Hendon Central

 

Hendon Central opened as a terminus for the Northern line in 1923 and then became a through station when the line was extended to Edgware ion 1924. It is a surface station and when built was surrounded by fields.

It has a central platform and only services the Northern line with one line south and the other north.

You can see from this map that I just have three more stations to visit on the Edgeware branch of this undergound line. This line has 52 stations and this will be the 38th I've visited on the Northern Line. My 217th on the Underground system.

 

The station was designed by Stanley Heaps and is similar is style to the previous station at Brent Cross. As I mentioned on my last post Heaps worked closely with Leslie Green and Charles Holden and was influenced by their station designs.  Above the florist shop inside the staion you can see the original sign for telephones.

The ticket hall is very spacious and light, very much a feature of Holden's stations

The station was built in the centre of the town as part of an architectural feature of a new town, known as Hendon Central Circus. It was an early roundabout built on the Watford Bypass. In the late 1960s it was converted to a crossroads.

The balcony above the station has the original advertising roundel for the underground.

Constant stream of traffic goes past the station, being one of the main routes from the north into London.

On another section of the Hendon Central Circus was a cinema. Built as the Ambassador Cinema in February 1932, it went on to change names several times.From the Gaumont in 1933 to the Classic (1968), Cannon (1985), MGM (1993) and finally the ABC in 1996. It closed as a cinema in 1997 and is currently a fitness centre.

I walked away from the busy road to Hendon Park. By the entrance is the cafe which was originally built as a bomb shelter with a lead lined roof and solid bricks. Apparently this is the first kosher park cafe in the UK supervised by the Sephardi Kashrut Authority.

 

Just inside the entrance to the park are these two screens which were originally designed for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. After her death in 2022 they have been redesigned as a celebration of her life.

The Holocaust memorial garden.

The rest of the park is mainly informal parkland.

I left the park and followed this pathway.

I noticed a number of new buildings going up in the area. 

The path continued until it emerged onto the main road facing this large  Irish pub. 



There is a strong Irish community in Hendon reflected in the name of the pub; The Cloddagh Ring. Opening under this name in the early 1990s, it has established itself as a major spot for Irish music as well as the nearest watering hole for the students at Middlesex University close by.



Turning left to an area known as The Burroughs with four public buildings. This is the Town Hall dating from 1900. The building has a symmetrical frontage with seven bays. On the roof is a timber lantern with a weather vane on top. Hendon was an urban district council in 1894 and became a municipal borough in 1932. The municipal borough was abolished in the reorganisation of local government in 1965 when it became part of the London Borough of Barnet. This building is where Barnet Council meets. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher made her first appearance and speech here as Prime Minister.

Next to the Town Hall is another listed building, Hendon Library. It was opened in 1929, costing £30,000. The funding for the library came partly from the Carnegie UK Trust which gave £7000. The architect was Thomas Millwood Wilson and is decribed as being Neo-Georgian in style. The latin motto above the entrance translates as 'not the least part of learning is to be acquainted with good books.'

Despite being given a Grade II status in 2002, Barnet Conservative Council in 2020 were determined to sell the building to Middlesex library next door and move the library facilities to a smaller temporary building elsewhere. With a change of the council to a labour one and a lot of opposition from local residents the library was saved but not before a refurbishment meant a loss of original features and selling of space to the University.

The third of the civic buildings is the Fire station. A fire brigade was first established in Hendon in 1855 as a voluntary fire brigade with a fire engine kept in St Mary's Church just up the road from here. The local council took over the fire brigade in 1899 and a fire station was built here in 1911. As firefighters lived at the station a range of accommodation was needed from dormitories for single men to flats for married men and their families. In 1941 the National Fire Service was formed and Hendon Fire Service became part of the London Fire Force. With the formation of the new Greater London Council in 1965, Hendon became part of London Fire Brigade. Hendon is one of LFBs oldest operating fire stations. It currently houses a pump fire engine and a pump ladder fire engine.

The fourth building on this road is Middlesex University. The Grove building opened in 2011 and by 2013 all the different sections of the university came together onto one campus, unusual for a London University.

I was pleased that I had found some buildings of interest here as now I am going further away from the centre of London into the suburbs, they tend to be mainly residential areas and retail parks.

Brent Cross

 

Brent Cross is the 216th station I have visited on the Underground and this will probably be the shortest post I have written about an underground station. The station opened in November 1923 and formed part of the extension of what was to become the Northern Line. The station, along with neighbouring stations was designed by Stanley Heaps. Heaps was assistant to Leslie Green who designed a number of stations on this line. Heaps succeeded Green after his death in 1908. At the beginning Heaps used similar ideas to Green and used the same ox-blood red tiles on the outside of the stations but by the time he designed this one he had developed his own style,

The arrival of these tube stations into rural areas stimulated development into suburbs. The new underground railway network allowed the working classes to move out of London into more spacious housing with gardens and commute into the capital.

The station has an island platform with trains running on either side.

The platform has a girder canopy covering its centre. 

 

Exit from the platform is down the staircase which is also  covered by a girder canopy.

   The staircase leads you to the ticket hall with its wrought-iron unglazed 

fanlight

It is a large ticket hall  with modern replicas of the original tiling.

The labyrinth was easy to spot at this station.

The entrance has a completely different look from other stations with the Portland stone double columns. Above the entrance is an original 'UndergrounD' roundel sign.

The arrival of these tube stations into rural areas stimulated development into suburbs. The new underground railway network allowed the working classes to move out of London into more spacious housing with gardens and commute into the capital. Walking around the station I only came across residential roads.

