Area Spotlight – Westbourne Park

Westbourne Park, W11

The Westbourne is a minor river that rises in Hampstead and flows 12 miles southwards into the Thames at Chelsea, nowadays mostly underground. A mansion called Westbourne Place was built in the area in the 1640s with grounds stretching some distance and was later renamed Westbourne Park. After the Great Western Railway came through the district in the late 1830s, a station was opened, originally called Green Bridge. In the mid-1850s the mansion was demolished and its grounds were covered by the generously proportioned semi-detached villas on Westbourne Park Road and Westbourne Park Villas, where the writer Thomas Hardy lived in the 1860s. Like much of the surrounding area, Westbourne Park had declined by the middle of the 20th century and many houses had been sub-divided. The notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman bought his first property on St Stephen’s Gardens in the early 1950s, targeting newly arrived immigrants, whose difficulties in finding accommodation made them easier to exploit. 

Westbourne Park was popular with hippies in the 1960s and has since attracted more respectable, and wealthy, figures from the worlds of fashion and music, with chic eateries and organic grocers that draw celebrity customers. The area’s population declined in the late 20th century as houses formerly occupied by several families were reunited into single households.

With the extensive development of Paddington and the revival and gentrification of the entirety of Westbourne Grove, Westbourne Park has become a very desirable place to live and own property.

The Portobello Road and Westbourne Grove are both on the doorstep and both Queensway and Paddington are walkable. Our favourite chill-out hotspots are below.

Restaurants and Pubs

---

Shops

---