Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road following opening of shared space scheme during 2012
Former name(s)Prince's Gate[1]
NamesakeThe Great Exhibition
LocationAlbertopolis, Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Postal codeSW7
Nearest Tube stationLondon Underground South Kensington
Coordinates51°29′56.3″N 0°10′27.3″W / 51.498972°N 0.174250°W / 51.498972; -0.174250
North endHyde Park (Alexandra Gate), Kensington Road
Major
junctions		Imperial College Road, Cromwell Road
South endThurloe Street, South Kensington tube station
Other
Known forImperial College London, Science Museum, V&A, Natural History Museum

Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Overview

The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was held just inside Hyde Park at the northern end of the road. After the central road in the area, Queen's Gate, it is the second thoroughfare in what was once Albertopolis.

It provides access to many nationally significant institutions, including:

Shared space

A design competition for plans of how to improve the street's design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The competition was won by the architectural firm Dixon Jones for a shared space scheme for the road and surrounding streets which would give pedestrians greater priority whilst still allow some vehicular traffic at a reduced speed.[3] [4] The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape.[5] The scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.[6] Since the completion of the revised streetscape, its design has been criticised for increasing the accident rate in the locale, with reported conflict between motor vehicles and pedestrians due to the unified surface design across Exhibition Road.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ordnance Survey. "XLII (City Of Westminster; Kensington; Paddington)" (1869). London (First Editions c1850s). National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019.
  2. ↑ Jagiellonian University London Study Centre
  3. ↑ "Albertopolis: 2012 Map of Dixon Jones scheme". RIBA. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Rowan Moore (29 January 2012). "Exhibition Road, London – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
  5. ↑ "The Exhibition Road Project". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  6. ↑ "Albertopolis: 2012 Architect's impressions". RIBA. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  7. ↑ Zorzut, Adrian (5 August 2023). "People 'can't tell road from path' on one of London's most famous streets". MyLondon. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
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