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

Community spirit, quirky one-off shops and a picturesque park helps to draw families in to this north-west London hub.
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey23 January 2017

Families priced out of Notting Hill have for years been looking north, crossing the Grand Union Canal and discovering the Victorian and Edwardian properties of Queen’s Park.

Estate agent Callum Hodgson, from the local branch of Marsh & Parsons, describes this suburb of north-west London as being “like a village with a park at its centre”.

The eponymous park, and the Sunday farmers’ market in Salusbury Primary School grounds, are where the neighbourhood gathers. The park celebrates summer with an outdoor cinema and welcomes autumn with Queen’s Park Day, a traditional English fête held every year in September.

The farmers’ market is renowned as being one of the best in London, and it’s where locals catch up on the local gossip as they shop for organic meat and veg.

When it comes to the daily shop, Queen’s Park has the additional advantage of not one but two high streets — Salusbury Road to the east of the park and Chamberlayne Road to the west. Both are full of independent shops, cafés and restaurants.

Property in Queen's Park ranges from one- and two-bedroom garden flats to two- and three-bedroom first- and second-floor conversions, up to large family houses 
Daniel Lynch

Property scene
Most of Queen’s Park is Victorian and Edwardian, and homes range from one- and two-bedroom garden flats to two- and three-bedroom first- and second-floor conversions, up to large family houses. 
 

The Victorian terrace houses in The Avenues between the park and Salusbury Road are particularly popular. There are two-bedroom artisans’ cottages on the Queen’s Park Estate between Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane, and the Brondesbury Park area has large detached Twenties houses.

What's new?
Prime Place, the housebuilding arm of construction company Willmott Dixon, is rebuilding two council leisure centres — Moberly, south of the railway in Chamberlayne Road, and Jubilee in nearby Maida Hill.

Moberly Leisure Centre will also deliver 75 one- and two-bedroom flats and four-bedroom townhouses, with shops and restaurants on the ground floor. At the moment the scheme is no more than a large hole in the ground, but off-plan sales have begun with prices from £515,000. Call Hamptons on 020 3451 1544.

Queen’s Park Place is another development south of the railway line, in Albert Road. There are 144 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, including 28 affordable homes, plus penthouses, all with either a private balcony or a roof terrace. L&Q housing association has flats at Queen’s Park Place.

Designed by SimpsonHaugh and Partners for Londonewcastle, the homes are arranged in three buildings in an L shape around a private courtyard, with a branch of M&S Simply Food on the ground floor.

Prices of the remaining four units start at £510,000 for a one-bedroom flat and £1,995,000 for a three-bedroom penthouse. Through Savills (020 7409 8756).

Quantic House, at the top end of Salusbury Road close to Brondesbury Park station, is the conversion of a small office building into 21 one- and two-bedroom flats. Ready to move into next month, prices start at £465,000. Call Dutch & Dutch on 020 7794 0075.

Canterbury Lofts in Canterbury Road is a former Victorian signal works at the heart of the regeneration of South Kilburn Estate. Hamilton Court Developments is building 20 one-, two- and three-bedroom lofts behind the retained façade.

The scheme will be ready to move into in four to six weeks and prices of the remaining six lofts start at £750,000 for a two-bedroom home. Contact the estate office on 020 7266 8500, or Fraser & Co on 020 7723 1284.

Renting
Matt Sherratt, rental manager at Marsh & Parsons, says the larger houses in Queen’s Park are sought after increasingly by top executives with young families. 
 

Post Brexit, many local families who need to move are going into rented accommodation and letting the house that, ordinarily, they would have sold. “With so much uncertainty, people don’t think now is a good time to sell,” says Sherratt.


Staying power
Many of those who live in Queen’s Park love the area and the community feel, and want to stay if they can. However, moving to a larger property can be expensive and this factor is forcing people into adjoining areas such as Kensal Green, Harlesden and Willesden.
 

Best roads
Anything overlooking the park particularly the larger Edwardian houses in Chevening Road.
 

Up and coming
South of Kilburn Lane in Fernhead Road, Ashmore Road, Portnall Road and Bravington Road there are simple three-storey Victorian houses. Most have been converted into flats that attract first-time buyers.
 

