History of North Finchley

• North End was first recorded in 1462 as a hamlet village, part of Finchley Wood (Swan Lane Open Space west of Whetstone High Road is an old section left of Finchley common). It was known as North End until the 1880’s, but was more historically known as Finchley Common. The area now refers to North Finchley and Totteridge and Whetstone.

• Tally Ho gets its name from a coaching company with the same name. When the Great North Road & the New Road joined, Tally Ho acted as a staging post. It was at this time that the Torrington Pub established itself. The Tally Ho pub was built in 1927, replacing the 1860’s Park Hotel.

• The Woodhouse area is named after the three original houses in the area. By the C18th a single house bearing the same name was built on the site, now Woodhouse College.

• During the 1948 Olympics, an art deco outdoor swimming pool on the land where the lido sits today was used for Water Polo. The Olympic sized swimming pool was replaced with one a third the size.

• The Arts Depot opened in 2004 on the site of the demolished Gaumont Cinema, being used as an open air market. The Gaumont Theatre (see picture below) opened in 1937 and was well suited to the up-market community of Finchley. It closed in 1980 ad was demolished in 1987 (the current position of The Bath Store would have been the cinema as entrance). The mighty Compton Organ that once played at the cinema now sits in The Plough pub, near Ware Herts.

• Finchley Football Club was founded in 1874 on the Glebelands. Ken Aston (a late president of the club) is the man who started the red/yellow card system still used in football internationally today. Wingate (named after the founder of the Israeli army General Orde C. Wingate) merged with Finchley, as a result of financial strains to become the New Wingate & Finchley F.C known today.

• Woodside Park Station was opened in 1872 as Torrington Park Station renamed in 1882. This is the area where the parish of Christ Church was established and in 1870 reported the area had a mere 350 dwellings.

• Torrington Park was the name of the land that was sold for residential development Woodhouse Park Estate which included the construction of a hall. Woodside Hall itself converted into Woodside Park Synagogue in 1885.

• Woodside Park Garden Suburb was really developed in the 1920’s when Fred Ingram created a new housing estate, with only 8 houses per acre, with own local shops and station into London. It was first surrounded by open fields and the old manor houses like Moss Hall, then called Little Angels.

• The Finchley Society was set up in 1971 to save cottages on Lodge Lane. Sir John Betjeman was the first president followed by the very locally active Spike Milligan.

• Lodge Lane, N12, was home to Private John Parr, who was the first British soldier killed in WW1 and David Jason. David Jason lived in a house in the car park where Finchley Market is held today.

• Charles Dickens wrote Martin Chuzzlewit whilst at Cobley’s farm or Fallow Farm in North Finchley, which sat in the heart of all the hamlets of Finchley.

• Trade in Whetstone established along the Great North Road, the Bull and Butcher was licensed in 1765. Called Whetstone after the Whet stone soldiers reportedly used to sharpen their knives on their way to the Battle of Barnet.

North Finchley, History Of.

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