High Street Kensington
Circle, District
the simplest route. Stay on the Circle line as far as Great Portland Street, about twenty minutes, then five minutes on foot south down Portland Place.
One direct Circle line ride from High Street Kensington. Examination, imaging and biopsy in one attendance.
Tell us what you need and we will come back to you the same working day.
At 146 Harley Street, W1G 7LD, about two and a half miles north-east of Kensington. The Circle line from High Street Kensington runs to Great Portland Street, five minutes from the door. Consultation, imaging and, where needed, biopsy are completed in one visit, usually inside sixty to ninety minutes.
If you live in W8 or SW7, reaching us does not involve changing trains. High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road both sit on the Circle line, and so does Great Portland Street, five minutes on foot from our consulting rooms at 146 Harley Street, W1G 7LD. A same-day one-stop breast clinic appointment runs sixty to ninety minutes end to end, so a morning slot rarely costs a Kensington patient more than half a day.
The concerns people bring from this part of west London are fairly typical of it: a change found during self-examination, screening that someone has decided not to defer any longer, follow-up of something picked up while abroad, and reviews of a plan made at another hospital. If somewhere else in the city is closer to your office than to your home, all our London locations are listed together.
Kensington has an unusually simple journey to Harley Street: one Circle line train, no change, and a short walk at the far end. If you intend to drive, read the directions and parking for 146 Harley Street first, because the clinic sits inside the Congestion Charge zone and Kensington does not.
| From | Lines / mode | Route and typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Moorgate | Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, Northern | One direct train to Great Portland Street, roughly ten minutes, then five minutes on foot. The shortest total journey from the City. |
| Barbican | Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City | The same line one stop closer, and the easiest start from EC1 and the Barbican estate. |
| Liverpool Street | Central, Elizabeth line, National Rail | The Elizabeth line two stops to Bond Street. Quicker on the train, but a twelve-minute walk at the far end. Useful if you are arriving on a main-line service. |
| Buses and taxis | — | Those routes stop within a few minutes of the clinic on the Marylebone Road and Great Portland Street corridors. A taxi from the City takes twenty-five to thirty-five minutes in working hours, so the Underground is usually faster. |
The reason is almost always the interval. NHS breast services in west London are good, but a two-week-wait referral is still a wait, and the days spent not knowing are the part of the process people describe as hardest. A private one-stop pathway closes that gap into a single attendance: examination, imaging and, where it is needed, a biopsy on the same visit instead of three appointments spread across a fortnight.
The second reason is knowing who is responsible for your care. One consultant examines you, plans what follows, operates if surgery is required and sees you afterwards. Booking does not require a GP referral letter if you are funding the appointment yourself. Insured patients are better off speaking to their insurer first, because almost all of them ask for a referral and a pre-authorisation number before they will settle an invoice, and that is quicker to arrange beforehand than afterwards. Where surgery or inpatient treatment is needed it takes place at one of the private hospitals we work with, and there are directions and parking for The London Clinic if that is where your admission is arranged.
Your care is led by Mr Debashis Ghosh, Consultant Breast & Oncoplastic Surgeon. He holds European Board certification in both Breast Surgery and Surgical Oncology, a dual qualification that is uncommon in the UK, and has practised as a consultant since 2012. Imaging is reported by breast radiologists and pathology by breast pathologists working within the same specialist team, so the opinion you are given is a team opinion rather than one person’s.
An 08:00 appointment from W8 means leaving High Street Kensington at about half past seven: one Circle line train, no change, and five minutes on foot from Great Portland Street. Registration takes a few minutes. You are then examined by the consultant rather than by a member of a triage team, and imaging follows in the same building — mammography, ultrasound, or both, depending on your age and on what the examination found.
If the imaging raises a question, a needle biopsy is taken during the same attendance under local anaesthetic. What you are told before you leave is what the examination and the imaging show. Where a biopsy has been taken, the histology is reported separately by the laboratory and a discussion is arranged once it is back. Most people are finished inside ninety minutes, which from Kensington means being back on the High Street by the middle of the morning.
Yes. High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road are both on the Circle line, which runs through to Great Portland Street without a change — usually around twenty minutes — followed by a five-minute walk down Portland Place to 146 Harley Street. If you would rather avoid the Underground, a taxi across Hyde Park normally takes twenty to thirty minutes outside the rush hours.
Very likely. Kensington sits outside the Congestion Charge zone, but Harley Street is inside it, so a weekday journey between 07:00 and 18:00 crosses the boundary and the daily charge applies. The whole of Greater London is also inside the ULEZ. Some patients park at Q-Park Marble Arch on Cumberland Gate, which sits outside the charging zone, and finish the journey by taxi or one stop on the Central line from Marble Arch to Bond Street.
Usually within a few days, and often sooner. South Kensington and Kensington host a large number of visiting and short-stay patients, so a compressed pathway matters: examination, imaging and biopsy in one attendance means you are not waiting in London for a second appointment. If you are arriving by air, the route from Heathrow to the clinic takes roughly forty-five minutes to an hour. Bring any previous imaging or reports with you, and your insurer details if you are claiming.
This page provides general information and does not replace personalised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Mr Debashis Ghosh is a GMC-registered Consultant Breast & Oncoplastic Surgeon, GMC No. 4657664.
Written by the Harley Street Breast Care clinical team. Clinically reviewed by Mr Debashis Ghosh, Consultant Breast & Oncoplastic Surgeon, FEBS Breast Surgery, FEBS Surgical Oncology, GMC 4657664. Last reviewed .
Verified Doctify reviews published by the clinic, alongside our Google rating.
“He is kind, professional and very understanding. I trust him implicitly with my surgeries and I know he would always do the best for me.”
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Most patients are seen within days. Clinic hours are Monday to Friday, 08:00–20:00.