Hendon

For other places with the same name, see Hendon (disambiguation).

Hendon
OS grid reference	TQ229887
London borough	Barnet
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW4
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Hendon
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden

Hendon is a London suburban development situated 7 miles (11.3 km) north west of Charing Cross.

History

Main article: Municipal Borough of Hendon

Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday (1087), but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier. There is even evidence of Roman settlement discovered by the Hendon and District Archaeological Society and others; an urn burial of a headless child was found in nearby Sunny Gardens Park. The Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railways were built through Hendon in the 1860s. There is evidence of problems of wild horses feeding between the tracks. The underground, at Golders Green arrived in 1907. Unfortunately, much of the area developed into a suburb of London and now the area is mostly town with some countryside in the Mill Hill area, such as the Copthall Playing fields. Hendon big 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.

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.

Hendon’s claim to fame is in flying and Hendon Aerodrome is now the RAF Museum. The area is closely associated with the aviator Claude Grahame-White. Another part of the Aerodrome site is the Hendon Police College, the training centre for the Metropolitan Police.

It is a former borough and ancient parish. The name means the high place or down, and Hendon's motto is Endeavour. The Burroughs is a civic centre for the London Borough of Barnet, and also the site of Middlesex University Business School.

Church End

Ignore the sign — the Claddagh Ring pub is in Church Road, Hendon somewhat more than 9 miles from Athenry. But it does point to a large Irish community in this area. The pub was originally called the Midland Arms, and was opened during the 1860s by a Mr Tasker to provide liquid refreshment for navvies working on the building of the Midland Railway, and many were no doubt Irish. 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.

Hendon is a place in the London Borough of Barnet. Hendon and District Archaeological Society has found a number of interesting Roman artifacts at Church End but nothing conclusive, and the Saxon settlement near to the 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 50ft tower (c1450) 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 (heretical) 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, is buried in the church. The most important grave in the churchyard is that of Herbert Chapman, the manager of Arsenal Football Club in the 1920s and 1930s. 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 (1854), and upon whom the Victorian ideal of domesticity "the Angel of the Hearth" is based.

West of the church 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 the Church Farmhouse Museum, opened in 1955, is run by the London Borough of Barnet.

The Burroughs

File:Hendon town hall.jpg

Hendon town hall.

Main article: The Burroughs

The Burroughs was a distinct hamlet until the 1890s, known from 1316 until the 19th Century as 'the burrows', which no doubt referred originally to the keeping of rabbit warrens. After the UK outbreak of myxomatosis in the 1950s, rabbits were smoked out of the area using steam engines.

Parson Street and Holders Hill

The Abbot of Westminster, the then Lord of the Manor, had a house known as Hendon Place (c1285). The house was rebuilt in the Elizabethan period and again around 1760. The story that Elizabeth I planted a cedar tree in the grounds of the house, when Sir John Fortescue lived there, dates from the 18th century. From 1828, it was occupied by Charles Abbott, Lord Tenterden, from whom it took its later name Tenterden Hall. The house was demolished in 1938, having been Hendon Preparatory School (now located at a house called Brenthurst close by). Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid campaigner was at school there in the early 1920s.

During the 18th century, some of immediate estate surrounding Hendon Place was auctioned off for large houses, with much of the land being used for building other mansions. Of these, Hendon Hall, built in 1756 at the corner of Ashley Lane, is the last remaining and perhaps the best known. The suggestion that David Garrick the actor lived here whilst he was Lord of the Manor (1765-79) is without foundation. A small obelisk in the hotel garden dedicated to William Shakespeare and David Garrick originally stood in Manor Hall Road until 1957. A ceiling painting by Tiepolo, Olympia and the Four Continents, was uncovered in 1954 (it is now in America); but two other large ceiling paintings are still in the house. A Mr. Somerville laid out Waverley Grove and Tenterden Grove in the 1860s, and by the end of the 19th century the estate saw further development by C.F.Hancock, including houses. On Parson Street, St. Swithans was for many years a convent and training house of the Sisters of Nazareth. It is now a Jewish School. Further north is Holders Hill House, now Hasmonean High School.

Hendon Central

Hendon War Memorial was unveiled on St. George's Day, 23 April 1922, but was moved to its present location in 1962. By 1906, Sir Audley Neeld was building on the land that had been Renters Farm, starting with a new road from Station Road to Queens Road, later called Vivian Avenue. The eventual estate used many names associated with the family: Dallas, Audley, Elliot, Graham, Rundell, Vivian, Algernon and, of course, Neeld. Other names are associated with Neeld estates in Grittleton, including Alderton, Foscote, Sevington, and Allington. Hendon Central Station and the Watford Way were constructed in 1923. Originally, the road was planned to cut through the Neeld Estate, but in January 1924 a local ratepayers' group in Hendon Central, backed by Hendon Urban District Council, petitioned the County Council and central government, and the route was changed so that it would pass up Queen's Road (better known now as Hendon Way).

Brent Street Area

Brent Street was part of a northern route out of London, and at the Quadrant a seven-mile stone - the last piece of physical evidence for the road - is set into a wall. Much of the original small hamlet in Brent Street, which had been there since at least 1613, burned down in a fire in 1861. Brent Street had a parish pump, which was in disrepair in 1818 due to the numerous thirsty travellers using the road, and from 1796 there was a cage for criminals (removed in 1883), which stood at the junction of Brent Street and Bell Lane. By the 1850s there were at least 13 shops in Brent Street. Congregationalists built a chapel (1855) and a school in New Brent Street (1856), which later moved and became Bell Lane Board School (1901). Tenby House is the last of three large properties that were built between Finchley Lane and Victoria Road. The Victoria Estate was developed around Victoria and Stratford Roads in the 1870s and 1880s. The cricketer and footballer Denis Compton was brought up here and lived at 20 Alexandra Road, attending Bell Lane Primary school. New Brent Street was the address of the local police office in 1855 (a later station dating from 1884 was demolished in 2002). Christ Church was opened in October 1881 as a chapel of ease for St. Mary's, becoming a parish church in 1923.

