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Two blue plaques in Parkhill Road in north London’s Belsize Park — one to the sculptor Henry Moore, the other to the painter Piet Mondrian — tell the story of London’s artistic community in the Thirties.

Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo and Herbert Read all lived nearby and when Mondrian was coaxed into leaving Paris for London in 1938 the group found him a studio in Parkhill Road. But after Nicholson and Hepworth fled to St Ives and Moore to Much Hadham, Mondrian had little reason to stay in wartime Britain. When a bomb dropped on the house next door he fled to New York.

Today, Belsize Park is home to a much wealthier arty set. Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow and her Coldplay frontman husband Chris Martin own two adjacent mid-Victorian villas, while actress Helena Bonham Carter and her film director husband Tim Burton live in two mews houses with a connecting door.

Belsize Park is three and a half miles from central London, south of Hampstead and north of Chalk Farm and Primrose Hill. Its name is reputed to derive from the French “bel assis” or “well-seated”. Development started in the mid-19th century when large stucco mansions around Belsize Square were built to rival Kensington and Bayswater. Later, small Arts & Crafts-influenced houses and mansion flats were built.

It also has a small concentration of art deco and modern movement buildings, including Stanbury Court deco flats on Haverstock Hill, and houses on Garnett Road and Parkhill Road, while the Isokon building on Lawn Road, by architect Wells Coates, is one of this country’s finest London examples of modern-movement architecture.

What there is to buy in Belsize Park

According to estate agent James Staite of the Belsize Park office of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, most large stucco houses are now converted into flats, though a spacious three-bedroom flat can cost as much as £1.2 million.

Whole houses are rare, although a house in Belsize Park Gardens sold for £6 million this year. An art deco house with original Crittall windows costs £1 million plus, while a one-bedroom flat in the Stanbury Court block costs £500,000.

The area attracts: Belsize Park is popular with European buyers who are used to apartment living, but there is also a strong local market of people trading up from a one-bedroom flat to a two or three-bedroom flat.

Staying power: families who want a house tend to move out because the jump from a flat to a house prices many people out of Belsize Park.

Postcode: Belsize Park falls into NW3, the desirable Hampstead postcode which also includes Chalk Farm and part of Primrose Hill.

Best roads: Belsize Park Gardens, Belsize Square and Eton Avenue.

Renting in Belsize Park

Colin Gillibrand, lettings manager at Kinleigh, Folkard & Hayward’s Belsize Park branch, says most renters are young professional singles and couples, and corporate lets. People like the period conversions for their high ceilings, cornices and wooden floors.

What’s new?

De Laszlo House in Fitzjohn’s Avenue is a development of three interlinked Arts & Crafts-style houses. One was the home of the royal portrait painter Philip de Laszlo who painted Edward VII in 1907 and Princess Elizabeth in 1933. There are 18 two-, three- and four-bedroom flats and prices range from £1.45 million to £3.85 million (Knight Frank 020 7861 5442).

Up and coming: James Staite tips The Etons, Thirties blocks near Chalk Farm Tube, where one-bedroom flats sell for about £360,000 and two-bedroom flats for about £530,000.

Getting an education

Belsize Park has a very high concentration of private schools. The choice for girls is between Sarum Hall (ages three to 11) in Eton Avenue, The Village (ages three to 11) in Parkhill Road, St Christopher’s (ages four to 11) in Belsize Lane, South Hampstead High (ages four to 18) in Netherhall Gardens and Maresfield Gardens, and The Royal (ages three to 16) in Rosslyn Hill.

For boys there is Hereward House (ages four to 13) in Strathray Gardens, The Hall School (ages four to 13) in Crossfield Road and University College School (UCS) (co-ed ages three to seven, boys ages seven to 18 with girls in the sixth form) in Frognal. Trevor-Roberts School (co-ed ages four to 13) is in Eton Avenue.

