Chiswick is "an area that's been coming up, but no one talks about it very much," said Dalton, of Knight Frank. "But it's an area that needs to be spoken about and shouted about.

That's Knight Frank's Tony Dalton talking to the International Herald Tribune about W4 - home to Dennis Waterman and Ant and Dec. The Trib's hyping Chiswick like it's just invested in property there... insisting it's both the new Notting Hill, the better Belgravia and family-friendly Ealing rolled into one. Which I guess it kind of is, if restaurants, organic food shops and Nick Jones's plans for Fouberts are the criteria. But I lived on the border of Chiswick (in other words, Hammersmith) until very recently (and always liked the place), but I'm just finding the whole hoo-hah hard to buy for one reason and that's geography. Call me a spoilsport, but once you get past Fulham isn't there some kind of inescapable cap on coolness? Especially on an area dominated by the sounds of the A4? I hope I'm wrong. It would be nice to see some money filter out away from what the agents like to call "prime central" London... the Rat and Mouse will be paying particular attention to Chiswick house prices throughout 2006. What do you think... let us know.

Platform romance [May 6]
Bedford Park - sanitory [March 24]
Ant and Dec are buying Chiswick [March 18]