Finchley Church End

Post to the north Dollis Brook West Finchley
Post to the west Dollis Brook, Finchley Church End


Albert Place
This turning is a late 19th back street to Ballard’s Lane. Now modern office blocks.
3 in 1892 this was Henry Hilsdon, job master

Arcadia Avenue
Site on the south side of The Limes. 

Arcadia Skating Rink which featured Glider skating. This remained until after the Second World War
North Thames Gas Board offices. These have since been replaced by modern office blocks.
22-23 Arcadia Works.  Machine Technology. Plastic product machines.  In the 1950s this was Finchley General Engineering.
Finchley Works, engineering 1970s
24-26 Depna House. Offices and storage facility
Hall’s Motors, Triumph specialists 1950s

Ballards Lane
Ancient road name, but the road was built in the mid-18th
Finchley House. This stood on the east side first site north of the station
5 Central Restaurant. This is on the site of what was originally the Railway Hotel. It was first built in 1868 and rebuilt in 1962.  Since then it has been 'Minstrel', 'Ferret & Trouser leg' and 'The Central'  it became an Indian restaurant/bar 'Coconut Tree' in 2008 and then 'Sun and Sea'. It reopened in 2010 under La Gogu as a pub-cum Romanian restaurant but a license review forcing table only service.
1 Central House. Office block.
Grove House. This was roughly on the site of Tesco. Dr.Henry Stephens bought the house in 1846. This became Stephens Ink. Ink production remained in Stamford Street but research and experiments on ink and wood stains were continued in outbuildings here.
St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church. This stood on the corner of Redbourne Avenue. The Presbyterian Church of England bought the land at the corner of Ballards Lane in 1891 and a hall was opened in 1893. A church was registered in 1895 and called Saint Margaret's from 1932. It joined Church End Congregational Church, in 1969 to form Union Church and it was then called Saint Margaret's United Reformed Church. The church hall was demolished in 1977. The site is now a bank.
Pillar box by A. Handyside & Co. Ltd. Derby & London.  The Foundry is 'Britannia and it has a later 'E VII R' cypher. It is a large box from 1901 – 1904 and stands on the corner with Redbourne Avenue
51 Joiners. This was the Joiners Arms. Dates to the 1870s.
64 this was Alcazar Gardens which had a Winter Garden Hall. From 1913 it was the Alcazar Picture Palace, operated by Alcazar Picture Theatres Ltd. and from 1914 it was called the Bohemia Cinema. In the Great War it was used as a factory making observation balloons. Shops and housing were built on the site in the 1920’s.
Kiwi Boot polish works. This firm took over the Alcazar hall.  In 1906 in Australia a Scottish ex-pat William Ramsay launched his shoe polish. By 1908, Ramsay began to export to Europe and then to manufacture in England, where a large factory was built in 1924. It is said that the first automatic filling line for polish tins was installed there.
Derwent Radio, this became Newton Wright and the Vacuum Interrupters, which is now part of GEC, took over the Alcazar site. A metalwork sign for Newton Wright now stands over the entrance to the site which is now housing.

Briar Close
This was once called Philipe Lane, or Green Lane, also Workhouse Lane. It is the remains of what was the main road before the North Circular was built.

Briarfield Avenue
Built in 1911 on part of the Manor Farm site.

Chaville
Original railway station building and the station’s main entrance
Finchley Central Station.  Opened in 1867 this now lies between West Finchley and Mill Hill East and also East Finchley on the Northern Line.  It was opened by the Great Northern Railway as ‘Finchley and Hendon’, but named at first as ‘Finchley’.  It had originally been planned by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway on its line from Finsbury Park to Edgware but before it opened it was sold to the Great Northern Railway. The station was an intermediate terminus and had an island platform. Trains went from here to Mill Hill East on the old London North East Railway line and also to Totteridge and Barnet on a branch line built by the GNR in 1872. Finchley Junction lies just west of the station bridge. In 1894 the station was renamed as ‘Finchley (Church End)’. It was never upgraded for the non-existent Northern Heights extension but Northern line trains started serving the station in 1940. Main line steam passenger services ended in 1941 and was renamed ‘Finchley Central’.   The station still retains much of its original Victorian architectural character. There is a commemorative plaque on Platform 3 to Harry Beck designer of the London tube map, together with a facsimile enamel panel of his iconic 1933 design
Goods yard closed in 1962. It lay to the east of the station on the north side of the line. It is now in use as a car park. A building for the signals and permanent way department was built near the south end of the South bound platform in 1985. Land south of the car park once part of the yard was unused next to the main lines and bordered by 1930's concrete retaining walls.

