Location Guide to Maida Vale

Area Guide

Ideal for: celeb-spotters, renters who’ve come to the UK from other countries, high earners, commuters, parents and families.

Public transport connections: Maida Vale (Bakerloo), Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo), Westbourne Park and Royal Oak (just outside the area, Circle and Hammersmith & City)

Typical rent amounts (per week):

Studio flat: £250
One-bed flat: £325-£450
Two-bed flat £395-£695
Three-bed flat: £500-£1,100
Four-bed house: £1,200-£1,800
Five-bed+ house: £1,750-£3,000

More about the area:

Maida Vale’s got a long and interesting history, and is named for the Count of Maida pub built on Edgware Road in the early 1800s. Each magnolia terraced house and converted flat contains spacious, light and airy rooms, standing tall on the area’s wide and leafy avenues.

Quite a few famous names have made the area their home, including Kate Moss, Paul Weller, Earl Spencer and Mary Portas. Maida Vale has always been a very desirable place to live – and surprisingly, the local borough of Westminster has some of the UK’s lowest council tax rates. It’s a quick commute into Zone 1, and several buses pass through on their way to Victoria, Knightsbridge and Holborn.

There’s a lot to see, do and eat, as the area is full of sports and recreation centres, gastro pubs, a garden centre, theatres and a BBC music recording studio. Parents looking for the best schools could ask local group The Maida Vale Mums for their recommendations.

You can pick up your groceries and a new outfit on the Clifton Road and Clifton Gardens shopping streets. The two are connected, with chains and independents down each side and Warwick Avenue station at one end. If you’re in the mood to take a stroll somewhere greener, seek out a concealed public garden or the canal separating Maida Avenue and Blomfield Road. It’s also not far to Regent’s Park.

We regularly have properties to let on and around:

• Maida Avenue
• Blomfield Road
• Warwick Avenue
• Randolph Road
• Randolph Crescent
• Warrington Crescent
• Shirland Road
• Harrow Road

At a glance

Property: the large stucco houses exude an aura of great wealth but at least 85 per cent of all Maida Vale’s properties are flats, either spacious conversions or in the mansion blocks.

Staying power: it’s variable. Some people who progress from a one- or two-bedroom flat to a three-bedroom flat often find they can’t then afford a house, and move out to Queen’s Park or Chiswick when they have a family.

Postcodes: Maida Vale is almost entirely in W9, except for the little triangle south of the canal and west of Edgware Road, which is in W2, the Bayswater postcode.

Best streets: Blomfield Road and Maida Avenue, which are on opposite sides of the canal; Randolph Road and Randolph Crescent and Warwick Avenue.

The most beautiful secret communal gardens are between Randolph Road and Warwick Avenue and between Randolph Crescent and Warrington Crescent.

Up-and-coming: Maida Hill, the area between Shirland Road and Harrow Road, west of Marylands Road, is still rough around the edges. There are fewer grand four- and five-storey houses there, mainly converted into flats.

Lifestyle & Recreation

The area attracts: mainly wealthy English tenants , although there are some from overseas looking for a London pied-à-terre.There is an arty, celebrity element, too, perhaps attracted by the presence of the BBC music recording studios in Delaware Road.
Residents include musician Paul Weller, model Kate Moss, heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne’s daughter, Kelly; Earl Spencer (he bought a house from Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour, who promptly gave away the £3.6 million proceeds to homeless charity Crisis) and Mary “Queen of Shops” Portas.

Shops and restaurants: Maida Vale has its own special shopping street in Clifton Road and Clifton Gardens, where there is a butcher, a Tesco Express and a Boot’s plus a good choice of delis and cafés – most notably Raoul’s with a deli on one side of the street and a café on the other side, Baker & Spice and a Café Rouge.

Clifton Nurseries in Clifton Villas is London’s most beautiful garden centre and now has a Daylesford Organic Café. Suzannah in Bristol Gardens is a special-occasion dress designer. Amoul’s in Formosa Street is a much-loved Lebanese café and deli. On the same street, the Formosa Dining Room is in the Prince Albert gastropub, while the nearby Waterway pub has a terrace overlooking the canal. Gordon Ramsay’s gastropub, the Warrington, is in Warrington Crescent.

Open Spaces: for those without access to one of Maida Vale’s private communal gardens, there is the Paddington Recreation Centre in Randolph Avenue – known locally as Paddington Rec – which has a gym, athletics track, bowling green, cricket pitch, tennis courts and café, and also the Paddington Sports Club, a private squash and tennis club in Castellain Avenue. The many acres of Regent’s Park are close by.

Leisure and the arts: the nearest council-owned swimming pool is the Jubilee Sports Centre in Caird Street, in Queen’s Park. The Puppet Theatre Barge in Blomfield Road is a 55-seat puppet theatre moored on the Browning Pool at Little Venice; the Canal Café Theatre is a small theatre above the Bridge House pub in Westbourne Terrace Road.

Transport & Lettings

Transport: the Maida Vale area is in Zone 2. . Maida Vale and Warwick Avenue Tube stations are both on the Bakerloo line, while Royal Oak is on the Hammersmith and City line, as well as the new Circle line spur to Hammersmith. There is a good bus service, with the Number 6 going to Aldwych, the Number 16 to Victoria, the Number 98 to Holborn, and the Number 414 to Knightsbridge.

Council: Maida Vale is in the borough of Westminster (Conservative-controlled) which is one of the lowest in the country.

Avergae rental values in Maida Vale W9

• Studio flat £250 per week
• One-bedroom flat £325 to £450 a week
• Two-bedroom flat £395 to £695 a week
• Three-bedroom flat £500 to £1,100 a week
• Four-bedroom house £1,200 to £1,800 a week
• Five-bedroom plus house £1,750 to £3,000 a week