Shopping
Food shopping
Restaurants pubs, cafés
The park
Health
Nurseries
Prep & primary schools
Playgroups
Activities & sports for children
Estate agents
Shopping
Bursting Buds
Clarendon Road
Tel: 7229 6930
For beautiful hand-tied flower bunches.
Simon Harris Living
Tel: 7727 8009
... is on the main strip and also sells gifts.
Hillcrest
Tel: 7727 6350
The pharmacy with everything.
99 Dry Cleaners
Tel: 7229 2667
Offers a free collection and delivery service.
Holland Park Newsagents
... sold a jackpot-winning lottery ticket in 2002. Have
passport photos taken here.
About Face Beauty Clinic and Scissors Palace
Hair Salon
Tel: 7792 9363
Offers everything you’ll need in both categories.
The Post Office
Clarendon Cross
... has been run by the same family for 25 years. Early closing
on Thursdays. There is another Post Office at the end of Ladbroke
Grove.
The Cross
Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7727 6760
Gifts
Summerill and Bishop
Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7221 4566
Beautiful kitchen accessories
Cath Kidston
Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7221 4000
Elanbach
Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7792 2907
Fabrics and furnishings. Run by the husband and daughter of the
late Laura Ashley.
Virginia Antiques
Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7727 9908
Vintage clothes and antiques.
139 Clarendon Cross
Tel: 7221 5481
Pottery, cards, pictures and other gifts.
Lipp
Portland Road
Tel: 7243 2432
An interior design shop full of beautiful furry cushions, candelabras,
gifts and the odd sofa.
 The Rug Company
Tel: 7792 3245
Spectacular and unusual carpets – they are happy for you
to take one home on trial.
Seen
Tel: 7727 7676
Picture frames and photographic paraphernalia. They also offer
a 30-minute develop and print service.
Holland Park BMW
Tel: 7221 8575
Buy your BMW or Mini here.
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 Food
Shopping
Lidgate
Tel: 7727 8243
Famous for its meat and homemade pies. Delivery available.
Speck
Tel: 7229 7005
Portland Road
A great Italian deli.
 Jeroboam
Tel: 7727 9359
A specialist cheese shop with a big choice of pasteurised cheeses
for pregnant women.
Maison Blanc
Tel: 7221 2494
The original London branch: coffee stop, French bread, patisserie
and savoury treats.
Michanicou Brothers
Clarendon Road
Tel: 7727 5191
Wonderfully fresh fruit and veg. Delivery available.
Two excellent choices for wine:
Nicolas
Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7727 5148
Handford’s
Portland Road
Tel: 7221 9614
For convenience shopping: Cullens and
Harts.
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Restaurants, pubs,
cafés
Restaurants:
The Belvedere
Holland Park
Tel: 7602 1238
Marco Pierre White’s restaurant in the park: a delight,
particularly in the summer.
Orsino
Portland Cross
Tel: 7221 3299
For a casual supper out or Saturday lunch with the kids.
Il Posto
Clarendon Road
Tel: 7727 3330
A really good local Italian.
Tootsies
Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7229 8567
Packed at the weekend with families, but with good reason.
Anthony Worrall Thompson’s Notting Grill
Tel: 7229 1500
A hidden treat; he also has an organic café and deli at
the top of Clarendon Road that are worth checking out.
148 Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7221 6090
An ill-fated restaurant site which has most recently been Offshore
and Raccolto. It is reopening as Edera – let’s wait
and see.
 Pubs:
The Ladbroke Arms
An all-time favourite, opposite the police station off Ladbroke
Grove.
The Academy
Princedale Road
Serves good food and is especially popular at lunchtime.
Cafés:
Choose between Starbucks next to the
tube, Maison Blanc. or Café
Chambery, which has tables on the pavement in the summer.
Coffee at Julie’s is a popular
choice. The park has its own café with outdoor seating.
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The Park
Holland Park Café (now under refurbishment
for six months) acts as a magnet to anyone with children in tow.
