Living in Swiss Cottage

Swiss Cottage takes its name from a chalet-style pub built on the Finchley Road in the nineteenth century, which still stands at the centre of the area's busy traffic junction. The pub is the most whimsical thing about the place: Swiss Cottage is essentially a residential district organised around major roads, with some of the quietest, wealthiest streets in north London a few minutes' walk away in every direction.

The centre has an unusual civic cluster. The public library, designed by Basil Spence, sits beside a leisure centre, Hampstead Theatre and a small park with a market square. Finchley Road, running north, is a long shopping road with a large shopping and cinema complex at Finchley Road station.

Transport is the main draw. Swiss Cottage is on the Jubilee line, which runs direct to Bond Street, Westminster, London Bridge and Canary Wharf, and Finchley Road station, ten minutes' walk up the hill, adds the Metropolitan line for a fast run to Baker Street. Regent's Park and Lord's are to the south in St John's Wood, and Primrose Hill is close.

Housing is a mix of large mansion blocks, stucco villas turned into flats, modern apartment buildings and several estates, including the tall blocks of the Chalcots estate. The result is a quieter, more anonymous neighbourhood than Belsize Park or West Hampstead on either side: good for people who want professional, well-connected living without paying Hampstead or St John's Wood prices, less good for those who want a high street with character or an evening scene. The traffic on Finchley Road and the one-way system around the junction are the main daily irritation.