The North Bridge School nursery (co-ed ages three to five) is in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, the junior school (co-ed five to eight) is in Netherhall Gardens. From September the North Bridge Senior school is moving from Camden Town to The Royal which will become co-educational, much to the consternation of some parents.

The Fine Arts College (co-ed ages 13 to 18) in Lambolle Place is a private school teaching mainly A-levels but with a few GCSE students. The following state primary schools are judged good by the Government’s education watchdog, Ofsted: Rosary RC in Haverstock Hill, Fleet in Fleet Road and Fitzjohn’s in Fitzjohn’s Avenue.

The nearest comprehensive is Haverstock, which is judged good. There is a lot of local excitement at the prospect of a new academy school sponsored by University College London, UCL, which opens in September.

Shops and restaurants

The inhabitants of Belsize Park must love coffee because no one is more than a couple of minutes away from a cappuccino. There are shops, cafés and restaurants on Haverstock Hill near Belsize Park Tube, and further down in the strip branded Steeles Village after the pub of the same name.

There are more shops along England’s Lane, where there is a popular butchers, Barretts, and in Belsize village on Belsize Lane. There is a farmers’ market every Wednesday at the Swiss Cottage end of Eton Avenue. XO in Belsize Lane is one of a small chain of restaurants serving pan-Asian food. Bradleys on Winchester Road has a Michelin Bib Gourmand award.

Open space: there’s a “park” in the name but Belsize Park hasn’t got one — although Regent’s Park, Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath are all close by.

Leisure and the arts

The Hampstead Everyman has a second cinema close to Belsize Park Tube. The Roundhouse at nearby Chalk Farm is a leading venue showing a mix of live music, theatre and circus. The Hampstead Theatre is a fringe theatre at Swiss Cottage, which is the location of the nearest council-owned swimming pool.

Travel: Belsize Park, Chalk Farm and Swiss Cottage are all stops on the Northern line. Finchley Road & Frognal station is on the Overground north London line. All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,168.

Council: Camden (Labour-controlled); Band D council tax for the 2012/2013 year is £1,328.25.

Average prices

Buying a house or flat in Belsize Park
One-bedroom flat: £432,000
Two-bedroom flat: £716,000
Two-bedroom house: £900,000
Three-bedroom house: £1.75 million
Four-bedroom house: £2.52 million
Five-bedroom house £3.78 million
Source: Zoopla

Renting in Belsize Park
One-bedroom flat: £350 to £550 a week
Two-bedroom flat: £425 to £850 a week
Two-bedroom house: £500 to £1,000 a week
Three-bedroom house: £750 to £1,500 a week
Four-bedroom house: £1,000 to £5,000 a week
Five-bedroom house: £1,250 to £10,000 a week
Source: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

London is a series of villages — and Barnes, in the south-west of the capital, is one of the loveliest. Sitting on a great curve of the Thames it has a two-and-a-half mile river frontage stretching from the London Wetland Centre and Barn Elms in the east to Barnes railway bridge, the last landmark on the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race, in the west. At the centre of this picture-postcard community there is a duck pond and the popular Sun Inn, with its outside terrace.

A favourite celebrity spot, familiar faces seen on its streets include residents Tim Rice, Aled Jones, Anneka Rice, Chris Patten, Patricia Hodge and Peter Snow. More macabre but no less famous is the tricky point on Queen’s Drive, now a place of pilgrimage, where Seventies pop star Marc Bolan of T Rex died in a car crash.

Narrow lanes lined with cottages are a feature of this part of London, as is traditional shopping: Saturday morning has a timeless feel about it as residents with proper shopping baskets visit the butchers and bakers, and have coffee with friends.

This favoured London village has good primary schools and high-achieving private schools, loads of owner-run little shops and restaurants and is a quick and easy commute into central London via Clapham Junction, Vauxhall or Waterloo. The presence of the Swedish school in Lonsdale Road has made this a popular destination for expatriate Swedes, which has given Barnes a detectable Scandinavian flavour.

