River Brent - Brent Street
River Brent
The Brent flows south and south west and is met by Decoy Brook from the south east
TQ 23522 88758
An interesting area to the north of the North Circular Road and the horrors of Brent Cross. Here is an older area which has grown and changed piecemeal - old 'big' houses, schools, synagogues, hospitals and various public bodies.
Post to the east Temple Fortune
The Brent flows south and south west and is met by Decoy Brook from the south east
TQ 23522 88758
An interesting area to the north of the North Circular Road and the horrors of Brent Cross. Here is an older area which has grown and changed piecemeal - old 'big' houses, schools, synagogues, hospitals and various public bodies.
Post to the east Temple Fortune
Post to the north Hendon Hall
Brent Green
This green was saved from private sale in 1878 by a group of local people. It is the last piece of manorial waste in this part of Hendon, and the land was bought by the parish for an open space.
Alma White Centre. Bethel Close. This was St. Saviours Homes, rescue home and missionary complex, 1893-7, designed by H. A. Prothero and G. H. Phillott in red brick. This is a quadrangle with dining hall, chapel, laundry and schoolroom. The homes were planned as six 'cottages', with its own kitchen, living room and yard with tool shed and WC, plus a room for a superintendent. The Homes were founded in 1893 by the Rev William Seddon, former honorary secretary to the Church Army. He gave part of the grounds of his house, Fosters, as the site. It was intended as a 'rescue home', for the rehabilitation of 'fallen' women, but by 1896 was a care home for the mentally disabled. In 1926 it was taken over by the Pillar of Fire Church, a Christian revivalist group from New Jersey, USA. It became a school and bible college. The site was sold to a new owner in 2009 and became the Alma White Centre which now incorporated a synagogue, school and guest accommodation.
Gatehouse. It comprises two separate buildings: Brent Green Lodge and Lower Lodge, under a single long roof.
Foster House. This was an 18th brick house which became a Christian Science reading room in 1930. St. Saviour’s homes were built in the grounds.
First Church of Christian Science. The Christian Science Society met in Golders Green Road, in 1930 and then bought Fosters. In 1961 they built a new church was built. This is octagonal, with a copper roof and a spire.
Brent Park
The park is on the site of Brent Bridge House and there are some mature evergreen trees close to the site of the house, which was demolished in 1935. Barnet Council purchased 25 acres of what was Fox Hole Wood, in 1930 and Brent Park opened to the public in 1934
Pavilions remain from the hotel – circular, they are hidden among the trees.
Brent Street
Thus was a hamlet on the outskirts of Brent and is marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822. Earlier it is recorded as ‘Braynestreete’ .
Brent Bridge was ‘Broynt Bridge’ in 1662. Old iron railings border the park on Brent Street over the stream, which then flows into a culvert the other side of the road, south of Brent Park.
Brook Lodge. This stood south of the river Brent and was an 18th farm-house converted by Charles Whishaw into a gentleman's residence shortly before 1828 and demolished in 1935, after serving as an annexe to the hotel.
Hampshire Court. This is on the site of an area called Salisbury Plain which was a piece of wasteland in front of an inn called The Load of Hay. In the 18th animals being taken to London were penned here overnight.
9 Load of Hay, demolished in 2002.
Penfold House. The house is said to have been built in 1713, and been a lodge for drovers bringing cattle to London. It was called Albert Cottage until 1923. It has a stuccoed front but has a timber-frame
11 Adath Ysroel Congregation. Synagogue
13 Massgrove Electrical. This may have been built as a later addition to the schoolroom block at St. Saviours Homes
19 Pillar Hotel. Boutique Hotel in 1893 buildings. Since opening in summer, the Pillar Hotel has hosted Jewish guests from around the world. The property was acquired from an American Christian group, the Pillar of Fire Society, which had owned it for more than 100 years.
Brent Lodge. This was an 18th brick house which was enlarged in the early 19th and renamed St. Peter's Ouvroir. It was demolished in 1957. It was on the corner of Queens Road
Christ Church. Built 1881 by Stephen Salter. In the 19th a chapel-of-ease to St Mary’s was needed. In 1881 the foundation stone was laid by Baroness Burdett-Coutts and in 1923 Christ Church became a parish in its own right. In 1967 a new organ was bought from a redundant church on the Isle of Dogs. In 1986 a new Parish Centre was built at the west end of the church. In 2001 the parishes of St Mary and Christ Church were amalgamated. It is small rag stone building.
Danescroft Avenue
Hendon Reform Synagogue. Founded in 1949.
Golders Rise
Hendon House. A blue plaque on Hendon School says that was the home residence of John Morden- it should say John Norden 16th mapmaker. However the house was on a slightly different site. It is not clear if Norden built the house or not. From the mid-17th it was home of the Whichcote family. Later it was home of William Rawlinson Commissioner of the Great Seal, and later John Cornwall. In the 1790s additions were made to the house by John Soane. In 1859 it became a private mental institution. It was sold for a school in 1909
Hendon School opened as a fee-paying school in 1914 and was subsequently extended and enlarged as The County School, Hendon. It stands in the grounds of what was Hendon House. Former pupil Harold Whitlock planted an oak tree sapling in front in 1936 after being awarded a Gold Medal for the 50k walk by Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games – this was felled in 2007. In 1971 the school merged with St David's County Secondary School for Boys, in St David's Place and the school became Hendon Senior High School and in 1978, the whole school was integrated on one site and called Hendon School.
