Decoy Brook - Temple Fortune

Decoy Brook
The Decoy Brook flows north west and west towards the River Brent.

Post to the east Hampstead Garden Village
Post to the north Henley's Corner
Post to the south Golders Green
Post to the west Brent Street

Brent Park
Alongside the river Brent.
The pond is the Decoy and was a duck decoy built for a manor house owned by the abbey of Westminster. Artificial channels were dug and narrowed into pipes with a net at the end. Dogs called pipers would chase the ducks until they were trapped. There were only 200 of these in the country.

Bridge Lane
Carmelite Monastery. This was built for a formal order of nuns some of whom had come to Britain in the late 19th.  This Monastery was founded in 1908 for sisters of the Primitive rule who had previously been at Isleworth. This was an enclosed contemplative order. The buildings were designed by D. Powell of Sinnott, Sinnott and Powel with two storeys in brick set back from the road behind a tall brick boundary wall with iron gates. Near the entrance was a brick house and the walls enclosed gardens. The main building has four blocks round a courtyard with a bell tower in one corner. The Monastery was used as a Mass centre by local Catholics. The sisters made an income from baking mass breads and also from printing greeting cards and gift tags. The nuns moved out in 2007 and the site was sold for redevelopment.
98 Chasidey Gur Beth Hamedrash. Synagogue built 2007 replacing an earlier building.
83/85 Etz Chaim Yeshiva. The organisation moved here in 1948 coming from Whitechapel
54 The Bridge. The Bridge Christian Fellowship was founded in 1911 as Temple Fortune Gospel Hall in the fields of Decoy Farm. It became the Open Brethren Assembly known as Bridge Lane Chapel. They are now a self governing meeting of Christians who look at the Bible in its Jewish context and have links to the Messianic movement
Crusaders Chapel. Urban saints, started in 1914
Bridge Lane Beth Hanedrash Synagogue. This opened in 1948. It grew out of a Minyan started in 1948 by Rabbi Ehrentreu in his house at 85 Bridge Lane and then took over 83. They began to make overtures to the Ebenezer Baptist Chapel which they bought and moved into. The synagogue has been extended with additional land and the building named "Zichron Kedoshim" and they have added the Eshel Avrohom Eliezer Hall which is used as a second Beth Hamedrash.
3 Hand car wash. Opened in 1963 as one of the earliest hand car washes in London.  Interesting looking building.

Bridge Way
Service area and garages at the back of Finchley Road

Childs Way
Garden Suburb Infant School. Built as part of the garden suburb with generous playing fields.
Garden Suburb Junior School. Built as part of the garden suburb with generous playing fields.

Cranbourne Gardens
St Mary and Archangel Michael church is a Coptic Orthodox church. It was opened by H. H. Pope Shenouda III in 1996. The church was Anglican and named after St Barnabas. It was built in 1915 as a temporary building and church hall. It was designed by J. S. Alder. The existing building dates from 1932 by architect Ernest Shearman and part rebuilt again in 1962 bomb damage. It was closed in 1994.

Finchley Road
Created after an Act of Parliament of 1826, and built up only in the 20th.  The Temple Fortune area has shopping parades, with arcades facing Finchley Road, detailed by Unwin's assistant A. J. Penty as part of Hampstead Garden Suburb.
Pantiles.  Mediterranean moderne flats built 1934-5 by J. B. F. Cowper in brick with green pantiled roofs. Entrance doors with tracery and imposing flights of steps from Finchley Road.
Birkbeck Court. On the site of tge Finchley Odeon. Built 1985 by Architech, with a tower which remembers the demolished club house inn Willifield Green.
Odeon Cinema. The Orpheum Theatre opened on in 1930 following a lot of heart searchings from the proponents of Hampstead Garden Suburb. It was built for an independent operator by Yates, Cooke & Darbyshire. It had a Compton 3Manual organ. The proscenium was 35 feet wide, the stage 40 feet deep, there were ten dressing rooms and a cafĂ©. In 1932 it was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and in 1934 by the County Cinemas chain. Who were, in turn, taken over by Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon Theatres Ltd. in 1937. It was re-named Odeon in 1945. The stage was used more than normal for a cinema and this included the Ralph Reader Gang Show as an annual event – and it was redecorated in 1972 when the queen came to see the show. It closed in 1974 and demolished in 1982, and replaced by flats.
790-800 Arcade House.  Originally included a tearoom built for Hampstead Garden Suburb by Porter and Union. It had gabled ends carried over the pavement as arcades supported on stone piers. It is in brick with a mock timber-frame above the shops.
802-818 Temple Fortune House.  Similar to Arcade House
1069 Metropolitan Police Station, 19l6 by J.D. Butler.
1117 Royal Oak. Plaque on a shop in memory of the pub
1011 Kisharon Centre. Day Centre for Jewish people with learning difficulties
1023 Grove Inn

Golders Green Road
243 The Swan. An old inn rebuilt in the early 20th and which serves Hungarian food.
290 Prince Albert, decoratively neo-Tudor. It became a Harvester pub and has now been demolished.
314 Pillar-box by A. Handyside & Co. Ltd. Derby
210 The Lido Picture House was the first Atmospheric style cinema in Britain – it was an Egyptian Atmospheric style – and designed by Major W.J. King. It opened in 1928 for Carreras Cinemas Ltd and was sold in 1929 to Savoy Cinemas Ltd., who became the ABC chain. It had a fully working stage and three dressing rooms. There was A Christie 2Manual/8Rank theatre organ fixed in the orchestra pit and a cafĂ©. It was closed in 1957 and the classical Egyptian columns on the facade and the auditorium were removed by C.J. Foster. It re-opened in 1957 called the ABC. In the late 1960’s the ‘Luxury Lounge’ was opened with new seats in the stalls, a carpet and no balcony. It closed in 1977 and was converted into three screens. It was taken over by Cannon Cinemas Ltd. in 1986, who closed it in 1987 and it was demolished soon after. Residential housing for the elderly is now on the site.

Hampstead Way
Garden Suburb Gallery in summerhouse which was originally in the garden behind Arcade Court.
166 Vivien House. Vivien was involved in the co-partnership housing movement.

Harmony Close
Sheltered accommodation and hostel for Jewish students by David Steff Partners, 1977 which centres round a mature oak.
Sculpture: Fidelity, by Naomi Blake, fibreglass

Highfield Road
Highfield Court. Modern movement flats built in 1935 by A. V. Pilichovski
1-4 Machzikei Hadass Synagogue. Orthodox
Gothic Cottage
Britannic House – Britannic Commerce, supply kitchen equipment

Hillcrest Avenue
5 prize-winning Mediterranean front garden and a traditional back garden.

Park Way
Princes Park. The park was laid out in 1923 on land specially purchased for it. It has mature oak trees bordering Oakfields Road and there is a woodland area which pre-dates housing development. This has a wild service tree and an old crab apple. The park has rose beds near the entrance; a mock-Tudor toilet block with an arch over the path leading to a circular bed and the original park gates remain. There is play equipment, tennis courts and other sports facilities

St Andrews Road
Templars Lawn Tennis Club, opened in 1923

Temple Fortune Lane
23 Health Centre

Sources
Bridge Lane. Web site
British History, Hendon. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
English Heritage. Web site
Jewishgen. Web site
London Borough of Barnet. Web site
London Gardens on Line. Web site
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Metropolitan Water Board. London’s Water Supply,
Middlesex County Council. History of Middlesex
Pevsner and Cherry.  London North
Stevenson. Middlesex
 

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