 East End Road
East End Road is the main route from East Finchley to Church End
Finchley. It may have originally been the route from the hamlet
of Church End Finchley to the old Great North Road at Muswell Hill
and may have continued as the route of the Great North Road until
the 14th or 15th century. It is possible that this led to the first
hamlet of East End (1365). The road has had various names such
as Manor Lane (19th century) and Finchley Road (18th century).
In the medieval period a triangle of waste, Hunts Green (1437),
appeared where the road forked with a route going to Long Lane
and the other along what is now East End Road. By 1751 there was
an inn on one side which is still called the Five Bells. Established
sometime between 1730 and 1751 the inn moved from its original
location next to Stanley Road to its present situation in 1804.
During the 19th century the inn had the reputation as a centre
of boxing and a number of champions, including Gem Mace, trained
there. South of the road, according to tradition, was the location
of the home of Thomas Pengelly, whose lodger from 1683 until 1700
was variously known as Richard Clarke, Canterbury, Crandberry,
Cranmore, Cranbourne or Cary but who was, in truth, Richard Cromwell,
the son of Oliver Cromwell. Further along between the 1840s and
1860s lived Anthony Salvin, the architect, and his family (see
also below). "Lord" George Sanger the circus owner had Park Farm
(now Hampstead Heights and Park Farm Close) as winter quarters
in the 1900s and it was here that he was murdered in 1911. Between
Brackenbury Road and Hamilton Walter Dickinson founded Finchley's
first manufactory in 1909, the Hill View Works, making cars (now
a carpet warehouse). The Order of the Good Shepherd moved to East
End house in 1864, building a larger institution in the 1870s.
Their reformatory work continued until the 1940s. Much of the convent
was burned down in 1972, leading to the development of social housing
around 1980, but they had already started to redevelop the land
around the house as Bishop Douglass R C School (1963). A Victorian
letterbox is to be found on the wall of the convent. Across the
road is East Finchley Cemetery. Originally a part of Newmarket
Farm 47 acres were purchased by St Marylebone Burial Board and
opened as a cemetery in 1855. Heath Robinson, the illustrator,
and Thomas Henry Huxley the Darwinist, are buried here. Christ's
College Finchley moved to East End Road in the 1970s.
Church Lane
One of the lanes that links East End Road to the Great North
Road is Church Lane. The name Church Lane was forced on the local
population in the 1860s but it was originally called Bull Lane
(since at least the 17th century), a name which remained popular
until the 1900s. Originally the lane opened up on to Finchley
Common at the junction of King Street and The Walks and large
houses at the southern end of the road had been built by the
early 19th century. Glencroft, built in the first half of the
19th century, had become Summers Brown Ltd cricket bat manufacturers
by 1911. At the other end, after the enclosure of the common
in 1816, a number of modest houses were built, a number of which
still stand. Holy Trinity Church was built in 1846 to designs
by the architect Anthony Salvin. It was felt necessary due to
area's descent into a "godless" hamlet, particularly with the
boxing at the Five Bells Public House. The church was extended
in 1860 and 1866 and church hall (now a Hindu Temple) was built
in 1913. East Finchley's first streets after the railway, Trinity
Road, and Manor Park Road, both of which appear in the 1871 census,
started a process of suburbanisation of the area that was not
completed until the 1930s. Briar Close may have originally been
called Philipe Lane, but it was generally known as Green Lane.
Between 1808 and 1835 the lane was the location of a house rented
as Finchley's workhouse and was called Workhouse Lane as a consequence.