Claigmar Gardens
Craigmar Vineyard.

Claverley Grove
Site of Claverley House. Demolished,

Claigmar Avenue
Vineyard. The road covers the northern part of the Claigmar Vineyard opened by the Kay family in 1874. In 1845 Peter Kay leased an acre in Ballards Lane for flowers and fruit and a second nursery in 1874 in Long Lane . In the 1890s this was extended. There was another nursery in Squires Lane. They produced 100 tons of grapes per year with 161 greenhouses in the 1890s. IN the 1920s it was converted to housing.

Dollis Park
2 Winston House.  In 2016 this was converted to a Travel Lodge Hotel. It was originally built by Terson’s building and construction contractors for their own occupation,
Clementine Court. Site of Terson’s Civil Engineering depot 1960s. Used as a depot by the post Office, now housing.
Royal Mail. Sorting and delivery office
Telephone exchange. This has an Edward VIII inscription above the main door.

Dudley Road
6a West Finchley Bowling Club. Lawn bowls with four rinks. They are under constant pressure to lose their site for housing.

East End Road
East Finchley was earlier 'East End' and the name is preserved in 'East End Road'. North Finchley was developed mainly in the late 19th. 
Hertford Lodge. Built around 1869 in Italianate style. Second floor panel engraved "HERTFORD HOUSE". In the basement retained wine bins and the electric bells. In 1892 home of John Heal, of the furniture store. Then from 1937 Miss McDonald’s boarding school.   Used for a while as council offices.Now flats
Avenue House.  Part of Stephens House and Gardens., This was built in 1859 on Templecroft field named after the Templars but reconstructed and extended after 1870 by H. C. Stephens, son of Dr Henry Stephens, inventor of Stephens’ Ink. He left it all to the Borough in 1918. It has an Italianate stucco front and an L-shaped with a turret. It is now used as a community base. It was one of the earliest houses to be lit by electricity.  In the Great War it was a hospital for airmen and kept by the Ministry of Health until 1925. It then became a public library and civil defence in 1939.  It later became council offices and council chamber. It now has a museum and archive.
R.A.F. Central Hospital. This was in  Avenue House. 1919 – 1925.In 1919 the R.A.F. Central Hospital, Hampstead, moved from Mount Vernon to Avenue House, and became R.A.F. Central Hospital, Finchley. It closed in June 1925
Lodge and Stable. Built in 1880 this is a courtyard complex with a stable range, a coach house and a coachman's house and tower. There is a dovecote attached to the stables
The Bothy. This is a castellated folly and eye catcher. It is an enclosure with a garden with buildings which are an early surviving example of reinforced concrete. It contained glasshouses, fish ponds and forcing pits a dairy, an abattoir, room for farriers, and housing for the principal estate workers.  The Estate had a herd of highland cattle, a flock of sheep and a stable of Cleveland Bay Horses. The glasshouses were supplied by William Temple and laid out in a symmetrical arrangement on the north wall and within the garden. There was a tropical house with palms, vineries, greenhouses, cucumber, melon and tomato pits and an orchard house for some vegetables and strawberry growing. There was a well and a sunken forcing house, and there were brick cold frames which remained until the 1960s.
The Gardens provide a mixed landscape and include an arboretum, a rockery, a bog garden, large park areas to play in and wooded areas to wall. Designed by Robert Marnock with a focus on trees and water features. The Dell was once a Bog Garden and was fed from the water harvesting system. This is supported by the presence of the Swamp. The Grounds.   Planted by Stephens with specimen trees. There are mounds to shut out the surroundings and create the illusion of greater size.                                  
Statue of Spike Milligan. Sitting on a bench encouraging a 'Conversation with Spike was installed by The Finchley Society of which Spike was president.
Pillar Box G.R. cypher, type 'D'. Oval 1932
Water Tower. This is by the road and swathed in ivy. It once served a now demolished laundry. Built around 1880 of massed concrete.
The Stephens Collection, thus aims to show, the development of the famous blue-black writing fluid and the growth of the Company and the life and work of Henry 'Inky' Stephens MP for Hornsey and Finchley
Manor House. Built forThomas Allen in 1723 on an older site. A House and moat were here in 1504. It is in a 18th house which replaced the medieval moated house of the Finchley sub manor of Bibbesworth, once owned by the Bishop of London and occupied by a succession of wealthy London merchants throughout the Middle Ages. In 1622 it was acquired from the family of Alexander Kinge by Edward Allen, whose descendant, Thomas Allen, rebuilt it on a new site – note the rainwater head dated 1723.  It is a large, plain and dignified Early Georgian house with an attic floor and extension added for the convent. It was a private school 1838-1862 and then home of George Plunkett. In 1882 it was sold, much of the land going for housing. The house was bought by Gamage of the store and then used as a convalescent centre in the Great War. 1918 it was sold to the Sisters of the Society of Marie Auxilatrice. They were there until 1981.    It is now the Sternberg Centre, base for the Reform synagogues
