Area Guide: Broxbourne

Broxbourne

The town name arrives from the Saxon word ‘Broc’ which means badger and ‘Bourne’ which means stream. Still today a purpose built badger tunnel runs under the A10 which aims at reducing badger deaths on the roads. The town is recorded in the Doomsday book as Brochesborne.

Broxbourne is home to a 15th Century Church St. Augustines and the large estate Monson Almshouses built in 1728 is now a special school. The woodlands to the north of the town are idealic for walking and exteremely well preserved.

Broxbourme will be involved in London 2012, Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The showground (the overflow carpark) will become the White Water Canoe Center, all owned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) using the water of the River Lee. The area will benefit economically from the white water rafting and canoeing center.

Paradise Wildlife Park is a popular visitor attraction in Hertfordshire, sitting on the site of the old Broxbourne Zoo with gibbons, lemurs, birds, a reptile house and many more. Next to the wildlife park is the Paintballing Site, putting an extreme fun use to the woodland.

Cheshunt Area Guide: Central

Central Chehunt Residence Guide

THE GRANGE ESTATE is a popular residential area, situated in Central Cheshunt between The Great Cambridge Road and Turners Hill. The area benefits from its short distance to amenities including, Cheshunt Town Centre, Football Club, Library, Fire Services, Ambulances, Police Station, Grundy Park Leisure Centre, and is within short walking distance to Cheshunt main line station, and Theobald Grove providing fast services to London (Liverpool Street).

The area was built in the late 1950’s early 1960s and was used as a through road to avoid the Old Pond traffic, however to ensure that the roads are used only for access from residents, guests, deliveries and emergency vehicles, gates were installed and are only opened for emergency vehicles.

Roads Include: Elgin Road, Tyfield Close, Littlebrook Gardens, Albury Grove Road, Brinley Close, Guinevere Gardens, Hartland Road, Harrison Walk, Hillside Crescent, Hillside Avenue, Gaywood Avenue, Manston Close, Albury Walk, Woodcote Close.

RUSSELLS RIDE, This area is conveniently situated in central Cheshunt, access is via Turner Hill or Windmill Lane. The benefits of this include ample on street parking, Russell’s Ride Allotment Space, various communal grass areas a short distance to Cheshunt mainline train station and local amenities.

Roads Include: Russells Ride, Downfield Road, Home Close, Darcy Close, Burbage Close, Southmead Crescent, Marsh Croft Drive, Shalcross Drive, Steward Close, Griton Close, Acton Close, The Briars, Shortmead Drive, Green Close, Betula Terrace, Garland Close.


THE WINDMILL ESTATE is mainly popular for its large room sizes and central location, with easy access via Windmill Lane or Turners Hill to amenities including Cheshunt mainline station with fast lines to London Liverpool Street., Grundy Park Leisure Centre, Youth Sailing Training and Canoeing Centre, Cheshunt High Street and Turners Hill, recycling point, police, fire and ambulance stations. Building began in the 1960’s, and through traffic is limited by speed bumps down Roundmoor Drive.

Roads Include: Roundmoor Drive, Oakdene, Greenall Close, Clifton Close. Palmers Way, Landmead, Long Moor, Winton Drive, Bellamy Road, Bullwell Crescent, Forest Road, Penton Drive, Gibbs Close.

MOXOM AVENUE & SURROUNDING AREAS provide ample on street parking, and various access points to the large Moxom Avenue Open Space. It was built in the 1990’s and was previously the site for the old Cheshunt Boys Secondary School, now a mixed school on College Road.

Roads Include: Moxom Avenue, Fosters Close, Norwood Road, Roberts Close.


Local Primary Schools: Burleigh, Downfield, Millbrook, Dewhurst.

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.

Relevant Articles
History of Finchley
History of Finchley Central
History of East Finchley
Northern Line History
History of Kings Cross/ St Pancras
London Skyline
London's Secret History: Q Whitehall
History of Monument

Local Links

House Clearance London

Kings Cross St Pancras History.

Guide to London: Kings Cross St Pancras Station

The two once competing stations of Kings Cross and St Pancras have combined, yet still separate in functions, and remain central to London’s access to the east coast, midlands, Scotland, London’s Underground lines, and more recently Paris or Lille via Eurostar. Links to the London 2012 Olympic site will also run from Kings Cross, which is logical to every Londoner.

