This affluent area covers the northern part of the famous Notting Hill neighbourhood, as well as the residential neighbourhood of Westbourne Park. Strolling through the colourful terraced house lined streets, residents and visitors find plenty of reasons to fall in love with this idyllic pocket of London. On a typical weekend day, there are almost too many options for things to do. Whether it’s the quirky Museum of Brands and Packaging, or the independent cookbook shop, Books for Cooks, that prepares freshly made lunches from their recipes, it’s no wonder that Londoners travel from all over the city to visit. Between all of this, and its top schools and multiple nearby tube stations, Londoners love this neighbourhood.

This neighbourhood is sliced through by the Westbourne river, a small body of water that flows south from Hampstead. In the 17th century, a large mansion, known as Westbourne Place, took up the majority of this site. By the 19th century though, the Great Western Railway had arrived in the area, leading to the growth of smaller detached homes. Unfortunately though, with the influx of working residents into the area, investment in the neighbourhood dropped leading to the area’s decline. However, by the 1960s, the area became popular amongst hippies, and eventually began to gentrify by the end of the 20th century as trendy eateries and shops started to pop up.

Famed naturalist, William Henry Hudson, lived in the neighbourhood. He was most well-known for his 1904 novel, Green Mansions, as well as for his role in the founding of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Due to the borough’s negligence in handling safety warnings, local council estate, Grenfell Tower, was in a tragic fire. Unfortunately, even now, little has been done to fix the issues with the tower and prepare the flats for residents to move back in. Still, this catastrophic event has helped galvanise housing rights activists throughout the country, and helped bring mistreatment of council estate residents to light. Though there are still many who are without homes and those responsible have not been brought to justice.

Although little progress has been made on Grenfell Tower’s repair, architecture firms have begun to put in bids to the council for its refurbishment and new design. Nothing has been finalised yet, but in the meantime, the UK government has committed to providing funding for the eventual repairs. That said, it’s been five years since the tragedy and many who have returned to their homes in and around Grenfell have made public statements of the shaddy state of their repairs and the difficulty of living for so many years in temporary hotel accommodation. Additionally, talks have begun around the design of a potential memorial on site for the victims who passed away in the fire. A commission specifically established for that purpose has been formed and they are expected to reveal a design brief in order to open a public competition between April 2023 and April 2024. The plan is to start building the memorial by December 2024.