Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Greater London since 1965. Hendon falls almost entirely within the NW4 postcode, while the West Hendon part falls in NW9. Colindale to the northwest was once considered part of Hendon but is today separated by the M1 motorway.
The district is most famous for the London Aerodrome which later became the RAF Hendon; from 1972 the site of the RAF station was gradually handed over to housing development and to the Royal Air Force Museum London. The railways reached Hendon in 1868 with Hendon station on the Midland Main Line, followed by the London Underground further east under the name Hendon Central in 1923. Brent Street emerged as its commercial centre by the 1890s. A social polarity was developed between the uphill areas of Hendon and the lowlands around the railway station.
Hendon is located by numerous arterial roads, namely the A41, A406, the A1 and the M1 motorway. Today Hendon is home to rugby union club Saracens F.C. based at Copthall, and is also home to Middlesex University. It is represented in parliament by its namesake constituency which also includes Edgware and Mill Hill.
History and locale
The name means the high place or down, and Hendon's motto is Endeavour. Hendon was historically a civil parish in the hundred of Gore, county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday, but the name 'Hendun' – meaning 'at the highest hill' – is of earlier origin. Evidence of Roman settlement was discovered by members of the Hendon and District Archaeological Society and others; an urn burial of a headless child was found in Sunny Hill Park.The Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railways were built through Hendon in the 1860s. The underground arrived at Golders Green to the south in 1907, the line being extended to Hendon Central, Colindale and Edgware in 1923–24.
Much of the area developed into a suburb of London and now the area is mostly built-up with some countryside in the Mill Hill area, such as the Copthall playing fields. Hendon's industry was mostly centred on manufacturing, and included motor and aviation works, and developed from the 1880s. In 1931 the civil parish of Edgware was abolished and its area was added to the great civil parish of Hendon. This meant Hendon covered everywhere from Edgware and Mill Hill down to Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb.
Hendon became an urban district in 1894. In 1932 the urban district became the Municipal Borough of Hendon. The municipal borough was abolished in 1965 and the area became part of the London Borough of Barnet.
In 1976, Brent Cross Shopping Centre was built and opened at the southern end of Hendon, to the north of the North Circular Road.
[|Church End]
has found a number of interesting Roman artifacts at Church End but nothing conclusive, and the Saxon settlement near to St Mary's Church may not be a continuation of its Roman predecessor. The Domesday Survey mentions a priest, and a church building was documented in 1157. The oldest fabric of the present church is 13th century. The 50 ft tower was much restored in the 18th century when the weathercock in the form of a "Lamb and Flag", the badge of St John, was added.However, the church is dedicated to St Mary, an enigma that defies local historians to this day. It may be a sign of the cult of Mary Magdalene said to have been promoted by the Templars and their successors. Eastern extensions carried out between 1913–15 to designs by architect Temple Moore have greatly expanded the church.
Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore in 1819, died at his home in nearby Mill Hill and is buried in the church. Another grave of distinction in the churchyard is that of football manager Herbert Chapman who had great success in charge of Northampton Town, Leeds City, Huddersfield Town and finally Arsenal before his sudden death from pneumonia in 1934. Bram Stoker may well have had St Mary's graveyard in mind when he created the fictional "Kingstead", the uneasy resting place of Lucy Westenra, in his book Dracula. However, St Mary's graveyard is also the resting place of a more benign spirit, Coventry Patmore's wife Emily, the model for the poem The Angel in the House, and upon whom the Victorian ideal of domesticity "the Angel of the Hearth" is based.
Adjacent to the church at the top of Greyhound Hill is the Greyhound pub, which was rebuilt in 1898. Originally called the Church House, it was used for vestry meetings from the 1600s to 1878. In 1676 the inn, by then known as the Greyhound, burned down in a fire. In 1855 a fire brigade was established, renamed the Hendon volunteer fire brigade in 1866, and a manual fire engine was kept in a building near the church.
Further west, adjacent to the Greyhound pub, is the oldest building in Hendon, a 17th-century farmhouse which became the former Church Farmhouse Museum, now part of the campus of nearby Middlesex University.