Barnes has homes from several eras. There are Georgian houses overlooking the Thames and around St Mary’s Church. Further waves of development followed the opening of Hammersmith Bridge in 1827 when fine Regency villas with their own carriage drives and coach houses, which now sell for up to £5 million, were built along Castelnau.

There are also later Victorian and Edwardian houses including the famous lion houses in The Crescent, Glebe Road and Hillersdon Avenue with their fine detailing and proud lions looking down from their rooftop perches. These now sell for £2 million upwards. On the Lowther estate around Ferry Road there are spacious Twenties houses, which sell for £1.5 million-plus, and where Barnes merges with Mortlake there are roads of pretty terrace cottages in the area known as Little Chelsea.

Those in the Barnes primary school catchment area are particularly sought after and prices now start at £700,000. Close to Hammersmith Bridge and Barnes Bridge station there are large mansion flats overlooking the river. In Elm Bank Mansions close to Barnes Bridge, one-bedroom flats sell from £375,000.

The conversion of the Harrods depository into flats brought loft living to Barnes, while the nearby development of the old waterworks site brought new roads of townhouses and large detached houses.

The area attracts: Chris Carney of local estate agents, Chesterton Humberts, says people come to Barnes for the village atmosphere and the easy commute into the City. “We get a lot of young families moving from flats in Chelsea or Kensington to a house in Barnes. There is also a strong local market with people trading up and down.”

Renting: according to Chris Carney, young professionals like the flats near Hammersmith Bridge. “They will walk over the bridge and commute from Hammersmith Tube station which is on four Tube lines. We also get a lot of Swedish bankers who may only be here for a few years and who prefer to rent.”

Postcodes: Barnes enjoys the favourable SW13 postcode, although it does stray into SW14, where it meets Mortlake on its western boundary.

Best roads: Scarth Road is a private road where large Victorian detached houses sell for as much as £7 million; otherwise the best roads are Castelnau, parts of Lonsdale Road, Glebe Road, Hillersdon Avenue, Nassau Road and Kitson Road.

Up and coming: the Henry Boot houses in north Barnes are the area’s most affordable homes. More than 50,000 of these houses were built across Britain after the First World War. They now have to be reconstructed after faults were found in the original building method. The so-called “unreconstructed” houses can only be bought for cash, but even after work has been carried out, the “reconstructed” houses represent the best value in the neighbourhood.

Schools: Barnes and Mortlake have a good choice of top-performing primary schools. Barnes in Cross Street is judged “outstanding” by the government education watchdog, Ofsted. St Osmund’s RC in Church Road, Lowther in Stillinghurst Road and St Mary Magdalen’s RC in Worple Street are all judged “good”. Scattered along the length of Lonsdale Road or close to it there are two top private schools: the highly academic St Paul’s (boys, ages seven to 13 at Colet Court — the prep school — and ages 13 to 18), and The Harrodian (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Stillinghurst Road. The Swedish School (co-ed, ages three to 18) has brought many Swedish families to Barnes.

Shops and restaurants: Barnes has shops, restaurants and cafés along the high street, on Church Road opposite the lion houses, and then again at the junction with Castelnau and Rocks Lane. In the high street there is a butcher, a baker, fishmonger and a Swedish grocer, but also a surprising number of charity shops. There is a popular Saturday farmers’ market in Station Road close to the pond.

In Church Road opposite the lion houses look out for Nina, which sells clothes and interior accessories with a Scandinavian flavour. At the junction of Church Street and Castlenau find the Barnes bookshop, while Caravan, a large furniture store, has its own café. Luma, an interiors store, has an interesting eco and shabby-chic collection, and Melanie Drake boutique also sells art. There’s a Mary’s Living and Giving Shop, one of Mary Portas’s chain of ultra-chic charity shops raising money for Save the Children. Also in Church Road is the long-standing, popular restaurant Sonny’s, now rebranded Sonny’s Kitchen, and Riva, among the favourites of Evening Standard restaurant critic Fay Maschler.

