Bayswater

Template:Infobox London place Bayswater is an area of London in the City of Westminster. It is a built-up district located 3 miles (4.8 km) west north-west of Charing Cross and borders the north of Hyde Park.

Bayswater is one of London's most cosmopolitan areas, with the significant diversity of the local population added to by having one of London's biggest concentration of hotels. Notably, there is a significant Arab population, a large number of Americans, a substantial Greek community attracted by London's Greek Orthodox Cathedral and the area is also a centre of London's Brazilian community.

Architecturally, the biggest part of the area is made up of Victorian mansion blocks, mostly, although not exclusively, divided up into flats. There are also purpose built apartment blocks dating from the inter-war period as well as more recent developments, and a there is large Council Estate, the 800 flat Hallfield Estate, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and now largely sold off. There are some garden squares in the area.

Queensway and Westbourne Grove are busy High Streets, with a very large number of ethnic restaurants.

It has a population density of 17,500 people per square kilometre.

History

Rooftop view of Bayswater, looking from the top of one of the Hallfield Estate tower blocks towards Kensington Gardens.

The land now called Bayswater belonged to the Abbey of Westminster when the Domesday Book was compiled; the most considerable tenant under the abbot was Bainiardus, probably the same Norman associate of the Conqueror who gave his name to Baynard's Castle. The descent of the land held by him cannot be clearly traced: but his name long remained attached to part of it; and, as late as the year 1653, a parliamentary grant of the Abbey or Chapter lands describes "the common field at Paddington" as being "near a place commonly called Baynard's Watering." In 1720, the lands of the Dean and Chapter are described to be the occupation of Alexander Bond, of Bear's Watering, in the same parish of Paddington. It may therefore fairly be concluded that this portion of ground, always remarkable for its springs of excellent water, once supplied water to Baynard, his household, or his cattle; that the memory of his name was preserved in the neighbourhood for six centuries; and that his watering-place now takes the abbreviated name Bayswater.

Famous residents

Brett Anderson
J. M. Barrie
Winston Churchill
Alexander Fleming
Jonathan King (Convicted child sex offender for which he served 3.5 years of a 7 year term)
Guglielmo Marconi (the pioneer of wireless communication) lived at 71 Hereford Road between 1896 and 1897 with his mother upon arrival to England (marked by a Blue Plaque)
Stella McCartney
Sting occupied a basement flat at 28A Leinster Square in the late seventies during the formative years of The Police. Trudie Styler, now his current wife, lived in a basement flat two doors down. [1]

Various persons of international renown are frequently reported as buying property in the area, including Claudia Schiffer.

Local politics

The area elects six councillors to Westminster City Council, currently all Conservative. Three are elected from the wards of Bayswater, where the Conservatives have a majority in excess of 250 votes over the Liberal Democrats. Three are also elected from Lancaster Gate, which is a safe Conservative ward, represented by leader of the Council Simon Milton.

Nearest places

Nearest tube stations

Places of interest

References in fiction

In John le Carré's The Spy who Came in from the Cold, Liz is a member of the Bayswater South Branch of the Communist Party.
In le Carré's Smiley's People, the retired Russian major lives in a dingy flat on Westbourne Grove.
The Alfred Hitchcock film Frenzy was filmed in the area.
In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell indicates that the perambulator (carrying Jack, as a baby) was found "standing by itself in a remote corner of Bayswater".
Whiteleys is frequently seen in film, e.g. Love Actually, Closer, and was referred to in My Fair Lady as Eliza Dolittle is sent "to Whiteleys to be attired" in Pygmalion. It also has recording studios on the top floor.
Scenes in Alfie were filmed around Chepstow Road.
The main character in Iris Murdoch's novel A Word Child, Hilary Burde, has a "flatlet" near Bayswater Tube Station.