Which Celebrities Live In Kensington & Chelsea?

The wealthiest enclave in London, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has always attracted celebrities to its leafy green streets.

Historically, the swinging stylings of Chelsea have been a magnet for creative types – though Oscar Wilde famously preferred the bohemian streets of Mayfair, he and his wife Constance kept a home in Chelsea’s ‘Intellectual Quarter’ at 34 Tite Street. Meanwhile, David Bowie briefly lived at 89 Oakley Street in the borough during the 1970s.

Similarly, nearby Kensington tends to call to those on the ladder to fame. Freddie Mercury famously owned multiple homes around Kensington during his lifetime. In 1969 he moved into 42b Addison Gardens in Kensington before living with his partner Mary Austin at 100 Holland Road. He later transferred to a penthouse at 12 Stafford Terrace in Holland Park before relocating to Garden Lodge – a majestic Victorian residence in Kensington where he lived until his death. 

But with so many celebrities fleeing north to Hampstead and the honey-hued estates of the Cotswolds, do any big names still call Kensington & Chelsea home today? Simon Cowell famously sold his Holland Park home following a break-in and fled to the countryside. Meanwhile Madonna (former resident of Kensington’s Earl’s Terrcae) seems to have sold her Queens Gate Mews home in South Kensington (once shared with Guy Ritchie and featured in the film Layer Cake) and her home at The Boltons in Chelsea as she increasingly swaps out her London property portfolio for sunnier shores.

Want to know which celebrities still live in Kensington & Chelsea? Here’s your full round-up of celebs rumoured to own homes in the area.

The Kensington & Chelsea Celeb Set

David Beckham and Victoria Beckham attend the UK Premiere of Netflix’s Beckham: Limited Series at Curzon Mayfair on October 3rd, 2023 in London, UK. (Photo by StillMoving.Net for Netflix)

David & Victoria Beckham

Though the Beckham clan – Brooklyn and Nicola obviously self-excluded – now spend much of their time holed up in the bucolic fields of the Cotswolds, they still need a town house to call home. Following a brief period aboard, in 2014 they splashed out on a Grade-II listed mansion in Holland Park. Allegedly submitting a total of 50 planning applications, the redevelopment of the home cost them an estimated £4m. While the project was originally put in the hands of designer Kelly Hoppen, they swapped her out for Rose Uniacke to better reflect Victoria’s shift in personal style. What to know where else the Beckhams own homes? Find out more here. 

Elton John

Another Holland Park local, Elton John has owned a discreet yellow-brick property at 4 Queensdale Place since 1992. Despite the modest exterior, inside is said to feature a marble entrance hall, six bedrooms, temperature-controlled wine cellar, courtyard, library, art collection and a swimming pool hidden underneath a retractable floor. At one point the home housed a significant collection of blond furniture, including several Biedermeier pieces that were inspired by a visit to the nearby house of late singer Freddie Mercury’s. However, in 2003, Elton John is said to have sold off many of his wares in a Sotheby’s auction, so what still remains of his London pad is a mystery.

Idris Elba as John Luther in Luther. John Wilson/Netflix © 2023

Idris Elba

Having grown up in Hackney and Canning Town, London local Idris Elba more recently made the move to a five-bedroom mansion in Chelsea where he’s been spotted jogging and strolling around the area – or, as his talk show soundbite in Taylor Swift’s ‘London Boy’ confirms, ‘Go driving on my scooter’. Unfortunately for the Hijiack star, he was recently handed a fine from the council after he was caught speeding around Chelsea on his scooter at 28 mph in a 20 mph zone. 

Stella McCartney

Another Chelsea celeb with a Taylor Swift shoutout, in ‘London Boy’ the American star compares herself to the iconic designer: ‘Like a Tennessee Stella McCartney on the Heath’. Do not be confused, however, McCartney is a West London loyalist. She and her husband Alasdhair Willis have owned a number of homes in Kensington & Chelsea, including a Notting Hill pad and a former church at 92 Golborne Road which she converted into a house. Though reports aren’t hundred percent certain as to where she currently owns a London base, rumours suggest somewhere around either Notting Hill or Belgravia.

Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame first moved to the Kensington area with his then well-to-do girlfriend, living together just off Kensington Church Street and then a house on Kensington Park Road near Elgin Crescent. When the pair spit up, he bought a flat over Tom’s Cafe before purchasing a much bigger place around Westbourne Grove. At one point he even considered buying the church on Golborne Road that Stella McCartney eventually moved into. Though he had enough money to buy it, unlike McCartney he didn’t have enough to do it up. Today, the musician is still said to own a home around the Notting Hill area which he splits between time in Devon.

Mick Jagger

Rolling Stones frontman and living legend Mick Jagger first moved to Chelsea in 1962 when he and fellow band members, Brian Jones and Keith Richards, set up shop at 102 Edith Grove. In 1968 when Jagger was just 25, he and his girlfriend Marianne Faithful stayed loyal to the area when the couple bought up a then £50,000 house at 48 Cheyne Walk in the same month that fellow band member Keith Richards moved into number 3. Jagger hired designer and fellow Cheyne Walk local Christopher Gibbs to transform it into a Moroccan bazaar and shacked up in the house for a good nine years – before selling it, also at the same time as Keith. Having briefly been connected to nearby 98 Cheyne Walk, Jagger then left the area for a bit but is reported to have purchased a £10m property back on his beloved Cheyne Walk in 2009.

