Are you looking forward to chaos on the streets of Shepherds Bush, the A40, the Uxbridge Road and Holland Park?

The Westfield Shopping Centre opens on Thursday 30 October and any one living near it or travelling past it on the A40, the Uxbridge Road or around Holland Park can expect jams, jams and more jams.

Westfield's site glibly promises

"Tube, bus, train, bike or car - however you prefer to travel, it really couldn't be easier to get to Westfield London. Two new stations (tube and rail) have been built, plus a new bus station right next door. You won't even have to carry your gorgeous new purchases home. Use our Home Delivery service and your bags will be delivered right to your doorstep."

Somehow I think the reality will be thousands of cars jamming up the Green and the Holland Park Roundabout and blocking my access to Notting Hill.


Interestingly I found an article from The telegraph Property Section from October 2006 that reports:

"A new shopping mall will transform the area. But will it raise standards enough to have an effect on house prices? ... A three-bedroom terrace house just to the south-east in sought-after Brook Green, W14, fetches around £800,000, easily £300,000 more than an equivalent property north of Goldhawk Road in Shepherd's Bush, W12. Only a few hundred yards separate the two postcodes, but it is an economic Grand Canyon.

But now there is a buzz in the petrol-fumed air, a sense that the long-promised property boom could finally be about to happen. And it is all because of a new shopping centre at White City, in the eastern corner of Shepherd's Bush, close to one of London's toughest housing estates.

The giant £1.6bn steel-and-glass Westfield London will be twice the size of Brent Cross, the massive centre off the capital's North Circular ring road. When it opens in 2008, it will hold more than 350 shops (including a "luxury" mall), 40 restaurants, a cinema and a gym. The Australian developers are also overhauling Shepherd's Bush Green and expect the scheme to trigger £1 billion of local regeneration, including new social and private housing....

Canny investors moved in as soon as the project began in earnest around 2000. A three-bedroom house north of the Goldhawk Road (once bandit country in property terms because of its transient, poor population) has gone up from £300,000 to £500,000 in that time.

American-born Chris Conklin has a knack of buying into areas just before a boom - first Notting Hill, then Queen's Park and now Shepherd's Bush. "The area really feels different to when we moved here three years ago," he says. "It was pretty scruffy and there were lots of 'For Sale' boards. Now there are virtually none and everyone wants to live here."

Even 18 months ago when properties in other areas struggled to make their asking price, he says that wasn't the case in W12. "Now prices are really moving again," he adds. Conklin has heavily invested in refurbishing his three-bedroom home in Stowe Road. It is for sale for £615,000, up from a typical £330,000 for an unmodernised house three years ago, through Faron Sutaria (020 8740 7766).

The Westfield London effect has accelerated in the past few weeks, since the coverage of the star-studded launch party. "There has been huge excitement, from locals and people outside the area," says Kerr. "That includes many who wouldn't have looked at Shepherd's Bush before. It will no longer be just a 'suburb' but a smart part of central London."

He claims properties sell in 48 hours - to investors, families and professionals. But how much of that is really due to the mall rather than the shortage of decent properties affecting buyers all over London?"

I wonder how happy the "canny investors" are now as house prices dive across London and they are stuck with a property in Shepherds Bush?