Postcode
Most of Queen’s Park falls into the NW6 Kilburn postcode, although Chamberlayne Road is in NW10 the Willesden postcode.
 

Travel
This is a district with a choice of ways to get into central London. Queen’s Park and Kensal Green  stations are on the Bakerloo Tube line, and also have Overground trains to Euston. 
 

Brondesbury Park and Kensal Rise stations have Overground trains to Clapham Junction and Highbury & Islington. All station are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,296.

Council
Brent council is Labour controlled and Band D council tax for the 2016/2017 year is £1,377.24.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants
Queen’s Park has two shopping streets. On the east side of the park there is Salusbury Road with lots of restaurants and cafés including a branch of Gail’s Artisan Bakery; The Alice House; The Salusbury gastropub, which also has the Foodstore, a deli, café and pizzeria and a wine merchant; long-standing Jack’s Café and sushi restaurant Michiko Sushino. 
 

Iris is a chic boutique and there is a bookshop. A popular and successful Sunday farmers’ market is held in the grounds of Salusbury Primary School.

Lonsdale Road is semi-pedestrianised and mixes yoga and Pilates studios with workshops — leather genius Bill Amberg is here — and restaurants such as Ostuni, with food from Puglia in southern Italy, and Hugo’s, an all-day restaurant.

On the west side of the park Chamberlayne Road has florist to the stars Scarlet & Violet and lots of independent cafés and bars such as Zest, The Shop NW10 cocktail bar, Bel & Nev, Minkies Deli and Cable Co. Vicki’s London is in Walm Lane.

Chine sells a mix of antiques and vintage clothing, and Borough Wines specialises in fashionable natural wines. Kidsen sells children’s clothes and toys with a Scandi twist, and Verandah sells gifts and clothing.

Open space
30-acre Queen’s Park, managed by the City of London, is at the very heart of the neighbourhood. It has tennis courts, a pitch and putt course, a pétanque pitch, an ornamental garden, a children’s playground and paddling pool and a small zoo and café. 
 

There are also walks along the Grand Union Canal.

Leisure and the arts
Queen’s Park has its own independent cinema, the Lexi, in a converted chapel in Chamberlayne Road. 

The area will be getting a new swimming pool as part of the Moberly Leisure Centre development at the other end of Chamberlayne Road by housebuilder Prime Place.

Schools

Primary school
The junior department of Queen’s Park’s favourite primary school, Malorees in Christchurch Avenue, is now judged by education watchdog Ofsted to be “requiring improvement”, although the infant department is still rated “good”. There are no “outstanding” primary schools.

The following are judged “good”: Salusbury in Salusbury Road; Islamia,  a Muslim school opened by Yusuf Islam — the former pop singer Cat Stevens — which is the first state-maintained Muslim school, and is also in Salusbury Road; St Luke’s CofE in Fernhead Road; Christ Church CofE in Clarence Road; The Kilburn Park School Foundation in Malvern Road; Carlton Vale in Malvern Place; St Mary’s RC in Canterbury Road, and Queen’s Park in Droop Street.

Kilburn Grange primary opened in September last year in the former Kilburn campus of the College of North West London in Priory Park Road.

Comprehensive
The local comprehensive Queen’s Park Community School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Aylestone Avenue is judged “good”. A number of nearby comprehensives get the “outstanding” rating.  They are: St Augustine’s CofE (co-ed, age 11 to 18) in Oxford Road; St George’s Catholic School (co-ed, age 11 to 18) in Lanark Road and Paddington Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Marylands Road. 

Marylebone Boys’ School (ages 11 to 18) opened in September 2014 in the former Kilburn campus of the College of North West London in Priory Park Road. It moves to a temporary site in Brondesbury Park in September and sometime during the 2017/2018 year it will move to its permanent site in North Wharf Road in Paddington.

Private

Queen’s Park has a number of private Muslim schools: Islamia Girls’ School (ages 11 to 16) in Salusbury Road and Brondesbury College (boys, ages 11 to 16) in Brondesbury Park are both supported by the Yusuf Islam Foundation; Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra (co-ed, ages three to 16), is also in Salusbury Road. There is a Jewish prep school, Naima Preparatory (co-ed, ages two to 11), in Andover Place.

Bales College (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Kilburn Lane is the local private school and there is a wide choice of private schools in nearby Hampstead.