Burnt Oak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Burnt Oak | |
  Burnt Oak shown within Greater London |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| London borough | Barnet |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | EDGWARE |
| Postcode district | HA8 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| European Parliament | London |
| London Assembly | Barnet and Camden |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Burnt Oak is a vibrant multi-ethnic suburb in the London Borough of Barnet south of Edgware.
The name Burnt Oak was first used in 1754 and from then until the 1850s referred to no more than a field on the eastern side of the Edgware Road (Watling Street). Nor is there any evidence that the name implies anything except that the field had once contained a burnt oak tree. In May 1844 Burnt Oak field was sold to a Mr Essex, and by the 1860s plans were already in place to build an estate of three residential streets: North Street, East Street, and South Street. The application of the field name to the area seems to have followed from this new estate and was in use by the end of the 19th century.
Locals were supplied with a handful of shops by the 1890s. There was a local post office and grocers run by George and William Plumb, a bakers run by Caller & Poole, as well as James Huggett the greengrocers. A tramway along the Edgware Road to Cricklewood opened in 1905, but the population remained very small, by 1921 still only around 1000.
Burnt Oak tube station is a station on the Northern Line of London Underground and opened on 27 October 1924. It was first open on weekdays with a small booking hall suitable for a rural area. As it was situated on farmland south east of the community in Edgware Road, London Transport constructed a new road, Watling Avenue. In the same year news leaked out that the London County Council was to build a new housing estate (the Watling Estate), which was ready for its first occupants in April 1927. With this estate and other private estates the Burnt Oak area was provided with a new station by 1928, and the population by 1931 had grown to 21 545 people. Along both sides of Watling Avenue shops were built. In 1929 Jack Cohen used the name Tesco in Burnt Oak for the first time, and thus founded the giant chain of stores. In 1936 the Watling Market opened with a hundred covered shops and stalls, and the Co-op opened its "finest department store" at the junction of Stag Lane and Burnt Oak Broadway.
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