Developers Aim to Tackle Central London’s Last Luxury Frontier
A rendering of the future exterior of the Whiteley in Bayswater.
Source: The Whiteley
Nestled among the white stucco row houses of London’s Notting Hill, the impeccably manicured streets of Marylebone and the $2,000-a-night hotel rooms in Mayfair, there is … another neighborhood.
Just north of Hyde Park and a short stroll from Kensington Palace, Bayswater is almost never mentioned in the Queen’s English alongside its posh peers next door. Queensway, the area’s high street, hosts low souvenir shops and a bunch of fast food. Its biggest attraction was once the Whiteley, one of London’s first department stores and a longtime competitor to Harrods. Opened in 1911, the shop was referred to in My Fair Lady, and at one point it sold everything from pins to an elephant. It closed for good in 2018.