The term "Supercar Season" began in London and became synonymous with wealthy Middle Eastern visitors showcasing their supercars in affluent London neighbourhoods, namely Knightsbridge and Kensington, while car enthusiasts collect footage to upload to social media applications, such as YouTube. [1] [2] [3]
Many of the supercar owners visit London during the summer months of June, July and August to escape the heat in Arab states of the Persian Gulf and they transport their supercars with them, which is why so many Middle Eastern registration plates can be seen on the streets of London during summer months. The Supercar Season now attracts UK registered supercar owners to cruise, as is evident in video captured by car spotters uploading their clips to YouTube.
In 2011 the media coined the Supercar Season phenomenon 'Ramadan Rush', as the Ramadan calendar fell on 1 August of that year and the retail sector embraced this reference, [4] [5] whereas the car enthusiasts refer to it as 'Supercar Season'. Supercar owners and car spotters both suggest more consideration should be shown for the phenomenon, saying that it brings wealth to the UK. [1]
Supercar Season attracts many car spotters, but the increased interest and growing number of supercars on London streets has caused concern for many local residents complaining about engine noise levels.
In July 2015, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council launched a consultation to introduce new measures to tackle what it calls "the problem of supercars" in and around the Knightsbridge area as residents were complaining about excessive noise levels and anti-social behaviour. As part of its consultation, the council says it will be looking to address "the issue of high-performance cars speeding in the streets, drivers revving engines and vehicles causing obstructions." [6] [7] [8] Some car spotters suggest the real noise levels are actually being caused by UK residents in cheaper modified vehicles[ citation needed ]. Posters have been placed by RBKC. [9]
The City of Westminster is a city and borough in London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central London, including most of the West End. Many London landmarks are within the borough, including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, Westminster Cathedral, 10 Downing Street, and Trafalgar Square.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the United Kingdom. It includes affluent areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington, South Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge.
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Knightsbridge is also the name of the roadway which runs near the south side of Hyde Park from Hyde Park Corner.
Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located 1.8 miles (2.9 km) southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary between the two largest aristocratic estates in London, the Grosvenor Estate and the Cadogan. The square was formerly known as 'Hans Town', laid out in 1771 to a plan of by Henry Holland Snr. and Henry Holland Jnr. Both the square and Hans Town were named after Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), an Anglo-Irish doctor who, jointly with his appointed trustees, owned the land at the time.
South Kensington is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the railways in the late 19th century and the opening and naming of local tube stations. The area has many museums and cultural landmarks with a high number of visitors, such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Adjacent affluent centres such as Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington, have been considered as some of the most exclusive real estate in the world.
Harvey Nichols is a British luxury department store chain founded in 1831, at its flagship store in Knightsbridge, London. It sells designer fashion collections for men and women, fashion accessories, beauty products, fine wines and luxury foods. It is owned by Hong Kong luxury goods company Dickson Concepts. The chain has 14 locations worldwide, including a Beauty Bazaar in Liverpool and a brasserie in the OXO Tower, London.
Cities of London and Westminster is a constituency returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom Parliament. It is a borough constituency for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer. As with all constituencies, the election is decided using the first past the post system of election. Since its creation at the 1950 general election, the constituency has always elected the candidate nominated by the Conservative Party.
Brompton Road is a street located in the southern part from Knightsbridge and in the eastern part from Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and partly the City of Westminster in London.
Brompton, sometimes called Old Brompton, survives in name as a ward in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Until the latter half of the 19th century it was a scattered village made up mostly of market gardens in the county of Middlesex. It lay south-east of the village of Kensington, abutting the parish of St Margaret's, Westminster at the hamlet of Knightsbridge to the north-east, with Little Chelsea to the south. It was bisected by the Fulham Turnpike, the main road westward out of London to the ancient parish of Fulham and on to Putney and Surrey. It saw its first parish church, Holy Trinity Brompton, only in 1829. Today the village has been comprehensively eclipsed by segmentation due principally to railway development culminating in London Underground lines, and its imposition of station names, including Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Gloucester Road as the names of stops during accelerated urbanisation, but lacking any cogent reference to local history and usage or distinctions from neighbouring settlements.
London Buses route 9H was a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. It ran between Kensington High Street and Trafalgar Square, and was last operated by Tower Transit.
Cadogan Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including Cadogan Estates Limited, are British property investment and management companies that are owned by the Cadogan family, one of the richest families in the United Kingdom. They also hold the titles of Earl Cadogan and Viscount Chelsea, the latter used as a courtesy title by the Earl's eldest son. The Cadogan Group is the main landlord in the west London districts of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, and it is now the second largest of the surviving aristocratic Freehold Estates in Central London, after the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estate, to which it is adjacent, covering Mayfair and Belgravia.
King's Road Chelsea railway station is a proposed station on Crossrail 2, a planned underground railway line through London in the United Kingdom. If constructed, the station would serve the King's Road area of Chelsea.
Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council is the local authority for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Kensington and Chelsea is divided into 18 wards, each electing either two or three councillors. The council was created by the London Government Act 1963 and replaced two local authorities: Kensington Metropolitan Borough Council and Chelsea Metropolitan Borough Council.
Kensington and Chelsea TMO (KCTMO) was the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, managing nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council – the entire council housing stock in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Source London is a network of electric vehicle charging points in London.
Kahn Design is a British-based company that specialises in the modification of motor vehicles. Founded by Afzal Kahn, the company has its headquarters in Bradford and showrooms in both Chelsea and Kensington in London.
Ramadan Rush was first coined in 2011 by the British media and embraced by the retail sector as it became noticeable that the UK was attracting huge numbers of wealthy Middle Eastern visitors around the time of Ramadan, which happened to fall on 1 August on this year.
Sutton Dwellings, also known as the Sutton Estate, are a series of 14 residential buildings in Chelsea, London, U.K.