“One area of London which has definitely improved in leaps and bounds recently is West Marylebone”, said Caroline Takla, Managing Partner of leading London property consultancy, The Collection LLP. “In my opinion, this was the result of the opening of the Chiltern Firehouse last year. With its status as the ‘coolest restaurant in London’, the area has been inundated with celebrities including Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and the Cameron’s.
Historically, Chiltern Street, where the restaurant is located, was an area that was far from glamorous, as can be expected from the vicinity surrounding one of London’s first purpose-built fire stations. In 2012, a square foot in Chiltern Street cost on average of £797, whereas today the cost is £1,424 – an astounding increase of 77%. So while a few years back Marylebone was considered the ‘Cinderella’ relative to Mayfair, West Marylebone is now Marylebone’s Cinderella.
Another Cinderella in my opinion is Brixton relative to Clapham. In fact, the area is expected to be rebranded as ‘East Clapham’ by next year. The name ‘Brixton’ has typically been negatively perceived, being associated with violence and riots. However we now see an example of a local council deliberately creating a Cinderella story. The rebranding initiative by Lambeth Council seeks to attract investors and developers through a more upmarket name and image, as Brixton offers a lot of space for development and is very well positioned relative to central London.
Other Cinderella areas are Queen’s Park in relation to Notting Hill; the area has improved massively in the last couple of years as cool, young professionals who became out-priced from Notting Hill started buying in Queen’s Park instead. Consequently, there has been an improvement in the range of amenities in the area, with much more hip restaurants and cafes to cater to the ‘ex-Notting Hill’ crowd.
Another upcoming Cinderella suburb is Kilburn, which is seeing migration from Queen’s Park as well as historical migration from West Hampstead – that in itself was a historical Cinderella Suburb to Hampstead.
Finally, Acton is a ‘Cinderella’ in my opinion relative to Chiswick and Ealing. The key driver here being Crossrail as people are starting to buy around this area to hedge the market ahead of the launch of Crossrail in 2018.