The Kings Cross station was the first of the two to open in 1852 (the station building where platforms 1-8 are) and was designed by architect Lewis Cubbitt, on the site of a small fever and smallpox hospital, to provide access to the UK’s east coast and midlands during the big industrial revolution.

Located close to Euston Station, and The British Library, it sits next to St Pancras station, which replaced Waterloo in International trains to Paris in 2007. Kings Cross has been influential in the expansion of London city, not only on the MonopolyBoard. Its recent transformation had taken years and a lot of hard work, and included connecting both stations for ease of access for the commuter. Kings Cross tube station is served by more tube lines than any other station in London.

St Pancras Station, designed by William Barlow was a Midland Station built in the 1860’s specifically competing to outdo Kings Cross, hence the buildings extravagance. The Barlow Train Shed arch is still impressive to the visitor today and at one time it was the largest enclosed building in the world. Midlands Railway ran to both Euston and Kings Cross but wanted headquarters of their own, so commissioned St Pancras Station. The name comes from the area (although seems slightly redundant today), St Pancras’ medieval Parish dating back to the 4th century, the remains of St Pancras Church with the original alter still there.

St Pancras’s Grade I listed building is made up of red brick became the Midland Great Hotel and was completed in 1877, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott but closed in 1935 to make way for the railway offices and became known as Pancras Chambers (abandoned when BR privatized our railways). It will again become a luxury hotel. The line from St Pancras was built over Regents Canal (hence why passengers climb up stairs to the platform) whereas Kings Cross line was built underneath it.

The close location to Kings Cross station connected the stations physically for the purpose of the London commuter, although the addition and reopening of the Kings Cross Thameslink line on Pentonville Road meant that the trains coming into St Pancras were fewer. Eurostar was a welcome addition and the size of the space as well as central location made it ideal, the redevelopment meant the Thameslink became incorporated. The restoration of the roof was ornate in replicating the original design only with glass which was not only due to British heritage but also Eurotunnel guidelines.

The Kings Cross area in the borough of Camden had gained a reputation as a seedy area of London. The St Giles area of Kings Cross was the setting in Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, as it was one of the poorest areas at the time. However, recent developments beginning in the 1990’s and further plans suggest how much of a reformation it has had.

The redevelopment of the area included, visual arts, London’s Canal Museum (opened by HRH in 1992) and the two mainline stations Kings Cross and restoring and modernizing St Pancras.
The refurbishment of St Pancras commemorates Sir John Betjeman with a statue and a pub. This is because of his connection to the place, in the 1960’s, following the demolition of Euston Station in 1966 plans were also put forward to combine the two stations as just Kings Cross destroying St Pancras. These were strongly refuted by the public with Betjeman running a large campaign. In 1967, under pressure the building was granted Listed Building status Grade I. The Eurostar train, platforms, restaurant, shops and the longest champagne bar in Europe, sit under the impressive single spanning steel rods of Barlow’s Victorian roof where glass sheets replace the old ruined roof allowing the light to poor in, quite an entrance to London for our international commuters.




Today the station is best known for the fictional Platform 9¾’s from J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter. During the film series, the station scenes take place within the main station, with platforms 4 & 5 renumbered 9 & 10. Any exterior shots use St Pancras station due to its Victorian Gothic architecture being more suitable than Kings Cross.

However, the history is far deeper and more interesting than that of the likes of fictional Roland Rat living below in the station sewers. It is rumored that Queen of East Anglia Boadicea is buried under one of the platforms on the site of her final battle; myths of her ghost haunt the station, although there is no actual evidence that suggests this. The battle left her army defeated to Roman general Caius Suetonius Paulinus’s army, when she is believed to have killed herself in AD61.

Kings Cross in its rural history was an area known as Battlefields, the valley where the Battle is believed to have taken place. It wasn’t until the 1750’s that link roads were set up into London City that the area became densely populated, renamed when a huge statue commemorating King George IV who reigned between 1820 and 1830 was erected in 1836 (demolished in 1845) on the cross roads of what is now Euston Road, York Way, Grays Inn Road and Pentonville Road.

