Jade moves into Stella street

It may be better known for gun violence, drug dealing and prostitution, but Kensal Rise is fast becoming one of the country's most exclusive addresses.

First Sir Paul McCartney's fashion designer daughter Stella invested £2 million in her first clothes boutique in this rundown area of northwest London.

Now Mick Jagger's bohemian daughter, Jade, has moved in to a £1million warehouse just yards away - where she lives and also works as a designer for The Queen's jewellers, Asprey and Garrard.

The celebrity rich kids - who are aged 30 and whose pop star fathers have a combined wealth of £845million - have set up in one of the most dangerous areas of the city, where four people were recently involved in a drive-by shooting.

While Gucci designer Stella's new headquarters for her company, Stella McCartney Ltd, is sandwiched between a Moroccan grocers and an Indian restaurant, Jade's new home and design studio is a converted red brick warehouse next to a tyre shop and boarded-up church and with splendid views of the Canal Way Gas Works.

Jagger rents the massive upstairs studio where, according to the 300-year-old Bond Street society jewellers who hired her as creative director in September, she has been designing jewellery exclusively for Garrard. One employee said: "It has been her creative studio - her creative hub, if you like, where she does her drawing and design."

Jagger's landlord Anthony Macilwaine, confirmed: "Jade is a tenant, renting the above apartment. She lives and runs the business there. Though I don't know much about her jewellery business - just what I read in Hello! magazine."

Planning experts say she is allowed to use the property to work from, even though it is rented as a residential property.

Asprey and Garrard appointed Jagger to, in their words, "bring Garrard into the 21st century and establish it as the classic British avantgarde jeweller".

She works with Francesca Amfitheatrof, Tamsin de Roemer and Omar Torres to retain the best of Garrard's heritage, while introducing "a new design style and flair", they say.

Moving to Kensal Rise is a brave move for Jagger, who until now has lived mainly in clubbers' paradise, Ibiza. This part of west London, just up from the Harrow Road and on the edge of Harlesden - often dubbed the shooting capital of the UK - is described by one local estate agent as "the front line".

A number of gangland yardie-style shootings have happened there in recent months. "It is still ridiculously dangerous around here," said businessman Howard Gregory, who lives nearby. "Four people were involved in some sort of driveby shooting a few weeks ago and I certainly would not want my girlfriend walking around after dark."

Bought by property developers five years ago, the austere 100-year-old building had been empty for years.

"It was in a really bad state of repair," said Keith Gorny, of upmarket estate agents Faron Sutaria. "It is a lovely place to live but it needed a lot of work - probably about £100 a square foot and it is a massive sprawling site.

"The area is starting to get quite fashionable with people from Notting Hill and workers at the BBC. We call it the front line and there have been a fair few shootings around the area, but it has a good stock of housing still at a reasonable price."

The cavernous warehouse has a massive open plan workshop upstairs, with the artist's living area, comprising a kitchen and two bedrooms, out the back. Downstairs is about to be converted into two apartments.

Other stars living in the area include Forsyte Saga actor Damian Lewis and TV presenter Dermot O'Leary. Rock star Brian Molko from Placebo and DJ Sacha have also been looking in the area.

"It has only just started getting trendy in the last few months and Jade Jagger has done a lot to help that," said local estate agent Nicholas Claridge.

"People look in Notting Hill for two or three weeks and realise they can get a lot more for their money even if it is bloody dangerous."

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