• Was originally, and sometimes still referred to as Church End, the oldest recorded medieval village in the Finchley woodlands. It was a small village on a hilltop site. As an area it had more residents than the other Finchley’’s, and was referred to as part of Hendon until 1930’s.
• The area (now focused around Ballards Lane) became known as Finchley Central when station changed its name in 1940.
• The Chequers Pub (NW4), rebuilt in the 1890’s, is an example of the original buildings of the small village, just a few cottages along 3 roads.
• The area was known for its Hay trade; in 1703 Joseph maxon described the area saying “they manage their compost heaps the best in the kingdom.”
• St Mary’s Church on Hendon Lane is Finchley’s oldest church and was built in the C12th, Saxon in origin, Norman in foundations and numerous extensions. In the graveyard are the graves of Thomas Payne (bookseller), Sir Stamford Raffles (founder of London Zoo) and political reformer John Cartwright.
• Church End Library, next to St Mary’s, is on the site of a pub, the Old Queens Head. The original building burnt down, and rebuilt but the rector refused to renew the license and the pub moved. The building was then used by Christ College up until 1902 when it was used by the council. During WWII the building was extensively bombed and had to be rebuilt into the current building. In between the church and the old pub between 1787 and 1880 there used to be a cage rose, which was used as punishment for criminals. The Queens Head pub was moved to its current location in mid C19th.
• Church Farm Museum (also now in Hendon, but part of Church End traditionally) is a Grade II listed building from mid C17th, and is what remains of the original Church Farm. By the end of C19th the hay ceased to be profitable, non-crop related transport replacing horses. The trade was so influential to the development in the Church End.
• Unique to London, Finchley has a city farm, College Farm. College Farm was opened by Express Diaries in 1883. It was a celebrated Victorian tourist destination and showplace of the Dairy Industry. It was primarily a visitor’s centre by 1909.
• Cromwell House on Cromwell Avenue is the only remaining manor houses that used to sit in the area.
• The tube station was originally Finchley & Hendon, on the line that ran from Finsbury Park to Edgeware (part of the Northern Heights Plan). It opened in 1867 in what was then rural Middlesex, still merely a village at the time. It is the home station to Harry Beck who designed the modern day Tube Map (a plaque is situated on southern platform). Harry Beck lived at 60 Courthouse Gardens.
• The Dignity Pub sits on a site where centuries of pubs have sat. The King of Prussia was licensed there in the C18th. Barclays Bank sits on the site of a field first converted to St Maragets’s Church, demolished for the building of the bank.
• Victoria Park was Finchley’s first park and opened in 1902 to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and has hosted Finchley Carnival since 1905.
• The area urbanized when Finchley Common became enclosed in 1816. The area had no more than 250 households until the C19th.
• In 1826 a new road was constructed between Finchley and London’s Marylebone via Temple Fortune replacing the old small gravel path, Ducksetters Lane. This is now called Regents Park road and at the junction of Ballards Lane there was a tollgate (moved after much protest to East End Road).
• Ballards Lane, or ‘Barrows Lane’, was named in 1421 (probably by the Ballards Family) and was known as the Upper Road (Nether Street being the Under Road), both described in 1365 as ‘old’ streets. It did not always connect to North Finchley Highroad, it ended where Victoria Park is located today, connected to Tally Ho corner in 1756. It originally was a small pathway that connected Church End to Finchley Common.
• The shops and high street of Ballards Lane today break up showing the history of field boundaries and time they were sold (and developed).
• Nether Street was an access road to properties on the land such as Moss Hall and Brent Lodge. Brentlodge was built in the early C19th, and demolished in 1962 despite the efforts of Spike Milligan and the Finchley Society. It is often said that Finchley has been careless of its past with bulldozers. Brent Lodge along with others was living history of the area. Since the 1960’s there have been dramatic changes to the area
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Harry Beck lived at 60 Courthouse Road not Gardens.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a “cage rose” please?
ReplyDelete