Why you should experience Hotel Indigo London Kensington in London, England.
Hotel Indigo London Kensington is a characterful boutique hotel where Earl's Court's Victorian garden-square heritage, residential architecture, theatrical associations and cosmopolitan history converge across a row of red-brick townhouses on Barkston Gardens.
Set along Barkston Gardens near Earl's Court Road and just steps from Earl's Court Station, the hotel occupies six adjoining buildings within a square developed after Earl's Court House was demolished in 1886, when builders John Roberts, James Whitaker and their contemporaries transformed the former estate into terraces surrounding a communal garden. Actress Ellen Terry became a Barkston Gardens resident in 1889, bringing one of Victorian theater's defining performers into the square during its earliest years. The present hotel's design draws directly from this setting through a townhouse-inspired entrance, winding corridors and visual references to the original staircases, stained glass and Victorian interiors. The result is a hotel where James Whitaker, Ellen Terry and the surviving architecture of Barkston Gardens connect contemporary hospitality with Earl's Court's late nineteenth-century transformation.
What you should know about Hotel Indigo London Kensington.
Hotel Indigo London Kensington is best known for opening on December 12, 2012 after Cairn Hotel Group invested £7 million to transform the Barkston Gardens Hotel, an establishment dating to 1886 that Cairn had owned for more than two decades, into the 100-room Hotel Indigo London Kensington-Earl's Court. The opening carried significance for IHG because the London property and Hotel Indigo New Orleans Garden District together took Hotel Indigo beyond its 50-property milestone eight years after the brand launched in 2004, while the London conversion formed part of a 14-hotel global expansion during 2012. Street Design Partnership began work on the project in April 2011 with Jess Sutherland as lead designer, developing the Victorian-mansion concept through vivid interiors and a reception conceived around imagery of a chandelier and grand staircase. Cairn launched the property with 22 executive rooms and 11 junior suites among its 100 individually decorated accommodations, while England cricketer and former Strictly Come Dancing champion Darren Gough led the Victorian-themed launch celebration in June 2013. The £7 million Cairn investment, Jess Sutherland's design authorship, IHG's 50-property threshold, 100-room program and Darren Gough launch give Hotel Indigo London Kensington a particularly well-defined origin within the first decade of the international Hotel Indigo brand.
Chef Theo Randall introduced the property's most significant culinary chapter in March 2016 with Theo's Simple Italian, a 54-cover restaurant developed after his 17-year career at The River Café and the 2006 opening of Theo Randall at the InterContinental on Park Lane. William Leoni, who had previously worked with Randall at the InterContinental, headed the kitchen, where grilled Bramata polenta with salt cod, fresh pasta with slow-cooked oxtail ragù and an Italian deli translated Randall's ingredient-led philosophy into a more informal format. Randall's earlier career had progressed from an apprenticeship under Max Magarian at Chez Max to becoming head chef and partner at The River Café, where his work contributed to the restaurant's MICHELIN-starred period. The hotel has since moved beyond Theo's Simple Italian, with IHG currently identifying its dining operation as Kitchen & Bar, making Randall and Leoni part of a distinct historical culinary era rather than the property's present restaurant leadership.
How to fold Hotel Indigo London Kensington into your trip.
Hotel Indigo London Kensington works as the anchor for an afternoon tracing Victorian collecting, domestic artistry and modern design across Kensington.
Begin at Natural History Museum, where Richard Owen's campaign for a dedicated natural-history institution culminated in Alfred Waterhouse's Romanesque building opening in 1881, its terracotta architecture populated with sculpted flora and fauna that turned scientific classification into architectural ornament. Continue to Leighton House, where Frederic Leighton commissioned architect George Aitchison to create his home and studio beginning in the 1860s before the Arab Hall brought together Islamic tiles and contributions from figures including William De Morgan and Walter Crane. Conclude at Design Museum, founded by Terence Conran in 1989 before relocating to Kensington in 2016, where John Pawson transformed the interior of the former Commonwealth Institute as OMA and Allies and Morrison contributed to the wider architectural project. The progression moves from Waterhouse and Owen's natural sciences through Leighton and Aitchison's intensely authored Victorian residence into Conran and Pawson's culture of contemporary design, revealing the artistic and intellectual continuum surrounding Hotel Indigo London Kensington.
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