The Claddagh Ring pub, originally known as The Midland Arms, in Church Road, Hendon, is somewhat more than nine miles from Athenry. The sign is genuinely Irish, giving pleasure to a significant Irish community in this area. Another pub, the Midland Hotel, close to Hendon station, was opened in 1890 by The Midland Railway Company to provide liquid refreshment for commuters using the Midland Railway. At the time when both of these pubs were open The Midland Arms was known as The Upper Midland and The Midland Hotel was known as The Lower Midland. The Irish connection with Hendon goes back at least to the early 19th century when many of that country came here to make the hay, for which Hendon was then famous.
The Burroughs
The Burroughs was a distinct hamlet until the 1890s, and appears on an 1873 Ordnance Survey map of the area. The name, known from 1316 until the 19th century as 'the burrows', doubtless refers to the keeping of rabbit warrens.There was an inn and brew-house by the 16th century for travellers, very possibly the White Bear, which was so-called from 1736, and was rebuilt in 1932. Here, the 'leet courts', based on feudal tradition, were held as late as 1916, to ensure the rights of the Lord of the Manor to control the increasingly emancipated peasantry, to punish transgressors, and to fix 'Quit-Rent' for those who had built on manorial land and wastes.
By 1697 the inn was the location for Hendon's Whitsun fair. Originally an un-chartered hiring fair for local hay farmers, it was also renowned for dancing and country sports, and was immortalised in the lines of a song of the 1810s:
There was cockfighting during the 1820s, and horse racing in the 1860s; by this time, haymakers were usually contracted directly from Ireland.
From 1735 until 1934 a poorhouse with six cottages used to house older parishioners stood where Quadrant Close is now located. The Poor Law workhouse ceased to be operational when 'Hendon Union Workhouse' opened in 1835, in what was then 'Red Hill' and is now Burnt Oak. With the foundation of a Local Board in 1879, the buildings were later used as offices.
In this same period, three religious institutions were established. The first was a Methodist chapel in 1827, which was reached by the footpath of the same name. The second was a Roman Catholic chapel, later called Our Lady of Dolours. There were a handful of shops nearby by the 1880s. The modern Methodist chapel, designed by Welch & Lander, was built in 1937.
Grove House, built before 1753, was a private psychiatric hospital by 1900; it was demolished in 1933, having already lost much of its original frontage for building. The remaining estate became a public park, with rumours of a secret tunnel. A number of picturesque 18th- and 19th-century houses survive. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ established the Convent of St Joseph, in 1882, and had added a school by 1900.
Hendon Town Hall was built in 1900 from designs by T. H. Watson.
Hendon's first proper fire station was built to designs by A. Welch, and superseded another close by in Church End. Next to the town hall is Hendon Library, built in 1929 to designs by T. M. Wilson. It was considerably rebuilt internally during 1972–3 and 2003–4. Eileen Colwell, the pioneer children's librarian, worked for many years at Hendon from the 1930s.
Between 1937 and 1939, the Middlesex County Council built 'Hendon Technical Institute', which became 'Hendon College', then in 1973 an Institute of technology called 'Hendon Polytechnic', and it is now part of Middlesex University.
Hendon War Memorial was unveiled on St George's Day, 23 April 1922, and was moved to its present location in 1962.
West Hendon and the Hyde
West Hendon Broadway is part of the arterial A5 road, which was Watling Street during Roman Britain. In the 18th century two public houses named "Welsh Harp" were built, giving the popular nickname of the nearby Brent Reservoir. Hendon railway station was opened in 1868 soon followed by Welsh Harp railway station, by the Midland Railway.This new district developed around the A5 and Hendon rail station became known as New Hendon by the 1880s. West Hendon Broadway was served by the Metropolitan Electric Tramways from 1904, which ran from Cricklewood to Edgware on the A5 and later extended northwards to Canons Park and southwards to Acton. Eventually the area formed a popular retail district during this time. West Hendon was devastated by a Luftwaffe bomb in 1941.
To the north, the Hyde was the site of Hendon's courthouse opening in 1913 and an open-air swimming pool build by 1922. In 1925 Duple Coachbuilders opened a factory here and were one of the largest employers in Hendon with 800 workers. The coachbuilders even named one of its products "Hendonian". This factory closed in 1970.