Chard Estate Agents - Clarendon Cross area guide

Local know-how

If you are looking for a property for sale or to rent in Clarendon Cross we have the experience and local know how to help you.

For more information on buying or renting in Clarendon Cross or to arrange an appointment to view our current selection of flats and houses for sale and to let in the Clarendon Cross area, please contact us at the offices above.

Clarendon Cross, Holland Park W11

The area, to the north of Holland Park, consists of Portland Road, Hippodrome Place (which gained its name from the Hippodrome Race course that was built on the southern end of Ladbroke Grove Hill by the earl of Ladbroke but failed to be a success) and Clarendon Road, and is partly pedestrianised. It is very upmarket, very gracious and feels extremely special. Not really a family area, it is populated mainly by rich couples and single people and the tone is arty and slightly bohemian rather than city or banking. Clarendon Cross is a favourite haunt of film directors, successful novelists and writers, and artists.

Because the area is hidden away – although easy enough to find – it is quiet, but a favourite haunt of celebrities who may be spotted dining, filming or eating.

The shops include Virginia's antique clothes; Piano Nobile fine art; The Cross, for funky children’s and adult clothes, Harper and Tom’s flowers, Fired Earth and Cath Kidson’s 1950s-inspired decorative objects.

The main restaurants are Julie’s Bar & restaurant which has been running for thirty years or so and The Notting Grill on Clarendon Road owned by celebrity chef Antony Warrell Thompson.

The Cowshed at 119 Portland Road, W11, owned by the famous Soho House group, offers a range of spa treatment services including beauty treatments, massages, manicures and pedicures as well as a cafe.

Pottery Lane gets its name from the area’s once prominent cottage industry of Potters (mostly brick making – you can still see the kiln at the end of Hippodrome Mews) and Piggeries. In common with many other bohemian enclaves of London, the area was once a notorious slum, known locally as "Cut Throat Lane"! More recent residents include Robbie Williams and Liz Hurley. The mews type houses are separated the main houses of Princedale Road and now house a number of well know architects and model agenciesoperating within thoroughly modernised buildings.

A short walk down Portland Road brings you into Holland Park Avenue, with its supermarkets, world-famous butchers Lidgate’s, pizza bars, wine shops, Wilkinson’s kitchen design shop, The Rug Company as well as a branch of the Phase Eight fashion shop. The arthouse Gate and Coronet cinemas are about 10 minutes’ walk away in Notting Hill Gate.