The Maida Vale area was developed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the early 19th century as middle class housing.
The earliest layouts followed on from the building of the Regent’s Canal (1812-20) although building only started significantly in the 1830s, the southern area being virtually complete by mid 1860s up to Sutherland Avenue. The remaining area was developed in the following fifty years being mostly completed by 1900. From the 1860s onwards, red brick was used as the prevailing look of local housing. The first mansion blocks were completed in 1897.
Maida Vale makes up nowadays most of the W9 postal district – the southern part of Maida Vale at the junction of Paddington Basin with Regent’s Canal, with many houseboats, is known as Little Venice. The area to the south-west of Maida Vale, at the western end of Elgin Avenue, was historically known as Maida Hill, but less so these days
Maida Vale tube station was opened on 6 June 1915, on the Bakerloo Line.
The public house that the area was named after was “The Heroes of Maida” on Edgware Road.
Streets of the City of Westminster
