The area around Colindale is greener and wetter than its flats suggest. There is a park within a couple of minutes' walk of most front doors. The nearest water is about a five-minute walk away. Protected countryside is the one thing missing. It is suburban London at its most useful, with nothing scenic about it.
The average home is about 130 metres from a public green space, and there are around 28 of them within a kilometre. Montrose Playing Fields, Silkstream Park, Heybourne Park and Colindale Park all lie inside the district. That many green spaces is a lot for an area this densely built.
Water is about 450 metres away on average, with around 21 bodies of water within a kilometre. Heybourne Park has a pond, the Silk Stream runs through the district from north to south, and West Hendon reaches down to the Welsh Harp, as the Brent Reservoir is known locally. For somewhere eight miles from Charing Cross, Colindale has a fair amount of water.
Longer bike rides are harder. The nearest stretch of the National Cycle Network is about 9 kilometres away on average, and no postcode in the area is close to it. Most of the green space here is for walking, and very little of it is for cycling.
The rated-premises records count 420 shops, 17 pubs and 32 restaurants in the area. Colindale has far more shops than places to eat or drink, so most of its nightlife is a takeaway eaten at home.
Barnet's fine-particle pollution averaged about 8.5 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024. That is a borough-wide figure and says nothing about a flat that faces the main road.
The district is built along the A5, the Edgware Road, which is both the main shopping street and the boundary with Brent. In recent years tower blocks of new flats have gone up on what were a hospital, a newspaper archive and an aerodrome. At The Hyde, a large Sainsbury's, Silkbridge Retail Park and Hendon Magistrates' Court are all on the same road, so between them they cover most of life's errands and a few nobody plans. To the south-west, Kingsbury is quieter and more suburban.
Private outdoor space works out at about 32,600 square metres of garden per 1,000 residents across the area, and almost all of it belongs to the houses. Many flat buyers get a balcony at most. If a flat advert lists "communal gardens", go and see them, because the phrase can mean anything from a lawn to a strip of planting beside the bin store.
The valuation list has 1,356 rateable premises in the area. The largest groups are 419 shops, 286 offices and 116 warehouses. These are premises on the council's list, which does not mean every one is open and trading. The large number of offices and warehouses shows that Colindale is still a place where people work, as well as a place where they live.
Of the 366 food outlets with a hygiene rating, about 67% have the top score of five, and about 5% are rated in the lowest bands.
No area of outstanding natural beauty, site of special scientific interest or ancient woodland overlaps Colindale. Its green space is ordinary municipal provision: playing fields, parks and a pond kept up by Barnet council, with no national designation protecting any of it.
Colindale's surroundings are one of its strongest points. Parks and water are a short walk from almost every home, even though none of it would appear on a postcard.