Kim Kardashian in London: the Soho Hotel in 2010 and the Athenaeum in 2012

Soho and Piccadilly, London · September 2010 and May 2012

I am Charles Pycraft, a London photographer.

Kim Kardashian has just turned 46, and she marked it with a family dinner in Beverly Hills in not one but two dresses (Daily Mail). So here are two London evenings from my archive, a year and eight months apart.

Who she is

Kim Kardashian became a household name with Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the E! reality series that began in October 2007. She has since turned that fame into a business. SKIMS, the shapewear and clothing brand she co-founded in 2019, was valued at $5 billion after raising $225 million in November 2025 (BBC News).

The Soho Hotel, 13 September 2010

In September 2010 she was in London with her mother, Kris Jenner, promoting the show. On the Monday evening she came out of the Soho Hotel in a grey fitted dress and stopped to sign autographs for fans, who appear in these frames only as hands. By the camera's clock the whole thing took seven minutes, from 7.32pm to 7.39pm.

The Athenaeum, 17 May 2012

She was back in May 2012, when Kanye West, now known as Ye, was in town with Jay-Z for the Watch the Throne tour, which opened at The O2 on 18 May. Late on 17 May, at 11.27pm, she arrived at the Athenaeum Hotel on Piccadilly in a long navy gown. The hotel still recalls that the couple stayed in its penthouse that year (The Athenaeum). London was gearing up for a big summer, with the Diamond Jubilee weekend a fortnight away and the Olympics in July.

Now

These days she is acting as well as building a business. All's Fair, the Ryan Murphy legal drama in which she plays Allura Grant, returns for a second season on Disney+ on 4 November (Disney UK Press). Looking back, that grey dress outside the Soho Hotel could almost be an early page of the SKIMS colour chart.

My photography years ran from 1999 to 2014, and that archive is now licensed through Backgrid UK.

The pictures

Four frames from two London evenings. A car number plate has been blurred on one Soho frame, and on the Athenaeum frame the faces of two security staff and a number plate have been blurred.

Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com

Kim Kardashian in a grey strapless dress, smiling as she signs a picture of herself held out by fans' hands.
THE SOHO HOTEL, SEPTEMBER 2010. Kim Kardashian signs autographs for fans outside the Soho Hotel in London on 13 September 2010.
Kim Kardashian in a fitted grey dress with black trim, holding a black clutch bag, on a Soho pavement at night.
A pause on the pavement in Soho before she heads off.
Kim Kardashian walking towards the camera in a grey fitted dress and black heels, on a street with double yellow lines.
Grey dress, black heels, September 2010.
Kim Kardashian in a long navy strapless gown walking past a silver car outside the Athenaeum Hotel at night.
THE ATHENAEUM, PICCADILLY, MAY 2012. Kim Kardashian arrives at the Athenaeum Hotel late on 17 May 2012.