Living in Cricklewood: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
The Beaten Docket in Cricklewood Broadway this year gained the dubious distinction of being named in a survey designed to measure the effect on house prices of living close to a Wetherspoon pub.
The aim was to prove the opposite of the “Waitrose effect”, where homes close to a branch of the upmarket supermarket sell for a premium.
The survey set out to show that house prices near a pub belonging to the prodigious chain would have the opposite effect. But in the case of Cricklewood, homes close to The Beaten Docket turned out to be 88 per cent more expensive than those in the rest of the neighbourhood.
It is not hard to see why. The pub is close to the lovely Mapesbury conservation area, where large late-Victorian houses sell for as much as £3 million, and where open-air opera is a treat on summer evenings at award-winning Mapesbury Dell park.
There are some London high streets where the number of artisan coffee shops leaves you wondering how they all survive.
Not Cricklewood, where the high spots in the Broadway are The Beaten Docket and the landmark Clayton Crown Hotel attached to the award-winning Crown pub where, in the days when Cricklewood had a large Irish population, workers would line up in the morning in the hope of picking up a day’s casual labour on the capital’s building sites.
Today, Cricklewood has a strong community dedicated to improving the neighbourhood.
The Cricklewood Town Team has worked with train operator Govia to improve the station with a big Cricklewood sign and a colourful model cow in a flowerbed outside, while a big, bright artwork on the platform by internationally renowned street artist Lakwena Maciver proclaims “Queen of the Air” in giant letters, a tribute to pioneering Thirties aviator Amy Johnson.
The first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, Johnson lived in Cricklewood.
Locals persuaded Barnet council to register the open green space outside the large B&Q do-it-yourself store in Cricklewood Lane as an “asset of community value”, giving it some protection from development.
Campaigners are also fighting plans for a nine-storey block in Cricklewood Lane — the proposal has attracted more than 480 comments on the council planning website.
And over on the Clitterhouse Recreation Ground, local people are working to convert a range of Victorian farm buildings to community use with some affordable workspaces.
There is also a food-growing project and work has started on a new café after a successful crowdfunding campaign pulled in £50,000 from the Mayor of London.
The Clitterhouse Farm scheme is on the edge of one of London’s largest regeneration projects, in the planning for 15 years.
The original proposal spanned the North Circular road but Hammerson and Aberdeen Standard Investments, joint owners of Brent Cross, have put on hold their plans to expand the shopping centre and create a new riverside park along the River Brent.
Still going ahead is Brent Cross South, or BXS as it is being branded, a joint venture between Barnet council and developer Argent Related. This will transform the area south of the North Circular between Cricklewood’s railway line and Hendon Way.
There are plans for 6,700 new homes, plus eight million square feet of new offices employing 25,000 people and a new high street running through the centre of the site.
In addition the Whitefield estate, Whitefield comprehensive school and Claremont Primary School will be rebuilt. There will be a new primary school, too, and a new Thameslink train station, Brent Cross West. Argent Related says it hopes the first new homes will go on sale before the end of next year.
Barnet council leader Dan Thomas says: “Brent Cross will become north London’s top destination for living, leisure, retail and business.
It is one of the biggest regeneration programmes in London and will deliver significant benefits for the borough and the capital. We are moving ahead with the delivery of a new town centre for the benefit of current and future generations.
This will include a new pedestrian-friendly high street with local shops and restaurants.
“The new and existing communities will be supported by excellent transport links. Work has already started on the brand-new Brent Cross West Thameslink station, which will link to central London in 12 minutes.
This exciting development will also deliver new and improved walking and cycle routes, with new open green spaces and community parks.”
Cricklewood is five-and-a-half miles north-west of central London with Hendon to the north; Hampstead to the east; Kilburn to the south and Neasden to the west.
The property scene
Cricklewood has streets of detached, semi-detached and terrace houses from the late-Victorian, Edwardian, Twenties and Thirties eras, many of which have been converted into one- and two-bedroom flats.
The largest houses are found in Mapesbury conservation area in the triangle between Walm Lane/Chichele Road and Cricklewood Broadway/Shoot Up Hill. Large detached and semi-detached red-brick late-Victorian houses here come with big gardens.
