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Central London

Central London offers a wide range of accommodation, but prices reflect the proximity to the city centre. Very good transport links and facilities provide easy access

Mayfair W1 is well known as Londons most glamorous area with luxury hotels, designer shops, primarily a commercial area with some very expensive luxury apartments.

Mayfair lies east of Hyde Park and is bordered by Oxford Street to the north and Piccadilly to the south.  Famous for luxury hotels such as the Hilton, Grosvenor House and the Dorchester on Park Lane, it has a wide range of clubs, restaurants and exclusive shops. Traditionally a sought after location for the aristocracy in London, it now has rather limited residential property and is more of a commercial area.  Nevertheless, some of the large and very elegant houses here have been sub divided to provide executive apartments for rental.  Family sized property in the Mayfair area is generally in the form of a terraced town house, with four or five bedrooms, often on four floors.  Large flats are popular and so are the studio or one bedroom flats often used by businessmen as pieds- a- terre during the week.  You may be able to find a slightly cheaper property by choosing what is termed a back flat, that is, one without a view out to the front.  There is almost no freehold property here, with much of the property being owned by the Grosvenor Estate and available as leasehold only.

Westminster (SW1) and Victoria (SW1) are conservation areas with some beautiful buildings; some new developments such as Octavia House in Victoria offer luxurious, contemporary apartments.

Belgravia lies south of Mayfair on the other side of Hyde Park Corner.  Green Park, St James’ Park and Hyde Park are nearby and this is really a very expensive and very desirable part of London with squares of fabulous Regency and Georgian properties.  Some of those which remain intact house embassies and prestige offices. A few remain as private homes but most have been converted into highly desirable and expensive flats.   This area has many properties which have been purchased by companies for use by their top personnel when in London.  Popular privately owned properties in the Belgravia area include those in the mews which have been converted into family homes.

Pimlico sits between Belgravia and the River Thames.  Although still quite an exclusive neighbourhood, some properties in Pimlico can be more reasonably priced, perhaps because there is quite a lot of local authority housing here, particularly down near the river.  There are some attractive streets and squares in Pimlico  with pretty white stuccoed buildings and particularly sought after are the houses south of Warwick Way and Ebury Street in the Westmoreland Street area.  Most of the popular flats in Pimlico are in houses that have been converted.

Turning westwards Sloane Square stands at the beginning of the famous King’s Road, Chelsea and has the Royal Court Theatre, the department store Peter Jones and some popular pubs and restaurants on the square itself and in the streets behind. Here you will find traditional, red brick mansion blocks and terraced housing getting more exclusive as you go along Sloane Street towards Knightsbridge. This is the home to the famous Harrods department store and properties here include squares and terraces of lovely Victorian buildings.  There are also plenty of redbrick mansion blocks in this area, with good opportunities for rental.

Turning northwards and crossing Hyde Park with its well known lake, The Serpentine and Rotten Row where the horses exercise, you come into the Bayswater area where the streets are lined with period, terraced town houses on numerous floors. Many of these are converted into flats, but some are still complete and serve as family houses with patio gardens. The area has a large selection of elegant hotels, especially in the locality of Lancaster Gate and Hyde Park.  There is a bustling, lively shopping area along Queensway including small local shops, major retail chains such as Boots, ethnic restaurants and the Whiteleys shopping centre with its distinctive dome.

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On the west side of Bayswater, Princes Square provides more fine terraces of large stucco buildings with columned entrances overlooking a garden.  Some of these are houses, some are flats and some hotels.  Adjacent is Dawson Place where you will find the first evidence on the journey out from the West End, of detached and semi detached period houses with white stucco frontages and gardens.  These properties are very large and are at the top of the price range.  Nearby is Ledbury Road with its oasis of antiques and fine art shops. New apartments have been built at Marble Arch, appropriately named Marble Arch Apartments.

Continuing eastwards, Bloomsbury is an area dominated by the British Museum and Library and University College. In former times, there were prestigious town houses overlooking the garden in Russell Square, however, they are now mainly offices.  Much of the former housing stock in the area has been similarly converted leaving little on the open market.  There are some mansion blocks and flats of varying quality. The Tavistock Square and Woburn Place area has some popular purpose built  apartments and conversions of large period houses into flats.  The most affordable apartments are usually on the second floor and above.

North of Bloomsbury, across High Holborn, Covent Garden is popular for its cafes, restaurants, shops and market stalls as well as for street entertainments.   People who choose to live here often do so because of its vitality, they enjoy being at the heart of a very busy location.  The Covent Garden area has mainly flats either in converted properties or in ultra modern blocks, but there are almost no family houses at all.   If you are looking for a larger property, there are some four and five bedroom flats as well as the more prevalent  studios and one or two bedroom apartments.  Properties in Covent Garden are generally popular and can be rather expensive, but if you are willing to live in a basement or above the first floor, you may be able to find something more reasonably priced. 

The districts round Blackfriars and Fleet Street are not residential but, just to the north, Faringdon, Clerkenwell and Spitalfields are increasingly trendy with pockets of designer flat conversions in old buildings. Further east towards the City, you will find the Barbican.  Built in the 1960s, originally for rental, property here is very convenient for those working in the City of London.  Today about 80% of properties in the Barbican are owned, rather than rented. 

Properties are located in one of the three high rise blocks or in terraces.  Particularly sought after are the penthouses in the towers where those flats with three or four bedrooms are quite prestigious.  The views from the higher floors make these the more sought after and more expensive options.

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