Falls prevention physiotherapy at home in Kensington and Chelsea

Worried about falls, or finding the walk to the shops, the museums or a Saturday on Portobello Road harder than it used to be? A Chartered Physiotherapist, registered with the HCPC, visits older adults at home across Kensington and Chelsea, from Notting Hill and Holland Park to Earl's Court and Chelsea. We work on strength, balance and stamina to help you keep doing the things that make this part of London home: a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, an afternoon at the Victoria and Albert Museum, coffee on the King's Road or a walk through Holland Park. Every programme starts with a falls risk assessment at home.

Book your free 15 minute call

Homes in Kensington and Chelsea

Homes in Kensington and Chelsea come in many shapes. There are Georgian and Victorian terraces, tall townhouses around garden squares, mews houses, and red brick mansion blocks with grand shared staircases. Many period houses have been split into flats, so a home can mean three flights of stairs and no lift. In the north of the borough and at World's End in Chelsea there are large council estates and tower blocks such as Trellick Tower, where everything depends on the lift and the walkways around it. Almost every front door has steps up from the pavement, and many basement flats have steep steps down. As a physiotherapist who comes to your home, we see exactly what you face. Every visit starts with how you get around your own home and building, and we practise the stairs, front steps and basement steps you actually use, at a pace that is safe for you.

Where we visit in Kensington and Chelsea

We offer physiotherapy home visits across the borough, including Chelsea, World's End, Brompton, South Kensington, Earl's Court, West Brompton, Kensington, Holland Park, Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, Golborne and Kensal Town. That covers postcodes SW3, SW5, SW7, SW10, W8, W10 and W11, and parts of SW1, W2 and W14. There is no travel charge anywhere in London.

Coming home from hospital

Many Kensington and Chelsea residents are treated at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on the Fulham Road, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington or at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, and are then supported by NHS community teams. SteadyMotion is an independent private service, separate from the NHS, so we can work alongside your NHS care, while you wait for it, or after it ends. After a fall, a broken hip, or a hip or knee replacement, we work on your walking aid, strength, balance and the stairs at home. Read more in our guide to home physiotherapy for older adults.

Getting out and about again

For most people the aim is getting back to their own corner of Kensington and Chelsea. That might be the stalls of Portobello Road on a Saturday morning, or the quieter fruit and vegetable days in the week, and Golborne Road just beyond. It might be the museums of South Kensington, an evening at the Royal Albert Hall, the shops on Kensington High Street or a stroll down the King's Road. Green spaces are close by too: Holland Park with its woodland paths, Kensington Gardens, the long avenues of Brompton Cemetery and the Chelsea Embankment beside the Thames. Many people also use their local library, such as Kensington Central Library, Chelsea Library in the Old Town Hall or North Kensington Library on Ladbroke Grove, or the pool and classes at Chelsea Sports Centre and Kensington Leisure Centre.

Getting around Kensington and Chelsea often means a tube station with long passages and stairs, such as South Kensington, Gloucester Road, Earl's Court or Notting Hill Gate, or a bus along a busy road. The gentle slopes around Notting Hill and Campden Hill and the crowds on market days add their own challenge. We practise the walk to your stop and the trip itself, step by step, on the routes you actually use, to help you feel steady again.

What a programme can look like

These are examples, not real clients. Every programme is planned around the person and what they want to get back to.

Example: Saturdays on Portobello Road. Starting point: someone who loved browsing the antiques stalls but stopped after a fall, because the crowds and uneven kerbs now feel risky. What we work on: balance while turning and looking around, reactive steps if someone bumps into you, and stamina for standing at stalls, first at home and then on a quieter weekday. The goal: a regular Saturday morning at the market again.

Example: back to the Royal Albert Hall. Starting point: someone who has had a hip replacement and is nervous about steep tiered seating, stairs and the crowd leaving at the end. What we work on: leg strength, confidence on stairs with and without a handrail, and walking to the bus or tube at a steady pace. The goal: an evening concert with friends.

Example: the stairs in a converted townhouse. Starting point: someone who lives in a top floor flat with no lift and has started to dread the three flights after a broken hip. What we work on: strength, a safe way to carry shopping in stages, and practising the actual staircase with rests on each landing. The goal: managing the stairs every day without fear.

Example: walks in Holland Park. Starting point: someone who has become generally unsteady and now only walks to the corner shop. What we work on: walking further, balance on gravel and slopes, and a route with benches to build up distance week by week. The goal: a regular walk through the park again.

Other areas we visit

We also visit older adults at home in nearby Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent and Wandsworth, and across the rest of London, with no travel charge.