Cromwell Road

Cromwell Road is a major road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, and is designated part of the A4. It was created in the 19th century and is said to be named after Richard Cromwell son of Oliver Cromwell who once owned a house there.

Cromwell Road was not always the main traffic route it is nowadays, as when built it only stretched westwards as far as Earls Court. Cromwell Road extension, across the West London railway line and towards Hammersmith, was authorised as a bridge across the railway in 1884, but never completed until 1941, and thus it was only in post-WW2 times that it was connected to become the main A4 route into London. The large traffic increase brought much demolition and road rearrangement beyond Earls Court Road in 1967-72, although the main part of Cromwell Road has not had its basic building line changed.

It starts as West Cromwell Road near West Kensington tube station, continuing eastwards from Talgarth Road. It becomes Cromwell Road proper as it crosses Earl's Court Road.

It travels through South Kensington, just south of Cromwell Hospital, then past Gloucester Road and Gloucester Road tube station. The next major crossroads comes at the intersection with Queen's Gate, on the corner of which stands Baden-Powell House, the former headquarters of The Scout Association. The road then passes to the south of a museum-academic complex informally known as Albertopolis, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Imperial College London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, near South Kensington tube station. Near this complex, at the junction with Exhibition Road, it becomes Cromwell Gardens for a short stretch before it joins Brompton Road. Another note-worthy building is the Embassy of Yemen in London at 57 Cromwell Street, opposite the Natural History Museum.