Gardens, There is a Biblical garden in the grounds. Original garden features included statues, a grotto and an Italianate garden temple built c.1732 and known as The Folly. This was removed in 1965
Moat.  Part of the moat survives here. Until the late c19 there was a long formal canal around an island, which ran across the road on an axis with the house. There were fishponds here by 1692, the date when it was first dug is not known but it is likely to be 13th. All that is visible now is a dry L-shaped ditch at the far end of the grounds, The remains of an earth causeway leading to the manor house is also visible halfway.
Sisters of the Society of Marie Auxilatrice., they opened the Manor House School here in 1921. The Sisters were formed through the vision of Blessed Marie Thérèse de Soubiran, in 1864 in Castelnaudary. After the Great War the Archbishop of Westminster asked them to open a Grammar School in Finchley. Manor House School was opened. This was a small day and boarding school for girls of all ages, and was extended in 1932. It was merged into Bishop Douglass School in 1969. There was also a private junior school. Later the Sisters were asked to build a Primary School. But to provide the funds the Manor House was mortgaged. In 1981 the building debt on the school was finally cleared when the Manor House Convent was sold
Sternberg Centre for Judaism. This is in the Manor House.  It was established here in 1981 it includes a synagogue, primary school, museum and much else.It was opened the Manor House Trust and is named after Sigmund Sternberg. The Movement for Reform Judaism has its headquarters at here. It is the national umbrella organisation of 42 autonomous synagogues and regular events are organised
Akiva School.  This was established in 1981 and moved into a new purpose-built building in 2008. It is the only voluntary-aided Progressive Jewish primary school in North West London.
New North London Reform Synagogue. This is affiliated to the Masorti movement. The congregation has about 2,400 members and a new building was opened in 2011.  It was designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects, with three prayer venues, a nursery and teenager’s room, as well as social and administrative spaces.
Leo Baeck Centre. Named in honour of the inspirational 20th-century German Reform rabbi, The College was founded in 1956 as a rabbinical school for training Liberal and Reform rabbis. 1959 by Emm Katona.  Extensions of 1971 by G. Rottenberg Associates
Museum. This was in a single storey outbuilding which was extended and converted in 1991. It had been the Museum of the Jewish East End, founded by David Jacobs in 1983.  Renamed the London Museum of Jewish Life in 1990. It diversified to include the history of other Jewish communities in London. It closed in 2007 and moved in 2009 to an enlarged building on the Camden site.
Sculpture in the forecourt – ‘Renew our Days’ - by Naomi Blake. This dates from 1986 and is of fibreglass
Brick boundary wall around the building.  There is said to be a 19th letterbox on the wall
Pond. Until the beginning of the 20th an oblong pond with a central island was on the other side of the road to the manor and was known locally as the “moat”.  It was probably a fish pond or a pit for the extraction of clay for bricks.
St Theresa Catholic Primary School’.  This Voluntary Aided School for juniors and infants was built by the Sisters of Marie Auxiliatrice in the grounds of Manor convent to replace their independent school in 1966. Although there was a private primary school attached to the Manor House School the Sisters were asked to build a Primary School. They entered into negotiations with the Church and the Local Education Authority BT to provide funding the Manor House was mortgaged. The kitchen garden and tennis courts were used as the site. The school opened in 1966.  After the Manor House School closed St Theresa’s continued as a one-form entry school. In 2011 the Sisters handed over the Trusteeship to the Diocese of Westminster.
Wilf Slack Sports Ground. The former Barnet Council ground in East End Road was, in 1995, renamed the "Wilf Slack Ground, Finchley. Slack was a Middlesex County cricketer who died very young in 1976. It now appears to belong to the private Hall School as their sports ground.
Manor Farm.   Used by Sanger’s Circus for fodder and winter quarters. 1879-1897 owned by William Whitely of the Bayswater store. Later used by Deard’s Haulage.
Finchley Cricket club, they are on Arden Field and date from 1832.  They were founder members of Middlesex Cricket Club.
Two Finches Micro Brewery. Also at Arden Field. Aiming to brew amazing beer for the cricket club
Middlesex Academy. County Cricket School. This is on the site of Manor Farm.
Pure gym
57 Old Manor Cottage Tavern. Closed and demolished around 1998 for the construction of the North Circular. It was then part of the Hungry Horse chain. It was on a roundabout named for it, and also was a bus terminus.

