It is hard to believe that in the 1980 s the Church Commissioners, who were the big local landowners, decided to sell their holdings at seemingly any price. Local residents and developers alike were the happy recipients of the Church Commissioner s largesse and it was not uncommon for freehold houses to be bought for less than half their worth. As an indirect result of this feeding frenzy, most of the houses in Maida Vale were converted into flats.

Recently the economic climate has changed to favour houses over flats and much of the eighties conversion work is being undone. The big attraction of buying a house in Maida Vale is the multitude of communal gardens, the largest of which lies between Warrington and Randolph Crescent and is nearly 3 acres in size.

Whilst the centre of the area is dominated by large red brick mansion blocks, the southern-most corner of Maida Vale centres about Little Venice, so called because of the views of the junction of three branches of the grand union canal. There is a parade of useful shops and restaurants on Clifton Road and Clifton Nursery garden centre on Clifton Villas, which completes the pictures of a largely self-sustaining community.

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