Fitzrovia is trendiest

Forget Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and Primrose Hill - London's trendiest district is Fitzrovia, according to style bible Wallpaper*.

The "once-forgotten void in the city centre" is praised for its vibrant bar and café culture which makes it the place to be seen, work and live - at least for fashionable media types.

North of Soho (nickname "Noho") Fitzrovia is half a square mile from Marylebone High Street to Bloomsbury, with Euston Road to the north and Oxford Street to the south. On the edge of university land, it includes Broadcasting House, the Wigmore Hall and Harley Street and is full of "creative" companies, such as advertising gurus Saatchi & Saatchi.

Now property prices are soaring in the area favoured by Griff Rhys Jones and journalist Kirsty Wark. Flats are priced from £230,000 to £750,000. Houses can fetch £2.3 million.

It is named after the Fitzroy Tavern, once a bohemian pub favoured by writers in the district's previous heyday between the wars.

The first portent of its return to favour was the opening of the boutique Charlotte Street Hotel in 2000, full of original paintings by Bloomsbury artists like Vanessa Bell. This was quickly followed by the Philippe Starck-designed Sanderson hotel.

Fitzrovia features in the Wallpaper* city guide spin off, Navigator*, which in its first issue celebrates the capital. Editor-in-chief Jeremy Langmead said: "It seemed absolutely the time to concentrate on London now."