away from the apartment), and you might seen an aristocrat or actor in The Crown trying to decide between the Duchy Farmhouse Cheddar or the Stilton Blue Cheese.
LOCATION
Our apartment building is only 50 steps from the clothes and food shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, museums and sights of Kings Road, Chelsea.
We have a US Queen bed (called a King in the UK - don't know why!) with a new (2024) Eve Wunderflip memory foam mattress to choose your preferred support (medium or firm). So if one side isn't too your liking, flip the mattress over for a different support level.
INTERIORS
The kitchen is very large by central London standards, and especially for a flat of this size, with a gas cooker / hob, stainless steel counters, heaps of storage space, pots, pans and everything you need to whip up some meals.
Our apartment is very quiet because the windows all look out onto a small private patio and a (slightly overgrown!) communal garden. It's a Lower Ground Floor flat, which means it's sort of halfway below street level. That's one reason it's quiet - no noise from the street. In the back, this means the patio is just below the level of the building's main communal gardens, but it gets lots of natural sunlight in the living room, bathroom and patio.
The hardwood floors are great for people with allergies.
There's a two-seater sofa and a comfortable armchair in the living room.
The building is quiet at the weekends, despite being so close to Kings Road.
There's a small alcove with a two-person table in the kitchen. You won't be hosting dinner parties here, but it's fine for dinner for two - or as a desk for your laptop.
Washer, clothes drier and dishwasher are all in the kitchen.
Everyone comments on how powerful our shower is, and there's always plenty of hot water.
TECH - TV and INTERNET
Wifi is excellent and fast. We use it for work and to stream movies.
TVs are in the living room and bedroom (the latter is hidden in the closet - open the door to watch TV from bed). They both have Amazon Fire Sticks, so you can access the usual streaming services.
Note that some streaming services won't work in the UK, though. For streaming services that work globally, such as Netflix, the company will switch you to the local service, which means that you'll get to access some series you can't get outside of the UK, but it also means you might not be able to access some of your usual TV series (unless you have a VPN and know how to use it).
A thermostat in the bedroom helps you keep the flat to the temperature you like.
NEARBY
Heaps of pubs, restaurants, etc, but we like The Coopers Arms pub on Flood Street and the Builders Arms on Britten Street - both less than 5 minutes from the apartment.
Charles Dickens got married at the huge, beautiful St Luke's Church at the end of our street, and the gardens here are gorgeous - the perfect place for a picnic on a sunny day.
Lots of coffee shops on Kings Road, but our favourite is Hagen, across the street from Waitrose and less than 2 minutes from the apartment.
For shopping, turn left when you get to Kings Road for most of the best clothes shopping, or turn right if you're more interested in furniture and interior design.
You'll reach Sloane Square if you walk 10 minutes from the apartment - or with a two-minute bus ride. Here, you'll find Peter Jones, aka John Lewis, a famous British department store. On the top floor, there's a very affordable canteen with magnificent views over Chelsea.
Turn left at Sloane Square and walk up Sloane Street if you want to shop at the likes of Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Tiffany, etc.
One of our favourite things to do at the weekend is to walk from the apartment up Kings Road for 7 minutes to hang out at Duke of York Square on a Saturday, when the food market is on. Always lively, with great people-watching, sometimes live music, and lots of fab food stalls for lunch on the square.
