Oakleigh Park

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Oakleigh Park
Coordinates: 51.6260° N 0.1716° W
OS grid reference	TQ265935
London borough	Barnet
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N20
Dial code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Chipping Barnet
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England • London

Oakleigh Park is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, bearing the postcode N20. It adjoins Whetstone, and is often regarded as part of it. However, it has its own identity and its own station.

The principal road is Oakleigh Road North. Turnings off this road include Oakleigh Park North, Oakleigh Avenue and Oakleigh Park South.

The name is a relatively modern invention, possibly influenced by Oakwood.

Nearest places:

• Totteridge
• Woodside Park
• Brunswick Park
• Whetstone
• Friern Barnet
• North Finchley
• East Barnet
• New Barnet
• Osidge
• Southgate
• Cockfosters

Nearest station:

• Oakleigh Park railway station

Nearest tube station:

• Totteridge and Whetstone tube station

[edit] The Betjeman connection

In John Betjeman’s poem, ‘The Outer Suburbs’ (1932), there is a reference to Oakleigh Park as ‘Oakley Park’: ‘The weary walk from Oakley Park/Through the soft suburban dark’. This is not a spelling that occurs elsewhere, but may be personal idiosyncrasy, rather than a simple mistake, given that Betjeman was, at the time, a schoolmaster in the area. (It could possibly be childhood association. The Betjemans became acquainted with a family called Oakley during holidays in Cornwall; see Bevis Hillier (1988) Young Betjeman. The person universally associated with that name – the American sharp-shooter, Annie Oakley, who died in 1926 – also spelt her name thus.)