From Chic to Boutique: London’s First Shopping Map Offers Insider Guide to
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- New website maps major shopping areas including Knightsbridge, Portobello and King’s Road.
- The number one reason for visiting the area is ‘to shop’: 13.1 million people visit the Borough each year spending £1.3bn on shopping.
- Features: guides to specific shopping areas, live weather and travel updates from BBC and TFL sites and added interest such as local history and cool hunting opportunities
- Launch event speakers from: Harrods, Designers Guild and Pedlars
A new website for London shoppers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to help visitors to the area and support its strong mix of large and small retailers and maintain vibrancy on the high street, has been launched today.
On the Map (www.rbkc.gov.uk/visit) is the first online resource of its kind in London and covers some of the Capital’s most high-profile shopping destinations, including Knightsbridge, Notting Hill, the King’s Road and Portobello, providing a comprehensive list of the unique shops, boutiques, restaurants, bars, hotels, and attractions in the area.
The new initiative provides an interactive series of maps to The Royal Borough’s key shopping areas, highlighting the type of shopping experience each centre offers and linking to other useful services including individual retailers’ websites, where to eat, cultural highlights, local history, travel information and weather forecasts. The service can be accessed via smartphone, PC, handheld computer or similar.
The new maps have been created following research which showed that the number one reason for visiting the area is ‘to shop’: 13.1 million people visit the Borough each year, of which 1.7 are from overseas. £1.3bn is spent by visitors on shopping in the Borough each year.
Kensington and Chelsea has a vibrant and distinguished retail reputation as the home of destination stores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Peter Jones and the birthplace of iconic design businesses such as Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant’s first fashion houses. The borough is also home to the famous antiques, clothing and fruit and vegetable market on Portobello Road.
The official launch of the initiative this morning [5 July] was attended by retail leaders, local and independent shop owners and other stakeholders, including Liam Butler, Head of Ecommerce, Conran Shop; Emily Dyson Paley, Founder, Couverture and the Garb Store, Paul Baptiste, Manager, The Bluebird Shop, Tarek Malouf, Founder, the Hummingbird Bakery and Anne Swift, Portobello Road Stall Holder and Antique Lace Dealer.
Keynote speakers at the launch were Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell, Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Michael Ward, Managing Director of Harrods, Amanda Back, Head of Public Relations at the Designers Guild and Charlie Gladstone, Founder of Pedlars. Speaker Biographies here.
Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell, Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said: “Research tells us that the number one reason visitors come to our borough is to shop. On the Map is the first initiative of its kind in London, developed by the Council to provide a comprehensive resource for shoppers and to support the diverse mix of retailers and high streets that make the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea the number one shopping destination in the capital.”
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About On the Map
On the Map has been developed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to support its diverse mix of high street shopping and unique retailers, which stretch across such distinctive areas as Kensington High Street, the King’s Road, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill and Portobello Road.
Research shows the main reason people visit the borough is to shop. The Council is one of the leading local authorities recognising the importance of having a strong retail mix – believing that specialist and independent retail is important to overall success and residents’ quality of life. To preserve and enhance the area’s popular high streets, the Council created a Retail Commission in 2006. The Commission brought small, specialist and major retailers together to develop ideas and plans to enhance its high streets. On the Map has developed from one of Retail Commission's ideas and forms part of the Council’s preparations for the Olympics.
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