Marylebone area guide: restaurants, high street, shops and schools

Chiltern Street meets Dorset Street (Image: Polly Hancock)

Welcome to MaryleboneWith the prices to prove it, NW1 is one of the most popular postcodes around. Pronounced Marly-bone, the area still has some residential streets giving off a feel of well moneyed mausoleums, but the high street is a delight, and new restaurant and bar openings every month suggest that the area will only get more interesting as the months go by.

Shops

The High Street is the major shopping hub boasting a tempting array of high-end boutiques, restaurants and cafes.

Devonshire Place (Image: Polly Hancock)

Fashion brands offer a more languid shopping experience than the frenzy of nearby Oxford Street. Matches Fashion has an outpost here, as does Comptoir des Cotonniers, Sandro and LK Bennett, but no trip would be complete without the displays at the Conran Shop.

A trip to VV Rouleaux will offer an abundance of ribbons and trimmings and the Button Queen has a huge array of their eponymous product.

Cire Trudon will keep you in with high end scented candles, while Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop and Tasting Room is serious about single cask whisky.

Best for book lovers… visit Daunt Books, which offers an extensive travel section, as well as attractive displays of literature and non-fiction.

Daunt Books, Marylebone High Street (Image: Archant)

Best for foodies… La Fromagerie on Moxon Street sells all sorts of European goodies alongside its speciality cheese, next door to free-range butcher The Ginger Pig.. The chocolaterie Pierre Marcolini sell pretty macaroons and éclairs alongside their signature chocolates, and for high end carbs head to artisanal boulangerie Maison Kayser.

Best for gym bunnies… Lululemon and Sweaty Betty have opened stores here, so you can fill your wardrobe with lycra leggings for every day of the week.

Restaurants, cafes and bars

By Appointment Only Design (Image: Polly Hancock)

The Monocle Café sells sticky cinnamon buns served by terrifyingly good-looking staff, while the Chiltern Firehouse is still the restaurant of the moment.

Fischer’s, a Viennese-inspired brasserie on Marylebone High Street is the latest offering from the team behind The Wolseley and is suitably stylish, as is the Ivy Cafe on Marylebone Lane.

Best for a romantic date… tucked away down Crawford Street, Twist serves fusion food that’s Mediterranean by way of Peru and Japan.

Best for comfort food... Ravinder Bhogal’s Jikoni serves hearty British dishes with African and Middle Eastern twists in a cosy setting.

The Conran Shop, Marylebone High Street (Image: Archant)

History

Marylebone gets its name from a church dedicated to St Mary, which was built on the banks of a small stream, or ‘bourne’. A cursory read of street names throughout the area offers clues to the history of ownership of much of the land.

The area around Harley Street became a hub for medicine in the mid-19th century, thanks to its quality housing, central location and good transport links, and now boasts hundreds of private clinics.

Lululemon (Image: Polly Hancock)

Things to do

Seymour Leisure Centre has a pool, climbing wall, gym, nursery and a spa. The outside space and sports facilities of Regent’s Park are also on offer.

Classical concerts at Wigmore Hall or a visit to the Wallace Collection can’t be beaten. Or visit Sherlock Holmes Museum near the detective’s Baker Street address.

Howarth of London (Image: Polly Hancock)

Things to do with children

The recently renovated Paddington Street Gardens Playground looks bright and refreshed. There is also a Jungle Play area and designated children’s swimming times at Seymore Leisure Centre.

On Thursdays and Fridays toddlers and their carers can go to St Mary’s playgroup in Bryanston Square.

Primary and secondary schools

Clarette (Image: Polly Hancock)

Hampden Gurney CofE Primary School received an Outstanding Ofsted rating. Fee-paying Wetherby Preparatory School provides education to boys aged 3 to 8 and Sylvia Young Theatre School is a fee-paying and mixed gender school, specialising in performing arts. Alumni include Emma Bunton and Denise Van Outen.

Transport

Situated in Zone 1 on the London Underground, nearby stations include Marylebone Station, Baker Street and Bond Street.

Property guide

Panetteria by Fucina (Image: Polly Hancock)

Postcode

Marylebone is in the City of Westminster in the Westminster North parliamentary constituency. It covers areas of the W1 and NW1 postcodes. Council tax rates for 2017/18 have seen an annual rate increase of 2.9 per cent compared to the previous year. Band A properties now pay £458.76 council tax; Band D properties pay £688.14; and Band H properties get a bill for £1,376.28.

Pierre Marcolini (Image: Polly Hancock)

Housing Stock

Property prices in Marylebone increased by an average of five per cent over the past year. The area’s housing stock is a mixture of large Georgian terraces, often divided into flats; mews houses; and mansion blocks. As the area’s desirability has increased in recent years, a slew of luxury development has also sprung up. Those looking for turnkey accommodation should hurry to Park Crescent, where there are still a few luxury lateral apartments left.

Fucina (Image: Polly Hancock)

House Prices

Two-bedroom flat – £1,452,272

Jikoni (Image: Polly Hancock)

Terraced house- £4,240,118

Semi detached house – £6,174,000

Maison Kayser (Image: Polly Hancock)

Yosma (Image: Polly Hancock)

The Ginger Pig, Moxon Street (Image: Archant)

Park Crescent (Image: Polly Hancock)