Goodyers Gardens
On the site of Goodyers House which demolished in 1934 and was named after a local family.
Hendon Park
The area was part of Renters Farm and called Step Fields belonging to Goodyer House. It was opened as Queen's Park in 1903 by Hendon Rural District Council. During World War Two Hendon Park was used for large propaganda rallies. "Rout the Rumour" organised by the Ministry of Information. There are tennis courts and bowling greens and a kosher café. Among the trees there is the largest Acer palmatum in London.
Hendon Way
357 Hendon District Hospital. The, Hendon Cottage Hospital opened in 1913 as a memorial to King Edward VII. The land was donated by Lt. Col. Sir Audley Neeld and paid for by public subscription. In successive years it was extended and modernised. In 1948 it joined the NHS and was renamed the Hendon District Hospital. It closed in 1987.
Heriot Road
Old Hendon Ex-Sevicemens Club
Queens Road
Previously called Butchers Lane
Raleigh Close
Hendon United Synagogue. This was founded in 1928 in Brent Street as the first purpose built Synagogue in Hendon. In 1940 it was sold to Hendon Adath Synagogue which remains on site. The synagogue bought a derelict site known as ‘the gravel pit’ in Raleigh Close owned by the trustees of All Souls College Oxford. The Synagogue was consecrated on 1935. Amazing building.
Renters Avenue
Named after Renters Farm
Shirehall Lane
Shire Hall demolished in 1920. It is mentioned in 1712 and was rebuilt in the Renaissance manner in 1850
2, 4, 10 early 18th houses. One with a fire mark
8 Built in the late 17th. In the grounds of a school.
Shirehall Park
93 Plaque to Harry Relph who was “Little Tich", music hall comedian, who lived here. Plaque erected 1969.
The Crest
Christ Church Hall built in the 1920s when the church became a parish church, sold to raise funds in 1986
Enterprise House
Woodburn Close
Brent Bridge House, an 18th stuccoed building on the north bank of the Brent. It was later the seat of the Whishaws, and some of it became the Brent Bridge hotel. These are the final remains of the Brent Bridge Hotel, a once-popular meeting place in the region, which stood on the site of what is now Woodbourne close
Sources
Behind the Blue Plaques
Blue Plaque Guide
British History. Hendon. Web site.
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
HADAS Web site
Hendon Reform Synagogue. Web site.
Hendon United Synagogue. Web site
Hendon School. Web site
London Borough of Barnet. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Middlesex Churches
Petrie. Hendon and Golders Green Past
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pillar of Fire, Hotel, web site.
Walford. Village London
Brent Green
This green was saved from private sale in 1878 by a group of local people. It is the last piece of manorial waste in this part of Hendon, and the land was bought by the parish for an open space.
Alma White Centre. Bethel Close. This was St. Saviours Homes, rescue home and missionary complex, 1893-7, designed by H. A. Prothero and G. H. Phillott in red brick. This is a quadrangle with dining hall, chapel, laundry and schoolroom. The homes were planned as six 'cottages', with its own kitchen, living room and yard with tool shed and WC, plus a room for a superintendent. The Homes were founded in 1893 by the Rev William Seddon, former honorary secretary to the Church Army. He gave part of the grounds of his house, Fosters, as the site. It was intended as a 'rescue home', for the rehabilitation of 'fallen' women, but by 1896 was a care home for the mentally disabled. In 1926 it was taken over by the Pillar of Fire Church, a Christian revivalist group from New Jersey, USA. It became a school and bible college. The site was sold to a new owner in 2009 and became the Alma White Centre which now incorporated a synagogue, school and guest accommodation.
Gatehouse. It comprises two separate buildings: Brent Green Lodge and Lower Lodge, under a single long roof.
Foster House. This was an 18th brick house which became a Christian Science reading room in 1930. St. Saviour’s homes were built in the grounds.
First Church of Christian Science. The Christian Science Society met in Golders Green Road, in 1930 and then bought Fosters. In 1961 they built a new church was built. This is octagonal, with a copper roof and a spire.
Brent Park
The park is on the site of Brent Bridge House and there are some mature evergreen trees close to the site of the house, which was demolished in 1935. Barnet Council purchased 25 acres of what was Fox Hole Wood, in 1930 and Brent Park opened to the public in 1934
Pavilions remain from the hotel – circular, they are hidden among the trees.
Brent Street
Thus was a hamlet on the outskirts of Brent and is marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822. Earlier it is recorded as ‘Braynestreete’ .
Brent Bridge was ‘Broynt Bridge’ in 1662. Old iron railings border the park on Brent Street over the stream, which then flows into a culvert the other side of the road, south of Brent Park.
Brook Lodge. This stood south of the river Brent and was an 18th farm-house converted by Charles Whishaw into a gentleman's residence shortly before 1828 and demolished in 1935, after serving as an annexe to the hotel.
