How Salusbury Road Put Queen’s Park on London’s Food Map

Queen Victoria was driven down it in 1879. Now people cross London to eat on it.

From the day Queen Victoria was driven along it to cheering crowds in 1879 to the present, Salusbury Road was, and is once again, a place to be.

Back then, the main thoroughfare of Queen’s Park, with its handsome and stately Victorian homes, might have felt like the Canary Wharf of its day: a brand new, glittering district. Now it’s the lived-in character that shines through instead. But that’s not to say this is a street that coasts on its history. Never. It’s the ceaseless self-improvement of Salusbury Road that accounts for its significance, and its latest transformation is into one of London’s premier food destinations.

The Financial Times has gone as far as calling Queen’s Park London’s hottest culinary corner.

A food destination with a park attached

In a city famed around the world for its culinary offerings, this strip from Queen’s Park station to Brondesbury Park station is asserting itself alongside Soho, Bermondsey and Shoreditch, but with a culture distinct from all three.

Because which of those hectic furnaces of activity can boast Queen’s Park’s rus in urbe village charm? That might be Salusbury Road’s most impressive feat: combining the status of culinary destination with a reclined and leafy neighbourhood feel. Queen’s Park can make its case on the prospect of a lazy day on the lush lawns of the park, followed by some of the most sumptuous dining in the city, only a street away and still in view of the oaks and cedars.

How Queen’s Park became somewhere people travel to eat

One of the first restaurants of the current crop wasn’t actually on Salusbury Road itself, and it’s no longer a presence on the NW food scene. But anyone who knows the restaurant industry knows that kind of churn is part and parcel of a healthy restaurant landscape.

Milk Beach opened on the adjacent Lonsdale Road in 2018. In the eight years it spent plying its trade on the mews, it became a go-to spot for Aussie hospitality in London and a pioneer in London’s love affair with orange wine. It served its last plate there this March, but the owner is far from done with the neighbourhood and is planning a new wine bar on the site.

They may have packed up and moved on to more central locations, but in their wake a new crop of eateries has sprung up. Carmel, which opened its doors on Lonsdale Road in 2022 to smash reviews, including in the Guardian, is already a local staple.

As for Salusbury Road itself, standouts include Bob’s Cafe, a Californian-inspired bistro that brings that region’s unique combination of world-class produce and diverse cultural influences to North London.

And of course Alice House, a jack of all trades and master of many, which prides itself not only on its food but on the wide array of events it hosts. It’s as much a place to go for music and banter with the staff as it is a food and drink spot.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly the moment the momentum swung Salusbury Road’s way. But the building blocks that created the preconditions for it to flourish are clear: the farmers’ market, crowned the UK’s best; the strength of the transport links; and the foot traffic drawn by the park, teeming with leisure seekers on weekends, evenings and days off.

Chris Stiff, whose family’s independent estate agency has sold homes here since 1982, puts it down to feet.

“Queen’s Park is certainly becoming a destination in its own right, because it’s got such a walking culture.”

And the old staples that gave the street undeniable character long before its current buzz have also benefited from the environment they helped create. The Salusbury, a pub on the high street, now run and given a new look and feel by Gareth and Alex, with chef Taryn Bingle, has been around for a minute. The owners themselves say they’ve been going there for 20 years. But a new aesthetic, menu and atmosphere make it feel fresh, and entirely in keeping with the dynamic upstarts it’s now competing with.

Chesterfield booths, record players and plenty of warm wood tones set the palette here. The Salusbury works so well in this neighbourhood and this era of London because it recognises there’s no contradiction in serving Guinness on tap with Maldon oysters. The contemporary clientele want a place where they can get a banging Sunday roast with, let’s say, a robust amount of carbohydrates, and a sterling Negroni in the same evening. It’s not really trendy or traditional, just comfortably itself.

Written by Alex Walker, lead writer at North by West, with insights from the Camerons Stiff & Co team.