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Post to the north West Hendon
Post to the east Cricklewood
Post to the west Neasden Brent Reservoir
Post to the south Dollis Hill Station
Brook Road
Chartwell Court was the Post office
Research Station Opened 1933. Given up by the PO in
1976 and then in other commercial use. Typical brick built buildings of the
period by A.R. Myers, HM Office of Works architect. - Main block 286 feet long
with 3 principal floors, one other large block and a number of individual
single storey research blocks also remain. Now flats and the Network HA
115-117 An inconspicuous door between then gives access
to the top of spiral staircase - one of the two emergency exits of a very large
bunker.
38 1976 commercial
The Paddock. In
the 2nd World War there was big underground citadel under it. alternative
Cabinet War Rooms ('Paddock'). There are
at least three entrances among modern housing along Brook Road, one of which
remains in its original state in a small surface building with associated
ventilation and power intake
arrangements. The two-storey underground bunker lies below the modern
houses on the west side of Brook Road, within the grounds of a former Post
Office telephones research station. Paddock Road was opposite, but is now
obliterated by excavations for new work. The local geology appears to be
gravelly drift overlying, presumably,
London clay. There are two floors underground, with notices on the walls
declaring the lower one to be floor 26, and the upper one floor 27. Floor 28
appears to have been a surface building. There is no evidence for the
whereabouts of any floors numbered 1-25! The two sets of emergency exit stairs
are remarkably narrow and spiral around small square shafts. Floor 27 has a
long central corridor, with numerous rooms off each side, including some still
containing air filters and non-functioning electrical control equipment. Floor
26 has a similar corridor, but with rooms off one side only. The lower floor
rooms include a large central room, presumably the main cabinet room, and a
plant room with some equipment still in place. There is very little evidence of
any domestic arrangements. One room might have been a small kitchen where a cup
of tea might have been brewed (two sinks, but no trace of cooking apparatus).
No traces identifiable as remains of lavatories or dormitories were seen. One
room has the remains of telephone exchange racking. There appear to be no holes
in the flooded lower floor, although persons wading in the rather murky water
do need to take care not to fall over a few items of junk and occasional cables
scattered about. The internal walls are flimsy in the extreme, often no more
than panels on wooden framing. Much of the timberwork, especially on the
currently flooded lower floor, is festooned with fungal mycelium, giving a
horror-film appearance to doorways! Much larger and more strongly built and
elaborately equipped bunkers were built in Germany during the Second World War,
such as Goring's bunker at Wildpark near Potsdam. At least two Cabinet meetings
are known to have been held at Paddock, one of them chaired by Winston
Churchill. Churchill, however, is reported not to have liked the place.
Coles Green Road
Oxgate Farm. c.
1600. wooden signboard says 1483. Was
one of Willesden’s manors and one of the oldest buildings in Brent.
Dollis Hill
Name could be 16th century and connected with a family
called Dalley. Sometimes called Dolly's Hill and Dales Way. Also Dollar’s
Hill. Dollis Brook may have a different
derivation.
Progressive synagogue converted to a school.
Dollis Hill Lane
Neville Court, round a quadrangle stylish modernity with
efficiently planned flats.
St.Andrew's Hospital
St.Paul
Humber Road
Thrupp & Maberley carriage works
Neville’s Court
Churchill had a flat here in the Second World War.
Oxgate Lane,
Went from Oxgate Farm to Watling Street, Oxgate was an old
village. It is marked thus on the
Ordnance Survey map of 1822, and used earlier c.1250 - that is 'gate used for
oxen', from Old English ‘oxa’ and ‘gate’. It may originally have referred to a
gate preventing cattle from straying on to nearby Watling Street. The lane from
the farm o the main road is clearly shown on the 1822 map; the 16th
century farmhouse still survives.
Polydore Vergil from Urbinia
St.Paul's Oxgate 1939-80.
Parkside
Dollis Hill Synagogue. 1934 by Owen Williams. Very adverse reception when it was built –
overt architectural structuralism.
Railway Dudding Hill South Junction Signal Box by
Parkside. Typical Midland Railway signal box controlling the junction of Brent
Curve and Cricklewood Curve which lead to the MR main line.
Railway platelayers' hut.
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