Living in Holland Park: area guide to homes, schools and transport
West London’s celebrity neighbourhood, Holland Park, has been at the centre of a five-year-long spat between two music-industry giants, with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page objecting to his neighbour Robbie Williams’s plan to build an underground swimming pool and gym, claiming that the work would damage his Grade I-listed house.
There were even claims that Williams had taunted Page by playing loud music by rival bands Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
A truce was called a few days before Christmas when Kensington and Chelsea council gave Williams the go-ahead as long as certain conditions were met.
What the press coverage rarely mentioned is how historic these two houses are. They were at the centre of an enclave of leading 19th-century artists, designers and architects known as the Holland Park Circle.
The leading light was Sir Frederic Leighton, a sculptor and painter of biblical and classical scenes, whose richly decorated house with its Arab Hall and golden dome in Holland Park Road is now the Leighton House Museum.
Page bought the nearby Tower House from the actor Richard Harris in 1972 for £350,000, outbidding David Bowie.
This is the house the Gothic Revival architect William Burges built for himself, spending the last 30 years of his life adding layer upon layer of decoration to its interior.
Williams bought Woodland House next door in 2013 for £17.5 million from the estate of film director Michael Winner.
The house was built for the painter Sir Luke Fildes in the Queen Anne style and designed by Richard Norman Shaw, one of the best-known Arts & Crafts architects of the day.
Holland Park is best known for its park and the three roads that bear the same name.
The white stucco detached houses in an Italianate style, with their trademark glass and iron canopies over the grand entrance steps, are among the most desirable in London and can sell for more than £30 million.
David and Victoria Beckham paid £31.5 million for a house in 2013. Simon Cowell and Jeremy Clarkson are both residents, and Ed Sheeran has also bought here.
Holland Park is green, leafy, exclusive and expensive. Estate agent Freddie Elliott from the local branch of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward says the area’s wealthy buyers often come cash in hand and are prepared to pay over the going rate of £1,500 a square foot for the right property.
The schools are also a big draw and a bilingual Chinese/English school has recently opened to cater for buyers from China and Hong Kong.
However, walk down the roads to the north of Holland Park Avenue and it is hard to miss Grenfell Tower, where a fire in June 2017 killed 72 people. The tower is now wrapped in plastic, inscribed at the top with a green heart and the words Grenfell Forever in Our Hearts.
It stands there as a heartbreaking reminder of the fire and of the disparity in wealth between the capital’s richest and poorest.
The property scene
Some of the most expensive houses in London are in the Holland Park conservation area, although it is remarkable how many have been reduced in price in recent months, which Freddie Elliott of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward claims is the result of over-optimistic pricing by some estate agents.
There are large, Italianate, white- stucco villas in Holland Park itself and classical white stucco detached houses in Addison Road. Oakwood Court off Addison Road has mansion flats and there are some Wates-built Sixties and Seventies houses, notably in Woodsford Square.
The most expensive home currently for sale in this conservation area is a five-bedroom flat in Holland Park, on the market for £11.95 million. Smaller flats in Holland Park start from about £1 million.
Flats currently for sale in Oakwood Court range in price from £945,000 for a two-bedroom property to £4 million for a four-bedroom home covering 2,386sq ft. A four-bedroom house in Woodsford Square, one of the Wates houses, with views of Holland Park Tennis Club, is on the market for £4 million.
Holland Green is the development by architect Rem Koolhaas’s practice, OMA, which was behind the conversion of the iconic Sixties Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington High Street to the Design Museum.
Two-bedroom flats start at £2.95 million, rising to £15.95 million for a five-bedroom duplex. North of Holland Park Avenue the scale is smaller, although there are some large Victorian semi-detached villas in Clarendon Road.
The most expensive house currently for sale in Holland Park is a five-bedroom house with 5,700sq ft of space in Clarendon Road, priced at £17.95 million. This corner of Holland Park around Clarendon Cross, at the junction of Portland Road and Penzance Place, has a village feel.
