Cricklewood is easy to leave every morning and much harder to put down roots in. It has two railway stations, and buses run from almost every stop, weekends included. Most front doors can get fast broadband. About six in ten households rent and only around a third own. The commute is the sure thing here, and the neighbours mostly come with a lease.
Cricklewood Rail Station takes the Thameslink line south, and Brent Cross West Station, opened in late 2023, has added a second stop at the northern end of the area. The buses do more of the daily work, though. The area has 336 bus stops. On the national timetable data the average stop sees about 440 departures on a weekday and around 24 buses an hour at peak, and 304 of the 305 stops with timetable data are served at weekends too. At the last census, 14% of working residents went to work by bus and 4% by train, while 36% worked from home. About half of households have no car, so most of the Edgware Road traffic belongs to someone else. Gigabit broadband reaches about 84% of premises and superfast broadband 99%, and every postcode gets a mobile signal from at least one network. Department for Transport models from 2019 put the nearest town centre about 14 minutes away by public transport. The road itself runs straight to Marble Arch, which most residents first discover from the top deck.
The local community is where Cricklewood struggles. About 35% of households own their home, a little over two in five rent privately and 21% rent from a social landlord. The typical resident is 36. The Office for National Statistics models average gross household income at about £68,000 for the financial year to March 2023, a respectable figure that does not go far at these prices. The area's neighbourhoods dropped down the Index of Multiple Deprivation between its 2019 and 2025 editions, and about 14% of homes count as overcrowded. Across the NW2 postcode district, companies hold 4,857 property titles, and 195 of those belong to overseas companies, most often registered in the British Virgin Islands. A good share of the street is owned by people who have never waited at one of its bus stops.
Changing a home is usually manageable here, but some streets have rules. The area has 125 listed buildings, 10 of them Grade II* and the rest Grade II, and parts of five conservation areas, including Railway Terraces Cricklewood and Priory Road. The railway terraces are the best story. The Midland Railway moved its locomotive works here in 1881 and built cottages for its workers, and those cottages are now listed. Housing put up for engine fitters now comes with the paperwork of a protected street.
The Metropolitan Police recorded crime at about 133 per 1,000 residents in the year to May 2026, roughly 2% above the Brent average of about 130. Anti-social behaviour makes up 27% of the local total against 16% nationally, and vehicle crime 8% against 5%. Violence and sexual offences, the broad category that tops most areas' figures, takes a smaller share here than it does nationally. Across the whole force, the Met charged someone in about 10% of cases against 12% nationally. Locally the problems are noise and damaged cars, and that is a different worry from the one most buyers picture when they hear the word crime.
Flooding in Cricklewood comes from rain. In the Environment Agency's river-and-sea flood zones, 0.1% of postcodes fall in zone 2 and none in zone 3. Surface water is another matter. Counting postcodes on at least one flood indicator, surface water included, 26% are rated high risk, 24% medium and 42% low. A street with no river anywhere near it can still be on the map because of what the drains can't handle in a downpour.
Ofsted has graded 39 of the 42 rated schools across Brent good or better, 10 of them outstanding, and that is a borough-wide count. Closer to home, the 11 primary schools in the district average 106 on the Key Stage 2 maths test and the four secondaries average 45 on Attainment 8. Claremont Primary School, Childs Hill Primary School and Mora Primary School are all local, and on 2019 modelling the nearest primary is about a six-minute walk.
The Land Registry's last twelve months, to May 2026, show 255 sales at a median of £540,000. The 157 flats sold for a median of about £450,000, terraces about £685,000 and semis about £800,000, and the eight detached sales came in at about £2,499,000. The House Price Index has average prices down about 3% over the year to May 2026. Band D is the most common council tax band, and 16% of homes are in bands A or B. Renting costs about £1,990 a month, which is the typical private rent across Brent as a whole.
On the council-tax valuation list, 66% of homes are flats, 17% terraced, 14% semi-detached and 3% detached, and 56% were built before 1930. About 70% of homes heat with mains gas and 13% with electricity alone. Energy certificates put 54% of rated homes in bands A to C and 9% in band E or worse. A converted Edwardian flat on electric heaters has running costs that no listing photograph will show you.
Outdoors is the pleasant surprise. The nearest green space is about 180 metres from the average front door, there are around 25 green spaces within a kilometre, and water is about 770 metres away. Dollis Hill has Gladstone Park, Roundwood Park is close by, and Childs Hill runs up to the western edge of Hampstead Heath. From 1908 to 1935 Westcroft Farm was a home of rest for horses, and they are still the only residents known to have moved to Cricklewood for the peace.
Tim Brooke-Taylor of The Goodies once lived here. Tamsin Greig, Nick Frost, Shaun Keaveny and Emma Anderson of Lush are also on its list of notable residents, and Alan Coren wrote about the place for years.
Cricklewood is right for people who want central London close by and a park at the end of the road, and who are fine with the people next door changing every so often. Buyers looking for a street where the same families stay for decades should look somewhere more settled.
Cricklewood is an ordinary place to live with an unusually good way out of it. Buy here if the journey matters more to you than who lives next door.