Maida Vale Area Guide

Location
A residential district comprising the northern part of Paddington in west London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. The southern part of Maida Vale at the junction of Paddington Basin with Regent's Canal, with many houseboats, is known as Little Venice. The area to the south-west of Maida Vale, at the western end of Elgin Avenue, was historically known as "Maida Hill", and was a recognised postal district bounded by the Avenues on the west, the Regent's Canal to the south, Maida Vale to the east and Kilburn Lane to the north.

History
Developed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the early 19th century as middle class housing, Maida Vale took its name from a public house named after John Stuart, Count of Maida.

Residents
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Maida Vale was a predominantly Sephardic Jewish district, and the 1896 Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, a Grade II listed building and headquarters of the British Sephardi community, is on Lauderdale Road.
The actor Alec Guinness was born in this road. The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, lived within sight of this synagogue on Warrington Crescent. The pioneer of modern computing, Alan Turing, was born at what is now the Colonnade Hotel in Warrington Crescent.

Architecture
Maida Vale is popular for its relatively quiet wide tree-lined streets, offering early 1900 red brick mansion blocks to white stucco fronted houses and apartments.

Transport
Maida Vale & Warwick Avenue tube stations were opened in 1915 on the Bakerloo line.

Little Venice
Maida Avenue, Warwick Crescent and Blomfield Road, the streets in the south of Maida Vale including the section of Randolph Avenue south of Clifton Gardens are known as Little Venice.
The Canal Cafe Theatre, the Puppet Theatre Barge, the Waterside Café and the Warwick Castle pub. A regular waterbus service operates from Little Venice eastwards around Regent's Park, calling at London Zoo and on towards Camden Town.

Dining
The Warrington Pub on Sutherland Avenue formerly one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants is a popular haunt for dining and socialising. Raoul’s Deli in Clifton Gardens is a favourite with the locals as is Baker & Spice too.

Leisure
Clifton Nurseries, London's oldest garden centre, has a wide selection of indoor plants, cut flowers, pots, garden furniture, accessories and gifts for sale.

We say
The area has been overlooked by buyers for many years with neighbouring St Johns Wood being the preferred, however now it seems Maida Vale is slowly but surely coming into its own again. The Regents Canal snakes through the area and offers buyers the chance to live ‘waterside’ on Blomfield Road. The more desirable streets are Sutherland Avenue, Randolph Avenue & Warrington Crescent.