Glenhill Close
Conservation area. Flats first built in 1936 when 46 flats were constructed.
Cymric Tennis Club. This dated from the 1920s, they left in the late 1950s and in 1961 more flats were built.

Lichfield Grove
Pillar box by A. Handyside & Co. Ltd. Derby & London.  Foundry was 'Britannia' Early 'E VII R' cypher. Small slot at 15" diameter. 1901 - 1904

Long Lane
St.Paul’s. The intended tower was not built. In the early 1880s a new church was needed because of rapid population growth. Land was purchased for £700. It opened in 1886. The new church building was designed by J. Ladds in ragstone but the intended tower was never built. A bell cast in 1380 by John Langhorne was bought from the parish church of Hatford in Berkshire. In 1920 war memorial commemorative window, was installed with a brass plaque. The church was bombed in 1941. It was restored by 1955,
Hall and Sunday School buildings. In the 1920s a hall and Sunday School building were built next to the church. These were demolished and leased to developers who built Marlex Lodge flats.
The St Paul’s Centre. This was paid for from the sale of St Luke’s church hall in 2006.
Three Pillar boxes by A. Handyside & Co. Ltd. Derby & London.  Foundry; Britannia Foundry and Engineering Works. Anonymous with a high posting aperture. Large box of 19" diameter.  1879 1884
Victoria Park. Built on the site of some of Colby's Farm. In 1887 Henry Stephens proposed converting the area to a park to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, but it was not opened until 1902. It was the only public park in the old Borough of Finchley until 1914. The park is grassland, with playgrounds, trees and ornamental gardens, playing fields, six public tennis courts and a café.  The bowling green is on the site of a rifle range used to train recruits in the Great War.
Finchley Victoria Bowling Club. This dates from 1925. There used to be a separate women’s club and men’s club. They have two lawns and a clubhouse.

Nether Street
294 used tyres/car wash/ estate agents. The building may be the old parcels and goods depot for the station
401-405 this site is under redevelopment. It was previously Adastra House apparently built in 1974 for NAD Electronics, who made and sold Hi-fi equipment. It was previously an engineering works, probably E.W.Engineering, general metal work, display equipment, capstans, and aircraft parts.
Power station. A building on the area between the two branches of the railway west bound is marked as a power station. It has an entrance from Nether Street. It appears to date from around 1940 and may, or may not, be something built for the abandoned Elstree extension. Looks very much like a Holden design.
Stink pipe. This is on the eastern approach to the railway bridge and one of several in the area

Pope’s Drive
Road at the back of shops covering an area previously industrial and now offices. It is named for Pope’s Alley and Pope’s Garage which were on site here
Pope’s Garage. Run by George Pope
Radio component works

Redbourne Avenue
WOHL Enterprise Hub.Jewish business incubator
Finchley Central Synagogue. This was a constituent of the Federation of Synagogues, which first met in 1956 at the Congregational hall in Victoria Avenue. A synagogue to hold 325 was opened here in 1961   It appears to have been sold around 2004 and the congregation moved to Victoria Avenue because of issues about  the adjacent eruv.

Regents Park Road
This Junction dates from 1829. Regents Park Road is an extension of Finchley Road from west London and here it meets Hendon Lane and connects on to the Great North Road. 
The Limes, This house was demolished around 1912 and became the site of the Cinema, and subsequently Gateway House
New Bohemia Cinema. This was built as a replacement for the Bohemia Cinema and opened in 1920. It was taken over by the National Electric circuit in 1926.and by Denman/Gaumont Theatres chain in 1928.  It was closed by the Rank Organisation in 1959 and demolished. Gateway House was built on the site and itself demolished in 2016.
322 Gateway House. This has now been rebuilt
Finchley Church End Library. This is in Gateway House
St Mary's Primary School. St. Mary's or Finchley National school opened in 1813 in an old building in Hendon Lane leased from the charity estates, This on the corner of Hendon Lane and Victoria Avenue, building was extended in 1824. In 1816 it had become a National School and was awarded a grant by the National Society. In 1848 a new rector gave glebe land where a school-house was opened in 1853. Overcrowding continued as a result of suburban growth and in 1905 an infants' school was built on adjoining glebe land. More classrooms were added in 1949 and 1967. In 1990 the school moved to a new site in Dollis Park
St.Mary’s Court. Barnet Civil and County Court .Built in 1990 on the site of St.Mary’s School
Ye Olde King of Prussia. This pub stood on the site of what is now Winston House. It was demolished in the 1960s and replaced .as 0art of the new office block. It had also been called Taylor's of Finchley; and had been a Taylor Walker house and then Mitchell and Butler's. The new pub was called Dignity.   It is now a restaurant called Chicken Society

