Queen’s Park, Brent/Westminster
A largely built-over park in West Kilburn – with some of London’s trendiest terraces
Terraced cottages built by the Artizans’, Labourers’ and General Dwellings Company
Queen’s Park was created for the International Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society, opened in 1879 by Queen Victoria. The open space that remains today was a section of the showground, but much of the rest was built up by the Artizans’, Labourers’ and General Dwellings Company as a grid of terraced cottages for the respectable working classes. The park belonged to the Church Commissioners, who gave it to its present owners, the Corporation of London.
During the early 20th century Queen’s Park had a number of small engineering firms, but residential building – mostly municipal – has now replaced almost all the original industry. The Mozart council estate has been a particularly unpopular place to live. In Brent’s Queens Park ward (no apostrophe) the majority of homes are owner occupied but in Westminster’s Queen’s Park ward (with an apostrophe) most are rented from the council or a housing association.
Around 60 per cent of Queen’s Park’s residents are white and the main ethnic minorities are of black Caribbean, black African and white Irish descent. At Queen’s Park primary school 85 per cent of pupils speak one of 29 languages other than English and 21 per cent are of refugee status.
Queen’s Park Rangers football club was formed in the year 1882 by the old boys of Droop Street board school. Originally called St Jude’s, the club took its present name after a merger with Christchurch Rangers in 1886. QPR have played outside the Queen’s Park neighbourhood for the majority of their existence, mostly at their present ground in Loftus Road. They were in and out of top-flight football from the late 1960s to the mid-90s. In 2011 the benefits of several years’ wealthy ownership finally paid off as they climbed into the Premier League.
