Childs Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Childs Hill, now the southernmost ward of the London Borough of Barnet, although of historic origin, is a late-19th-century suburban development situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross bordered by the A41 (Hendon Way) and Dunstan Road, and centred on the junction of Cricklewood Lane and Finchley Road. It is adjacent to a part of Hampstead Heath known as the West Heath.
With streets of modest terraced housing, but also characterised by four high rise blocks of flats, Childs Hill has a public library, as well as Childs Hill park, an 18th-century pub (The Castle), several shops and restaurants, small businesses, offices, primary schools and two churches (All Saints C of E with Primary School and Childs Hill Baptist).
It is the most densely populated ward in the borough. It has consistently been represented on Barnet Council by the Liberal Democrats (current councillors Monroe and Susette Palmer, and Jack Cohen), although as part of the Finchley & Golders Green constituency, its Member of Parliament (currently Dr Rudi Vis) represents the Labour Party (UK). The area has a thriving Residents' Association, called CLAN (current chairman: Andrew Sanger), representing three residential streets at the heart of the neighbourhood - Crewys, Llanvanor and Nant roads.
Childs Hill has blue plaques commemorating two famous former residents: Sportsman C. B. Fry who lived at Moreland Court, Lyndale Avenue, and Aviator Amy Johnson, who lived at Vernon Court on the Hendon Way.
John Constable, who lived in nearby Hampstead, painted Childs Hill in oils in 1825. (The work is entitled Childs Hill with Harrow in the Distance). The painting shows the view northwest along what is now Cricklewood Lane, with Harrow on the Hill visible beyond.
Contents |
[edit] History
The earliest known use of the place name 'Child's Hill' is in 1593. (Today, the apostrophe in the name is optional.) In the 18th century, Childs Hill was a centre for brick and tile making, supplying material for building Hampstead. The Castle Inn dates from this period: the first record of it is in 1751.
With an altitude over 259 feet above sea level (at the Castle Public House), Childs Hill is visible from afar, and from 1789 to 1847 was the site of an optical telegraph station. In 1808 this became one of a line of telegraph stations stretching from the Admiralty to Great Yarmouth, erected as part of Britain's national defences. Only the name, Telegraph Hill, remains; it has been covered with housing (this part of Childs Hill is now inside the boundary of the London Borough of Camden).
Following an Act of Parliament in 1826, Finchley Road was constructed; it was completed by 1829. There was a tollgate at the Castle Public House. The road is now the main thoroughfare through Childs Hill. In the early 1850s a Colonel Evans built houses on a site called The Mead, where the Morris brick works had been. The road was later called Granville Road - which it still is today. By the 1870s a number of laundries were operating in Childs Hill. The very last laundry site in the area, the Initial Laundry in Granville Road, closed in 2006.
[edit] Nearby places
- Golders Green (to the north)
- Hampstead (to the east)
- Fortune Green (to the south)
- Cricklewood (to the west)
[edit] References
Hendon, Child's Hill, Golders Green and Mill Hill, by Stewart Gillies and Pamela Taylor (ISBN0850338751)
Hampstead Heath, by Alan Farmer (ISBN0948667400)
[edit] External links
- Childs Hill Online - Community website for Childs Hill residents with links to local businesses and services
- British History Online - Childs Hill pages - a serious look at the area's history
- Childs Hill is at coordinates Coordinates:
|
|||||||||||||||||