A four-bedroom Victorian semi in Hoveden Road overlooking Mapesbury Dell is for sale now, priced £1.9 million.
There are smaller Victorian and Edwardian terrace houses west of Cricklewood Broadway in Fordwych Road and surrounding streets, and also in Elm, Oak, Yew and Ash Groves off Cricklewood Lane.
Many Fordwych Road houses have been converted into flats ranging from £350,000 for a one-bedroom flat to £700,000 for three bedrooms.
South and west of Gladstone Park in Dollis Hill are roads of Thirties semis. In this area a four-bedroom extended Thirties house in Geary Road is for sale for £1.1 million.
In Childs Hill, in Hocroft Road, Hocroft Avenue and Ranulf Road, there are large detached Twenties houses.
A five-bedroom detached house in Hocroft Avenue, for sale for the first time in 45 years, is waiting for someone to put their own stamp on it. The asking price is £2.6 million.
Cricklewood Railway Terraces conservation area, between the railway and the northern end of Cricklewood Broadway, has rows of small cottages built for workers at the nearby railway depot.
Some of these compact homes share communal gardens, others have their gardens separated by a pedestrian passageway. The owners even share their own allotment site.
Brent Terrace on the other side of the railway line is a road of 105 very similar cottages.
New-build homes
The Broadway is a Fairview New Homes development of 101 flats with up to three bedrooms in Cricklewood Lane, including 21 lower-cost homes.
These homes are ready to move into, and eleven flats remain to be sold. One-bedroom flats are priced from £410,000, with two-bedroom flats at £439,000. Call 020 3858 3051 or 020 3918 4162 for further information.
Work has started on the development of the former Galtymore dance hall in Cricklewood Broadway next to the Beacon Bingo club. There will be an Asda supermarket on the ground floor and 96 flats above.
First-time buyers and shared ownership
Help to Buy is available at The Broadway (as before). Network Homes housing association has three two-bedroom shared-ownership flats left at Zest, part of The Broadway. Prices start at £196,000 for a 40 per cent share of a flat with a market value of £490,000. Call 020 7412 8871.
Rental homes
The busy Cricklewood rental market is dominated by flats, although rooms in shared houses are also a feature.
Rental houses range from £2,058 a month for a three-bedroom cottage in Johnston Terrace in the Railway Terraces conservation area off Cricklewood Broadway, to £4,766 a month for a five-bedroom Thirties semi-detached house in Wren Avenue.
One-bedroom rental flats range from £1,105 a month, including bills, for a home in Cricklewood Lane, to a newly renovated flat in Fordwych Road for £1,780 a month.
Two-bedroom flats range from £1,343 a month for a home with a parking space in a modern block in Windmill Drive to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom garden maisonette in a converted house in Blenheim Gardens for £2,470 a month.
Staying power: a house in the Mapesbury conservation area is a home for life; however, the ready availability of one- and two-bedroom flats to buy or rent means that Cricklewood, even with its strong community, is still a transitory neighbourhood.
Postcode
NW2 is the Cricklewood postcode but the area merges on its south and western border with NW11, the Willesden postcode.
Best roads
Any of the roads in the Mapesbury conservation area, such as St Gabriel’s Road, Teignmouth Road, Dartmouth Road and Chatsworth Road.
Up and coming
With the Brent Cross South development about to start, homes south of the North Circular road, east of the railway and west of Hendon Way will benefit.
The roads that radiate in semicircles off Pennine Drive have three-bedroom Thirties semis that can be extended. These sell for between £660,000 and £670,000.
Transport
Cricklewood is on the A5 very close to the start of the M1. Cricklewood station is on Thameslink with cross-London trains to St Pancras International, Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars.
For Tube links, many Cricklewood residents are within walking distance of Dollis Hill, Willesden Green or Kilburn Underground stations on the Jubilee line, with trains to Bond Street and the West End.
Willesden Green and Kilburn are in Zone 2, with an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costing £1,404. Cricklewood train station and Dollis Hill Tube are in Zone 3, and an annual travelcard costs £1,648.
Two useful commuter buses are the No 189 to Marble Arch via St John’s Wood from Cricklewood Broadway, and the No 113 to Oxford Circus via Baker Street from Hendon Way.