The Importance of a Website for a Company in London

According to the Office of Communications each person in the UK spnds more than seven hours cumulatiely every day watching television, listening to the radio, making calls and web browsing, meaning there is enough of a market to justify spending time promoting the website. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) nearly 15 million households in Great Britain (61%) had internet access in 2007, an increase of 7% per one million households from the year before.

Your website should give customers a better understanding of the services offered. Web site promotion is vital for website success. It should also provide a basis for expanding into selling or providing either services online attracting a large audience to obtain high profile, well paying advertising clients.

Research has established that a business has about 7 seconds toa cupture a visitors interest when they first visit the website. Therefore it needs to look fantastic, be functional and easy to navigate. businesses are likely to loose 70% of potential customers by not including all posible contact details. Must also remember that people browse websites they do not read them, so keep wording at a minimum, especially homepage where there should be about one paragraph. Further detail can be hidden within the website.

The appearance of your web site is one of the most important aspects of your success. Your service will literally be judged by the appearance of your web site. Poor web design is one of the leading causes of small business failure. There are literally thousands of home-based Internet businesses struggling to make a living online. Most, make very little or no money and end up closing their site in defeat. Consistency is especially important with web sites so that the person knows that they are still in the same site.

Measuring the success of the Site.
• No. of visitors & analyzing how customers interact with the site, which is how they typically behave when they are there.
• What are the most valuable sources of links to your site?

London Tenants Guide

Tenants Rights

• Your landlord must give at least 24 hours notice if they want access (except in an emergency).
  
• Landlords are generally responsible for the maintenance and major repairs to a property.
  The landlord by law, must make sure that all the gas appliances provided are maintained in good order and that a Gas Safety (used to be corgi)-registered plumber carries out a safety check each year. Keep a record of the safety checks.
• 
  The landlord must maintain all electrical installations (ie fixed wiring) and any electrical appliances they provide (ie cookers, kettles) and make sure they are safe to use. If your landlord supplies new appliances, he or she should also provide any accompanying instruction booklets.

• The landlord must make sure any furniture and furnishings they provide meet the fire resistance regulations.
• 
  The occupier is responsible for maintaining appliances which they own, or are entitled to take with them at the end of the letting.
• 
  The 2004 Housing Act requires there to be an adequate means of escape, depending on the size of the property, there may have to be smoke alarms and fire extinguishing equipment.

Your council's Environmental Health Officer will be able to give you more details about your landlord's obligations and can force your landlord to provide adequate fire precautions.

Tenants Responsibilities

• The Rent. If you are having difficulty paying rent you should get advice quickly. This is available from your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

• You must pay other bills as agreed with the let. This includes electricity, gas, water, telephone, council tax and a TV licence.

• It is expected that you will respect neighbours - so no making excess noise, putting rubbish in the wrong place or obstructing common areas

• Tell your landlord if you are going away for longer than 14 days - because this will affect his/her insurance policy

• Keep the property secure at all times - so lock it when you go out and don't give keys to anyone else

• Tell your landlord when things need fixing to avoid bigger problems later, reporting the need for any repairs. Consult the landlord about any proposals to make alterations to the property.

• Do basic maintenance - e.g. change light bulbs and smoke alarm batteries

Links A London Tenant May Find Useful

Tenants Information

London Clearance

Property to let

London Skyline

London’s Modern Skyline

London’s skyline was historically dominated by the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, where buildings even up to the 1960’s were not to exceed that height. London’s skyline compromised of church tops (now almost completing engulfed), Cathedrals, the Tower of London, Power Stations, Westminster Palace and Regal residences. The last 20-30 years have shown an attitude where developers are told to aim for the sky, beginning with Center Point in 1966, followed by the Natwest Tower in 1980.

Canary Wharf is a familiar skyline for any Londoner. The Red light flashing on the point of One Canada Square, completed in 1991, and is the centre piece of Canary Wharf in the Isle of Dogs. It stands proud alongside 25 & 8 Canada Square, 25 & 40 Bank Street, 10 Upper Bank Street and 1 Churchill Square. North Quay and Canary Riverside South will be new additions currently under construction to the Docklands area.