White Hart Lane, where Barnes meets Mortlake has the ever-inventive Tobias and the Angel which combines antiques with its own block-printed textiles; the Dining Shop, specialising in everything for the dining room, and one of only three branches of Marilyn Moore for printed dresses and cashmere cardigans.

Open space: Barnes is on the Thames Path and from Barnes Common follow the Beverley Brook Walk to the river at Putney in one direction and Richmond Park in the other. The London Wetland Centre in Queen Elizabeth Walk is the place to go birdwatching.

Leisure and the arts: The historic Olympic Studios, where generations of musicians from the Rolling Stones, to Madonna to Oasis recorded, is about to be reopened as a cinema showing both main release and art house films. The Old Sorting Office Community Arts Centre on the common, near the pond in the centre of the village, puts on plays, films, exhibitions and hosts music events and workshops. The nearest council-owned swimming pool is at the Putney Leisure Centre in Upper Richmond Road. Rocks Lane Multi-Sports Centre on Rocks Lane is a private sports club offering tennis, football and cricket.

Travel: Barnes Bridge and Barnes railway stations (Zone 3 annual travelcard £1,368) have services to Waterloo which take between 19 and 27 minutes; the trains stop at Clapham Junction (between nine and 12 minutes) for connections to Victoria, and Vauxhall (between 15 and 18 minutes) for connections to the Victoria line. Driving into central London during the rush hour is not to be recommended unless you get up with the lark. Traffic along Putney High Street and Putney Bridge is very slow-moving.

Council: Richmond (Conservative-controlled); Band D council tax for the 2012/2013 year: £1,594.11.

Average prices- Buying in Barnes
One-bedroom flat: £300,000
Two-bedroom flat: £707,000
Two-bedroom house: £515,000
Three-bedroom house: £1.08 million
Four-bedroom house: £1.62 million
Source: zoopla.co.uk

Average prices- Renting in Barnes
One-bedroom flat: £1,200 to £1,750 a month
Two-bedroom flat: £1,600 to £3,250 a month
Two-bedroom house: £2,000 to £3,000 a month
Three-bedroom house: £3,000 to £3,950 a month
Four-bedroom house: £4,000 to £5,000 a month
Five-bedroom-plus house: £4,500 to £10,000 a month
Source: Chesterton Humberts

Historic Hampstead steals hearts with quaint lanes winding through the back streets. And as the high street winds its way up to Hampstead Heath and The Spaniards Inn, there are roads of cottages which haven’t changed in 300 years.
Hampstead, sitting on the edge of 800 acres of semi-wild countryside, still has an arty, literary and bohemian atmosphere.

Famous former residents have included the poet John Keats and the painters John Constable and George Romney, and today it is popular with actors and comedians including Tom Conti, Pauline Collins and Ricky Gervais. Today though, the days of living the life of an impoverished artist are over and incomers need a substantial budget to live in this charmed spot.

What there is to buy in Hampstead

As well as cottages, there are Victorian and Edwardian houses, large detached 1920s houses and mansion flats.

The area attracts: Simon Edwards, of local agent Savills, says families love Hampstead for the schools and the wide open spaces of Hampstead Heath; Americans love it for the village atmosphere and the proximity to the American School in St John’s Wood.

Staying power: People aspire to live in Hampstead and put down roots.

Renting: Young professionals love to rent in Hampstead, but overseas families who are here for a year or two also prefer to rent. There has been an influx of French families since the new French school opened in Kentish Town.

Postcode: The distinctive black ceramic street signs proudly announce that this is NW3, the extremely desirable Hampstead postcode.

Best roads: Church Row has fine early Georgian houses, and the last house on the market sold for £3 million back in 2006. Redington Road, Templewood Avenue and Greenaway Gardens to the west side of the High Street have large red-brick detached 1920s houses which have changed hands recently for between £4.75 million and £7.6 million.

