Life on London's most expensive street right next to the King's closest Marks and Spencer

Locals and business owners have revealed what life is like on 'Britain's most expensive street' - where King Charles is a neighbour. Buckingham Gate in central London was this week named as having the nation's highest average asking price of £9.63m.

The road - which runs from Buckingham Palace to busy Victoria Street in the heart of Westminster - features a mixture of houses, flats, embassies, shops and cafes. Retiree David Rodgers has owned his home on Buckingham Gate for the past 25 years.

He said the news that the street is Britain's most expensive was a surprise. The 86-year-old said: "I didn't expect that. I would have assumed it would have been somewhere in Chelsea, or Knightsbridge, or even in the City." But I'm very happy here. It's easy to get everywhere, particularly convenient when coming home after the theatre. It's very quiet at night, there's no traffic. And there's a new Marks and Spencer around the corner, which is great."

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"Things are also better since they started closing the road for the Changing of the Guard. Now, we don't have 20 tourist buses here like we used to, so that's an improvement."

Buckingham Gate was identified as Britain's most expensive street by Rightmove. It said properties sell for an average of just shy of £10m - £7m more than the cheapest street outside London.

The next highest average asking price was found in Vicarage Gate in Holland Park in west London, at £6.3m. Qasim Ziea, 32, owns Prime Dry Cleaners. The business has been in his family since 2007.

He said Buckingham Gate was "a perfect location business-wise". Qasim said: "It's so central and close to everything famous in London."

"In terms of clients, we get people who work at the palace, like butlers, or soldiers who live at Wellington Barracks. We also get some well-off customers from the nearby hotels, and we've had a few famous clients, such as Rishi Sunak back when he was Chancellor."

Qasim added that his family are "very happy" about the skyrocketing prices - and they are often asked to sell. He said: "It was expensive at the time, but prices have obviously more than doubled since then."

"We often have people approaching us to buy the building the most recent wanted to build flats. But it's our business and we love it, so we're hanging on to it."

Prasanna Callaghan owns Crumpets Cafe - which he says is the closest eatery to Buckingham Palace. He said he was surprised to hear Buckingham Gate was the most expensive place to buy a home as the street seemed to have a few drawbacks from a residential perspective.

Prasanna, 47, said: "Even though it's great for business, I wouldn't personally want to live here. There are crowds all the time. Unless you're only spending a couple of months a year here, which is what I think a lot of the residents do."

"Surely no one local is going to be able to afford to buy here." However, he said the location was perfect for a cafe.

He explained: "We're the best location because we are so close to Buckingham Palace. This is the heart of whatever is happening in London."

"Sometimes, we don't reap all the rewards as the road is closed for anything huge, like the Queen's funeral or King's coronation, but we have our regulars. We get a lot of business from the soldiers from Wellington Barracks just around the back, and people who work in the area. Plus of course the steady stream of tourists."

Rightmove calculates its priciest streets based on average asking prices. And one estate agent thinks Buckingham Gate's number 1 spot may have been skewed by a recent £45 million listing.

The agent, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "It was a surprise to hear Buckingham Gate was the most expensive road, as I definitely would have guessed it was somewhere around Knightsbridge."

"It just depends what you want to spend your money on. Some people would rather somewhere that has less tourists, maybe a few more restaurants and supermarkets. But it's definitely a nice dinner party anecdote, isn't it? 'I live next door to the King!'"

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