St John's Wood

Saint John's Wood
Saint John's Wood
Saint John's Wood shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ265835
London borough	Westminster
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW8
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Westminster North
London Assembly	West Central

St. John's Wood High Street

Saint John's Wood is a district of northwest London, in the City of Westminster, and on the northwest side of Regent's Park. It is about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.^[1]

The boundaries of St. John's Wood are the Regent's Canal to the south, Maida Vale (Edgware Road) to the west, Boundary Road to the north and Avenue Rd/Primrose Hill Park to the east.

It is a very affluent neighbourhood,^[2] with the area postcode (NW8) ranked by Forbes magazine as the fifth most expensive postcode in London based on the average home price in 2007.^[3] According to a 2014 property agent survey, St. John's Wood residents pay the highest average rent in all of London.^[4]

History

A map showing the St John's Wood ward of St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916.

St John's Wood was developed from the early 19th century onwards. One of the first developers in the area was James Burton.^[5] It was one of the first London suburbs to be developed with a large amount of low density "villa" housing, as opposed to the terraced housing which was the norm in London up to the 19th century, even in expensive districts. Parts of St John's Wood have been rebuilt at a higher density,^[6] but it remains a highly desirable residential district, and one of the most expensive areas of London.^[7]

St John's Wood is the location of Lord's Cricket Ground, home of Middlesex County Cricket Club and of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), and the original headquarters of cricket. It is also famous for Abbey Road Studios and the street Abbey Road, where The Beatles recorded, notably the Abbey Road album, the cover of which features the band crossing the road.

The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery was formerly based at St John's Wood Barracks. The regiment moved to Woolwich on 6 February 2012; the barracks is to be demolished and developed as housing.^[8]

The area is also home to St. John's Wood Church Grounds, which contains the only nature reserve in the City of Westminster.

Education

The area has various schools, both state and independent:

• Robinsfield Infant School
• Saint Christina's Primary School
• Barrow Hill Junior School
• George Elliot Primary School
• Quintin Kynaston Community Academy
• The American School in London
• Arnold House School

Places of worship

St John's Wood has a range of places of worship.

Christian

• Abbey Road Baptist Church
• St John's Wood Church (Church of England)
• St Mark's Church, Hamilton Terrace (Church of England)
• The Church of Our Lady (Roman Catholic)

Jewish

• The Liberal Jewish Synagogue
• The New London Synagogue
• Saatchi Shul

Muslim

• London Central Mosque

Transport and locale

Nearest places

• Belsize Park to the northeast
• Hampstead to the north
• Kilburn to the northwest
• Lisson Grove to the south
• Maida Vale to the southwest
• Marylebone to the south
• Primrose Hill to the east
• Regent's Park to the south
• Swiss Cottage to the north

The nearest London Underground stations are St. John's Wood, Swiss Cottage—on the Jubilee line; Maida Vale, Marylebone Station and Warwick Avenue—on the Bakerloo line; and Baker Street on Bakerloo line, Jubilee line, Hammersmith & City line, Metropolitan line and Circle line.

The nearest London Overground station is South Hampstead.

Notable residents

Commemorative blue plaques

• Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema OM (1836–1912), painter, at 44 Grove End Road^[9]
• Gilbert Bayes (1872–1953), sculptor, at 4 Greville Place^[10]
• Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819–1891), civil engineer, at 17 Hamilton Terrace^[11]
• Sir Thomas Beecham CH (1879–1961), conductor and impresario, at 31 Grove End Road^[12]
• George Frampton (1860–1928), sculptor, at 32 Queen's Grove^[13]
• William Powell Frith (1819–1909), painter, at 114 Clifton Hill^[14]
• Guy Gibson V.C. (1918–1944), pilot and leader of the Dam Busters, at 32 Aberdeen Place^[15]
• Thomas Hood (1799–1845), poet, at 28 Finchley Road^[16]
• Thomas Huxley (1825–1895), biologist, at 38 Marlborough Place^[17]
• Melanie Klein (1882–1960), psychoanalyst, at 42 Clifton Hill^[18]

Past and present residents

St John's Wood in literature, music and television

• Count and Countess Fosco live at No. 5 Forest Road, St. John's Wood in Wilkie Collins's 1859 sensation novel The Woman in White.
• Irene Adler lives there (in Briony Lodge on Serpentine Avenue) in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1891 Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia".
• In the first instalment of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, The Man of Property (1906), Young Jolyon lives on fictional Wistaria Avenue with his second wife and family.
• St John's Wood is the home of fictional characters Bingo and Rosie Little in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster short stories and novels, written from the early 1920s onward.
• Referenced in the Rolling Stones song, "Play with Fire", released in 1965.
• The protagonist of J.G. Ballard's novel Millennium People (2003), is a psychologist who lives in St. John's Wood, which he abandons to join a middle-class rebellion.
• Appears in two books by Howard Jacobson, as the setting for his 2004 book The Making of Henry, followed in his 2010 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Finkler Question as the planned location for the Museum of Anglo-Jewish Culture.
• Violet Hill, a street and area off Abbey Road with Violet Hill Gardens and Violet Hill Hospital, is the source of the name in Coldplay's 2008 song "Violet Hill".
• Due to the conveniently close location to Elstree Studios, (just over 10 miles), St John's Wood was used extensively for location shooting for many of the ITC adventure shows of the 1960's and 1970's, including The Saint (TV series), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders! and Return of the Saint.

References

External links

Media related to St. John's Wood at Wikimedia Commons

• History of St John's Wood
• Map of St John's Wood and the surrounding districts
• stjohnswoodhighstreet.co.uk & stjohnswoodhighstreet.com (advertising & marketing)