Downshire Hill and Keats Grove are on the east side of the High Street. The houses here are more of an eclectic mix of period cottages and houses. The houses have sold for between £2.15 million and £3 million in the recent past.

Up and coming: There are no undervalued pockets in Hampstead.

Schools: Hampstead, along with nearby Belsize Park, has more private schools than state schools. This large concentration of schools leads to traffic chaos in and around Hampstead in the morning and afternoon, so much so that according to Simon Edwards of Savills, houses within walking distance of the most popular schools are at a premium.

There is a wide choice of private pre-prep and prep-schools, both traditional and experimental. Devonshire House (co-ed ages three to 13 with a nursery which takes children from two and a half months) is in Arkwright Road. St Anthony’s Preparatory (boys ages four to 13) is a Catholic school in Fitzjohn’s Avenue. The Academy School (co-ed ages six to 13) is in Pilgrims Place. Heathside Prep (co-ed ages three to 11) is in New End. Lyndhurst House (boys ages four to 13) is in Lyndhurst Gardens, as is the Marie Montessori School (co-ed ages three to 11).

St Mary’s School (co-ed ages two to 11) is in Fitzjohn’s Avenue. Southbank International (co-ed ages three to 11) is in Netherhall Gardens and there is a senior school in the West End.

Hampstead Hill School (co-ed ages two to seven with a nursery which takes children from three months) is in St Stephen’s Hall, Pond Street. St Christopher’s School (girls ages four to 11) is in Belsize Lane. The North Bridge School nursery (co-ed ages three to five) is in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, the junior school (co-ed five to eight) is in Netherhall Gardens. From September, North Bridge Senior school moves from Camden to The Royal, a former girls’ school in Netherhall Gardens.

Hampstead’s state primary schools are either judged “outstanding” or “good” by Ofsted. Christ Church in Christ Church Hill is “outstanding”. Hampstead Parochial in Holly Bush Vale, New End Primary in Streatley Place, Fitzjohn’s in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Rosary RC in Haverstock Hill and Fleet in Fleet Road are all “good”. St Luke’s CofE is a new free primary in Kidderpore Avenue.

University College School (boys ages seven to 18, with a co-ed, the Phoenix School, ages three to seven) in College Crescent, Holly Hill and Frognal is a respected local private all-through school, as is South Hampstead High (girls ages four to 18) in Maresfield Gardens. St Margaret’s (girls ages four to 16) is in Kidderpore Gardens.

Shops and restaurants: Long-standing locals moan about the disappearance of local shops and the arrival of so many upmarket clothing and restaurant chains, but it does mean Hampstead has managed to maintain a busy high street.

Independent shops to look out for are: CoChineChine, which stocks well-known fashion brands such as Acne and McQ; One Hundred Acres for toys; Gilden’s Arts for 20th century art; the Hampstead Butcher and Providore, which has replaced the much-loved Rosslyn Deli; Oak Studio in Perrin’s Court, a gallery and shop which runs workshops on the fashion for everything home-made; and deli Melrose and Morgan in Oriel Place.

Dach & Sons is a new cocktail bar and restaurant getting rave reviews. The best gastro pubs are the White Horse and the Old White Bear in Well Road; the Holly Bush in Holly Mount offers Hampstead tradition at its best.

Open space: Hampstead Heath with its 800 acres of semi-wild countryside is one of the main reasons why families are attracted to the area. Kenwood House on the northern edge of the heath has a café, the Brewhouse.

Arts and leisure: Hampstead has lots of historic houses to visit. The National Trust owns Fenton House, a 17th century merchant’s house with a walled garden and, in contrast, 2 Willow Road, the modernist home of architect Erno Goldfinger.

Burgh House doubles as the Hampstead Museum and a wedding venue; Keats House, now a museum, was where the poet spent two creative years and where he fell in love with his “bright star” Fanny Brawne.