Book early for Holland
Park Opera (Tel: 7602 7856) during
July and August.
 The Ecology Center
is now home to Splodge parties: meet an African land snail or a
hissing cockroach. They also run outdoor treasure hunts. Contact
Splodge (Tel: 7350 1473/77).
Tennis courts and lessons can be booked
(Tel: 7602 2226).
Two playgrounds: the under fives’
one is set in huge sandpit; the new over fives’ play area
includes tyre swing, centrifugal spinner and tow rope.
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Health
Holland Park Surgery
73 Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7229 1063
The Portland Road Practice
Tel: 7727 7711
Dr Reznek
170 Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7603 4155
Recommended dentist.
The Food Doctor
76 Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7792 6700
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Nurseries
There are too many to list, but these are the ones to register for
early:
Miss Delaney’s at St James
Top of Addison Avenue
Miss Delaney’s Too
Sirdar Road
Tel: 7727 0010 (for both)
Acorn Nursery
Lansdowne Crescent
Tel: 7727 2122
Dr Rolfe’s Montessori School
Pembridge Square.
Tel: 7727 8300
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Prep & Primary
schools
Norland Place School
Holland Park Avenue
Tel: 7603 9103
Register early and you might be lucky.
St Clement and St James C of E Primary
Penzance Place
Tel: 7603 9225
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Playgroups
St John’s Church Undercroft
Junction of Lansdowne Crescent and Ladbroke Grove
Tel: Katherine Hederley on 8960 8818
Runs an under-threes’ drop-in (Tue & Thu 1.30–4pm)
£1.50 per child. The Undercroft is available to hire for parties:
contact Royd Barker (Tel: 8741 3911).
St Peter’s
Kensington Park Road
Tel: Helen Dury on 7221 9841
Runs a drop-in playgroup (Tue–Fri 9.45–11.45am);£1.50
per child.
The One O’clock Club
Holland Park
Open weekdays 1-4pm; £1 per child.
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Activities &
sports for children
The Kensington Leisure Centre
top of Walmer Road
Tel: 7727 9923/9747
Renovated in 2000. There are swimming lessons with Swimwell (call
the centre) or Swimming Nature (Tel: 0870
900 8002) and the teaching pool is open to the public for much of
the day. Rooms can be hired out for parties. Bumpers Back Yard is
a soft play zone for 6-month- to 7-year-olds, which is very popular.
There are clubs, courses and drop-in sessions for children include
football, basketball, gymnastics, trampolining and swimming.
St Barnabas Church
Addison Road
Crechendo Music and physical activities for under fives. (Tel:
8675 6611 for bookings).
St Clement and St James’s School
Penzance Place
Tel: 7603 9225
Drama courses run in the school holidays.
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Estate Agents
The big ones are almost all represented. Start with:
Marsh and Parsons
Tel: 7605 6890
Jackson-Stops & Staff
Tel: 7727 5111
Prompt Estates
Tel: 7371 1111
Cluttons
Tel: 7371 3600
And the newest to the area:
Anthony Sharp
Tel: 7243 8393
Cost of Buying a House:
Two-bedroom flat from £300,000
Three-bedroom house from £650,000
Five-bedroom house from £1,200,000
And up: recently, a 3,000sq ft maisonette on Holland Park was on
the market for £2,950,000.
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First published in angels
and urchins, Spring 2003
|
Just a few hundred yards from Shepherd’s
Bush Green and the constant traffic of the roundabout, Holland Park
is an oasis of calm, sophisticated chic. There are gorgeous houses,
great shops and good schools. Holland Park itself is on your doorstep
for open spaces, manicured garden, peacocks, fabulous sandpit and
state-of-the-art play area. It is only a short walk down the hill
to all that Kensington High Street offers or up the hill to Notting
Hill Gate. There is a real community here, with plenty of playgroups,
nurseries and activities for young children. As you can see from
the details below, once you are there, you really never need to
leave.