WHY I LOVE LITTLE VENICE!

10 REASONS TO LOVE LITTLE VENICE

Having just enjoyed the most wonderful, lucky day wandering around the area and brunching with my gorgeous girlfriends Maria and Karen, I realised (in May 07, since which time I have updated this blog!) that I absolutely LOVE where I live, which is Little Venice, London W9 (and also W2). Here's why:

1) It's incredibly convenient for reaching the West End by car, bus or underground (or even on foot), but also handy for Regent's Park, St John's Wood, Notting Hill, Hampstead. We can walk to the Heathrow Express at Paddington Station in 10 minutes (via Ayumu, a great new Japanese restaurant in Sheldon Square). You can also walk all the way to Camden along the canal towpath. It took me about 10 years to get around to doing this, admittedly, but it's a gorgeous stroll (or hike, depending on your shoes) along the backs of the ambassadorial residences of Regents Park, past the wolf runs and Aviary at London Zoo and also some lovely terraced houses in Primrose Hill/Camden, which I never realised have gardens that sweep down to the canal (and little boats!).

2) The most beautiful residential buildings are the grand white stucco-fronted, high ceilinged Regency houses clustered around the leafy Regent's Park Canal with its colourful barges and houseboats. On this weekend every year there is a 3-day festival called the May Cavalcade. Great fun for kids - pageants, free kayak rides, food stalls, secondhand books, local history etc.

3) Little Venice and Maida Vale boast a network of vast, secret communal gardens that you can't see from the street, like those in Notting Hill. The best apartments are raised or lower ground floor as they have direct access to the gardens.My 3-acre gardens (called "Formosa") are by no means the largest; nonetheless they enjoy a superb Family Fun Day every summer (with huge inflatables, pony rides, ice cream vans, hog roast etc) and a big, fabulous fireworks display and bonfire on November 5th, as do most of the others. The gardens are immaculately maintained and a great place to picnic, barbecue or exercise and for children to play in total safety. For a snoop around the gardens, just pop a W9 postcode into Google Earth.

4) Increasingly, Little Venice is a gastronomic destination in its own right. Gordon Ramsay opened his second gastropub in art nouveau landmark The Warrington (stick to the bar food...); there's a great modern pub (The Waterway, LV's answer to the Westbourne) on the canal with a massive terrace that serves lovely food including barbecue; another gorgeous, architecturally-interesting Victorian pub (Prince Albert) has an excellent restaurant (The Formosa Dining Room); The Bridge House (also on the canal) has a comedy theatre upstairs. And I don't even like pubs! The Truscott Arms was transformed last year by the Ruby Group into glam hangout Idlewild (with a great party space upstairs). Little Venice also has 2 really superlative eat-in deli's (Baker & Spice and Raoul's); 2 decent pizza/pasta restaurants (Red Pepper and Le Cochonnet); an elegant French/Italian place for taking parents to (The Green Olive) and - one of my favourites - The Boat House (formerly Jason's) which is an open-sided restaurant with terrace right on the canal at water level which does fantastic modern European food and is a real winner for brunch. The Bombay Bicycle Club delivers great Indian food. Little Venice is also really handy for Maroush and some of the best Lebanese restaurants in London along the Edgware Road.

5) We have arguably the best florist in London (Hayley Newstead's Absolute Flowers) with a great gift and homewares shop attached. Close by are nail bars, a fantastic organic butcher, branches of Boots and Tesco, a marvellous hairdresser's (Simon Warwick) that's open 7 days a week etc. There's a cluster of nail and beauty shops in Clifton Gardens and Clarendon Terrace.

6) We have London's oldest and prettiest garden centre - Clifton Nurseries on Clifton Gardens. This houses an exceedingly glamorous Daylesford Organic shop, deli and restaurant (in a beautiful open sided conservatory). A great place to buy gifts, plants or lunch.

7) Fitness-wise, Randolph Avenue is home to the Iyengar Yoga centre and there's a Pilates studio in Bristol Gardens. Castellain Road has a wonderful tennis club (The Paddington Sports Club) with an old fashioned bar that serves Thai food. You can also play tennis at Paddington Rec a few blocks away. I have a great local personal trainer, Vahdaneh, who specialises in boxing coaching. I'm hardly the best poster girl as I'm so lazy... but if you fancy a test session at a massive discount please email her at vvfitness@googlemail.com and mention my name, or click her picture on the right to go to her website.

8) Guests can park around here for free on weekends. And it's a lot cheaper than Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Notting Hill if those are out of your budget.

9) It's immensely convenient for the Business School in Regent's Park and the American School in St John's Wood if that's remotely relevant.

10) In case you're a rubbernecker, here are some people who live in Little Venice: Chrissie Hynde (and her dog), Patrick Cox (and his hilarious dog, which wears smart tailored coats but dislikes walking), Duncan James from Blue (no dog), Jenny Seagrove & Bill Kenwright, make-up artist Pat McGrath, ballerina Viviana Durante, Tina Hobley, um, David Soul and, er, Lulu. Sadie Frost married Jude Law on a barge in Little Venice and still lives nearby, as does Kate Moss. In fact, Little Venice's slebtastic status is such that the quite extraordinary Little Venice Cake Company is still called that, despite now being based in Marylebone. Mich Turner of LVCC has baked sumptuous cakes for Madonna, David Beckham, Pierce Brosnan, Gordon Ramsay and Sharon Osbourne, oh my.

The only real downside is that Little Venice is outside the congestion zone (:

Lovely Little Venice pix (helpfully uploaded by another fan, I particularly like number 11) at http://www.marksblogg.com/gallery/159

More info at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Venice
http://www.maidavalevillage.com
http://www.offtolondon.com/littlevenice.html