The name is relatively new, only coming into use after the Second World War. It refers to the canal and to the fact that Robert Browning and Lord Byron had compared it to Venice in their writings.

Little Venice is the area around the Regent’s Canal from the Harrow Road to the Edgware Road. The canal is skirted by Blomfield Road and Maida Avenue, and this is where the most desirable houses are. These roads contain large villas with stucco facades facing out over the canal. There are also Victorian mansion blocks at the Edgware Road end of these streets. South of Maida Avenue, St Mary’s Terrace runs down to Paddington Green. There are mansion blocks such as Osborne House and St Mary’s Mansions. At the west end of Blomfield Road and in the streets such as Bristol Gardens up to Warwick Avenue there are blocks of flats which were formerly council properties, but mainly privately owned now. The Amberley Estate, also nominally council property, is in the area up to Sutherland Avenue. Down towards the Harrow Road is Warwick Estate, another council estate. Warwick Crescent has stucco-faced terraced houses along the south side of the canal on the west side of Harrow Road Bridge. Above it, on the other side of the canal is Warwick Place with attractive houses on a smaller scale. Cliftonville is slightly further along Blomfield Road and contains large detached houses. Other streets in this area are much sought-after, even if not directly overlooking the canal. There are a number of mews in Little Venice providing small houses, such as Bristol and Elnathan Mews. Near Warwick Crescent and the Warwick Estate new homes have been built in Admiral Walk.