Serviced Apartments in Kingston upon Thames

Discover the best activities and attractions Kingston upon Thames has to offer, and find out what makes this city a vibrant and exciting place to live or visit.

Kingston Riverside and Thames Walks
Kingston’s riverside is the town’s social and scenic heart — long stretches of towpath, moorings and quayside cafés, bars and restaurants make it a magnet for locals and visitors. The area is popular for leisurely riverside walks, cycle routes, paddleboarding and boat trips, and it frequently hosts community events and riverside festivals that draw large weekend crowds. Its combination of historic bridges, riverside terraces and easy access to Central London makes it a unique urban riverside destination. The riverside drives significant footfall into nearby shops, eateries and hotels, supporting the hospitality sector and providing valuable outdoor leisure space for residents.

Kingston Market & The Bentall Centre
Kingston Market (including the covered market and weekly stalls on the ancient Market Place) and the Bentall Centre form the town’s primary shopping cluster. The market offers an eclectic mix of fresh produce, street food, crafts and antiques, while the Bentall Centre provides major high-street and designer retail choices under one roof. This blend of independent stallholders and national retailers gives Kingston a distinctive shopping character — historic market charm alongside modern retail convenience. The shopping area is a major employer and a retail draw for wider southwest London and Surrey, keeping the town centre economically vibrant.

Rose Theatre Kingston
The Rose Theatre is Kingston’s leading cultural venue, staging a mixed programme of drama, comedy, family shows and live music alongside community workshops and education projects. The theatre has built a reputation for high-quality productions and for engaging local people through outreach and youth programmes, making it both an artistic hub and a community resource. Its presence raises Kingston’s cultural profile, brings evening and weekend audiences who support local restaurants and bars, and provides creative employment and training opportunities.

Kingston Museum & the Coronation Stone
Kingston Museum and the adjacent Heritage Centre highlight the borough’s long history — from prehistoric finds to the Saxon Coronation Stone, reputedly used in the crowning of early English kings and still displayed in the town’s Market Place. The museum’s local history, archaeology and costume collections, plus rotating exhibitions and family activities, make it a focal point for learning and tourism. Preserving and interpreting Kingston’s unique heritage attracts school visits and cultural tourism, reinforcing local identity and contributing to the town’s educational and cultural economy.

Canbury Gardens and Riverside Parks
Canbury Gardens (and nearby green spaces along the Thames) gives Kingston residents valuable riverside parkland for picnics, play, informal sports and seasonal events such as fairs and outdoor concerts. The lawns, tree-lined promenades and bandstand-type spaces are particularly popular in warmer months and offer direct river access for casual boating and wildlife watching. These parks provide essential wellbeing and social space, host community events that strengthen local ties, and enhance property and business attractiveness in the surrounding area.

Explore the diverse transport options available in Kingston upon Thames, from efficient public transportation systems to convenient road networks. Whether you're commuting to work or exploring the city, this section will give you an overall look at the available transportation systems.

