Living in Queen's Park: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

NW6 is known for family-friendly living, period houses and the 30-acre Victorian park at its heart.
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Anthea Masey14 February 2019

Families come to Queen’s Park in north-west London to buy the kind of houses they can’t afford in more expensive neighbourhoods such as Notting Hill and Maida Vale.

They discover roads of fine late-Victorian and Edwardian houses clustered around a 30-acre park named in honour of Queen Victoria.

The park is central to the life of the community with Queen’s Park Day held every year in mid-September. It is the nearest London gets to a country fête, with cake and jam-making competitions, donkey rides and a fancy-dress dog show, as well as more modern innovations such as street food stalls.

The area where the park now stands played host to the Royal Agricultural Show in July 1879. The site was chosen because it was close to the newly opened railway station and the show was then the most ambitious of its kind ever staged. It took 200 men 12 days to set it up, with 120 judges recruited to pass judgment on 3,000 cows, sheep and chickens.

The scale of the event was enormous, with a shed of 24,000sq ft devoted to farm equipment and another shed of 2,000sq ft devoted to seed. The show was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales but then disaster struck. The heavens opened and turned the event into a mud bath. Morale was raised when Queen Victoria herself made a visit — but only after a team of workmen stayed up all night constructing a brick-and-ballast drive.

Attendance was much lower than expected but the event created the impetus for a campaign to persuade the Church Commissioners, who owned the land, to put aside some of the area they had earmarked for housing for a park. It took years of campaigning but the battle was eventually won and in 1887 the park opened. The original name, Kilburn Recreation Ground, was changed to Queen’s Park to commemorate Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and in memory of the day eight years before when she had processed from the station, down Salusbury Road to the muddy showground.

Estate agent Stewart Boyd, director of the local branch of Winkworth, has been selling homes in Queen’s Park for 15 years. He says the district, in travel Zone 2, was on comparatively few London house hunters’ radars 10 years ago, whereas it is now a place where many come from Zone 1 to buy family homes and it has almost joined the prime London property club.

“The park is where the community gathers. I will always bump into five or six families I know,” he says.

Queen’s Park is four miles north-west of central London with Willesden and West Hampstead to the north; Kilburn to the east; North Kensington and Notting Hill to the south and Kensal Green to the West.

The property scene

Overlooking Queen’s Park and in the ladder of streets between the park and Salusbury Road to the east, and the park and Chamberlayne Road to west, there are terrace and semi-detached Victorian and Edwardian houses. The most expensive house currently for sale is an extended four-bedroom house in Chevening Road for £3.2 million.

The architecture changes north of the Overground line running between Kensal Rise and Brondesbury stations, with detached and semi-detached Twenties and Thirties houses in roads such as The Avenue, Christchurch Avenue, Aylestone Avenue and Manor House Drive. There is a five-bedroom detached Thirties house in The Avenue for sale for £2,595,000.

Winkworth’s Stewart Boyd says that buyers moving to Queen’s Park favour the Victorian and Edwardian houses close to the park but once they have been in the area for a while they can see the virtue of the houses north of the railway line in Brondesbury Park, which have good lateral ground-floor space and large gardens.

There are mainly terraced and semi-detached Victorian and Edwardian houses in the ladder of streets surrounding Queen's Park
Daniel Lynch

There is another change south of the Overground and Underground line between Kensal Green and Queen’s Park, where you’ll find roads of small Victorian cottages with period brick detail in the Queen’s Park conservation area, plus estates of social housing. Prices here range from £700,000 for a two-bedroom house in need of refurbishment in Caird Street, to £915,000 for a three-bedroom house in Oliphant Street.

This corner of Queen’s Park has its own community council, or parish council, set up following the 2014 council elections. It has its own elected councillors and is the first such council to be set up in London under legislation passed in 2007.

New-build homes

The Avenue in The Avenue in Brondesbury Park is a development of 74 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom flats, ready to move into and designed by Hopkins Architects. One-bedroom homes start at £595,000, rising to £775,000 with a study, while two-bedroom flats are priced from £985,000, three-bedroom flats at £1.25 million and a four-bedroom duplex show home is available priced £2 million. Call 020 7328 7171 for further details.

King’s Holt Terrace is an EcoWorld London development of 54 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 15 four-bedroom townhouses off Chamberlayne Road, built around the new Moberly Sports Centre. These homes are ready to move into, with one-bedroom flats from £525,000, two-bedroom flats at £630,000 and four-bedroom houses at £1,285,000. Contact Hamptons on 020 8168 0029.

Rental homes

Aaron Priscott, lettings manager at Winkworth says Queen’s Park is popular with young couples and families, and the opening of the French Lycée in Wembley has brought an influx of French families. He feels the area doesn’t have a lot to offer young sharers, although in September there is a seasonal demand from students.

Rents range from £1,235 a month for a one-bedroom period conversion in Wrentham Avenue to £5,633 a month for a four-bedroom house in Keslake Road.

Transport

No one is far from a station in this neighbourhood. Queen’s Park and Kensal Green are on the Bakerloo line and there are Overground trains to Euston. Kensal Rise, Brondesbury Park and Brondesbury are on the Overground with commuters often changing at West Hampstead for the Jubilee line. All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,404.

The useful commuter buses running along Chamberlayne Road are the No 6 to Aldwych via Marble Arch and Trafalgar Square, and the No 52 to Victoria via Kensington High Street and Knightsbridge. Along Kilburn High Road they are the No 16 to Victoria via Marble Arch; the No 98 to Holborn via Oxford Circus and the No 189 to Marble Arch via Baker Street.

Staying power

Winkworth’s Stewart Boyd says families like to stay in Queen’s Park and since prices have come down it has become easier for buyers to make the leap from a flat to a house.

