London NW6Sold

Brondesbury Road II

The attic room is a vast cathedral-like space with a tall pitched roof, flooded with light

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This wonderful five-bedroom semi-detached house lies within the popular Kilburn Conservation Area on Brondesbury Road. Equidistant from Queens Park and Kilburn High Road, the house is an expanse of Victorian space and volume built in the 1880s. Exceeding 3,000 sq ft internally and set over three flowing storeys, it has an enchanting private garden of over 80 ft in length. Original architectural details are plentiful, including beautiful chimneypieces with working fires, ornate plasterwork, box sash windows and pitch pine floorboards throughout. Although an already-characterful home, it may benefit from some updating and represents a wonderful opportunity to reimagine and further improve the beautiful spaces.

We’ve written about life here in more depth.

Setting the Scene

Entry to the house is through a garden gate, set into tall buxus hedging and to the private front garden. Handsome stucco work, including a grand entrance porch with central pediment and carved foliage, and window pilasters define the exterior; a dormer window is set into the roof’s pitch. Three bays wide at the first floor, the house has particularly grand proportions, including a large, canted bay window with dentil cornice on the ground floor. For more information, please see the History section below.

The Grand Tour

The original glazed front door features moulded panels and a beautiful leaded and coloured glass transom light. This opens to the wide and warm-yellow entrance hallway. Ceiling heights here, and through the entire house, are exceptionally generous. The house is particularly wide-set, with the spaces on the ground floor flowing effortlessly on a circular plan.

French doors lead to the kitchen, allowing light to flood the hall and providing a lovely vista to the very rear of the house and the study beyond. To the right is the bipartite living room, a capacious room painted a rich red with contrasting plasterwork and joinery painted chalky white. Two handsome and original chimneypieces, with cast-iron grates and working fires, define the spaces; cornicing is particularly ornate at the front of the room. A fixed window seat is thoughtfully set into the large, canted bay window overlooking the front garden, and reeded bookcases are positioned in both alcoves.

The rear of this room opens through a vast expanse of original fenestration and French windows to the conservatory, a wonderfully bright space overlooking the rear garden. The sunken study area with a beautiful mosaic tiled floor is set to the side and overlooks the garden. Connecting to the kitchen, this room could also make an excellent breakfast area or snug. The kitchen is a generous space and is positioned in the heart of the home. A large built-in larder is set to one side, and there is a fitted oven in the kitchen’s original hearth. Extensive cellars offer plentiful storage and lie below the kitchen and living room, with access from the rear of the entrance hallway.

The winding staircase, with a beautifully turned main newel post, featured as one of the locations for Richard Curtis’s 2013 film ‘About Time’, starring Bill Nighy. It leads to four spacious bedrooms and a shared bathroom on the first floor. The staircase continues up to the apex; an artist’s garret of sorts, the attic room is a vast cathedral-like space with a tall, pitched roof and is flooded with light, care of several skylights. An en suite bathroom is discreetly hidden behind a partition wall, while French windows open to a wooden set of steps and descend to a private and sunny roof terrace with verdant views of neighbouring treetops.

The Great Outdoors

The large, secluded garden leads directly from the conservatory and is wonderfully mature with separate seating areas, including a terrace nearest to the house. Before the house was built, Brondesbury Estate was formed of market gardens because of its fertile local soil, and many of the several trees in the garden are older than the house itself.

These mature trees afford great privacy and seclusion to the garden. There is a lawn surrounded by many additional established specimens, including an abundance of mature roses and an apple tree trained into an arch, leading to a particularly sunny spot at the rear of the garden; the perfect place to enjoy drinks alfresco on warm summer evenings.

Out and About

Brondesbury Road is situated between Queens Park and Kilburn High Road. The High Road offers plenty of convenient shopping, as does Queens Park. Salusbury Road is home to a branch of Gail’s bakery, Planet Organic, Provenance Butchers, and both the Salusbury Wine Shop and The Salusbury Deli. A weekly farmer’s market is located at the primary school on the same road, while the popular Alice House and Salusbury Pub are recommended for food and drinks. The quiet and car-free Lonsdale Road offers further provisions from the likes of Bread Ahead bakery, coffee roasters Milk Beach and brewery/bar Wolfpack.

Queens Park provides a wonderful pocket of greenery nearby, with its tennis courts, playground and children’s petting zoo. Paddington Recreation Ground is also close by, with a running track where Roger Bannister trained (renowned for his 4-minute mile), tennis courts, a nature trail and a children’s play area.

Several renowned secondary schools, such as University College School, South Hampstead, Channing, St Margarets and Arnold House, are around a 10-minute drive from the house. The highly-rated Mulberry House School, for younger children, is a short walk away. Also within walking distance are the excellent Malorees, Christchurch, North West London School, Emmanuel C of E Primary School and Beckford School.

The house is a short walk from Kilburn Underground station (Jubilee Line), Queens Park Underground station (Bakerloo Line) and Brondesbury Overground station. The A5 is close by for easy routes to the north circular and out of London.

Council Tax Band: G

Please note that all areas, measurements and distances given in these particulars are approximate and rounded. The text, photographs and floor plans are for general guidance only. Inigo has not tested any services, appliances or specific fittings — prospective purchasers are advised to inspect the property themselves. All fixtures, fittings and furniture not specifically itemised within these particulars are deemed removable by the vendor.

History

The Kilburn Conservation Area is characterised by its wide, tree-lined streets and mixture of Victorian and Edwardian houses. It was designated a conservation area in 1993 and has been carefully preserved; it is one of the few surviving parts of the original Brondesbury Estate.

The estate was built in stages from the Edgware Road, with four distinct periods of development. The central houses of Brondesbury Road, upon which this house lies, were constructed by local builder George Henry Wickes towards the end of the third phase – between 1884 and 1885.

Originally built for the middle classes of these ‘new’ suburbs, the area is now a quietly fashionable area, with countless independent provisors located nearby Salusbury and Lonsdale Roads. The wonderful Queens Park is a short walk away.