Maida Vale is a residential district in West London between St John's Wood and Kilburn. It is part of City of Westminster. The area is mostly residential, and mainly affluent, consisting of many large Edwardian blocks of mansion flats, though it is also home to the BBC Maida Vale Studios. In Maida Hill in the south, the Paddington Basin, a junction of three canals with many houseboats, is known as Little Venice.

It starts off the Edgware Road (or A5) from Kilburn, near Kilburn High Road station running south-east, past Maida Vale tube station, through the district known as Maida Vale. Just to the east of Maida Vale is St John's Wood and Lord's Cricket Ground. Where it meets St. John's Wood Road, Maida Vale reverts to the name Edgware Road.

History

The area was developed by the Church Commissioners in the early 1800s as middle class housing. The district acquired its name from the Hero of Maida, a public house which opened on the Edgware Road soon after the Battle of Maida, 1806.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Maida Vale was a predominantly Jewish district, and the area contains the 1896 Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue (a Grade II listed building) and headquarters of the British Sephardi community. The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, lived within sight of this synagogue on Warrington Crescent. The pioneer of modern computing, Alan Turing was born a few hundred yards further down this same road.

Maida Vale tube station was opened on June 6, 1915, on the Bakerloo Line.                                               Wikipedia

Little Venice and the Grand Union Canal

Originally titled the Grand Junction Canal, the 13 mile long Paddington Arm was opened on July 1801. A packet boat passenger service from Greenford to Uxbridge was in use for 10 years, with boats leaving Paddington Basin at eight oclock every morning during the summer months and returning in the evening. The return fare was 2s 6d.

The construction of wharves and sheds to service the increasing produce soon transformed Paddington from a quiet village into a thriving community. It was the Lord Byron who contrasted the area to Venice and since the Second World War the name Little Venice has become common usage.

Canalway Cavalcade

Canalway Cavalcade is a major annual event organised by the Inland Waterways Association. It is held over the early May Bank Holiday weekend and combines a boat rally with a trade show and a wide range of activities and entertainments. With well over 100 boats, the Canalway Cavalcade claims the title of Londons premier waterway event.

BBC Studios

The early 1930s saw the BBC searching for space to accommodate for the full BBC Symphony Orchestra. The potential of the former Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace on Delaware Road was spotted and over a 15 month period one hundred men reduced the building to a shell and reconstructed it. The Maida Vale studios, now the BBCs principal musical home, opened in 1934 with five studios and the most modern broadcasting facilities available. On 16 October 1934 the BBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast its first concert from the new centre.

During the Second World War the government made plans to ensure that information channels were adequately protected including the BBCs Maida Vale studios. The studios were also used for making programmes for Europe via the erstwhile commercial Radio Normandie.

Beatles-mania hit Maida Vale when the Beatles recorded at the BBCs Maida Vale studios. A double CD Live at the BBC including some of the material from the Beatles sessions at the Maida Vale studios was issued in 1994.