This neighbourhood area known as West Hampstead is located in the London Borough of Camden. It has picturesque Primrose Hill to its southeast, wild and large Hampstead Heath to its northeast, and smaller green spaces in the neighbourhood, giving residents plenty of outdoor entertainment options. There is also the famous West End Lane in the neighbourhood, filled with unique and local shops, like The Village Haberdashery, which offers craft and sewing classes for a variety of ages. Additionally, there is also the local St. James Church, which converted one of its buildings into a community centre with a post office, a café and a children’s soft play area. This neighbourhood has a great community feel, while offering a tube station and national railway station for residents to easily get into busy central London.

West Hampstead was originally a village known as West End during the 1500s. It was called this because it was at the west end of another, larger estate. The area was essentially just a small hamlet with around 40 houses until the arrival of the railway stations in the late 1800s. When development began, the name of the area was changed in order to avoid confusion with, well, the other famous West End in London. The expansion of the railway led to many property developers and landowners moving to the area, and developing it into the neighbourhood we see today.

The Railway pub in this neighbourhood hosted gigs played by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Cream. The Rolling Stones even lived in West Hampstead in the early 1960s. Their band manager supposedly locked them in the kitchen of their West Hampstead flat until they had written a track, which was their now famous song ‘Tell Me’.

Property prices in the neighbourhood can be a bit costly, due to the neighbourhood’s location to parks and transportation links, and there are not a huge number of properties available for new residents who want to move to the area. However, the rent prices are lower than nearby Belsize Park and Hampstead.

Kingsgate Primary School was selected by Camden Council for expansion to help meet the need for more pupil places in this part of the borough. Sarah Wigglesworth Architects (SWA) were appointed in 2017, working with Architects Collaborative, to design an extension to the existing Victorian buildings of Kingsgate Primary School, including a multi-purpose studio, library and community entrance, which were all completed in 2019/20. The Kilburn area is also experiencing an increase in development interest, with new-build homes schemes mushrooming in the area. West Hampstead is also experiencing a bit of a development boom. West Hampstead Central is a new development in the area consisting of 94 one and two bedroom apartments in a contemporary building that rises five floors above ground level. The Artisan is another development characterised by its boutique collection of 31 homes. It is noteworthy that the community in this neighbourhood is very involved - they even have an online forum to discuss planned future developments.