London Guide
Earl's Court
Earl's Court is a less moneyed area than neighbouring Kensington and Chelsea, with many houses providing cheap bedsits and hotels for young Australians and New Zealanders, earning it the nickname "Kangaroo Valley". In the 1970s, Earl's Court also became the gay capital of London, a position it has since lost to Soho. Once famed for the crowd that hung around Old Brompton Road, London's oldest leather pub, and for its most famous former resident, Freddie Mercury, the flamboyant queen of Queen, whose house, Garden Lodge, 1 Logan Place, has remained a shrine for fans since his death in 1991.
The Earl's Court area is also well known for its two giant exhibition halls. The earlier (and more northern) of the two is the Olympia Exhibition Hall, built in 1884 as the National Agricultural Hall, and now hidden behind a severe 1930s facade at the western end of Kensington High Street. It later made its name as a circus venue, but is now firmly established as a show centre, hosting annual events like the Ideal Home Exhibition, and rock concerts mostly by ageing rock bands. Even larger shows are put on at the Earl's Court Exhibition Hall, erected in 1937 to the south of Olympia down Warwick Road. Both halls were used during the last war as internment centres for Germans and Italians, many of whom had fled Fascist persecution.