Public Transit System
- National Rail (Kingston station & local rail network) - Kingston is served by Kingston station on the Kingston Loop (South Western Railway) with frequent commuter services to London Waterloo (via both the Wimbledon and Richmond/Twickenham routes); nearby Norbiton and Surbiton stations give additional local and faster mainline options to central London and southwest Surrey.
- Suburban Rail (branch lines and nearby stations) - The borough/town is also served by stations on adjacent suburban lines (e.g., Norbiton, Surbiton, Tolworth and Chessington stations) providing regular links across southwest London and interchange options for longer-distance services.
- London Buses - A comprehensive network of London Buses serves Kingston town centre and surrounding neighbourhoods (multiple routes to Richmond, Wimbledon, Hammersmith, Central London and local destinations), with frequent services, Oyster/contactless payment and evening/night services on many corridors.
- Underground / London Overground connections - Kingston is not on the Tube network; nearest Underground/Overground interchanges are Wimbledon and Richmond (reachable quickly by bus or rail), providing District Line, Northern Line (via Wimbledon), and Overground connections for onward travel across London.
- Riverboat services - Passenger river services operate from Kingston Pier/towpath area (mainly seasonal and leisure services, with some commuter/tourist links to Richmond, Hampton Court and river services further downstream) offering an alternative scenic route along the Thames.
- Taxis and ride‑hail services - Licensed London black cabs, local taxi firms and app-based private hire services (e.g., Uber) operate widely in the Kingston area for on-demand door-to-door travel.
- Car clubs, parking and EV charging - Pay-and-display and multi-storey car parks in the town centre, several car‑club bays (e.g., Zipcar and equivalents), controlled parking zones and a growing network of public electric-vehicle charging points managed by local and private operators.
- Accessibility & ticketing - National Rail and bus services accept Oyster/contactless cards and Travelcards for integrated fares; many stations have step-free/accessibility improvements but level/access varies by station — check individual station accessibility information before travel.

Major Highways
- A3 - Major trunk road linking central London (via Clapham/Wandsworth/Richmond corridors) to Guildford and Portsmouth; provides key road access out of Kingston toward southwest England.
- A307 - Historic Portsmouth Road that runs through Kingston town centre and provides local east–west connectivity across southwest London.
- A308 - Important local arterial route connecting Kingston with areas westwards toward Hampton Court, Sunbury and the M3 corridor.
- A240 - North–south route linking Kingston with Epsom and providing a principal suburban distributor for traffic toward Surrey towns.
- M25 (London Orbital Motorway) - Readily accessible from Kingston via connecting A-roads for orbital journeys around Greater London and links to national motorway network.
- M3 - Accessible for longer-distance journeys southwest (via A316/M3 routes) providing a route toward Surrey, Hampshire and the west country.

Cycling Infrastructure
- Cycle network and lanes - Kingston features a mix of on‑road cycle lanes, segregated cycle tracks in parts of the town centre, signed Quietway/local cycle routes and traffic‑free sections along the Thames towpath (connected to National Cycle Network Route 4), supplemented by city cycle hire docking stations (Santander Cycles docking points in central Kingston), public cycle parking (Sheffield stands) and council initiatives to expand and improve cycle routes and secure parking.

Recent and Upcoming Improvements
- Bus interchange and town-centre access upgrades - Redevelopment projects and local transport strategies have focused on improving the bus interchange near the railway station, better pedestrian links, and reorganised bus flows to reduce congestion and improve interchange between bus and rail.
- Station accessibility and rail improvements - Recent works and ongoing programs have targeted improved step-free access, platform/amenity upgrades and timetable/service enhancements on South Western Railway routes to improve commuter capacity and reliability.
- Active travel and cycle scheme roll‑out - Kingston Council and Transport for London/local programmes have implemented and planned further cycle lane extensions, improved junctions for cyclists, additional secure cycle parking and expansion of bike‑hire docking stations to encourage more cycling trips.
- Low‑emission buses and EV infrastructure - Introduction of newer low-emission/cleaner buses on key routes and an expanding network of on‑street and car-park EV chargers as part of borough-wide air‑quality and decarbonisation efforts.
- Junction and corridor upgrades on key roads - Targeted carriageway, signalling and junction improvement schemes on A3/A307/A308 corridors aimed at smoothing peak flows, improving safety and enabling better bus priority in some locations.
- River passenger service improvements and leisure connectivity - Investment and coordination to strengthen seasonal and commuter river services, pier improvements and better integration with riverside walking/cycling routes to promote multimodal leisure and commuter use.
- Strategic planning (Local Transport/Movement Plans) - Ongoing implementation of Kingston’s transport/Local Implementation Plan priorities (reducing traffic congestion, boosting active travel, improving public transport reliability and enhancing air quality); these plans drive phased projects over the next several years to improve local and borough-wide connectivity.