Maida Vale

Maida Vale
The Grand Union Canal at Little Venice
Maida Vale Location within Greater London
Population	23,161 (2016 Maida Vale and Little Venice combined Ward populations)[1][2]
OS grid reference	TQ255825
London borough	Westminster
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	W9
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Westminster North
London Assembly	West Central
List of places UK England London 51°31′48″N 0°11′10″W / 51.530°N 0.186°W / 51.530; -0.186

Maida Vale (/ˈmeɪdə veɪl/ MAY-də vayl) is a residential district in West London, England, north of Paddington, southwest of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn, on the Edgware Road. It is part of the City of Westminster and is 3 miles (5.0 km) north-west of Charing Cross.^[3] It has many late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats. The area is home to the BBC Maida Vale Studios.^[4]

Toponym

The name of the area is derived from a pub and an Italian battle during the

The area is bounded by Maida Avenue and the Regent's Canal to the south, Maida Vale Road to the north-east, Kilburn Park Road to the north-west, and Shirland Road and Blomfield Road to the south-west: an area of around 1 square kilometre (0.4 square miles). It makes up most of the W9 postal district.

The southern part of Maida Vale, at the junction of Paddington Basin with Regent's Canal with many houseboats, is known as Little Venice. Paddington Recreation Ground is also located in Maida Vale.

The area to the south-west of Maida Vale, at the western end of

In 1742, a lease for future development was signed by Sir John Frederick. His daughter later married Robert Thistlethwaite, a Hampshire landowner, whose Hampshire holdings including Widley and Wymering are commemorated in Maida Vale street names.^[13]

In 1816, an Act of Parliament allowed the trustees of Sir John Frederick's estate and the Bishop of London to begin developing the area. This began in the 1820s with development along Edgware Road. The area was first named on maps as Maida Vale in 1827.^[13] John Gutch, surveyor to the Bishop of London, produced a plan for the area in 1827, which roughly corresponds to current road alignments.^[13]

By 1868, a stretch of Edgware Road near the area had been officially named Maida Vale.^[13] In 1960, the ownership of the area's freehold passed from the Bishop of London to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, whose function was to administer the church's assets.^[13]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Maida Vale was a significant

Maida Vale tube station was opened on 6 June 1915 on the Bakerloo line. Warwick Avenue tube station on the same line had been opened a few months earlier.

BBC Studios

Maida Vale is home to some of

In 2018 the BBC announced plans to close the Maida Vale studios and relocate its functions to East London.[15]

Little Venice

Little Venice is a comparatively recent name for parts of Maida Vale and Paddington in the City of Westminster. It consists of the area surrounding the Little Venice basin and its canals. It is known for its Regency style white stucco buildings and its canals and moored boats. The name Little Venice is applied to Maida Avenue, Warwick Crescent and Blomfield Road, and the streets in the south of Maida Vale overlooking Browning's Pool, including the section of Randolph Avenue south of Warrington Crescent.^[16]

According to one story, the poet

Maida Vale is noted for wide tree-lined avenues, large communal gardens and red-brick mansion blocks from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The first mansion blocks were completed in 1897, with the arrival of the identically designed Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Mansions West and Lauderdale Mansions East in Lauderdale Road. Others followed in neighbouring streets: Elgin Mansions (Elgin Avenue) and Leith Mansions (Grantully Road) in 1900, Ashworth Mansions (Elgin Avenue and Grantully Road) and Castellain Mansions (Castellain Road) in 1902, Elgin Court (Elgin Avenue) and Carlton Mansions (Randolph Avenue) in 1902, Delaware Mansions (Delaware Road) and Biddulph Mansions (Elgin Avenue and Biddulph Road) in 1907^[13] and Randolph Court in 1910.^[22]

Among the buildings of architectural interest is the

The principal church in Kilburn is St Augustine's, sometimes referred to as "The Cathedral of North London"; the area is also served by St Mark's parish church, Hamilton Terrace^[26] and by St Saviour's Church, Warwick Avenue, a building constructed in 1972–1976 in a "modern" style. The latter building was referred to by some local residents as "the God Box".^[27] Between 1870 and 1906, the incumbent at St Mark's was Robinson Duckworth.^[28]

• Andreas Kalvos (1792–1869), Greek poet and patriot, at 182 Sutherland Avenue.^[30]
• Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945), English electrical engineer and physicist, at 9 Clifton Gardens.^[31]
• David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), first prime minister of Israel, at 75 Warrington Crescent.^[32]
• Lupino Lane (1892–1959), theatre and film star, at 32 Maida Vale.^[33]
• Henry Hall (1898-1989), British dance band leader, at 8 Randolph Mews in 1959–1981.^[34]
• Edward Ardizzone (1900–1979), artist and illustrator, at 130 Elgin Avenue.^[35]
• Lennox Berkeley (1900-1989), composer, lived at 8 Warwick Avenue.^[36]
• Alan Turing (1912–1954), code-breaker and pioneer of computer science, at 2 Warrington Crescent.^[37]
• Alec Guinness (1914–2000), English actor, born at 155 Lauderdale Mansions.^[38]
• Captain George Mainwaring in the television show Dad's Army, at 2 Maida Hill West in 1969–1982.^[39]
• Roger Bannister (1929–2018), English athlete and neurologist, trained to break the 4-minute mile at the track in Paddington Rec while a medical student at St Mary's hospital.
• Tony Meehan (1943–2005), founder member of the guitar group The Shadows, lived at 34 Lauderdale Mansions on Lauderdale Road in 1977–2005.^[40]

