London W14 area information guide

Area Description
Comprising parts of Fulham, Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Holland Park and Earls Court, it seems only right that four of London's busiest west-east roads pass through here and all are bisected by an equally busy north-south route.

Equally appropriate is the proliferation of hotels and boarding houses, ancillaries to the twin monoliths in the area, Olympia and Earls Court Exhibition Halls. Covering all standards of accommodation, they are perhaps the sole unifying element of this postcode.

Aside from this, and perhaps of greatest interest to house hunters, are the planned estates by wealthy landowners in the Victorian era. These include the Barons Court, Earls Court and Holland Estates.

Housing
The north-west section of W14 lies between Shepherds Bush Road and Holland Road. We are close to Brook Green here, although that is strictly in W6, but Windsor Way runs off the Green with its new 200 houses safe behind a gated security entrance.

This Shepherds Bush part of W14 is dominated by brick and stucco Victorian terraces, many long since split into flats. The schemes have been successful and various types of maisonette can also be found here; a great place to hunt for the garden flat.

Few purpose built blocks are here, although the inter-war Latymer Court and the 1989 Kensington West are unmissable. Sizeable gardens and high ceilings render this enclave popular and the BBC workers of W12 are a common tribe in these parts.

Crossing east over the railway we come to Holland Park, with street names recalling the high and mighty friends of the Holland family. The area is leafy, the houses sizeable and the facades frequently stucco.

Many of the houses here have front as well as back gardens and little architectural details that seem to add significantly to the property's price. Multi-occupancy and diplomatic residences are not unknown but such conversions have been done with taste and reserve.

Abbotsbury Close between Holland Park (the road) and Kensington High Street is becoming something of a rat run but the little roads off it still retain a quietude and popularity reflected in their price. Small mews cottages, some even with garages, sit well with Sixties' cul-de-sacs.

The southern end of this part of W14 has some unusual housing - a legacy from its days as a Victorian artists' colony. Individually designed houses, notably the extravagant Leighton House, add an extra dimension to an already exclusive and highly priced neighbourhood.

Some of these grander properties - among them the home of the pre-Raphaelite painter, Holman Hunt- have now been converted into upmarket apartments and properties designed by Norman Shaw and Halsey Ricardo are eternally popular.

The vast Victorian mansion blocks of Oakwood Court provide a contrast and as we move towards High Street Ken we find more modern developments in the form of flats and neo-Georgian townhouses. We have swapped peace for the bustle of the high road.

The southern third of W14, between Talgarth Road and Lillie Road, has been named and renamed in its time but Barons Court seems to be catching on these days. Developed by James Gunter in the early 19th century, the road names here and in the neighbouring Earls Court estate reflect his Welsh origins. Gaps filled in by his grandson Robert have Yorkshire names alluding to his wife's origin.

This is nirvana for the flathunter, where the tall Victorian terraces have lent themselves particularly well to conversion. At least this part of W14 has lungs in the form of Normand Park, Hammersmith Cemetery and the Queens Club, but the flats tend to be small and anything over two beds is a rarity in these, the uppermost floors of old servants' quarters.

Around the Queens Club is the original Barons Court Estate, a popular find in the Eighties especially for the fin-de-siecle mansion blocks of Queens Club Gardens - where the sought-after apartments overlook communal gardens and tennis courts and fetch prices to match the leafy surroundings.

To get that elusive large flat in this area it is best to head for Edwardian mansion blocks located between Talgarth and Hammersmith Roads. St. Paul's Court is an Eighties addition to these flats. Closer to the Talgarth Road are inter-war villas blessed with their own garages.

Facilities
Facilities in W14 feel more geared for visitors than residents. Slap bang in the middle of W14 is the cavernous Kensington Olympia, built in 1884 and able to supply a gargantuan 37,000 square metres of exhibition space split between its three constituent halls.

In recent decades it has had to play second fiddle to the even larger Earls Court Hall - just over the border in SW5 - but with both places now owned by the same firm the two quite happily complement each other.

There is certainly no shortage of takers for the halls' spaces. A glance at a typical winter schedule shows interests from around the world converging on W14 to celebrate and display the likes of paediatrics, internet broadband, cats, wine, erotica, fine arts, skiing, babies, Japan, France, accountancy, ships, pharmaceuticals, show jumping, property, graduate recruitment, weddings and "the Spirit of Christmas" (in November). All human life gets its day at the Olympia.

Fittingly for a district of so many and so variable hotel accommodations W14 is blessed with a wide variety of restaurants. This is where the Iranian community, who are well represented in this area between Hammersmith and Kensington, do particularly well. Four Persian eateries can be sampled in W14, the Alounak, Mohsen, Royal Teheran and Yas. There is even an Iranian supermarket, Super Masood, next to the Yas restaurant on Hammersmith Road.

Other restaurant cultures to make themselves known here include Chinese, Italian, Indian, American, Lebanese, Spanish, French and Ethiopian.

After the Olympia, W14 must be best known for the Queens Club. Founded in 1886, the other sports which were played here gradually relocated elsewhere to leave tennis the sole survivor. Three clubs are now based here, the British Tennis Foundation, Real Tennis & Racket and the Queens Club. A fourth is not far away on Addison Road, the Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club.

The club possesses all the works, a clubhouse, gym, museum, hospitality suite and dining facilities. These accompany the 28 outdoor courts, 8 indoor courts and a sprinkling of real tennis, rackets and squash courts.

Other groups in the area include the Kensington Rifle Club on West Cromwell Road, the 5-a-side football league on North End Road and health clubs which can be found on High Street Kensington, Gliddon Road and Richmond Way. The Royal Ballet School is also in these parts, having relocated to Talgarth Road from Sadlers Wells in 1947. The tiny Barons Court Theatre can be found on Comeragh Road.

W14's concession to the stately home comes on Holland Park Road, where Leighton House commemorates the artist Frederic Leighton and displays some of his contemporaries' finest works. J.E. Millais, E. Burne-Jones and G.F. Watts are among the more famous names and the whole place is an intriguing microcosm of the life of a Victorian aesthete and artist.

Given the preponderance of roads here open spaces never seem to have had a look-in and only the underused Normand Park on the southern border of W14 is of any size. There is at least a swimming pool here and September and December witness some small festivals in the park. It also has an under-5s club and similar organisations, the Holland Park Playgroup and the Warwick Playgroup, can be found at Abbotsbury Road and Warwick Gardens respectively.

Although all the main drags have extensive shopping facilities, it is North End Road which is the king of them all and most of the area's supermarkets can be found here. It is best known for North End Market, open every day bar Sunday, and interspersed with clothing, musical and electronic goods between its dominating theme of fruit and vegetables.

Transport
The land of the car. Talgarth Road (A4) is particularly vicious as it carries one of the capital's greatest arteries between the Hammersmith Flyover and Cromwell Road. It has busy parallels to the south (Lillie Road, the A3218) and to the north (Hammersmith Road/High Street Ken, the A315 and Shepherds Bush Green, the A40). Crossing over all these, heading north-south, is Holland Road (A3220), the run-off from the Westway's M41 West Cross Route.

There is no shortage of buses here and tubes are equally well represented. To the north the Central Line appears at Shepherds Bush and Holland Park. The District and Piccadilly Lines turn up at Earls Court (with the branch to Wimbledon), West Kensington and Barons Court.

Olympia, of course, has its own tube station run on restricted services at appropriate times but also features on a railway line running from Rugby in the north to Brighton in the south, taking in Gatwick Airport, Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes.

Steve Roberts