Until the mid 1960’s canary wharf was a busy cargo warehouse at the centre of West India Docks which closed in 1980. East India Docks and St Katherine’s Docks had already been closed from the technological advancements by The Port of London Authority in 1968.

In 1982 under London’s Docklands Development Corporation the area became an enterprise zone, attracting commerce and creating the Dockland’s Light Railway Network (jubilee station part of the expansion in 1993) aided by City Airport opening in 1987. The area is still being developed.

The IRA’s bombing of the Dockland’s and South Quay lead to further redevelopment of London’s current skyline. The two tall residential buildings of 1 Millharbour otherwise known as Pan Peninsula were constructed on the site of derelict office buildings involved in an explosion in 1996.

The City of London’s skyline is engulfed by skyscrapers such as Tower 42 (Natwest Building), recently completed (2009) Broadgate Tower, Shakespeare Tower and 99 Bishopsgate amongst others.

London’s architectural masterpiece The Gherkin, otherwise known as 30 St Mary’s Axe, is an influential and powerful addition to London City’s skyline. Lord Norman Foster (and his firm Foster and Partners) created this office block for financial insurance giants Swiss Re in the heart of the city, highlighting the evolution in London architecture within the last couple of decades.

London watched during the three years as the spiral of The Gherkin rose up into the city skyline 180m tall, can be easily distinguished from the other skyscrapers. Built on the previous site the Baltic Exchange which was near an IRA explosion in April 1992 it did not pose any threat to certain viewpoints of St Paul’s and was in need of redevelopment. Plans for Millenium Tower were rejected as it was too tall, but in 2003 the Gherkin was given the go ahead.

Environmentally friendly in its approach maximizing daylight, The Gherkin has gaps in the floor creating six shafts providing natural ventilation for the whole building. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in March 2004 and succeeds in utilizing London’s small amount of space, reflecting it at all angles, neatly disappearing in the shadow of other buildings until you are right underneath it.

London Eye added a modern landmark over Westminster (Houses of Parliament) and Big Ben, the Old City Hall (now London Aquarium and other businesses) and Guy Tower and hospital. On a walk from Cheapside, Southwark along the Thames the wheel peers around the Oxo Tower (once part of the power station for post office, bought as a cold store by Oxo then rebuilt Art Deco in the late 1920’s) once you have passed the Tate Modern (former Bankside power station)and Globe theatre.


Walking from the City along The Thames is a highly recommended walk (with the potential of local buses should it become too tiring or start raining). Not only does it offer the potential of seeing London’s present skyline but also the historic one.

This year (2010) will see the completion of 22 Marsh Wall otherwise known as The Landmark. In 2009 the go ahead was given to ‘The Shard of Glass’ or ‘Shard London Bridge’ to be completed by 2010. Upon completion this will be the largest building in London, making up of 71 floors and 66 storeys.

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Life In London Introduction to London

An Introduction to London


London dates back to the Roman town Londinium and the medieval boundaries of the city, now known as The Square Mile or The City.

London’s multi-cultural dynamics compromise of more than 7,556,900 people (over 12% of Britain’s total population July 2007), speaking over 300 languages from more than 270 nationalities.

Occupying over 1065.8 square km of land it is Britain’s and Europe’s largest city, the world’s nineth. London has a large and influential financial and business centre, seen as the powerhouse of the UK economy as well as being its capital city. It has over 30,000 shops, 6000 restaurants, 200 museums, 1200 hotels, 100 theatres, 3500 pubs, 300 markets and even 18 wildlife attractions.

We became an Olympic City on 24th August 2008, and the opening ceremony for 2012 will by that year on the 27th July. According to LondonCouncils Londoners will contribute £625 million to the 2012 games and paralympics games.

London has some impressive transport links. It has a channel tunnel link to Paris from Kings Cross St Pancreas International Eurostar, train connections across Britain, its tube line, our very own subway, and 5 city airports:

• Heathrow (the world's busiest international airport).
• Stanstead
• Luton
• Gatwick
• The City

London was the first city in the world to have an underground railway. There are 287 tube stations, on 12 different lines (tube map). The oldest line is the Metropolitan Line opening on 10th January 1863 and there is plenty of history in our underground.