Kings Gate Walk, an Overview

Kings Gate, described by the Evening Standard as a ‘modern mansion block’, forms part of the new Victoria Quarter. 

Developed rather haphazardly in the 1960s into a concrete office jungle, the area around Victoria Station is now being crowned as the new destination neighbourhood in central London, and King’s gate allows property purchasers to be a part of that.

With nearby neighbours including Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Cathedral, Victoria offers a vibrant mix of royalty, religion and government.  With the addition of commerce, fashion and cuisine, Victoria has now become a trendy central London hotspot, with a lively cultural scene.

Kings Gate is very much a part of this regeneration, with just 96 private apartments and only four penthouses, Kings Gate manages to be both a new architectural icon, yet still be exclusive enough to attract design-conscious, property investors for whom individuality and personality are key.

Looking out from the 15th-floor penthouse roof garden of Kings Gate will certainly give you an overview of London that is host to such a wonderful mix of old and new, commercial and creative, state and stately.  However, why not take the lift down to the ground floor, step out from the elegant entrance lobby, and discover Victoria at ground level?

A History of Kings Gate Walk

While property developers, fashionable Londoners and well-informed investors are rediscovering the kudos that living in Victoria brings, it is worth remembering it was Queen Victoria herself that made this SW1 locale so desirable.

Indeed, Buckingham Palace, although built-in 1761, was actually at various stages; a ‘house for the missus’, an ‘expensive folly’ and a  ‘pied-a-terre’.  It wasn’t until 1837 when Queen Victoria decided to make it her official home that it became Buckingham Palace.

The result of such an accolade on the building was Marble Arch was widened and the large thoroughfares of Victoria Street were built. Beautiful, redbrick mansion blocks lined these new streets creating a neighbourhood of fashionable residencies.

It is from these streets, that Virginia Woolf’s character; Mrs Dalloway steps out. A fictional, yet famous character in whom Woolf epitomised the quirks and qualities of the English upper class. It would be easy to dismiss this as a piece of fictional gaiety, but spend some time around Kings Gate and Victoria and you will see why Mrs Dalloway would most certainly choose to live in SW1 today.

Living & Investing In Kings Gate Walk

If the Victorian era was all about baroque and gothic detailing with highly patterned furniture and ornate buildings it is fair to say that architecture and design today is about materials, space and light.

However, in both, within the upper echelons of the market, it is about the bespoke, the individual working with the artisan.

Kings Gate is a fantastic example of how Britain has a reputation for the diverse, for the alternative and for searching out the unsung heroes. So, when seeking an architect for the Kings Gate Development, Land Securities did what many a Victorian patron of the arts would do and put out the tender as a competition inviting design ideas from all architects.

In doing so it eschewed the obvious ‘starchitects’ and instead spotted the understated potential of a design by Patrick Lynch, a boutique, London-based architectural practice. Lynch’s work impressed the judging panel enough for his practice to earn many of the commissions you will see springing up in the new Victoria quarter and I think it is no accident that Lynch has often cited baroque and Italianate influences in his work.

In Kings Gate, these Italianate influences are evident in the structural detailing and materials used. Jura Limestone Pillars decrease in size as the building rises fifteen storeys while Timorous Beasties designs and Rut Blees Luxemburg artworks are printed onto concrete columns around the lobby entrance.

The overall feeling is one of ‘flow’ although built to strict geometric design the building seems to have a literal breeze flowing through its structure giving it a lightness that so many city apartments lack.

Inside, the apartments once again have an airiness about them, the wow factor being more about the details than anyone dominant feature.

Lynch’s own designed ‘Vicky’ lever handles adorn grey-brown timber doors, while throughout the specification details, phrases like; ‘warm tones’, light touch’ and polished finishes, suggests a luxurious calm permeates through each apartment whether they are meticulously planned studios on the first floor or one of the four exclusive three-storey penthouses.

Private balconies feature in many of the apartments and have been made especially deep to provide shade and privacy at key times of the day, meaning the apartments are naturally warm or cool when required, though under-floor heating and comfort cooling are also standard in every apartment.

In Kings Gate, Lynch Architects have created a new contemporary form of luxury, designed for this era’s Mrs Dalloway’s, any one of whom would be proud to host a soiree in these surroundings.

Kings Gate Walk & Beyond

Many development websites and brochures devote pages to the buildings proximity to Harrods or Harvey Nichols and name drop designer labels like a raver dropping acid! But Kings Gate gets it. It gets that it will attract a young-at-heart resident that likes socialising and mixing with friends and wants to be a part of the neighbourhood. It gets that local pubs are more appealing than expensive boutiques. While many designers are opening flagship stores in the area and Bond Street, Mayfair and Knightsbridge are all no more than a Jimmy Choo’s throw away, Kings Gate instead points out the Marquis of Westminster, the Cask and Glass, and the Phoenix pubs as being a draw to its residents. Truthfully, none of the pubs can be described as exclusive, other than providing you with an exclusive look into real Londoner’s lives.

However, I think that is what Kings Gate is about. After many years of Victoria are being known purely as a place to work, Land Securities recognise that Kings Gate is one of the new mansion blocks of the 21^st century that will once again make Victoria a desirable enclave of neighbourliness and social cache. Mrs Dalloway would approve.