Living in Maida Vale: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

Cheaper than nearby Notting Hill, this central neighbourhood’s prettiness is prized, with white stucco houses and bright canal barges.
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Anthea Masey21 March 2018

The Little Venice area of Maida Vale, with white stucco villas overlooking Regent’s Canal and its neat rows of colourful barges, is one of the most picturesque in all London. This is where Oasis and High Flying Birds star Noel Gallagher has failed to find a buyer for the mansion he put up for sale two years ago for £11.5 million having bought it for £8 million in 2010.

Historian John Julius Norwich was luckier. He recently sold his larger mansion in the same street for £12 million-plus, having paid £7,200 for it in the Sixties. Not that Gallagher can complain when he can hang out with his children at the Puppet Theatre Barge on Browning’s Pool, named after poet Robert Browning who lived locally.

This romantic stretch of water where Regent’s and Grand Union Canals meet is also home to a cosy café on a barge with outside seating in the summer.

Maida Vale takes its name from the Hero of Maida, an Edgware Road inn that honoured Sir John Stuart, a British lieutenant-general in the battle of Maida in southern Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. King Ferdinand IV of Naples honoured him with the title Count of Maida.

In Delaware Road, BBC Maida Vale Studios, converted from an Edwardian roller skating rink, is the BBC Symphony Orchestra base and hosted the John Peel Sessions from 1967 until the DJ’s death in 2004. It opens to the public for frequent classical concerts.

Visitors to Maida Vale comment on how quiet the area is compared to other central London locations. This is partly down to the lack of large areas of shopping, although there are local shops, including independent cafés, delicatessens and boutiques, in two spots along Clifton Road and Formosa Street.

Once a bohemian enclave, rising house prices have put Maida Vale’s prime roads beyond the reach of all but the very wealthy these days.

However, the neighbourhood is still less expensive than St John’s Wood or Notting Hill and is often overlooked, according to James Westendarp from the local branch of Chestertons estate agents. “Maida Vale has some lovely communal gardens which are not as well-known as those in Notting Hill but which I personally think are even lovelier,” adds Westendarp.

Maida Vale is only three miles north-west of Trafalgar Square with Kilburn and St John’s Wood to the north; Marylebone to the east; Paddington to the south and North Kensington to the west.

Maida Vale is made up of red-brick Edwardian mansion flats such as these, on Lauderdale Road 
Daniel Lynch

Property scene

The local housing stock is mainly white stucco houses, villas and terraces and red-brick Edwardian mansion flats. The most expensive Maida Vale house currently for sale is a seven-bedroom double-fronted white stucco property in Randolph Road, at £25 million.

However, there are 13 times more flats than there are houses for sale locally. Prices fall in Maida Hill off Harrow Road, with one-bedroom flats from about £425,000.

New-build homes

The biggest development is Berkeley Group’s West End Gate, on a two-and-a-half-acre former car park in Newcastle Place at the corner of Edgware Road and Harrow Road, the edge of Maida Vale. The scheme of 812 homes includes 169 affordable, in five buildings by architects Squire and Partners.

The tallest is Westmark, a 30-storey block that will have a gym, swimming pool and private cinema. The other four buildings are being built in mansion block style to mirror the local architecture.

A new phase launches on April 7 with prices from £749,500 and the whole scheme completes in summer 2021. Call 020 7720 4000 for more.

On the northern edge of Maida Vale opposite Paddington Recreation Ground in Kilburn Park Road, Network Homes housing association has built Park Terrace, a block of 52 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats. The project, part of the Kilburn Quarter regeneration of the South Kilburn Estate, is three quarters sold and the flats are move-in ready.

One-bedroom flats start at £525,000, with two-bedroom homes from £720,000 and three-bedroom flats at £789,000.

Visit parkterracenw6.com or call agents Stone on 020 7043 8888 or Marsh & Parsons on 020 7828 8100.

In Elgin Avenue, 12 Elgin is a scheme of 15 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, ready to move into. One-bedroom flats start at £525,000, with two-bedroom homes at £650,000 and three bedrooms at £1.27 million.

Visit 12elgin.com or call Goldschmidt and Howland on 020 7289 6666.

Westbourne Place is a Redrow development in a converted Victorian police station on the corner of Harrow Road and Woodfield Road. One three-bedroom flat remains, at £850,000.

See westbourne-place.co.uk or call 020 3553 3251.

Parker House, a period building in Cuthbert Street off Edgware Road, has been converted into 19 apartments by the Linton Group. Nine remain, all ready to move into, with one-bedroom flats priced from £570,000 and two-bedroom homes starting at £875,000.

Call 020 3637 1800 for more information.

Affordable homes

Westminster City council operates the Westminster Home Ownership Accelerator with housing charity Dolphin Living, offering up to 50 households a deposit of £21,800-£54,500 to buy a home anywhere in Greater London after living for three years in local intermediate rental homes.

In Maida Vale, Westminster has studio flats at £719 a month, one-bedroom flats at £901, two-bedroom flats for £1,239 and three-bedroom flats from £1,408. Call 020 3667 7876.

Who rents here?

Chestertons lettings director Mags O’Grady says City workers, writers and musicians enjoy the peace and quiet. Her bread and butter are two-bedroom mansion flats that rent for £550-£700 a week. She thinks the Elizabeth line at Paddington will bring many more corporate lettings.