The Hampstead Everyman is the long-standing arts cinema. The Hampstead Golf Club has a nine-hole golf course off Winnington Road. The nearest theatre (the Hampstead Theatre) and council-owned swimming pool are in close-by Swiss Cottage.

Travel: Hampstead is on the Northern line with trains to the City and the West End. Hampstead Heath station is on the Overground North London line. Both stations are Zone 2 and an annual travel card to Zone 1 costs £1,168.

Council: Camden (Labour-controlled); Band D council tax for the 2012/2013 year is £1,328.25.

Average buying prices (Source: Zoopla):
1 bed flat: £451k
2 bed flat: £727k
2 bed house:£865k
3 bed house: £1.6m
4 bed house: £2.2m

Average rental prices (Source: Savills):
1 bed flat:£350-650 pw
2 bed flat: £700-900 pw
2 bed house: £800-1,200 pw
3 bed house: £1,500-2,500 pw
4 bed house: £2,000- 3,000 pw

Apart from eye-popping house prices what does “prime London” offer? In the case of Knightsbridge it means lovely landscaped garden squares and Hyde Park, Harrods and Harvey Nichols on your doorstep — along with Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana.

Is it any surprise that international buyers, fleeing civil wars and economic uncertainty, find a safe and comfortable haven among its stuccoed streets?

The chief landlord, the Earl of Cadogan, who owns 90 acres of prime London including much of Knightsbridge, adds an appealing touch of British eccentricity to the management of his family’s 300-year-old Cadogan Estate: when older residents complained of unfettered sun worship in their private squares, he responded that, surely “nude sunbathing is to be encouraged”.

Simon Godson of estate agents WA Ellis says record prices are now being achieved in Knightsbridge. “The area is certainly bucking the trend, especially the garden squares. Prices in Knightsbridge range from £2,500 to £4,500 per square foot.” At the top of the last peak the record price was £3,000 per square foot.

The world’s best address?
One Hyde Park, the Candy & Candy redevelopment of the ugly old Bowater House site overlooking Hyde Park has propelled Knightsbridge to new heights. With its ground-floor McLaren and Rolex showrooms, it is promoted as the world’s best address.

The 86 flats in this Richard Rogers-designed scheme have created a new market for single-level living, with one flat rumoured to measure 27,000sq ft. Candy & Candy say six flats remain though they won’t reveal the prices.

This summer saw a price tag of £65  million for the first One Hyde Park flat to go on the open market, through Aylesfords. The five-bedroom flat has 9,000sq ft of space and is valued at £7,222 a square foot. So far there are no takers, although Liam Bailey, head of research at estate agents Knight Frank, is of the opinion that this could be a snip: he is predicting that price per square foot at this now-iconic development will reach £10,000 by 2016.

According to Simon Godson, there is nothing in London comparable to One Hyde Park, which solves the puzzle as to why one of the most expensive houses currently for sale in Knightsbridge, a five-bedroom house in Cadogan Place with 6,600sq ft, four terraces, staff accommodation and a swimming pool is on the market at £28 million, but is valued at “only” about £4,200 per square foot.

Knightsbridge is made up of squares and terraces of period properties, many of which have been converted into spacious flats. There are also more modern purpose-built blocks, often with a resident porter. In recent years many large houses have been linked once again with their adjoining mews properties, which are then used for car parking or staff accommodation. The Grosvenor Estate and the Cadogan Estate have given Knightsbridge a cohesive character.

Tom Dogger of estate agents Winkworth says it is easy to tell the two apart. “By and large, the Grosvenor Estate is characterised by large white stucco houses; the Cadogan Estate by its red-brick Queen Anne style.”

The area attracts: over recent years the area has been dominated by overseas buyers who treat a property in Knightsbridge as a store of value and who rarely sell. More recently, wealthy UK buyers have been house-hunting again. They tend to stay, although they may trade up or down.

Renting: most rentals are between £1,000 and £3,000 a week, but just now there is an abundance of homes to rent under £1,000 a week and savvy tenants have been negotiating good deals.