Eric Clapton

In 2025 famed singer-songwriter and guitarist Eric Clapton campaigned to stop the construction of a 29 storey tower in Chelsea called the Glassmill. With the support of Mick Jagger, he and other Chelsea locals brought the project to a halt, complaining that its height would destroy the area’s lovely river views and cause traffic chaos. Though Clapton primarily lives in a Surrey estate, his participation in the campaign suggests he still maintains his Chelsea apartment.

William Boyd

William Boyd

Star of our inaugural Chelsea Arts Festival, spy novelist William Boyd has owned a terraced house in Chelsea for over 25 years complete with a dedicated writing room. Reminiscing about the Chelsea of the past during the festival, he recalled popping into the famous Cafe Picasso (reimagined as Matisse in his books), only to discover Maggie Smith, Peter Blake, Bob Geldof and Gordon Ramsey sat inside: ‘Where else would you have got that kind of eclectic mix?’

Sir Richard Branson

As the owner of the world-renowned Virgin Group, when Branson isn’t chilling on his private island in the Caribbean, the business mogul is said to spend time in Kensington. Though it is hard to keep track of one of the world’s richest men, he is historically known to own a home in the Holland Park area – but whether the deed is still in his name is unclear.

Eddie Redmayne

In 2019 Eddie Redmayne was rumoured to be searching for properties in his childhood turf of Kensington – and it seems he found a house that suited. Local residents are said to have spotted him strolling around the nearby high street. 

Sir Michael Caine

Renowned actor Sir Michael Caine is known to own a penthouse in Chelsea Harbour, as well as a long-term country home in Leatherhead, Surrey. Although he expressed a desire to move closer to his family in Wimbledon in 2021, it seems he still calls Chelsea a part-time home.

Robbie Williams

Despite his recent purchase of a Bahamas home, Williams still needs a London residence. In 2014, the former Take That star spent £17.5m on a Grade II*-listed, Queen Anne-style home in Holland Park, which had previously been owned by the late film director Michael Winner. His main base for the last decade or so, the home has dragged Williams into a headline-making feud with his neighbour Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page who lives next door. Intending to transform the property into a functional family home, Williams planned a series of upgrades which put him and Page at the centre of a long-running renovations-fuelled spat. Williams eventually secured planning permission to build a super-basement with a swimming pool and spa facilities, connected to the house by a tunnel. In an interview at the property, journalist Caitlin Moran noted a four-foot, gold-plated Lisa Simpson on the stairs, a potential Banksy in the hall and a well-tended garden the size of ‘half a football field’.

Jimmy Page

Famous feuder Jimmy Page lives in the historic Grade I listed Tower House on Melbury Road in Holland Park. First bought in 1972, rumours say he still resides in the Victorian property tothis day.

Paul Smith

Designer Paul Smith has lived in his 19th century Holland Park home with his wife Pauline Denyer since the 1980s. Describing the area as a ‘village within London’, his home’s interiors are said to be defined by a curated eclectic vibe. ‘Our house is a home,’ he told Soho House, ‘and that’s something that is very important to me; it’s not a museum.’

Rowan Atkinson

Though the comedian’s primary residence is a sprawling estate near Ipsden in South Oxfordshire, reports suggest he still owns a London property around Holland Park.

James Dyson

Britain’s best-known inventor James Dyson (of Dyson Airwrap and vacuum fame) is said to own a Georgian home at Upper Cheyne Row in Chelsea. Over a decade ago Dyson became embroiled in a bitter planning row when he applied for permission to remove his Georgian door surround and replace it with a new Queen Anne-style shell porch. Though he argued that the design would have restored the property to its original state, English Heritage insisted that he had to prove his case with photographic evidence. Not the easiest feat when discussing a 200 and something year old home.

Jamie Laing & Sophie Habboo

Though they made their fame from Made In Chelsea, the entrepreneurial podcasting power couple have decided to set up their family’s new base in nearby Notting Hill. Read here to see what the interior designer behind their new home had to say.

Twiggy

Lesley Lawson – better known as the false-eyelashed, cropped mop, mini-skirted Twiggy – first moved to Kensington & Chelsea in the 60s when she and her then boyfriend bought up their first flat in Notting Hill. ‘In the 60s, it was much funkier – it’s got quite posh now, hasn’t it?’ she said of the area. Though she has moved on from her first flat, she retains a mansion flat in the Kensington area which she and her actor husband Leigh Lawson divide between their country home in Southwold, Suffolk. Speaking to The Standard in 2022, she said that she considers her home to be Kensington: ‘It’s been our home for 37 years – it’s the best borough.’ We couldn’t agree more.

(c) Doug Peters/EMPICS/Alamy Live News

Prince William & Princess Kate

Though William and Kate have officially moved their family to their new ‘forever home’ at Forest Lodge in Windsor, the royals still retain a residence at Kensington Palace for when they’re needed in the capital. 

Princess Eugenie

Similarly to her cousin Will, though Princess Eugenie now spends most of her time with her husband Jack Brooksbank in Portugal where they moved to in 2022 (who can blame her with all the Andrew scandals?), she still owns a UK residence at the three-bedroom Ivy Cottage on the Kensington Palace grounds. Other royals with a base in the palace include the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.