Plenty of good-size homes, a local surge in house prices and retail therapy at Westfield make arty Shepherd’s Bush a favourite with first-time buyers, investors, and couples with young families.

Shepherd’s Bush is four miles west of central London and sits south of  Westway and north of Hammersmith, with Holland Park to the east and Acton to the west. It was probably the place where drovers rested their flocks on the way to Smithfield Market.

At the heart of Shepherd’s Bush, the Green – marooned by surrounding  traffic – recently had a £2 million facelift. Two new playgrounds were installed and a tree-lined boulevard was created, while the listed war memorial was reset on a granite plinth.

Houses and flats for sale in Shepherd’s Bush: Houses are mostly Victorian terraces. Many of the larger properties have been converted into flats but there is also a good supply of family houses. Prices range from over £2 million for a five-bedroom terrace house down to around £200,000 for a studio flat.

The district is an arty one, having attracted a large number of BBC workers over the years. The Television  Centre building was sold to developer Stanhope in 2012 and much BBC output has moved from White City, but these design-conscious owners left a legacy of attractively modernised houses.

Travel: Shepherd’s Bush has excellent transport links and all stations are in Zone 2 with an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costing £1,256.

Shepherd’s Bush is on the London Underground Central line, the London Overground to Clapham Junction, and Southern offers fares to Milton Keynes and between East Croydon and Shepherd’s Bush. White City Tube station is on the Central, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines, while Wood Lane, Shepherd’s Bush Market and Goldhawk Road are on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines. Bus services include the C1  to Victoria, the No 49 to Kensington High Street and Chelsea, the No 94 to Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, and the No 148 to Marble Arch and Westminster.

The area attracts: according to Dylan James of the local branch of estate agent Faron Sutaria, price per square foot in Shepherd’s Bush is between £700 and £900, which is cheaper than nearby Fulham. Many home buyers who start their search in Fulham often end up in Shepherd’s Bush, happy to find themselves in a cultural hotspot with excellent transport links.

Buyers are mainly first-timers, investors, and couples with young families, although there is now a smattering of international buyers who like the idea of being close to the Westfield mall.

The prospect of massive regeneration in the White City Opportunity Area is also attracting buyers to Shepherd’s Bush. This 20-year plan could see up to 4,500 homes built and plans are afoot for a new Imperial College campus and an extension to Westfield, including a John Lewis store. The former BBC Television Centre is to be transformed into more than 1,000 homes and a hotel after plans were approved in December.

Staying power: a strong surge in local house prices – 12 per cent last year – has led some families to sell up and move out of Shepherd’s Bush. Typically, young couples stay for three to five years, moving further west or north in search of more green space when they start a family.

Best roads: families make a beeline for houses in Boscombe Road and the Coningham and Lime Grove conservation area, the triangle of streets between Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road. Ashchurch Park Villas in the Ravenscourt and Starch Green conservation area is particularly desirable.

The most expensive house in Boscombe Road sold last year for £2 million and in Ashchurch Park Villas the top price was £2.95 million, reached in October 2012.

Up and coming: gradually gaining popularity is the “Flowers Estate” south of Westway and east of Old Oak Road, a garden estate of simple Edwardian houses where street names include Wallflower, Daffodil and Orchard Streets. Estate agent Faron Sutaria has a six-bedroom house for sale on Foxglove Street for £580,000.

History: a sepia postcard shows what looks like an opulent, alabaster compound, perhaps the home of some Indian prince during the days of the Raj. There are gleaming colonnades, onion domes, canals and lakes. Today, this same spot is home to Westfield London shopping centre where Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu and Prada echo the extragavant past.

Westfield London was built on a long-derelict plot in Shepherd’s Bush and no one alive remembers the wonders that went before. This was the site of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, which was mounted to celebrate the signing of the Entente Cordiale four years earlier. It occupied 140 acres, attracted eight million visitors and sat next to a stadium built for the 1908 Olympic Games. The stadium was demolished in 1985 to make way for a new BBC centre.

All those white buildings became known as the White City, which is how the area north of Shepherd’s Bush got its name. The site went on to host another four international exhibitions before the outbreak of the First World War when it was turned over to the war effort, never to be restored to its former glory.

Open space: Ravenscourt Park has a walled flower garden, a bowling green, children’s playground, café and tennis courts. Holland Park and riverside walks along the Thames are close by. Otherwise green space is in short supply locally.

