Exploring London: Kensington and Earl's Court

IHG's Hotel Indigo provided a great gluten-free home base

My thanks to everyone who’s been giving the Gluten-Free Guidebook a little ❤️ lately. A few readers have mentioned fishing older newsletters out of their spam filters. Why do newsletters end up in spam some weeks but not others? I wish I knew!

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On prior trips to London, I’ve stayed in tourist-saturated areas like Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. It took me a while to realize that’s a bit like choosing to hang out in New York’s Times Square, a move I do not recommend. (Some tourists love it there, but most New Yorkers think of it as a circle of Dante’s Inferno.) On my recent trip to London, I learned my lesson and stayed in a quieter area I’d never explored before: Earl’s Court.

Friends, it was blissful — for so many reasons. I didn’t realize until I arrived that Earl’s Court was once home to both Agatha Christie (at Cresswell Place) and Alfred Hitchcock (at 153 Cromwell Road). Remember, my day job is crime novelist, so it made the neighborhood that much more intriguing to explore.

It was also a blissful week because I found a terrific hotel. I stayed at IHG’s Hotel Indigo Kensington, located at the edge of Barkston Gardens, a scenic private park that hosts a variety of events for the local community. The hotel occupies a series of interconnected townhouses from numbers 34 through 44, making the rooms feel less corporate hotel and more like a stay in a stately home. That said, it still has all the convenience you’d want in a hotel, including a terrific breakfast that includes both a hot prepared plate and buffet stations. The staff is prepped for gluten-free guests, with easy modifications to the hot plates, gluten-free bread on request, and a gluten-free buffet station that is separate from the others. The staff was thoughtful and helpful, which made my whole stay such a joy.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea — to use its official name — is home to Kensington Palace and its adjacent park (which contains both the Prince Albert Memorial and the Serpentine Gallery, among other attractions), Royal Albert Hall, and the Natural History Museum. But my favorite local attraction is the Victoria & Albert Museum, where I whiled away an entire afternoon.

Some wonders from the V&A South Kensington

My hotel was a stone’s throw (less than two blocks) from Earl’s Court Station, a convenient transit hub for the London Underground (the subway network also known as the Tube). It’s where the Piccadilly and the District lines meet, making it easy to get to Westminster or Heathrow. Or anywhere, really, since the Underground is such a well-designed system.

I can’t mention Earl’s Court Station without mentioning Leon’s, a fast-food chain located just inside. Much of the menu is gluten-free, from the crispy chicken nuggets to the peanut satay rice boxes; there are vegetarian and vegan offerings, too.

Beyond the station, Earl’s Court Road is full of cafés and grocery stores, many of which are notable for their gluten-free offerings. The list of grocers includes: