Dollis Hill

Post to the west Neasden Station



Post to the east Cricklewood


Anson Road
162 Gladstone Youth and Community Centre. Offers various activities including sports, nursery Judo, Irish dancing, weightwatchers, gym, Quran class, church, aerobic
156 St Gabriel’s Vicarage
Burnley Road
Houses built around 1908 developed by J C Hill & Co of Archway with a down payment of £10
76 art deco garage, likely to go into retail use.
Chapter Road
Dollis Hill Station.  Opened in 1909 this lies between Neasden and Willesden Green stations on the Jubilee Line. It was built by the Metropolitan Railway. In 1931 it was renamed ‘Dollis Hill and Gladstone Park’; in 1933 it was renamed ‘Dollis Hill’. In 1939 it was for rebuilt for Bakerloo Line services with “Modern" platform buildings when the London Passenger Transport Board opened a new section of twin tube tunnels between Baker Street and Finchley Road creating a branch to Stanmore. The Metropolitan Line service then closed.  In 1979 became a Jubilee Line station. Great Central Trains were not allowed to stop here and there was no platform – the lines go straight through.  In 1995 enamel panels by Amanda Duncan were put in the subway between the exits. They show maps of Dollis Hill area from the 16th to the 20th century, plus interpretations of classical star maps.
387 Stanhope Works. This was Stanhope Engineering which became Stanhope-Seta Ltd, from 1939 to 1945, manufacturing special equipment for teaching aircrew, radar operators & gunners the technique of target finding. The company now makes laboratory instruments for quality control of fuels, chemicals & materials and is based in Chertsey
387 Showplan. This company dealt with public address systems
387 The site is now blocks of flats

Cooper Road
Dudden Hill School. Built 1897 probably by Middlesex County Council.  It appears to have been a mixed Secondary school becoming a county school. Later used as an annexe to the College of Technology, it is now flats. In the Second World War this was to be used for Parliament should Westminster be destroyed
Cornmow Drive
This is the site of Dudding Hill Station and a large associated coal depot. Dudding Hill railway station was a station in Neasden, London NW2 on the Dudding Hill Line. It opened in 1875 by the Midland Railway, as "Dudding Hill, for Willesden & Neasden".[1] It closed in 1902. The station building survived into the 1980s, when the land was used for housing. An entrance to the depot and later buildings on the site is marked by granite setts in the pavement at the junction with Aberdeen Road,

Cullingworth Road
15 St Francis of Assisi. Built as a London Diocesan Mission church in 1911 with the; parish formed in 1934. Ig is a buff brick building with a short central tower by J. H. Gibbons. This is now a Polish Catholic Church served by Polish Jesuits.
Dudding Hill Line
The Dudding Hill Line or Loop passes diagonally across this square. It runs for 4 miles between Acton and Cricklewood. It has no stations and is not electrified. It was opened in 1868 as a goods line by the Midland and South Western Junction Railway, connected their Main Line and the Cricklewood goods yard, to North and South Western junction Railway at Acton Wells. It now handles a dozen trains a day mainly carrying aggregates and household waste.  In the Second World War it was used for troop carrying.
Dudding Hill Junction. The line divides just north of Park Side with one line going to Cricklewood Sidings and one to Brent sidings. It includes a signal box still apparently in use controlling semaphore signals
Parkside platelayers hut
Gladstone Park
The Park evolved from the Dollis Hill Estate and become a public park in 1901. Originally it was named Dollis Hill Park, but decided to name the park after William Gladstone, the former Liberal Prime Minister because of his associations with it. Between 1868 and 1874, he was a frequent visitor of the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen who lived at Dollis Hill House. It was laid out by Oliver Claude Robson, the District Council Surveyor. Including fencing, a playground, and sports pavilions, water supply, and roadways. The old farm ponds on the estate were filled in and some later became children's paddling pools. The original parkland, on rising ground kept its planting of oaks, with one or two old thorns but the inception of the park included plane-lined walks and the perimeter is planted with limes and planes. In the Second World War it was the site of gun emplacements. A bandstand has now gone
Bathing pond. This opened in 1903 'a large kidney shaped pool with a 75ft straight stretch'. It was open until the 1980s but later became the site of a bowling green.
Dollis Hill House.  This was a farmhouse built in 1825 on the northern boundary of what is now Gladstone Park. In 1881 it was the home of Lord Aberdeen and Prime Minister Gladstone stayed. Later Newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid and author Mark Twain was a guest. The house was opened to the public in 1909 and used as a hospital in the Great War as the Dollis Hill House Auxiliary Hospital. In the Second World War the War Cabinet met there. In the 1970s I was used to train catering students and closed in 1989.  It was damaged by fire in 1995, 1996 and 2011 and was then derelict. Funding to support the renovation costs was offered and then withdrawn. When this failed, the Council demolished it.
Stables Gallery and Art Centre.  1820 stable block used for Dollis Hill House. This is now have become an Arts Centre and Gallery an includes a cafe.
Walled flower garden the former fruit and vegetable garden attached to the house became into an Old English garden, which was to become one of the park's star attractions. It included a sundial, given by Cricklewood & District Improvements Association in 1907, at the its centre
Children’s Playground called Fort Gladstone
Holocaust memorial. This is in the north-west part of the park and is by Kotis, installed around 1968.
Wildlife area
Griffin Close
Built on what appear to be rail sidings and a cable depot. The estate is on a rectangular piece of land raised up to the level of the railway and held by a massive brick retaining wall in Park Avenue
Kendal Road
Metal foot bridge over Dudding Hill rail line
Houses once stood along the road on the northern, park, side. These appear to have been removed in the 1960s to leave the boundary open to the park.
Olive Road
Cricklewood Library opened here in 1929. This building has now been demolished and a replacement planned.

Park Side
Avigdor Hirsh Torah Termimah Primary School. This is a single form entry, orthodox Jewish maintained Voluntary Aided boys’ primary school. It is named In memory of Avigdor Hirsch.  "Torah Temimah" means "perfect Torah" in Hebrew and the name is taken from Psalms 19:8. Having had a number of premises in 1996 the school moved to permanent accommodation in what was formerly the Dollis Hill Synagogue, which the school purchased from the United Synagogue in 1995. Six classrooms were built in the ground floor main sanctuary area, plus offices and an additional floor added across the whole of the main sanctuary area. This was divided to form two further classrooms, a school hall, and smaller teaching and storage areas.
Dollis Hill Synagogue. An organised Jewish community was formally constituted locally in 1929, and, services were held in temporary rented rooms. A Dollis Hill Hebrew Congregation was formed in 1933 and affiliated to the United Synagogue. They leased surplus railway land from the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company in 1933 and later bought the freehold. The current synagogue building was commissioned from Sir Owen Williams. The foundation stone was laid in 1937. Reinforced Concrete was used cast in situ behind a cork lining left exposed as the internal wall finish. Owen created a series of vertical planes, zig-zagged to enclose the hall, with folded planes for its roof. The hall is the centerpiece of the building and it has three bays delineated by the folded planes. The concrete is thickened at the folds, to carry cantilevered galleries. On the exterior hexagonal windows enclose the shape of the Star of David; and other windows echo of the form of the traditional Jewish seven-branched candelabrum they ae stained glass and are themed around the months and festivals of the Jewish year and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. It was the first building in Britain built entirely with pre-stressed concrete. It was not liked and was extensively modernised and rededicated in 1956. An original community hall, used as the congregation's first permanent home from 1932 or 1933 was demolished in 1996.
Sherrick Green Road
Gladstone Park Primary School. This opened in 1914 as temporary council school and reopened 1915 as a permanent school. . It is now run by some sort of trust.
William Gladstone Open Space
The southern half of this playing field is covered in this square. The area was once allotments.
Sources
Avigdor Hirsh Torah Termimah Primary School. Web site
British History Online. Willesden. Web site
Day London Underground
Field. Place names
Fortifications database. Web site
Friends of Gladstone Park. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
London Borough of Brent, Web site
London Gardens On line. Web sire
London Railway Record
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Middlesex Churches.
Middlesex County Council. History of Middlesex
Pastscape.  Web site
SETA Web site
Stevenson. Middlesex
Walford. Village London

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