Squires Lane
This was previously called Place Lane and much of it was covered by the Claigmar vineyard and nursery.
Pentland Centre. This complex is the global headquarters of  Pentland Brands Ltd, part of a family business selling and owning a wide range of footwear brands. It dates from 2003 and was designed by GHM Rock Townsend with contractor design by TP Bennett. It is a deliberate departure from the traditional UK office building overlooking a lake and conservation area. The building incorporates materials such as naturally occurring brick, slate, and timber as well as expressed steel, glass and aluminium. The extensive use of glass allows a high level of natural light deep into the building.  It is on the site of the Finchley Corporations’ power station and depot.
Power Station. Finchley Corporation Electricity Works was opened in 1903 to supply direct current. It converted to alternating current in 1936 and was run by arrangement with the Central Electricity Generating Board. In the  1930s electric street lights replaced gas.
Ponds. The power station had two ponds for cooling purposes with water from a deep well.  In them were large goldfish put there to eat the mosquitoes..These ponds are now the nature reserve
Lakeside Nature Reserve is a small Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. It    was designed as landscaping for an office complex, and its main feature is a lake with a fountain. Plants fringe the shore, Waterfowl nest on a small island and there are dragonflies in summer
Council depot, this was north of the power station
Miniature rifle range.  This was in the western part of the council depot.
Baths. This was a swimming pool and slipper baths opened in 1915. They were demolished in 2000 and replaced with housing,
Allotments. These are behind the site of the baths and are on the  site of Finchley Common, Long Thistley Field, and Little Burr Field. They are The Pointalls District Allotments named for the Pointalls Charity which provides relief for the residents of Finchley. They were also once called Kay’s Fields, after the owner of Claigmar Vineyards nearby. They were used as allotments from 1924.

Stanhope Avenue
1 Church End Baptist Church

Station Road
Entrance to Finchley Central Station
Pillar box by A. Handyside & Co. Ltd. Derby & London.  Foundry; Britannia Foundry and Engineering Works. Anonymous with a Lower posting aperture. Large box from 1884 
Furniture works

Strathmore Gardens
A path leads down to the lake at the Pentland Centre

Tangle Tree Close
This appears to be the old North Circular before it was upgraded to Mway standards

The Avenue
This is essentially a footpath going along the boundary of the Stephens Estate and sports fields. It was laid out in 1604 to give the lady of the Manor a nice walk to church.
The Avenue Tennis Club. Tennis club with a new pavilion and facilties

Victoria Avenue
St Margaret’s United Reform Church. This was Church End Congregational Church, a church hall was opened here in 1907. A memorial hall was built in 1919 but in 1924 it was decided not to build the intended large church but to adapt the church hall. In 1929 the memorial hall was sold, and in 1970 a new hall was opened next to the church. From 1935 until 1955 and again in 1965 services were held jointly with St. Margaret's Presbyterian Church and in 1969 the two bodies united as Union church, Finchley Central, from 1972 called St. Margaret's United Reformed church.
Victoria Hall. St, Margaret’s church hall
Old School House. Infants school building to St. Mary’s School. Plans to build flats here.

Sources
AIM. Web site,
Blake and James, Northern Wastes
British History on line. Barnet, Web site
Cinema Theatres Association. Newsletter
Cinema Treasures.. Web site
Day, London underground
Field. `Place names of London
GLIAS. Newsletter
HADAS web site
Heathfield. Finchley and Whetstone Past
London Borough of Barnet. Web sit
London Encyclopedia
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Middlesex Churches
Middlesex County Council. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry.  London North
Stephens’ House and Garden Web site
Sternberg Centre. Web site
Stevenson. Middlesex
St. Theresa School. Web site
Walford. Village London
Webster. Great North Road,