Transport

Warwick Avenue, Maida Vale and Edgware Road (Bakerloo) Tube stations are all on the Bakerloo line with trains to Oxford Circus. Edgware Road (Circle) station is on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines.

Paddington main line station connects with the Bakerloo, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. Warwick Avenue and Maida Vale are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,364. Edgware Road and Paddington are in Zone 1 and an annual travelcard also costs £1,364.

The Elizabeth line — Crossrail — arrives at Paddington in December. Trains will run from Paddington to Abbey Wood and also to Heathrow airport before the full service starts a year later. Two useful commuter buses run through the heart of Maida Vale along Shirland Road. The No 6 goes to Aldwych via Piccadilly Circus and the No 414 goes to Putney Bridge via Marble Arch and Knightsbridge.

Staying power

Chestertons estate agent James Westendarp says Maida Vale has a strong community, including many people who have lived in the neighbourhood for many years.

Postcode

W9 is the Maida Vale postcode. There is some overlap with the central W2 code to the south and the NW6 Kilburn code to the north.

Best roads

Randolph Road, Randolph Crescent and Randolph Avenue, Warrington Crescent, Clifton Gardens and Clifton Villas where there are hidden communal gardens and Blomfield Road overlooking the canal.

Up and coming

James Westendarp says the little corner south of the canal off Maida Avenue is worth exploring, with its mix of white stucco villas, red-brick mansion flats and estates of social housing.

The area known as Maida Hill around Chippenham Road is the cheapest corner of Maida Vale.

Local council

Westminster City Council is Conservative-controlled. Band D council tax for 2017/2018 is £688.14.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

In Clifton Road there are branches of Boots and a Tesco Extra; a butcher, Sheepdrove Organic, is the retail outlet of an organic farm in Berkshire; Raoul’s is a coffee shop and café with a delicatessen on the opposite side of the road; also find a flower shop and greengrocer, plus a wine merchant and coffee shop Baker & Spice which is part of small chain.

In pretty Formosa Street the Formosa Dining Room at the Prince Alfred pub has the best local pub food and Pipa is a women’s fashion and lifestyle boutique. The Waterway at the other end of Formosa Street is a bistro-style gastropub with a lovely terrace and a view of the little pedestrian bridge over the canal. The Summerhouse fish restaurant is also on the canal, with an entrance in Blomfield Road. The Waterside Café is on a barge moored on Browning’s Pool.

Clifton Nurseries in Clifton Villas is one London’s best-stocked garden centres and there is a popular café, The Quince Tree, in one of the greenhouses.

Open space

There are walks along Regent’s and Grand Union Canals. Paddington Recreation Ground in Randolph Avenue has a wide range of sporting facilities spread over its 27 acres including a new gym, tennis courts, a cricket pitch, four practice nets, a bowling green, an athletics track and an artificial football pitch.

Leisure and the arts

Canal Café Theatre above the Bridge House pub in Delamere Terrace is the local fringe theatre. The nearby Puppet Theatre Barge is moored off Blomfield Road and there is an Everyman Cinema in Sutherland Avenue. The nearest council-owned swimming pool is at Seymour Leisure Centre in Seymour Place, Marylebone.

Schools

Primary schools

The most popular local state primary schools are St Joseph’s RC in Lanark Road, rated “good” by the Ofsted government education watchdog, and St Saviour’s CofE in Shirland Road, rated “outstanding”. The other “outstanding” local primaries are Gateway Academy in Capland Street in the Lisson Grove area and Ark Atwood Primary Academy in Amberley Road.

All the rest are rated “good”; they are: St Mary Magdalene CofE in Rowington Close; Ark Paddington Green in Crompton Street; Edward Wilson in Senior Street; St Edward’s RC in Lisson Grove; Christ Church Bentinck CofE in Cosway Street in Lisson Grove; Our Lady of Dolours RC in Cirencester Street; Minerva Academy in Praed Street; Essendine in Essendine Road and St Peter’s CofE in Chippenham Mews.

Comprehensive schools

There’s a choice of three state comprehensive schools with the top “outstanding” rating. They are: Paddington Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Marylands Road; Westminster Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Harrow Road and St Augustine’s CofE High (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Oxford Road.

A new comprehensive, Harris Academy St John’s Wood (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Marlborough Hill opened in September and awaits its first Ofsted inspection. Ark King Solomon (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Penfold Street in the Lisson Grove area is an all-through state school and rated “outstanding”.

Higher education

City of Westminster College (co-ed, ages 16+) in Paddington Green, with another campus in Elgin Avenue, is an FE college rated “good”.

Private

The private primary and preparatory schools are: the French/English bilingual school L’École Bilingue Elementaire (co-ed, ages three to 11) in St David’s Welsh Church in St Mary’s Terrace; Abercorn (co-ed, ages two-and-a-half to five) in Abercorn Place, with the middle school (ages five to eight) in Marylebone Road and the senior school (ages eight to 13) in Portland Place; Arnold House (boys, ages five to 13) in Loudoun Road in St John’s Wood, and St John’s Wood Pre-preparatory (co-ed, ages three to seven) at Lord’s Roundabout.

Francis Holland (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Ivor Place, Regent’s Park is a top girls’ school and the Sylvia Young Theatre School (co-ed, ages 10 to 16) in Nutford Place has produced a number of famous stars. The American School in London (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Waverley Place in St John’s Wood is a big draw for American families living in the capital.