Hampshire Court. This is on the site of an area called Salisbury Plain which was a piece of wasteland in front of an inn called The Load of Hay. In the 18th animals being taken to London were penned here overnight.
9 Load of Hay, demolished in 2002.
Penfold House. The house is said to have been built in 1713, and been a lodge for drovers bringing cattle to London. It was called Albert Cottage until 1923. It has a stuccoed front but has a timber-frame
11 Adath Ysroel Congregation. Synagogue
13 Massgrove Electrical. This may have been built as a later addition to the schoolroom block at St. Saviours Homes
19 Pillar Hotel. Boutique Hotel in 1893 buildings. Since opening in summer, the Pillar Hotel has hosted Jewish guests from around the world. The property was acquired from an American Christian group, the Pillar of Fire Society, which had owned it for more than 100 years.
Brent Lodge. This was an 18th brick house which was enlarged in the early 19th and renamed St. Peter's Ouvroir. It was demolished in 1957. It was on the corner of Queens Road
Christ Church. Built 1881 by Stephen Salter. In the 19th a chapel-of-ease to St Mary’s was needed. In 1881 the foundation stone was laid by Baroness Burdett-Coutts and in 1923 Christ Church became a parish in its own right. In 1967 a new organ was bought from a redundant church on the Isle of Dogs. In 1986 a new Parish Centre was built at the west end of the church. In 2001 the parishes of St Mary and Christ Church were amalgamated. It is small rag stone building.
Danescroft Avenue
Hendon Reform Synagogue. Founded in 1949.
Golders Rise
Hendon House. A blue plaque on Hendon School says that was the home residence of John Morden- it should say John Norden 16th mapmaker. However the house was on a slightly different site. It is not clear if Norden built the house or not. From the mid-17th it was home of the Whichcote family. Later it was home of William Rawlinson Commissioner of the Great Seal, and later John Cornwall. In the 1790s additions were made to the house by John Soane. In 1859 it became a private mental institution. It was sold for a school in 1909
Hendon School opened as a fee-paying school in 1914 and was subsequently extended and enlarged as The County School, Hendon. It stands in the grounds of what was Hendon House. Former pupil Harold Whitlock planted an oak tree sapling in front in 1936 after being awarded a Gold Medal for the 50k walk by Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games – this was felled in 2007. In 1971 the school merged with St David's County Secondary School for Boys, in St David's Place and the school became Hendon Senior High School and in 1978, the whole school was integrated on one site and called Hendon School.
Goodyers Gardens
On the site of Goodyers House which demolished in 1934 and was named after a local family.
Hendon Park
The area was part of Renters Farm and called Step Fields belonging to Goodyer House. It was opened as Queen's Park in 1903 by Hendon Rural District Council. During World War Two Hendon Park was used for large propaganda rallies. "Rout the Rumour" organised by the Ministry of Information. There are tennis courts and bowling greens and a kosher café. Among the trees there is the largest Acer palmatum in London.
Hendon Way
357 Hendon District Hospital. The, Hendon Cottage Hospital opened in 1913 as a memorial to King Edward VII. The land was donated by Lt. Col. Sir Audley Neeld and paid for by public subscription. In successive years it was extended and modernised. In 1948 it joined the NHS and was renamed the Hendon District Hospital. It closed in 1987.
Heriot Road
Old Hendon Ex-Sevicemens Club
Queens Road
Previously called Butchers Lane
Raleigh Close
Hendon United Synagogue. This was founded in 1928 in Brent Street as the first purpose built Synagogue in Hendon. In 1940 it was sold to Hendon Adath Synagogue which remains on site. The synagogue bought a derelict site known as ‘the gravel pit’ in Raleigh Close owned by the trustees of All Souls College Oxford. The Synagogue was consecrated on 1935. Amazing building.
Renters Avenue
Named after Renters Farm
Shirehall Lane
Shire Hall demolished in 1920. It is mentioned in 1712 and was rebuilt in the Renaissance manner in 1850
2, 4, 10 early 18th houses. One with a fire mark
8 Built in the late 17th. In the grounds of a school.
Shirehall Park
93 Plaque to Harry Relph who was “Little Tich", music hall comedian, who lived here. Plaque erected 1969.
The Crest
Christ Church Hall built in the 1920s when the church became a parish church, sold to raise funds in 1986
Enterprise House
Woodburn Close
Brent Bridge House, an 18th stuccoed building on the north bank of the Brent. It was later the seat of the Whishaws, and some of it became the Brent Bridge hotel. These are the final remains of the Brent Bridge Hotel, a once-popular meeting place in the region, which stood on the site of what is now Woodbourne close
Sources
Behind the Blue Plaques
Blue Plaque Guide
British History. Hendon. Web site.
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
HADAS Web site
Hendon Reform Synagogue. Web site.
Hendon United Synagogue. Web site
Hendon School. Web site
London Borough of Barnet. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Middlesex Churches
Petrie. Hendon and Golders Green Past
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pillar of Fire, Hotel, web site.
Walford. Village London
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