Trevor Square’s corner shop is Harrods

Best roads: Cadogan Square, Lennox Gardens, Montpelier Square, Lowndes Square, Hans Place, Ennismore Gardens, Rutland Gate.

What’s new: there are currently no significant new developments in Knightsbridge.

Up and coming: Simon Godson suggests that medium-term leases of between 35 and 60 years are worth exploring. “Such properties sell at a discount and you can live there for five or 10 years before making a decision as to whether to extend the lease.”

Schools: Knightsbridge and nearby Belgravia and South Kensington have a wide choice of private pre-prep and prep schools. Hill House (co-ed ages four to 13) in Hans Place, where pupils wear distinctive ginger-coloured knickerbockers, is the best known. Others are: Eaton House (boys ages five to seven) in Eaton Gate; Knightsbridge (co-ed ages two to 13) in Pont Street; St Nicholas Prep (co-ed ages two to 11) in Princes Gate; Sussex House (boys, ages eight to 13) in Cadogan Square; and Ravenstone (co-ed ages two to 11) in Elvaston Place. More House (ages 11 to 18) is a private Catholic girls’ school in Pont Street. The French Lycée (co-ed ages three to 18) is in Cromwell Road.

There are also good state schools in the area. The following primary schools are judged “outstanding” or “good” by government education watchdog Ofsted: Holy Trinity CofE in Sedding Street, Marlborough in Draycott Avenue and St Peter’s Eaton Square in Lower Belgrave Street. Saint Thomas More RC (co-ed ages 11 to 16) is the local comprehensive, and it is judged to be “good”.

Shops and restaurants: Harrods is a world-famous Knightsbridge landmark and locals use the lavish food hall as their supermarket. There are other food halls, in Harvey Nichols and Waitrose in Motcomb street, as well as a local butcher O’Shea’s, and cheese shop, Beillevaire, in Montpelier Street.

But Knightsbridge is all about the top fashion brands to be found in Sloane Street, such as Prada, Giorgio Armani, Jimmy Choo, Dior, Marni and Yves Saint Laurent.

There is a giant Burberry store on the junction of Brompton Road and Knightsbridge, while Caroline Charles and Bruce Oldfield are tucked away in Beauchamp Place. A wander down Kinnerton Street reveals unexpected gems such as Patricia Roberts for hand-knitted garments, and fashion store Egg, in a converted dairy.

There is no shortage of top restaurants either. Mosimann’s in West Halkin Street is a private members club; Marcus Wareing is at The Berkeley hotel; Petrus, part of Gordon Ramsay’s empire, is in Kinnerton Street. Zafferano in Lowndes Street is a popular Italian restaurant.

Open space: Hyde Park, London’s largest central park, is on the doorstep, while residents of the private garden squares will all have access.

Leisure and the arts: the Royal Court Theatre is in Sloane Square and there are cinemas on King’s Road. The Royal Albert Hall is on Kensington Gore and the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the V&A are all benefiting from the road improvements along Exhibition Road.

Travel: Knightsbridge (Zone 1; annual travelcard £1,168) is on the Piccadilly line, three stops away from Piccadilly Circus and on the line to Heathrow.

Council: Kensington and Chelsea (Conservative-controlled); Band D council tax for the 2012/2013 year: £1,075.72.

Average buying prices (source: Zoopla):
1 bed flat: £1.48m
2 bed flat: £2.43m
2 bed house: £3.78m
3 bed house: £4.07m
4 bed house: £6.93m

Average rental prices (source: WA Ellis):
2 bed flat: £575- £3,750 pw
2 bed house: £750-1,050 pw
3 bed house: £895- 7,500 pw
4 bed house: £1,275- 25,000 pw
5 bed house: £4,100- 30,000 pw

Pulling power: £600m worth of flats at Battersea site sell in FOUR days

Knight Frank Autumn 2012 Research report

BNP Press Release

Knight Frank UK Research