Kennington has always carried a quiet confidence — a pocket of calm just south of the river that manages to feel both deeply rooted and quietly sophisticated. For decades it has attracted those who value proximity to Westminster and the City but prefer leafy streets, Georgian symmetry and the reassuring hum of neighbourhood life over the frenetic polish of the capital’s newer enclaves. Within its gracious crescents and squares lies one of London’s best-kept secrets: a village atmosphere only a short stroll from the Houses of Parliament.

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The architecture sets the tone. Fine 18th- and early 19th-century terraces, many built for the city’s professional classes, frame places like Cleaver Square. Walcot Square, with its uniform stuccoed façades, exudes the same restrained elegance. The housing stock is among the most architecturally consistent in south London, and this aesthetic coherence has long drawn politicians, civil servants, actors and architects alike — a discreetly affluent set that prizes heritage over hype.

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The presence of the Oval cricket ground adds a distinctive note of grandeur — on match days the area fills with the hum of spectators and the faint aroma of barbecued food drifting from the terraces. Green space is generous for such a central district, with Kennington Park providing broad lawns, tennis courts and a well-used café. It’s a place where office workers stretch their legs at lunchtime and families gather under the trees on weekends.

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That poise between past and present, bustle and calm, gives Kennington its enduring appeal. It is not a place that shouts about itself, and that’s precisely why it endures — a corner of London where Georgian formality meets a deeply lived-in ease, and where those in the know have long chosen to stay put.

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