Ravenscourt Park and Holland Park: the best green spaces in Shepherd’s Bush
Shops and restaurants: High street and luxury brands rub shoulders at Westfield, Europe’s largest shopping centre, which has a street of restaurants along the southern terrace that stay open until midnight Monday to Saturday. The older W12 shopping and leisure centre is in Shepherd’s Bush Green and there are also shops in Goldhawk Road, Askew Road and Uxbridge Road.

Goldhawk Road is a mecca for dressmakers with a good choice of fabric shops frequented by students at the London College of Fashion in Lime Grove. Shepherd’s Bush Market sells everything from clothes, to luggage, to fruit and vegetables. Mr Falafel at the Uxbridge Road end of the market claims to sell the best Palestinian falafel.

Other shops and restaurants to look out for on Goldhawk Road include Patio, a family-run Polish restaurant, A Cooke’s pie and mash shop – although this could be displaced by the market development – Brewdog, a branch of the innovative Scottish craft brewery, and patisserie Fait Maison.

Askew Road has seen an influx of interesting independent shops over the last couple of years with branches of The Ginger Pig butcher and Brackenburys café. Laveli Bakery is another popular daytime hangout. Next door there is Max Inc, specialising in mid-century furniture and its own-designed giant desk lamp.  In Oaklands Grove off Uxbridge Road, Hummingbird Café is another popular place to meet.

The shops along Uxbridge Road serve the local Middle Eastern and Polish communities well – the Lebanese supermarkets have stunning displays of fruit and vegetables. Forrest is an old-fashioned baker and Stuarts London is a smart menswear store. The Bush Hall Dining Rooms sit next door to the Bush Hall music venue and there is a café at the Bush Theatre. Albertine in Wood Lane off the Green is a long-established wine bar with an impressive wine list.

Shepherd’s Bush Market: sells everything from clothes, to luggage, to fruit and vegetables

Leisure and the arts: Shepherd’s Bush is a cultural hotspot. The Bush Theatre, renowned for new writing, has relocated to the old library building in Uxbridge Road where culture vultures also find music venue Bush Hall. Next door The Music House for Children holds music classes and individual tuition covering a range of instruments. The Shepherd’s Bush Empire is a leading music venue on the Green and there are two multiplex cinemas, one in Westfield, the other in the W12 shopping centre.
The nearest council-owned swimming pool is the Janet Adegoke pool in Bloemfontein Road. Queens Park Rangers football team, based at Loftus Road Stadium, are standing second in the Championship this season

Shepherd’s Bush Empire: the leading music venue on the Green
Council: Hammersmith & Fulham council is Tory-controlled and current  Band D council tax is £1,060.90.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: Three things about Shepherd’s Bush

Where and when did four lads from Liverpool first record for the BBC?
The Beatles first appeared on BBC TV on April 13, 1963. In a session recorded at the Lime Grove Studios, they played From Me To You, Thank You Girl and Please Please Me. The studios were built in 1915, originally for the British film industry. At different times Gaumont, Gainsborough Pictures and Rank Films occupied the site and some of the great names of British cinema worked there, including Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean. The studios were later rebuilt in Art Deco style and from 1949 were acquired by the BBC. Steptoe & Son, Doctor Who, Sooty, Nationwide and Hancock’s Half Hour were among classic TV series produced there. The studios closed in 1992 and were demolished a year later.

Who links Shepherd’s Bush with Cricklewood and Hackney?
Oswald Stoll, the Australian-born British theatre manager and founder of the Stoll Moss theatre group, built the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It opened as a music hall in 1903 and remains a leading concert venue. Stoll worked extensively with its designer, theatre architect Frank Matcham, who also designed the magnificent Hackney Empire. Stoll also owned the Cricklewood film studios in a former aircraft factory – it opened in 1920 and closed in 1938.

When was the Japanese gateway in Kew Gardens last seen in Shepherd’s Bush?
The huge White City exhibition centre north of Shepherd’s Bush hosted the Japan-British Exhibition in 1910. The gateway – a four-fifths replica of a Buddhist temple entrance, the Gate of Nishi Hongan-ji, in Kyoto – was moved to Kew Gardens in 1911. It still stands there today, close to the pagoda.
Average house prices in Shepherd’s Bush:
One bedroom flat: £365,000
Two bedroom flat: £530,000
Three bedroom house: £907,000
Four bedroom house: £1.43 million
Source: Zoopla

Source: Evening Standard