The Norland conservation area covers Norland Square, St James’s Gardens and the impressive Royal Crescent, all pretty garden squares built on land that once contained brick fields, potteries and piggeries.
A three-bedroom flat in Royal Crescent is on the market for £999,000. Towards Latimer Road the area changes.
There are more estates of social homes but there are also two small conservation areas — Avondale and Avondale Park Gardens — where there are quiet roads of Victorian houses including Sirdar Road and Treadgold Street, where there is a four-bedroom house for sale for £1,595,000.
In nearby Stoneleigh Street a three-bedroom Victorian house with interiors by the minimalist architect John Pawson is on the market, priced £2,895,000.
New-build homes
To the south of Kensington High Street on the corner of Warwick Road is 375 Kensington High Street, a St Edward development of 530 flats in six blocks of between 12 and 17 storeys in a former HMRC building.
All are now sold but there are flats available in Kensington Row and Royal Warwick Square by St Edward in Warwick Road.
Kensington Row is a development of 160 flats in four blocks and hit the headlines in June 2017 when the Government bought 68 social homes to rehouse residents from Grenfell Tower and the surrounding fire-damaged flats.
Prices of the private- sale flats, which are move-in ready, range from £2 million to £7.25 million. Call 020 3051 5796.
Royal Warwick Square has one-, two- and three-bedroom flats arranged around a classic garden square. One-bedroom flats start at £849,950, with two-bedroom flats at £1.7 million and three-bedroom flats at £2,095,000. Call 020 3642 6716.
Holland Park Villas in Camden Hill is a Native Land development of 68 one- to five-bedroom flats and four penthouses in a two-acre garden overlooking Holland Park, with a gym and 20-metre swimming pool. Move-in ready, prices start at £1,775,000.
Call Native Land on 020 7758 3188 or Knight Frank on 020 7861 1302.
The Atelier is a Regal London development of 43 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats in Sinclair Road in nearby Olympia. Prices from £1,175,000 to £1,825,000. Call 020 3151 0620.
In Shepherd’s Bush on the site north of Westfield shopping centre the cranes are poised above White City Living, a St James development of 1,800 new homes in the White City Opportunity Area.
There will be eight acres of green space including a new five-acre park next door to the new Imperial College campus.
Prices range from £754,000 to £4.15 million and the first homes will be ready to move into towards the end of next year. Call 020 3813 5262 for more information.
First-time buyer and shared-ownership homes
There are none available in the Holland Park area
Rental homes
The range of rents in Holland Park is particularly wide. Houses range from £2,817 a month for a one-bedroom house in Addison Bridge Place to £20,000 a week — £86,677 a month —for an eight-bedroom, double-fronted, detached house with a basement pool in Holland Villas Road.
Flats to rent display a similar range from £1,430 for a one-bedroom home in a social housing block in St Anns Road to £34,667 a month for a five-bedroom maisonette in Holland Park.
Will Storey, the lettings manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, says the agency is frequently approached by film companies looking to rent for actors who are in the UK for a few months while filming.
Staying power
KFH estate agent Freddie Elliott says homeowners in Holland Park like to hang on to their properties, renting them out if they need to, rather than selling them.
Postcode
Prime Holland Park falls into the W14 West Kensington postcode although the park itself falls into the W8 Kensington postcode. North of Holland Park Avenue it is W11, the Notting Hill postcode.
Best roads
Holland Park and Addison Road.
Up and coming
The busy West Cross Route divides Holland Park from Shepherd’s Bush but Freddie Elliott thinks that all the regeneration going on in Shepherd’s Bush and White City will start to break down the barrier.
Transport
Holland Park Underground station is on the Central line. Other Tube options are High Street Kensington on the Circle and District lines, Latimer Road on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and Shepherd’s Bush on the Central line, also with Overground trains to Clapham Junction.
There are two commuter buses: the No 94 goes to Piccadilly Circus and the No 148 to Camberwell via Victoria.
Council
Kensington & Chelsea council is Conservative-controlled. Band D council tax for 2019/2020 is £1,190.55.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
Holland Park doesn’t have a major retail centre but shoppers are well served by Westfield London in nearby Shepherd’s Bush, and by Kensington High Street.
