Stepping into the house on the ground floor, the entrance hall opens onto a formal dining room. Double doors connect this room to the open-plan kitchen, which includes an informal eating area in a glass-sided extension. This space not only offers views over the garden, but its south-facing aspect ensures the kitchen is filled with light throughout the day.

A generous principal bedroom occupies the second floor, with a spacious ensuite bathroom and considerable storage space, including a walk-in wardrobe on the landing. Upstairs again, on the third floor, are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one of them ensuite.

Downstairs, the lower ground floor features two more bedrooms and a guest WC. One of these bedrooms has access to the garden via the glass extension, while the other has separate street access. Below that, in the basement floor, is a gym with ensuite bathroom and a spacious media room.

Almost unique among the properties on this square, No.12 includes the mews house at the far-end of the garden, 66 Queens Gate Mews. On its ground floor is an open-plan kitchen and dining area, while the first floor contains a pair of bedrooms sharing a bathroom. The second floor has a third bedroom, this one ensuite, with skylights and dormer windows for added illumination. This property also has access to the media room, gym, and main house.

The house features a paved, south-facing garden with space enough for outdoor dining, as well as potential access to the adjacent mews house. In addition, the first-floor balcony stretches across the entire width of the house, with views onto the garden square. The garden square is also open to residents, while its mature trees add to the sense of privacy and calm.

12 Kensington Gate was once the site of the Kensington Workhouse, which inspired Charles Dickens’s celebrated novel Oliver Twist. In the mid-nineteenth century, that building was replaced by the white stucco Italianate houses which now line the square, popular with aristocrats and politicians in the late Victorian Era.

Kensington Gate remains a desirable address, both central and secluded. It is well placed for many of the neighbourhood’s excellent schools, and within walking distance of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. In addition, the world-famous museums and cultural institutions of South Kensington are within easy reach.

Read more about the cultural riches surrounding Kensington Gate here.