Tilda Swinton’s Former King’s Road Apartment Has Hit The Market

Chelsea has always been a hotspot for celebs. So it’s no surprise to see one of their former properties hit the market. Once home to actress Tilda Swinton, this charming Chelsea apartment is now up on the market – and the star of a new exhibit.

Flat 19: Discover Tilda Swinton’s Chelsea Apartment

The King’s Road is no doubt one of London’s most iconic spots. A magnet for creatives, as former Chelsea local Dylan Jones wrote in his love letter to the iconic street, the King’s Road of the 70s and 80s ‘wasn’t just where the young, the fashionable and the freshly minted would parade up and down; it also fostered an environment that appealed to bohemians both old and new. It was a little bit Bond Street, a little bit Carnaby Street and a little bit Camden Market, but what it had that none of those other places had was a genuine sense of joie de vivre.’

And who better to encapsulate that spirit than Tilda Swinton? The Scottish star of stage and screen, renowned just as highly for her other-worldly features as her mighty acting chops, is an eccentric tour de force of an actor. Set to return to West End in autumn of this year for the Royal Court Theatre’s 70th anniversary season, her highly anticipated revival of her acclaimed 1988 role in Manfred Karge’s Man to Man will mark her first major appearance on the UK stage in over 30 years.

The show will be the latest in a long-line of dazzling credentials. From her chilling performance as Jadis the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, to her Oscar-winning turn in Michael Clayton, it’s no wonder that the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam is currently running an exhibition dedicated to the star. 

On display until 15 March, the exhibit brings together directors, artists, designers and photographers in an attempt to capture Swinton’s indomitable spirit. As part of the show, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino created a new intimate portrait of Swinton in the form of a short film and sculpture, while Swinton worked alongside the distinguished fashion historian Olivier Salliard to stage a multi-day performance which brought her wardrobe (across costume, red carpet, heirlooms and her personal clothes) to life in a special presentation.

Other key features of the exhibit include a photo series by Tim Walker in which he visited her family home in Scotland to explore her connection to her ancestors; a meditative installation by filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul also inspired by her home; and a new edit of Jim Jarmusch’s absurdist zombie film The Dead Don’t Die (2019).

Elsewhere, the exhibit includes the short film The Human Voice (2020) which has been presented by director Pedro Almodóvar for the first time in the form of an installation and a tribute to one of Swinton’s greatest inspirations, the filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942–1994), with whom she made a total of nine films. A segment from The Last of England (1987) is being shown as an installation, alongside personal objects related to their shared time and collaboration, as well as never-before-seen Super 8 footage starring Swinton.

Want to take a closer look at Tilda Swinton’s Chelsea flat? Simply hop on over to Amsterdam to explore the property in its full glory. As part of the exhibition, Swinton has worked alongside childhood friend and filmmaker Joanna Hogg to put together an exploration of memory, space and personal history in the form of Flat 19 – a multimedia reconstruction of the very same Chelsea apartment where she lived between 1983 to 1998 when she was first breaking into the industry. The full-scale reconstruction of her London flat reveals an unfurnished replica complete with typically British wall-to-wall carpets overlooking a brick building, while voices and sounds from the past flow from the doors that stand ajar to the various rooms.

Discussing the exhibition, Swinton said: ‘With the honour of this extraordinary invitation, Eye has given me the opportunity to reflect on the mechanics of my working practice over the past forty years. And to come to rest on the – ever present – bedrock and battery of the close fellowships I found from the very first and continue to rely upon to this day.’

Look Inside

Located on the second floor of a red-brick period mansion block on the King’s Road this two-bedroom apartment offers up one of London’s buzziest and most beautiful streets, right on your doorstep. While small, at just 603 sqft, the home includes a light and airy reception and dining room area in the central living space with high ceilings and sash windows, as well as a kitchen and bathroom.

On the market for £650,000. Find out more at knightfrank.com