A bridge over railway, built in the 1860s, was removed in the
1960s and the northern portion of the road is now much overgrown
and disused. Image:Baldfacedstag.jpg
The Bald Faced Stage in the 1880s, in the background is the old
Congregationalist Church [edit]The High Road
Around the 1300 the Bishop of London created a new route for
the main road north out of London to the northern counties of
England through the eastern side of what is now Finchley. By
1444 there was a bridge, later called Hanson's bridge, crossing
the Mutton Brook, a tributary of the river Brent, which rises
in what is now Cherry Tree Woods. The route followed the line
of Market Place to King's Street, the point at which the road
ceased to be the responsibility of the Bishop and later simply
opened out on to the common. The road was, by the end of the
17th century, so busy that it was made into a toll road (1712)
in order to pay for its upkeep. The tollgate was removed in 1901.
It was at this time that the road first took the route that we
see today, rising from "Hanson's"' Bridge and running in
a straight line, called "New Gate Lane", to the crossroads of
what is now East End Road and Fortis Green. The White Lion was
established shortly after near to the tollgate. Its original
name, The Dirt House, may refer to the practice of bringing "street
manure"' (effluent
from the streets and cess pits of London) to Finchley. The manure
was used on the fields of Finchley to produce excellent hay;
the extra cost of paying a toll stopped it being taken any further
along the road, the inn being where farmers and carters conducted
their transactions. Later, by the 1730s, a blacksmith had established
a forge on the triangle of land on the common created by the
line of the old road and the new one. Here he started, illicitly,
selling beer. The house was first called the Jolly Blacksmiths
and later the Bald Faced Stag. The numerous robberies on the
road as it passed through Finchley Common led to the erection
of a permanent gibbet (c1730) close to the six-mile stone (where
Lincoln Road enters the High Road). By the 1830s improvements
in coach travel and railways made the road less important and
toll was removed in 1862. In 1830 the Congregationalist community
built a chapel (slightly along from Stanley Road) which burnt
down in 1875 and was replaced in 1878 with a new church where
Budgens is today. Its 130 foot spire and clock dominated the
cross roads until the 1960s. In the 1850s there was a pottery
and brick works where Baronsmere and Park Hall Road are today.
The opening of the railway station in 1868 encourage some building
but it was by no means immediate and only by the l880s do we
see rows of shops, many of which still stand, including Cavendish
Terrace, Camden Terrace and Park Hall Place. There was a temperance
inn, The Black Bass Tavern (demolished 1965), and The Bald Faced
Stag was rebuilt in the early 1890s, with its stag. A tramline
(1905) promoted further developments and by 1914 not only had
the High Road become East Finchley's main shopping district it
had two cinemas, the Athenaeum and the Picture Palace (later
The Rex and the Phoenix Cinema) and a new Salvation Army Hall,
(now the Youth Theatre).
Market Place
This may have originally been the hamlet of Park
Gate of 1375, although the name appears in 1756 as being at the
beginning of Fortis Green. Wherever the original location it
certainly refers to exit of the new road out of the Bishop of
London's Hornsey
park. The Market Place takes its name from a large unchartered
pig market. Finchley Woods had always provided for the rearing
of pigs but the clearance of the woods in the 16th century allowed
for the bringing of large numbers of pigs from other parts of
England to be kept. By the end of the 17th century the largest
pig market in Middlesex had developed and was centred on inns
such as the George, Hog Driver and the Sow and Pigs, with market
days on Wednesday and Thursday (1717). Pig drovers would sell
the pigs to London Butchers or to local farmers. Later it was
said that the pigs were fed on the offal, or spent grain, from
the gin industry. It was here that the highwayman Jack Shepherd
was captured dressed as a butcher. In the 1840s the market was
considered much reduced, being held only on Mondays, and even
before the area had developed the market had ceased to be weekly.
