Every underdog of British comedy needs a stomping ground. Del Boy had Peckham, David Brent had Slough and Amanda, of the BBC hit Amandaland, has So-Ha.
That’s Amanda’s rebrand of south Harlesden in northwest London, to the unacquainted. Or, as Amanda’s much-trampled friend Anne describes it, “that area around Wormwood Scrubs Prison”.
In the show, Amanda is a blonde, middle-class mummy who finds herself swapping her Waitrose life in Chiswick for a Tesco Metro one in south Harlesden after an acrimonious divorce.
“Darling, let me in before I get mugged,” says Amanda’s mum, played deliciously by Joanna Lumley, when she arrives at the door of her daughter’s house claiming the whole area “smells like buses”.
Harlesden actually has a Tesco Express, rather than a Metro, but when I went down there last week few residents had even heard of the show. So-Ha drew blank expressions whenever it was mentioned. “What, South Hampstead?” one replied.
The truth is that “South Harlesden” is a confected, impossible location (possibly deliberately so as not to offend anyone); most people simply call it Harlesden, as the south of the neighbourhood is home to never-ending HS2 works and an industrial park.
BEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Residents’ ignorance of their newfound fame may partly be down to the fact the show wasn’t filmed there. Shooting for Amandaland took place around Muswell Hill, Islington and parts of Newham in east London.
Amanda’s house is in Ferntower Road, which the journalist and resident Harry Wallop says is on “the scruffy side of Highbury” in Islington. It still wasn’t scruffy enough for Harlesden apparently, because the production crew artfully distressed the street with rubbish bags and an upturned shopping trolley.
Ferntower Road in Islington, where the exterior of Amanda’s house is filmedGOOGLE
But is the real Harlesden, once known as the gun-crime capital of London, as gritty as the TV version? Matthew Davis, 53, says the area has been “up and coming” since he moved there in 2004. Like most people who buy into the area, he was living nearby but in need of more space on a budget.
“Our generations’ parents had enough money to live in Queen’s Park or Muswell Hill, but we couldn’t afford it anymore, so this is the last stop along the northwest corridor,” Davis says.
It may not be affordable for long. Davis bought his four-bedroom house in Wendover Road for £380,000 and now it’s on sale for £950,000 (after extensive renovation work). Harlesden is also set to benefit from £20 million of investment over the next ten years, as part of the government’s Pride in Place funding to revitalise “left-behind” neighbourhoods. It will be hooked up to the Elizabeth Line via the upcoming West London Orbital and, one day, HS2.
There are roads branching off the high street where average house prices are over £1 million, largely due to surprisingly spacious period houses, links to the Tube and some good schools. Harlesden Gardens is a prime example; a tree-lined road that is next to Maple Walk, a small independent prep school. Louis Theroux is rumoured to live nearby and was once elected “town champion” by the local council.
Eric Haendler, 56, who owns an architecture practice, moved from Maida Vale to Harlesden Gardens in 2015 with his partner and children. Like most incomers, he likes the mix of people in the area but chooses to shop and dine in Kensal Rise or Willesden Green. “The high street is a real issue,” he says. “It lacks coherence, there is not enough parking and there’s a lot of heavy traffic through a residential area. I wouldn’t say it’s crime-ridden, but it doesn’t feel safe.”
Eric HaendlerBEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Harlesden Gardens leads towards some of the area’s more valuable homesBEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
There certainly isn’t a kitchen shop Amanda could “collab” with here. Overpopulated with fast food and betting shops, the high street is “apocalyptic” when the sun goes down, according to one resident, Danny, who has lived in Harlesden all his life. Shoplifting is blatant and people with complex mental health needs congregate around the Crisis centre in the middle of the high street at night.
There are beloved veteran businesses, such as One Stop Caribbean and Sam’s Chicken, where Amelia Dimoldenberg filmed Chicken Shop Date interviews with Billie Eilish and Lando Norris.
But energy prices and high business rates, on top of the crime, mean many are struggling to survive. Mohamed Ramal, 42, who works in Hastee Fresh Fish, says the area is “nice but there are a lot of crackheads”.
Mohamed Ramal of Hastee Fresh FishBEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
He used to sell six fish for £10 but now he has to sell four for the same price. “It’s a difficult time,” he says. “You have to explain to the customers there’s a war and that means the prices go up, but some believe you and some don’t.”
Other businesses are more optimistic about the area’s future. Robert Garfield, 56, opened Tia Liah’s, a Brazilian café selling hearty traditional dishes, 18 months ago and it’s off to a “flying start”, he says. He lives in Finchley and set up the café with his Brazilian sister-in-law Leah after friends told him the area was undervalued.
“When I told friends who don’t live around here that I got a coffee shop in Harlesden, they immediately went on Amazon and started sending me photos of stab vests and things like that, joking that I was moving to the Wild West,” he says.
Robert Garfield of Tia Liah’sBEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
While he is also struggling to keep prices down, he is spotting more and more affluent owners from the bigger houses coming in to mingle at the weekends.
“We find that the vast majority of people are friendly and just want to get on with their lives,” he says. “There is a lot of street life, but I think that’s true of all of London. I’d like to think that some areas can improve.”