A street that never quite got its due
Queensway runs a short, straight line between Bayswater and Notting Hill, and for years it read as the plainer of the two, a mix of late night takeaways and tired shopfronts between neighbours with smarter reputations either side. That never told the whole story. The street has held a genuine concentration of Chinese restaurants for decades, along with a run of Middle Eastern and Lebanese kitchens reflecting the Gulf visitors who have long favoured this part of Bayswater, more variety per pavement than either neighbour quite manages.
What Queensway lacked was polish rather than substance, and that gap is closing fast enough that the street reads differently on each visit, sometimes noticeably so within a matter of months.
Queens Ice and Bowl, since 1930
Queensway's oldest fixture is also its most unlikely, an ice rink and bowling alley that has operated on the same street since 1930, one of the longest running venues of its kind anywhere in London. It sits slightly at odds with the restaurant trade around it, but that mix of the old and the newly polished is exactly what gives the street its current character.
Generations of west London families have learned to skate on the same ice, and the building has outlasted most of the shopfronts that once stood alongside it, a genuine survivor rather than a recent addition dressed up as one, still drawing a steady crowd on any given evening.
A street built for grazing, not a single table
Queensway's restaurant trade rewards moving rather than settling at the first door, dim sum rooms and noodle bars sit within a few doors of Lebanese grills and shisha cafés, with at least one long standing Chinese supermarket still trading along the same stretch for anyone who wants to take a little of the street home with them. Few streets this short in London hold quite this range within a five minute walk.
That density is part of what the street's older reputation missed, plainness on the surface hid genuine variety underneath, and the newer, more polished openings have simply made that variety easier to notice from the pavement rather than requiring local knowledge to find.
Bookended by the old mall and the older rink
Queensway's two fixed points sit at opposite ends of the same short street, the reopening Whiteleys building anchoring the southern end and Queens Ice and Bowl holding the ground further north, decades apart in age but both genuine fixtures rather than passing trends that will have vanished within a few years. Walking the length of the street means passing from one era of Bayswater into another and back again within a few hundred metres.
That contrast gives Queensway a shape most streets its length lack, a clear beginning and end rather than one continuous run of similar shopfronts, useful for anyone trying to decide where to start an evening here and which direction to walk once dinner is done.
What is actually new
New restaurant openings have spread along the street in recent years, part of the same wave reshaping Bayswater more broadly, and the reopening of the old Whiteleys building at the street's southern end is pulling further investment in behind it. None of it has erased Queensway's older character, the ice rink and the long standing restaurant trade both remain, but the newer arrivals give an evening here more range than it had even a couple of years back, and the pace of change shows no real sign of slowing yet.
Sonya finds Queensway rewards guests willing to actually walk its length rather than settling at the first table, the street's best evenings tend to come from mixing an old fixture with something that only opened this year.
A night out built around the street
A night out booked here suits guests who want variety within a short walk rather than a single destination restaurant, dinner at one of the newer openings, a slower second half further along toward Bayswater proper. It runs at a different pace from the set piece dining of Notting Hill a few minutes away, looser and less planned in advance, closer to grazing a short street than committing to one table for the whole evening.
Stacy treats an evening on Queensway as one of the easier bookings to improvise, plenty to choose from within a few minutes' walk if the first idea does not quite land, a genuine advantage over a street with only one obvious option.
Getting there
Queensway station sits on the Central line directly on the street itself, with Bayswater on the Circle and District lines a short walk south, both putting the street within easy reach of Paddington without needing a taxi at all for most of W2. Guests staying anywhere along that stretch can reach either end of Queensway on foot inside ten minutes.
Booking an evening on Queensway
The same published rates apply here as anywhere else on this site, from £250 for the first hour. Name Queensway or a hotel nearby when you message, and a booking is confirmed the same straightforward way as any other evening on this site, whichever end of the street you plan to start from.
The companions named in this guide sit on the brunettes list, one of the types the lineup is sorted by.
Quick answers
Yes. It has held a genuine concentration of Chinese and Middle Eastern restaurants for decades, and a wave of newer openings has added further range in recent years.
An ice rink and bowling alley that has operated on Queensway since 1930, one of the longest running venues of its kind in London.
Queensway station sits directly on the street on the Central line, with Bayswater station a short walk south on the Circle and District lines.
A genuine concentration of dim sum and noodle restaurants alongside Lebanese and Middle Eastern kitchens, plus at least one long standing Chinese supermarket, more range than the street's plainer reputation suggests.