My Lord! My wife used to work there. And I can tell you it’s an awful place. Actually two things are especially awful - the area itself and the ugly shopping centre. I hope one day it will be demolished. I’m sorry, It's hard to imagine the novel's protagonist living in one of the small two-story houses in Brent Cross. They look as if German bombing had never stopped since 1940, destroying Britain through the primitivization of its architecture and public spaces. Too much depression. No romanticism. And lots of ties to the Continent - the largest Jewish community in London lives there. (Since 1940s, I believe).