Queen's Park (London)
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Queen's Park is an area of North West London divided between the London Borough of Brent and the City of Westminster. The main thoroughfare of the area is the Salusbury Road with Queen's Park tube station at one end and Brondesbury Park railway station at the other. The tube station is in zone 2 on the Bakerloo line. The station also has links to central London and north of the capital on the Silverlink train line. The Salusbury Road has an increasing number of shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants (including a branch of the infamously expensive bakery Baker and Spice.) In the past the area was rather run down, however over the past 5 years dramatic urban regeneration has taken place now making Queen's Park very popular with young professional couples and families with young children, out-of-work actors and so called "media mummies and daddies" who are often stereotyped for their owning of luxury four wheel drive cars, which fill the streets of the area. House prices are very high, with £700,000 - £850,000 being common selling prices for 3/4 bedroom terraced houses to the east of the Park (land values are slightly lower on the west hand side of the park, closer towards Kensal Rise), whilst larger 5-7 bedroomed houses overlooking the park on the east side sell for millions. The area is still relatively undiscovered by non-residents, although it is extremely popular for its proximity to central London by direct London Underground link. The area has a well established community, and "almost village atmosphere" in the words of the local residents' association, QPARA.
The main focus of the area is Queen's Park itself - a park with an area of 30 acres. Queen's Park Rangers originally came from here, as the name implies, though they now play nearby in Shepherd's Bush. In 1879 The Royal Agricultural Society chose Willesden as the site of its annual show. A 100 acre site was designated at Kilburn, and on 30th of June the show was opened. Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales attended to view a working dairy, agricultral machinery and a wide range of farm animals. The show ran for a week, in extremely bad weather. Although it attracted 185,000 visitors, it made a loss of £15000. It was decided to set up a permanent venue for the show, and the Society chose a place in Twyford. A part of the Kilburn site (30 acres) became Queen's Park.
Queen's Park is now managed by the Corporation of London. It has recently been named a Green Flag Park in recognition of the quality of its services and environment. Facilities in the park include six all-weather tennis courts, a pitch-and-putt course, a pétanque pitch, an ornamental garden, a children’s playground with paddling pool, and a cafe.
Queen's Park also has a mosque on Chevening Road which came to prominence in June 2003. It was at this time that the founder and leader of the mosque, Abdul Majid al-Khoei went back to Iraq. His aim was to help in the reorganisation of the country. Only few weeks from his arrival he was brutally murdered. Tony Blair had visited the religious leader several times at the mosque. The area is also home to the Islamia school, which is a Muslim school, set up by Yusuf Islam, better known as the pop singer Cat Stevens. The mosque has been questioned for the fact that nearly all of the attendees live in other parts of London, and it has no links with the local community at all; residents are often angered by the parking problems caused by people flocking to religious celebrations.
The part of Queen's Park which is in the City of Westminster is south of Queens Park station and hence south of the railway line out of Euston. It includes the Queens Park Estate, built from 1874 onwards by the Artizans and Labourers' General Dwellings Company. The architecture of that estate of some 2000 small houses is distinctively Gothic-revival, with polychrome brickwork, pinnacles and turrets along the bigger roads. It retains Avenues 1-6 and originally had streets A-P. The street names have been made into full words, eg Alperton St, Barfett St, Caird Street etc. It was on this estate that the first QPR footballers had their homes. It stretches from Kilburn Lane down to the Harrow Rd.
The Queen's Park Farmers' Market has recently started operating on Sunday mornings in the grounds of Salusbury Road School, on Salubsury Road, and has proved to be extremely popular with trendy locals for stocking up on often organic, locally grown/produced produce that is sold at very reasonable prices.
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[edit] External links
- The Queen's Park Area Residents' Association Website
- Queen's Park Community Website
- Corporation of London - Queen's Park
- Islamia Primary School
- Queens Park Community School
