Bayswater Redevelopment by Unamed Brunei Family

Thanks to Mr Funniman (who has left many interesting comments on my blog), I decided to take a closer look at the Bayswater Area.  This area is special for many international students, especially Singaporeans.

I took a Google walk along Queensway.   Very nostalgic, as if nothing much has changed since the time we were students in London. This is at the junction, facing Whiteleys Shopping Centre. This was supposedly the first department store in England.

At the same junction, but looking the other way.  The area is very low rise.  Many shops along the narrow street.  It has a certain charm to it, even though it isn't exactly the most modern looking of streets.

Change is Coming! 
An ambitious £1 billion plan to turn Bayswater’s scruffy Queensway into a “Covent Garden of the West” by 2020 was revealed in late 2013.  See this article in the Evening Standard.

Sultan of Brunei Involved?
An unnamed Brunei family have secretly (!) bought dozens of properties along Queensway since the start of 2013. They hope to create a shopping and eating out “village” modelled on London’s great family estates such as the Grosvenor in Mayfair and Belgravia.

Together with a Dutch property fund Meyer Bergman, the financiers have spent more than £500 million buying 75 per cent of the buildings in the street.  One key purchase was the struggling Whiteleys shopping centre for £115 million.

Markus Maijer, chief executive of Meyer Bergman, said: “We are thinking of designing the shops facing Queensway so that they have entrances directed onto the widened pavements, and the restaurants also having pavement tables,” he said.

Conversion of Whiteleys
“The building is very large and has two floors of offices above the shops. We have calculated that the office space could be converted into 100 to 150 generously sized apartments, and possibly a boutique hotel of some 80 bedrooms as well.”

Whiteleys was one of London’s most luxurious stores when it opened in 1911 but Queensway is now best known for its cultural mix with large Greek, Arab, Chinese and Indian communities. One commentator said: “This quarter of a mile strip does a better job for international relations than any United Nations convention.”

Dixon Jones Architects have been hired to draw up a masterplan expected to take six years to complete. If approved by Westminster council Queensway will get wider pavements and part-pedestrianised side roads.

A Timely Upgrade To Bayswater!
I'm certainly looking forward to this upgrade.  I think the apartments are going to be very expensive, probably out of reach for most.  However, all the improvement works to be done to the street would be most welcomed.  This place has tremendous potential and can easily become the Covent Garden of the West.

Happy Investing!