Holland Park and Brook Green Area Guide
This area guide to Holland Park & Brook Green offers a brief overview of the district, including its local shops, attractions, properties, schools, history and public transport links.
The main postcodes in Holland Park & Brook Green are W11, W14, W6
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.
Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants. There are many popular shopping destinations located around Holland Park such as High Street Kensington, Notting Hill, Holland Park Avenue, Portobello Market, Westbourne Grove, Clarendon Cross and Ledbury Road.
Though there are no official boundaries, they are roughly Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road to the west, Holland Park Avenue to the north and Kensington Church Street to the east.
Holland Park (public park)
Holland Park is about 22 hectares (54.36 acres) in area and is considered one of the most romantic and peaceful parks of central London. The northern half or so of the park is semi-wild woodland, the central section around the ruins of Holland House is more formal with several garden areas, and the southernmost section is used for sport. Holland House is now a fragmentary ruin, having been devastated by incendiary bombing in 1940, but the ruins and the grounds were bought by London County Council in 1952 from the last private owner, the 6th Earl of Ilchester. The park contains a famous Orangery, a giant chess set, a cricket pitch, tennis courts, a Japanese garden, a youth hostel, one of London's best equipped children's playgrounds, squirrels and (impressively for a London park) peacocks. In 2010, the park set aside a part which is home to pigs, their job over the next 12 months is to reclaim the area from nettles etc, in order to create another meadow area for wild flowers and fauna. Today the remains of the house form a backdrop for the open air Holland Park Theatre, which is the home of Opera Holland Park. The green-roofed Commonwealth Institute lies to the south.
The district was rural until the 19th century. Most of it was formerly the grounds of a Jacobean mansion called Holland House. In the later decades of that century the owners of the house sold off the more outlying parts of its grounds for residential development, and the district which evolved took its name from the house. It also included some small areas around the fringes which had never been part of the grounds of Holland House, notably the Phillimore Estate (there are at least four roads with the word Phillimore in their name) and the Campden Hill Square area. In the late 19th century a number of notable artists (including Frederic Leighton, P.R.A. and Val Prinsep) and art collectors lived in the area. The group were collectively known as "The Holland Park Circle". Holland Park was in most part very comfortably upper middle class when originally developed and in recent decades has gone further upmarket.
Of the 19th century residential developments of the area one of the most architecturally interesting is The Royal Crescent designed in 1839. Clearly inspired by its older namesake in Bath, it differs from the Bath crescent in that it is not a true crescent at all but two quadrant terraces each terminated by a circular bow in the Regency style which rises as a tower, a feature which would not have been found in the earlier classically inspired architecture of the 18th century which the design of the crescent seeks to emulate. The design of the Royal Crescent by the planner Robert Cantwell in two halves was dictated by the location of the newly fashionable underground sewers rather than any consideration for architectural aesthetics.
The stucco fronted crescent is painted white, in the style of the many Nash terraces which can be elsewhere in London's smarter residential areas. Today many of these four storey houses have been converted to apartments, a few remain as private houses. The Royal crescent is a listed Grade 2.
Holland Park is now one of the most expensive residential districts in London or anywhere in the world, with large houses regularly listed for sale at over £10 million . A number of countries maintain embassies here. Simon Cowell lives in Holland Park when he is in London, as does actor Kenneth Branagh, rock star Bryan Ferry, actress Anita Dobson and her husband Brian May.
Shopping
Holland Park is home to a variety of stores, restaurants, cafes and estate agents as well as more specialist stores. It is the location of the upmarket butcher Lidgate, as well as the baker Maison Blanc, and the independent bookseller Daunt books.
Transport links
Holland Park Avenue is the site of Holland Park tube station which is on the Central line, and at its western end, across Holland Park Roundabout, is the recently rebuilt Shepherd's Bush tube station, also on the Central Line. The avenue is also on the route of the 94, 31 and 148 buses as well as the night bus N207 and the 24 hour Oxford Tube (Coach) service. There are several bus stops along both sides of Holland Park Avenue and although there are no taxi ranks on the street itself it is easy to hail a Black Cab almost anywhere.
Brook Green
Brook Green is an affluent London neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is located approx 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Kensington, Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, Holland Park and Brackenbury Village.
The Brook Green neighbourhood takes its name after the recreational park space also named Brook Green, which runs from Shepherd's Bush Road to Hammersmith Road.
Brook Green has two main shopping areas, Shepherd's Bush Road and Blythe Road, the latter of which is home to a number of small, independent shops. Also tucked in behind the green is a large Tesco supermarket. Brook Green is also within close proximity to Kensington High Street, King Street and Westfield London.
History
References to Brook Green go back to 15th century, with a map of Hammersmith clearly showing the outline of the Green.
The area was developed as industrialisation spread out of London. Famous businesses in Brook Green were Osram Lamp Factory, J. Lyons & Co. and its complex at Cadby Hall, Post Office Savings Bank Headquarters in Blythe Road and to this day the Olympia Exhibition Halls Olympia, London.
Brook Green Suite was written in 1933 for St Paul's Girls' School junior orchestra by the famous English composer Gustav Holst, who was also Director of Music at the school. St Paul's Girls' School is one of the leading independent schools in the country and has been situated on Brook Green since its formation in 1904.
The Brook Green Hotel has stood at the Western end of Brook Green since 1886. The original Brook which was piped in the 1800s still flows under the hotel to this day. The area's inns (The Brook Green Hotel and The Queen's Head) were originally used as coach houses and were popular entertainment venues.
Today, The Brook Green Hotel is a pub on ground level, along with a basement bar below and a hotel upstairs. The Queen's Head is a popular and picturesque public house which overlooks the green itself at the front and has a sizable garden at the back of the pub.
- St Paul's Girls' School
- Bute House Preparatory School for Girls
- Larmenier and Sacred Heart Catholic School
- Sacred Heart High School Addison CE Primary School
- Lena Gardens Primary School
- St Mary's Catholic Primary School
Education
- Kensington
- Hammersmith
- Shepherd's Bush
- Holland Park
Nearest places adjoining Brook Green
Transport
- Kensington Olympia station
- Hammersmith tube station (Piccadilly and District lines)
- Hammersmith tube station (Hammersmith & City and Circle lines)
Stations:
- District Line
- Piccadilly Line
- Hammersmith & City Line
- Central Line