Along Holland Park Avenue C Lidgate is one of London’s top butchers and there are kitchen showrooms from Mark Wilkinson and Bulthaup.
There is a branch of Daunt Books and wine merchant Jeroboams and also branches of Tesco Express, Starbucks and Pret a Manger.
There is a village-feel to the little shopping street on Portland Road which is known as Clarendon Cross, where shoppers can rest under the shade of a lovely Paulownia tree.
Celebrity hangout Julie’s Restaurant & Champagne Bar is said to be reopening in July. In the meantime it is worth checking out Cowshed Clarendon Cross spa; Summerill & Bishop for homewares with a French twist; The Cross for quirky fashion and children’s toys; and a branch of Fired Earth.
For such a well-heeled area, Holland Park doesn’t have a wide choice of eating-out options. The best restaurant is The Belvedere in the former ballroom of Holland House in Holland Park.
Edera is an Italian restaurant and Flat Three a Korean and Japanese restaurant — both are in Holland Park Avenue.
Open space
It is a surprise that Holland Park is one of London’s newest parks, only coming into existence after the Second World War when Holland House, a rambling Jacobean mansion, was all but destroyed by incendiary bombing and the owner, the 6th Earl of Ilchester, sold what was left of the house and the land to the London County Council.
It is a park of surprises, with woods; formal gardens including two Japanese gardens, one commemorating the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami; and sports grounds including an idyllic typically English cricket ground.
Avondale Park in Walmer Road is a small Victorian park with a children’s playground, multi-games court for five-a-side football, netball and tennis, and an unusual grass-free lawn planted with low-growing plants.
Leisure and the arts
Opera Holland Park in the grounds of Holland House in Holland Park is in full swing with forthcoming productions of Francesco Cilea’s L’arlesiana, and a Tchaikovsky double bill.
The nearest council swimming pool is at the new Kensington Leisure Centre in Silchester Road.
Schools
Primary schools
The local state primary schools are all rated “good” by Ofsted.
Comprehensive
The “outstanding” comprehensive schools are: Cardinal Vaughan RC (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Addison Road; Holland Park (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Airlie Gardens; Kensington Aldridge (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Silchester Way, where five pupils lost their lives in Grenfell Tower and which had to move for the year following the tragedy; and Sacred Heart (girls, co-ed ages 11 to 18) in Hammersmith Road in Olympia.
Private
The private primary and preparatory schools are: Norland Place (boys ages four to eight, girls ages four to 11) in Holland Park Avenue; Southbank International (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill; Hawkesdown House (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Edge Street; St James Preparatory (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Earsby Street in Olympia; Notting Hill Preparatory (co-ed, ages four to 13) and Chepstow House (co-ed, ages two to 13) both in in Lancaster Road in Notting Hill, and Wetherby (boys, ages three to eight) and Pembridge Hall (girls, ages four to 11) both in Pembridge Square also in Notting Hill; Bute House (girls, ages four to 11) in Luxemburg Gardens in Hammersmith; and Bassett House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Bassett Road in North Kensington.
There are three private French/English private primary schools, an Italian/English school and a Chinese/English school: École Française Jacques Prévert (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Brook Green in Hammersmith; La Petite École Bilingue (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Oxford Gardens but moving to Clarendon Road in September; and La Petite École Française (co-ed, ages three to 11) in St Charles Square, both in North Kensington; La Scuola Italiana a Londra (co-ed, ages three to 14) in Holland Park Avenue; and Kensington Wade Chinese/English school (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Warwick Road.
The private secondary and all-through schools are: Tabernacle (co-ed, ages three to 18) in St Anns Villas; Young Dancers Academy (co-ed, ages 10 to 16) in Bulwer Street; St James Senior (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Earsby Street in Olympia; St Paul’s Girls’ (ages 10 to 18) in Brook Green; Godolphin & Latymer (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Iffley Road and Latymer Upper (co-ed, ages seven to 18) in King Street, all three in Hammersmith.