Shepherd's Bush

Shepherd's Bush was a rest stop for shepherds walking their flocks to Smithfield, or so the name suggests, and the arrangement still holds, except the flock now carries Westfield bags and queues for the Central line. The Green is a triangle of grass marooned inside a traffic system, Westfield looms over it like a cruise ship that docked and never left, and Holland Park starts just east of a railway line and the stub of an abandoned 1960s motorway, which together do a better job of keeping the neighbours apart than any planning policy could. People move here for the Tube and the price of not living in Notting Hill, then find Notting Hill is a short walk over the roundabout, which is either motivating or a very slow form of torture.