What can Bridget Jones tell us about London property?

When Bridget Jones decides to borrow a Boris Bike to ride to the Obesity Clinic, she feels London is a whole world of carefree young people eschewing cars, being lean and green. Until, that is, she has an egg thrown at her from a canal bridge or, she thinks, maybe by a bird that went into sudden early labour. "Will clean off egg, not do Boris Bikes any more and go to Obesity Clinic on bus. At least will be alive and clean when sitting on arse instead of dead and covered in egg," she writes.
At 51 years old, with two small children, she has made her home in Queen's Park, landing in one of those extraordinary pockets of London that is often called a "best-kept secret". To get there you either leave Kensington and veer dangerously north, or leave West Hampstead and head even farther west. There, between the tangle of railway lines and cemeteries, with the Grand Union Canal gliding by, is Queen's Park.
Where Bridget goes has to be interesting, because she is a trailblazer who jabs her finger on the pulse of where we are now. London property watchers take note. She can be relied upon to forget her children's names when drunk and to show us the astonishing pace of change by where she chooses to live. Some will say "Where is Queen's Park?" Others will smile knowingly or throw their hands up hopelessly because they will never be able to afford to live there.
The park itself is a pure Victorian marvel, with tennis courts, pitch-and-putt, petanque and ornamental garden for grown-ups. The sandpit, swings, paddling pool, cafe and little animal farm make it heaven for toddlers. The area was built for 19th-century clerical workers and bank clerks but it is now thick with media folk. Walk in the park at weekends and everyone you pass is a Bridget Jones. That is not to say everyone is a cougar hunting for a younger man, as Helen Fielding has depicted her in the new book Mad About the Boy. But you can be sure everyone is recording a new track, or making a television programme, or writing a play like her.
Notting Hill estate agents such as Nick Crayson of Crayson still regard the area as "slightly edgy, a bit gritty".

telegraph