Compton Miller: Brook Green

Compton Miller covers Brook Green

You know an area is on the up when you find a pub sign saying: ‘Smart dress. No overalls. No football colours’, as The Queen’s Head does on Brook Green. Jeffrey Archer first introduced me to Brook Green, when he rang to say that the sculptor Leon Underwood, Henry Moore’s mentor, had died and his widow was selling off the contents of his studio. ‘Get down quick to 12 Girdlers Road and you’ll pick up a bargain!‘, he urged. Years later my Underwood bronze still reminds me of my visit to this then undiscovered Hammersmith enclave.

Restaurateur Sebastian Snow was the gastro-pioneer who first enticed outsiders to down-at-heel Shepherds Bush Road, when in 1991 he opened Snows on the Green (RIP). Stars like Robbie Coltrane, Rick Mayall and Billy Connolly flocked there to taste his cosmopolitan Mediterranean cooking. In their wake came bankers, doctors and media folk eager to colonize quiet, but rundown, residential streets like Aynhoe Road, Caithness Road, Augustine Road and Dunsany Road, many houses still in multi-occupancy.
Dull high street shops, pubs and cafes received clever makeovers so that today you find flashes of Marylebone High Street and Upper Street Islington.

Brookies are proudest of Betty Blythe ‘fine food pantry‘, a newish deli on Blythe Road, the central artery of Brook Green. Partly named after the 1920s Hollywood actress it serves yummy organic fruit and veg, cheeses, breads, muffins and brownies.

Another foodie newcomer and standby for time-stressed hostesses desperate to buy an instant dinner party is Brooks Counter and Table, a Shepherds Bush Road deli-cafe. Among the home-cooked dishes, cheeses, olive oils and charcuterie are Truly Scrumptious’ range of organic baby food. Opposite is the Cape Clear Fish Shop which sells daily-delivered fish and seafood from Devon and Cornwall, as well as fish pies, crab cakes, remoulade and bouillabaisse.
Interior decorators and suppliers are also now infiltrating the area’s former greasy spoons, kebab shops, convenience stores and bakeries. There’s the Innes & Innes consultancy, Adorn London selling contemporary art, homeware and interior design items, Oliver Bonas (gifts, toys, jewellery, fashion and novelties) and Holloways of Ludlow (state-of-the-art lighting, radiators and hardware). Alas my favourite shop, Candle Makers Supplies (by appointment to the Prince of Wales), is closing down shortly. It stocks a multi-coloured range of different sized, shaped and smelling candles. You can also buy the equipment to design your own.

Brook Green, genteel, civilised and central, has become a magnet for parents wanting a good education for their children. There’s Bute House girls’ prep school, Jacques Prevert French prep school, St Paul’s Girls School and Larmenier and Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School.

Property bargains are becoming available as buyers appreciate Brook Green‘s well-built Victorian and Edwardian terraces. ‘We have lots of applicants looking for reasonably priced family homes‘, say Finlay Brewer. ‘They can expect to pay around £1 million-£1.5 million for a three/four bed house and £400,000-£450,000 for a two-bed flat’.