Maida Vale

Maida Vale is Notting Hill for people who wanted the grand addresses without tourists photographing their front door. The mansion blocks were built for Edwardians with a cook and a coal cellar, and their residents' committees can now turn a lift replacement into a feud that outlasts most marriages. Down at Little Venice, the houseboats are moored within spitting distance of flats their owners could never afford, and the estate agents have agreed to call that romantic.