Council
Three boroughs meet in Cricklewood, all Labour controlled. Most of Cricklewood is in Brent (Band D council tax 2019/2020: £1,582.85); the north-eastern section is in Barnet (Band D council tax 2019/2020: £1,545.41) with Camden (Band D council tax 2019/2020: £1,562.35) to the south.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
Cricklewood Broadway is the area’s high street and with Brent Cross Shopping Centre so close it is not surprising that apart from the basics there is nothing to set the retail heart a-flutter, with a Wetherspoon pub, The Beaten Docket, a highlight.
There is a branch of Iceland and three branches of the Co-op and at the northern end of the Broadway there is Arrow, a giant lighting shop, and Raft, a large furniture showroom over two floors, plus Matalan and Lidl. There is a Tesco Superstore in Tilling Road off Hendon Way.
Open space
Gladstone Park occupies a hilly site between Dollis Hill Lane and Kendal Road.
This Green Flag Park has a children’s playground, a café in a former stable block, a walled flower garden and a Holocaust memorial.
Clitterhouse Recreation Ground in Claremont Road is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and will be improved as part of the Brent Cross South development.
Leisure and the arts
The Kiln Theatre in Kilburn High Road is the local off-West End venue and it also has a cinema.
The nearest multiplex cinema is Vue in Finchley Road. Irish music is often heard at the Clayton Crown hotel and pub in Cricklewood Broadway and it is the major venue for London’s 21st Festival of Traditional Irish Music, Song & Dance this October 25-28.
One of Cricklewood’s landmark buildings is the Beacon Bingo hall in the Broadway.
There are two private health clubs, both with swimming pools: Virgin Active in Cricklewood Lane and Manor Health & Leisure in Cricklewood Broadway. The nearest council pool is at Willesden Sports Centre in Donnington Road.
Schools
Primary school
All Cricklewood’s state primary schools are judged to be “good” by the Government’s education watchdog Ofsted.
The following primary schools are judged to be “outstanding”: Our Lady of Grace RC in Dollis Hill Avenue; Convent of Jesus and Mary RC Infants in Park Avenue and the Jewish primary school, Menorah in The Drive in nearby Golders Green.
Comprehensive
The two local comprehensive schools — Hampstead (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Westbere Road and Whitefield in Claremont Road — are both rated “good”.
The selective grammar school, The Henrietta Barnett School (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Central Square in Hampstead Garden Suburb is “outstanding”.
The other nearby comprehensive schools are Menorah High (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Brook Road, an Orthodox Jewish school rated “good”, and Hendon School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Golders Rise in Hendon, rated “outstanding”.
Private
There is a wide choice of private schools with a particular concentration in nearby Hampstead.
The infants, primary and preparatory schools are: Mulberry House (co-ed, ages two to seven) in Shoot Up Hill; St Anthony’s RC (girls, ages four to 11) in North End Road, and Golders Hill (co-ed, ages two to seven) in Finchley Road, both in Golders Green; Rainbow Montessori (co-ed, three to 12) in Woodchurch Road in Kilburn.
In Hampstead there’s Heathside (co-ed, ages two to 14) in West Heath Road; Devonshire House (co-ed, ages two to 13) and St Anthony’s RC (boys, ages four to 13) both in Arkwright Road; Southbank International (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Netherhall Gardens; Hereward House (boys, ages four to 13) in Strathray Gardens; North Bridge House Pre-Prep (co-ed, ages five to seven) also in Netherhall Gardens; St Mary’s (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Fitzjohn’s Avenue; The Hall (boys, ages five to 13) in Holme Chase; Hampstead Hill (co-ed, ages two to eight) in Pond Street; St Christopher’s (girls, ages four to 11) in Belsize Park; Maria Montessori (co-ed, ages three to 12) in Lyndhurst Gardens; Lyndhurst House (boys, ages four to 13) also in Lyndhurst Gardens.
The private secondary and all-through schools are: King Alfred (co-ed, ages five to 18) in North End Road in Golders Green; and in Hampstead there is the top-performing University College School, known as UCS, (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Frognal; St Margaret’s (girls, ages four to 16) in Kidderpore Gardens; North Bridge Senior (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Rosslyn Hill; and South Hampstead High (girls, ages four to 18) in Maresfield Gardens.