NoGo - the destination for well-heeled Londoners
First we had SwoHo, the hip corner of South-West Soho, and then NoHo (or Fitzrovia, to those residents resisting its new title) - so what to make of NoGo, the new acronym being uttered in dinner-party circles to describe the area north of Goldhawk Road in Shepherd's Bush?
The area in question is a rectangle between the Westway and Goldhawk Road, tucked between Westfield and the BBC in the east and reaching to Askew Road and Old Oak Road to the west.
Confusingly, NoGo was very much "no go" for well-heeled Londoners until relatively recently.
"The West Cross Route used to be one of the most dramatic boundaries in London," says a resident who has been there for 14 years. Now he says much of it is "frontier country for the middle classes", with young wealth spilling over from Chiswick, Holland Park and Notting Hill and taking advantage of the transport upgrade that came with Westfield's arrival.
Connaughton says he has helped film stars and politicians find nests in the area while the award-winning Princess Victoria gastropub is a sign of NoGo's ascent.
If the fashion for carving up the capital with acronyms is about defining local distinctiveness in areas that have witnessed change, then the increasingly gentrified denizens of this stretch of Shepherd's Bush will happily add their neighbourhood to the list. They might not warm to the name, but NoGo is a must-go at last.