During the 20th century, a number of small factories were established in the area. The largest was Tilley Lamps Ltd (1915 to 1961), which employed around 300 people and manufactured pressure paraffin lamps (rather charmingly called Aladdin lamps in the 1930s). In December 1969, planning permission was granted for the development of a new shopping precinct on Brent Street to be called Sentinel Square, at a cost of £1.5 million, and within a year the old Rose and Crown pub, the Classic Cinema (once called the Gala), and a number of shops had been replaced with a collection of modernist shops and a Tesco supermarket. The Odeon at the Quadrant was opened in 1939 at what had been Cook's Corner in Parson Street. It was pulled down in 1979 and the site redeveloped.

Salisbury Plain is a piece of wasteland in front of The Load of Hay (a pub demolished in 2004), where animals destined for Smithfield were penned overnight. The pub had been a favourite of Peter Mandelson in his youth. There is a small collection of 18th century houses along Shirehall Lane, two with fire plaques. Penfold House in Brent Street (not far from The Load of Hay) is said to have been built in 1713. It is believed it had been a lodge for drovers bringing cattle up to London, and it was known as Albert Cottage until 1923. Near to Brent Green was Goodyers House (demolished in 1934), named after an important Hendon family. Where Goodyers House was is now a cul-de-sac called Goodyers Gardens with about 10 or 11 houses. Number 11 was the main house when Goodyers House was still standing. Hendon Park was laid out on Step Fields, part of the Goodyers House estate, and was opened as Queen's Park in 1903. In July 1940, there was a particularly large propaganda rally held in Hendon Park - "Rout the Rumour", the first of its kind in England. Hendon House was home to John Norden, the renowned 16th century cartographer, but was demolished and replaced with Hendon School. Famous alumni include Peter Mandelson, Rabbi Lionel Blue, and author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

A little further down the road is a small gothic complex called the Alma White Centre. In 1893 the Rev W.H.Seddon, Hon Secretary of the Church Army, purchased Fosters, in Brent Street, with the intention of building "a Rescue Home (for fallen women), with a Chapel attached". The site became St. Saviour's Homes in 1897, caring for "feeble minded" women. In 1926 it was taken over by the Pillar of Fire Society as a bible college, school and chapel. Following significant financial investment from Bungagee Enterprises, the area has been given a new lease of life.

The Quadrant Area

Despite the name suggesting a small town square, this is an area surrounding the crossroads formed by Brent Street, Church Street (leading down from The Burroughs), Parson Street and Finchley Lane. There are small parades of shops on each road, which have been there for many years. The shops include amongst others: a barbers, dry cleaners, newsagent, solicitors, a bank, a cafe, a kebab house, a hand car wash and a petrol station.

Sentinel Square Area

Sentinel Square is a shopping precinct off Brent Street. It is a partly covered, U-shaped development of small shops. The shops include a small supermarket, a phone shop, a pharmacy, a gym, a Jewish book shop, an accountants, a high street bank, a stationers and a café (with a fine selection of international newspapers). Sentinel Square lacks public toilets and security to protect the local community. There is a rumour that a copper figure of 'Charles Wellington', a famous RAF pilot based at RAF Hendon during World War II, will be erected in spring/summer 2009.

Transport

Hendon is served by Hendon Central tube station on the Edgware Branch of the Northern Line and by Hendon railway station on the National Rail network, as well as by numerous bus routes. (Buses come and go from Brent Cross Shopping Centre, London's West End and the new Wembley Stadium.) There are various mini-cab companies that operate within Hendon. If you want to travel in style, Stan Shah offers a shuttle bus service throughout Hendon. Hendon Aerodrome was a former airport, famous as the site of the first airmail delivery; the first parachute descent from a powered aircraft; the first night flights; and, from RAF Hendon during World War II the RAF provided the first aerial defence of a city. It is believed that the first casualty in the Battle of Britain was an RAF Hurricane pilot from Hendon. It closed to flying in 1968.

Population of Central Hendon

This includes West Hendon, Colindale, and parts of the Hyde

• 1881 5,615
• 1891 8,255
• 1901 11,524
• 1911 17,776
• 1921 20,246
• 1931 57,603
• 1951 69,483
• 1961 62,698

Notable people from Hendon

• Joe Beevers - professional poker player
• Gary Breen - footballer
• Sir John Clements - actor and producer
• Denis Compton - cricketer and footballer
• Henry Cooper - heavyweight boxer
• Harry Demetriou- professional poker player
• Henry Hicks - Royal College of Surgeons, President of the Geological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - novelist
• Peter Mandelson - Labour politician
• Michael Podro - art historian
• Oliver Postgate - animator, puppeteer and writer.
• Thomas Tilling - omnibus operator was born here in 1825
• Lacey Turner - actress who plays Stacey Slater in Eastenders she was born in hendon

External links

• Barnet Archives and Local Studies
• HADAS Archived Newsletters of the Hendon & District Archaeological Society
• Victoria County History Hendon Chapter for a more detailed history of Hendon
• Pictures 1700 - 1900
• Pictures 1900 - 1930
• Hendon and Finchley Times is archived from 1998 for more recent history.