Other notables

Ordered by birth date where given, followed by those for whom no birth date is given. See also People from Maida Vale

• Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914), artist and cartoonist, at 10 Portsdown Road (subsequently renamed Randolph Avenue), Maida Hill in 1854–1909.^[41]
• John Lawrence Toole (1830–1906), comic actor, lived in Maida Vale.^[42]
• James Payn (1830–1898), novelist and journal editor, died at his home, 43 Warrington Crescent, on 25 March 1898.^[43]
• Joanna Mary Boyce (1831–1861), portrait painter, born in Maida Vale.^[44]
• Charles Coborn (1852-1945), music hall entertainer, lived at 27 Elgin Mansions.^[45]
• Sir Edward German (1862–1936), composer, lived at 5 Biddulph Road from 1921 until his death in 1936.^[46]
• George Arliss (1868–1946), actor, at 1 Clifton Villas.^[47]
• Leslie Green (1875–1908), architect, was born in Maida Vale.^[48]
• John Masefield (1878–1967), novelist, playwright and Poet Laureate from 1930, at 30 Maida Avenue.^[5]
• Lieutenant Leonard Keysor VC (1885–1951), Australian soldier, born in Maida Vale.^[49]
• Clifford Grey (1887–1941), musical theatre composer, at 38 Sandringham Court.^[50]
• Esmé Percy (1887–1957), actor, at 30 Warrington Crescent.^[51]
• Philip Guedalla (1889–1944), writer, politician and barrister, born in Maida Vale.^[52]
• Vera Brittain (1893–1970), writer, at 111 Wymering Mansions, Wymering Road.^[53]
• Victor Gollancz (1893–1967), publisher and humanitarian, born at 256 Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale.^[54]
• Konni Zilliacus (1894–1967), Labour MP for Manchester Gorton and author.
• Irene Handl (1901–1987), character actress, born in Maida Vale.^[55]
• Terence Fisher (1904–1980), film director, born in Maida Vale.
• Nancy Mitford (1904–1973), author, at 13 Blomfield Road in the 1930s.^[56]
• Lou Preager (1906–1978), British dance band leader, at 198 Wymering Mansions, Wymering Road in the 1930s.^[57]
• James MacColl (1908–1971), Labour MP for Widnes, at 21 Randolph Road.
• Queen Elizabeth II.^[58]
• Walter Kolarz (1912–1962), communist scholar, in Maida Vale from 1940 until his death.^[59]
• Ernest Clark (1912–1994), actor, born and raised in Maida Vale.^[60]
• Helen Clare (1916–2018), singer, was living at 88 Maida Vale in 1939.^[61]
• Alan Freeman (1927–2006), broadcaster.^[62]
• Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007), cellist, at 18 Randolph Crescent.^[63]
• Enrica Soma (1929–1969), Italian-American socialite and ballerina, one-time wife of John Huston and mother of Anjelica Huston, moved there with her children in 1962 after separating from her husband.^[64]
• Ruth Rendell (1930–2015), Baroness Rendell of Babergh, the English crime novelist, lived in the area.^[65]
• Alexander Walker (1930–2003), Evening Standard film critic, at 1 Marlborough, 38–40 Maida Vale.^[66]
• Joan Collins (b. 1933) grew up in Maida Vale.^{[citation needed]}
• John Inman (1935–2007), actor, lived in a mews house in Little Venice for 30 years.^[67]
• Eddie Linden (b. 1935), poet and founder of Aquarius magazine, which he edited from his home in Maida Vale.^[68]
• Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001), in Clifton Road during her time with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.^[69]
• Edward Fox (b. 1937), film actor, has lived in Maida Avenue, by the Regent's Canal, from the 1970s to the present-day.^[70][71][72]
• Marc Bolan (b. 1947) lived at 31 Clarendon Gardens in the late 1960's^[73]
• Philip Lawrence (1947-1995), head teacher at St George's Catholic School
  in Maida Vale at the time of his murder in December 1995.
• Joe Strummer (1952–2002) of punk rock band The Clash lived there.^[74]
• Wings died at his flat there.^[75]
• Elizabeth Emanuel (b. 1953), fashion designer, lives in the area.^[76]
• Raphael Ravenscroft, (b.1954) Saxophonist who played the solo on Gerry Raffety's "Baker Street" lived at 27A Bristol Gardens 2011-2014 ^[77]
• Michael Flatley (b. 1958), dancer and creator of Riverdance etc., owned a house in Park Place Villas, near the Regent's Canal, until 2004.^[78][79]
• Jarvis Cocker (b. 1963) of Pulp was living in the area in 1997.^[80]
• Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (b. 1964), peer, author and younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, has a residence in Maida Vale.
• Björk (b. 1965), Icelandic singer, resident in the 1990s and early 2000s.^[81]
• Ben Miller (b. 1966), comedian and actor.^[82]
• Noel Gallagher (b. 1967), singer, songwriter and guitarist.^[83]
• Bradley Wiggins (b. 1980), cyclist.^[84]
• Eva Green (b. 1980), actress.^[85]
• Mohammed Emwazi (1988–2015), alleged executioner for Islamic State known as "Jihadi John", attended St Mary Magdalene Church of England Primary School in Maida Vale.^[86]
• Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary (b. 1991), suspected Islamist militant.^[87]
• Daisy Ridley (b. 1992), actress.^[88]
• Kate Stewart (b. 1995), singer-songwriter.^[89]

Education

References