Chelsea swagger: Why SW3 is swinging again

With a wave of red-hot openings, this formerly supercool enclave of south-west London is the place to be once more

- BEN MCCORMACK

Until recently, the last time anybody queued for anything on King’s Road was for the Boxing Day sales at Peter Jones. Yet here on a midweek night, snaking out of a green frontage aglow with the promise of a good time, there’s usually a queue of Gen Zers who look like they wouldn’t be seen dead in John Lewis. They wait patiently for a table at Alley Cats (342 King’s Road, SW3, alleycatspizza.co.uk), a Marylebone pizza sensation that could have had the pick of anywhere in London for its second restaurant. So why choose Chelsea? “Chelsea chose us,” says head chef Francesco Macri. “There is definitely a buzz in the area these days. People are more willing to travel the extra mile.”

Strike off down King’s Road and in among the chains of the Lululemon ilk, it can be hard to detect any trace of cool, let alone Swinging Sixties chic when granny took a trip or the punk spirit of the Seventies when Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren ran the boutique SEX.

Until recently, that is. With all these posh pubs and trendy restaurants attracting some awfully cool cats, Chelsea’s other institutions have risen up (or veered slightly off-kilter) to meet them. Stil Salon (99-103 Fulham Road, SW3, stil-salon. com), one of the most stylish hair salons in SW3, recently relocated from Notting Hill to Chelsea to meet the extensive hair styling needs of the Royal Borough. But Stil isn’t all balayages and blowouts. Owner Christel Barron-Hough used to be former global technical director at Tigi, and she’s got a lot of experimental hair tricks up her sleeve. If you’re noticing Chelsea girls getting more creative with their barnets, best believe she’s responsible.