By the 1890s there were only auctions every few months. However
the pig tradition continued and in 1955 25 pigs were kept around
Prospect Place. Streets like Prospect Place were built during
the 1820s and once the market had started to wind down further
streets were added. Chapel Street took its name from the Congregational
chapel on the main road. By the 1930s the area was considered
in need of redevelopment and in part the Red Lion estate was
constructed to take residents of Market Place. But it was enemy
action during the Blitz, and one specific incident on the 15th
of November, that made what was desirable necessary. The area
was redeveloped in the early 1960s with three eleven storey flats,
the first being opened in April 1960 by Margaret Thatcher, then
MP for Finchley, the first occupant being a Mr Price. In 1927
Burton's Bakeries built a large bakery on the walks which by
the 1930s was the [Merry Miller] and Clarks Bakery during the
1960s. It closed after a fire in the early 1980s. [edit]Red Lion
Hill Red Lion Hill takes its name from a public house, The Red
Lion, from at least the 1780s; an older, and certainly more curious,
name of Cuckolds Haven (known from at least 1678) survived into
the middle of the 19th century as "Cockey Haven"'. Here, and then
on Finchley Common's western edge, was Pointalls Fields, a charitable
donation of land made in the early 16th century. Around 1612
almshouses, which were six in number by 1723, were erected on
this land. These were by the 1830s in a very poor state but new
houses were not constructed until 1895 (the modern blocks being
built between 1957 and 1966). When the turnpike road was constructed
around 1712 it passed a large oak tree which quickly became a
landmark and was known as Turpin's Oak during the 19th century
(removed 195). About this time a new inn was opened called the
Rabbit, but in 1786 it was renamed The Red Lion. Grange Estate
takes its name from a house built in 1863 (demolished 1994).
Until the 1900s The Grange was a private residence when it became
for a brief period a piano factory. In 1919 it was sold on to
Simms Motor Ltd along with its 6 acres for £30,000. Because of
a post war slump however production did not commence until 1926.
By 1937 the factory was producing "Uniflow"' injection pumps for
Leyland Motors Ltd and by 1962 there were 2,500 employees (picture).
In 1968 the factory was taken over by CAV (later CAV Lucas) who
started a process of redundancies. By 1977 there were 1,960 and
by 1991 the factory was closed. The site was purchased by Fairview
Homes. In 1934 Finchley Urban District Council considered the
possibility of a "housing scheme"' in East Finchley, and in 1935
land was acquired for the purpose around Oak Lane. The intention
was to provide houses for families who were living in overcrowded
conditions in the Market Place district and Red Lion Hill itself.
Most of the buildings were designed by Percival Harrison, the
borough engineer, and the first two built, then block R now Craven
House, were opened on the 8th October 1938 by A T Pike the Mayor
of Finchley. King John's House in King Street, and later King
John's Cottages in Long Lane, possibly took derived their name
from a charter that was granted to the Bishop of London allowing
his tenants at Finchley to bring goods into London without paying
tolls and other duties. The people of Finchley were still attempting
to cite this charter when faced with the tolls on the Great North
Road. Local myth has suggested that King John's
house (demolished 1904) was a royal hunting lodge, but this is
unlikely.
Strawberry Vale
This area was originally called Brownswell, and
was known as such from at least the 1590s. By the 18th century
it was a small hamlet by which time it had an inn called The
Green Man, the only Finchley inn mentioned by Charles Dickens.
The original inn was rebuilt several times, the last time being
in 1935 and it was demolished in the early 1990s. When Finchley
Common was enclosed the Regents Canal Company intended to flood
sections of it to produce a large reservoir but the company sold
it in 1816 to James Frost who was a builder and pioneer cement
manufacturer. Frost built the house Hawthorne Dene as a demonstration
of the flexibility of various materials and the house, with its
plaster and cast iron ceilings and banisters, is considered to
be unique. It was listed in 1962 after a campaign led by the
comedian Spike Milligan. Strawberry Vale remained the last real
farm in Finchley during the 1960s. As such it was run by Evan
Evans, a horse breeder whose horses had an international reputation.
In the 1850s Octavia Hill spent part of her childhood at Brownswell
Cottages. British and Colonial Films used Newstead House from
1911 until about 1916 as a film studio, here they made films
like Robin Hood Outlawed. (Dir. Charles Raymond) in 1912 and
a number of the Lieutenant Daring, series. |
