4. Appendix A – Queen’s Park Evidence Base
One of Westminster’s most demographically diverse areas, Queen’s Park, is located in the north-west of the borough, at the border with Brent and Kensington and Chelsea. The Queen’s Park Community Council’s designated boundary, the area covered by the emerging Neighbourhood Plan, is the same as the Queen’s Park ward. The area is enclosed by Kilburn Lane to the north and west, the Harrow Road and the Grand Union Canal to the south, and Fernhead Road and Portnall Road to the west. Largely residential, it includes the Queen’s Park Estate (the Victorian Gothic-revival development locally known as ‘the Avenues’), the 1970s Mozart and Harrow Road Estates, as well as shops and local amenities, mostly along the area’s two high streets: the Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane. Queen’s Park Gardens is the only green space of significant size, and everywhere in the Neighbourhood Plan area is located within walking distance of this central park. The area has over 13,300 residents in 5,100 homes, a population large enough to support basic neighbourhood facilities. The Queen’s Park Estate Conservation Area covers the original estate built in the late 1800’s by the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company, and includes listed Grade 2 properties along Fifth Avenue and the Droop Street School (Queen’s Park Primary School). The school, the Queen’s Park library on the Harrow Road and the old Queen’s Park meeting hall on Harrow Road/ First Avenue junction are landmark buildings, standing out in use and scale from the rest of the estate.
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The canal is an important feature of the area however, the towpath, on the south side is in Kensington and Chelsea and the area doesn’t connect much to the canal, except at the foot of the Half Penny Bridge where it meets the Harrow Road. At this point lies Canal Terrace, a striking three storey structure that overlooks the canal, but is in poor state of repair, with a number of blank frontages where shops once were. The area faces a number of challenges, including the shortage of social, affordable and intermediate housing, and overcrowding of existing homes. Other challenges are associated with the loss of retail on the Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane but also on smaller residential streets - Mozart Street and Dart Street, which once acted as important community convenience hubs. Another challenge is the redevelopment of the site of the area’s only sports and swimming centre, the Jubilee Centre, which has consent to be transformed into a primarily residential scheme, with the majority of sports facilities being provided in a new Moberly Centre, in neighbouring Brent.