Postcode

Queen’s Park is mostly in the NW6 Kilburn postcode, although to the south it strays into W10, the North Kensington postcode, while Chamberlayne Road is in NW10, the Willesden postcode.

Best roads

Any road with a view of the park, such as Harvist Road, Milman Road, Kingswood Avenue and Chevening Road.

Up and coming

There are few houses in Queen’s Park that haven’t already been done up. Anyone wanting a project is better off looking west of Chamberlayne Road, in Kensal Rise.

Council

Most of Queen’s Park falls into Labour-controlled Brent, where Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,496.54. The portion in the W10 postcode is in Conservative-controlled Westminster, where Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £710.50.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Queen’s Park is bookended by two shopping streets — Salusbury Road and Chamberlayne Road.

Along Salusbury Road there are branches of the Co-op and Sainsbury’s, Costa, Starbucks and Gail’s but there’s also an independent bookshop and the Salusbury gastropub with its two offshoots: Salusbury Winestore, a wine merchant with a cheese counter, and Salusbury Food Store, a café and pizzeria.

Iris is a women’s boutique, part of a small eight-strong chain. Off Salusbury Road, Lonsdale Road is lined with small workspaces, including leather king Bill Amberg, and restaurants including Ostini, an Italian restaurant from Puglia; Hugo’s all-day restaurant and Milk Beach, a café and wine bar with an Aussie flavour.

The chains have not yet made inroads into Chamberlayne Road where independent shops and cafés predominate. Minkies Deli is a long-standing café in what looks like a glass box next to Kensal Rise Overground station; there is an independent butcher, Brooks; The Shop NW10 is a cocktail bar; the Chamberlayne is the street’s gastropub and steakhouse; Cable & Co is a coffee shop; Messapica is a daytime café and pizzeria, the little sister of Salusbury Food Store; Verandah is good for interior accessories and gifts; Paradise Plantbased is a vegan café; Scarlet & Violet is one of London’s leading florists; CHINE specialises in the shabby-chic interiors look; Sacro Cuore is another pizzeria and Rullo’s is an Italian restaurant. Ida is a tiny Italian restaurant in Kilburn Lane.

Open space

30-acre Queen’s Park, at the centre of the community, is run by the City of London. It has tennis courts, a pitch and putt course, an ornamental garden, children’s playground and paddling pool, a small zoo currently closed for refurbishments, a café, bandstand and pétanque rink.

Tiverton Green on the corner of The Avenue and Tiverton Road has an active friends’ group responsible for planting over 100 trees since 2008; the park has a children’s playground, outdoor gym, climbing wall, and multi-use games area.

Queen’s Park Gardens in Ilbert Street has a children’s playground, a free multi-use ball court, a rose garden and a wildlife garden.

Leisure and the arts

The Lexi in Chamberlayne Road is the jewel in Queen’s Park and Kensal Rise’s arts crown. This small independent cinema run by volunteers with all proceeds to charity has spawned the Nomad outdoor cinema venture which shows films during the summer in Queen’s Park itself.

The Queen’s Park Book Festival was resurrected last year and will run again this year from June 29 to 30. Last year’s novelist festival stars included local residents Zadie Smith and her husband Nick Laird, and Tessa Hadley and Eleanor Catton.

Schools

Primary

Queen’s Park has a good selection of state primary schools with “good” Ofsted ratings, including Islamia, the Islamic voluntary aided school started by Yusuf Islam, the former pop singer Cat Stevens.

When it comes to choosing a state primary school the focus of parents’ attention has shifted from Malorees Junior & Infant School in Christchurch Avenue to Ark Franklin in Harvist Road.

Comprehensive

There’s a neighbourhood comprehensive and two nearby Christian comprehensives rated “outstanding”. However, parents who want to send their children to private schools need to look in nearby Notting Hill or Hampstead.

The “outstanding” Christian comprehensive schools are St Augustine’s CofE (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Oxford Road and St George’s RC (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Lanark Road, both in Maida Vale.

There are three other nearby “outstanding” comprehensive schools: Paddington Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Marylands Road off Harrow Road; Westminster Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Sir Naim Dangoor Centre in Harrow Road in Paddington, and Kensington Aldridge (co-ed, 11 to 18) in Silchester Road in North Kensington.

The local neighbourhood comprehensive, Queen’s Park Community School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Aylestone Avenue is rated “good”, as are nearby comprehensives All Saints RC (girls, ages 11 to 16) in St Charles Square in North Kensington; Capital City Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Doyle Gardens and Newman Catholic College (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Harlesden Road, both in Willesden.

Private

The three private Islamic schools are: Islamia Girls’ School (ages 11 to 16) in Salusbury Road; Al-Sadiq & Al-Zahra (co-ed, ages three to 16) also in Salusbury Road and Brondesbury College (boys, ages 11 to 16) in Brondesbury Park.

There are two private French bilingual primary schools serving the French community: La Petite École Française (co-ed, ages three to 11) in St Charles Square and La Petite École Bilingue (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Oxford Gardens, both in North Kensington.

The private primary and preparatory schools are: Bassett House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Bassett Road in North Kensington; Chepstow House (co-ed, ages two to 13) in Lancaster Road; Notting Hill Preparatory (co-ed, ages four to 13) also in Lancaster Road, in Notting Hill; Abercorn (co-ed, ages two to 13) in Abercorn Place in Maida Vale; Rainbow Montessori (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Woodchurch Road in Kilburn and UCS Pre-Prep (co-ed, ages four to seven) in College Crescent, Hampstead.

The nearby secondary and all-through private schools are: Bales College (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Harrow Road; South Hampstead High (girls, ages four to 18) in Maresfield Gardens and University College School (boys, ages seven to 18) in Frognal, both in Hampstead.

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