Brent Cross is a major traffic interchange and was the original name of the crossroads here. I needed to cross this road via the bridge up ahead.

Once I had crossed the road, I then had to cross  another bridge over the River Brent. The river is a tributary of the River Thames which it joins at Brentford.

The reason for crossing over to this side was to reach the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, the first enclosed American style shopping centres in the UK. It opened in 1976 and included shopping, eating and entertainment under one roof which was unheard of in the mid 1970s. It was built on the site of the Hendon Greyhound Stadium and was extended in 1995.

 

Brent Cross is undergoing extensive development with the building of over 6000 new homes, new parkland and other retail outlets so I imagine in a couple of years it will look completely different from today.

Golders Green

 

I was very unsure about my visit to Goldesrs Green in early November. I was aware that this area has a large number of synagogues. Security is on high alert as the Jewish community have received an increase in anti-semetic abuse. So me wandering around taking photos might pose a problem. I have not yet avoided any underground stations for any reason but I will try to be sensitive and hopefully cause no offense.

I needn't have worried. In fact I should have taken notice of other things which I'll mention later,

The  platforms are numbered 1 to 5 although platform 1 is not in public use and is used for staff. but no trains currently stop at platform 1. Platforms 3 and 4 are often used for trains terminating at Golders Green before reversing back to London. Platforms 2 and 5 are for trains going to and from the terminus at Edgeware.

Steps take you to the exit. The tiled stairwell has black edging tiles which is the colour of the Northern line on the tube map.

The frontage is the original 1907 entrance for the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, the forerunner of the Northern Line.

In front of the entrance is a bus and coach station with not only lots of local buses but also National Express coaches. A good place to get off if you don't want to face the usual long traffic jams into Centraal London. you can also pick up a coach here that would take you north to Birmingham, Manchester or further.

To the right of the station is the large Hippodrome building.  The Hippodrome opened as a theatre on Boxing day 1913 with a seating capacity of over 2000 people. The stage was also very large and as with many of the Hippodrome theatres of that time, the stage was fitted with a giant trap that could be opened to reveal a huge water tank holding 20,000 gallons of water. It was a popular venue having easy access from London via the tube and was famous for its annual pantomines which continued until its closure in 1968. After it closed it was converted into a TV studio, Radio studio and Concert Hall by the BBC with a greatly reduced  seating capacity. It was used by the BBC until 2003 when it was put up for sale. The building is now owned by the Hillsong church and is also used for various concerts. 

 

The Clock Tower on the other side of the bus station, standing in the middle of a roundabout,  is a war memorial. It was built to honour those killed in World War 1 and later names were added of those Golders Green residents who were killed in World War 2.

I followed the road uphill to Golders Hill Park passing the Old Bull and Bush on the way. An ale house on this site got its license in 1721. However, this building is mainly from the 1920s. The pub, The Old Bull and Bush was immortalised in an old music hall song. Popularised by a well known music hall singer in the 1930s, Florrie Ford (1875-1940). Originally from Australia she made her name in the UK on the Music Hall circuit. Her other popular songs of the time were: 'Pack up your trouble in your old kit bag'; 'Hold your hand out you naughty boy' and 'I do like to be beside the seaside'.

I carried on up the hill, past this half hidden row of houses in the wood.

It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and blue skies. As I entered woodlands I said good morning to a couple walking their dog. It was only as they went past that I realised the woman was Tamsin Greig, a well known actress. By coincidence I had just finished watching her latest series on TV called 'Riot Women' the previous night.

Golders Hill Park is adjacent to Hampstead Heath. I walked around the park for ages as it was so beautiful. It had a wide variety of trees as well as a small zoo.

 

Golders Hill Girl by Patricia Finch.

I decided it was time to move on and asked someone for the quickest way back into the town. After consulting his phone, a very pleasant gentleman pointed me in the right direction. I decided to take the shortest route across the grass between the trees. The ground was covered in leaves and small branches that had come down in the storm the previous night. Next thing I knew I was up to my knees in water. Preventing myself from falling further I put my hand out to save myself. I had stepped into a deep stream but when I looked back you couldn't see it as there were so many leaves floating on the top of it.

There was little I could do to dry myself off. My trousers were wet to above the knee. My socks were soaking wet and my feet were squelching in the shoes. At least it wasn't that cold and the sun was shining. I could only hope that if I continued walking my trousers would eventually dry off. 

Back in the town I found a shop selling Xmas socks and I sat down in a corner of the shop and removed my sopping wet socks. At least with the new socks, my feet felt dry again. 

I then found a cafe where I could just sit at the back with a cup of tea and wait until my trousers had dried off a bit. I had now lost all enthusiasm for walking around the town but as it was such a long way from home I carried on to just look at a few more roads before making my way home.

 Hoop Lane cemetery. The West London Synagogue needed a larger burial ground and purchased this site in 1894, an area of 15 acres. A few months before it opened, the West London congregation sold half of the site to the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of London. The cemetery space was then shared between the Reform and the Sephardi communities. The arrangement still continues today  managed by a joint committee from both synogogues.

Further along Hoop Lane is the Golders Green cremetorium and cemetery. Constructed in 1902 , the first crematorium built in London. It is a hidden gem with its architecture and beautiful gardens. There are numerous notable memorials here, including: Sigmund Freud, Anna Pavlova, Marc Bolam, Peter Sellars, Ivor Novello, Bram Stoker to name a few.

It was a very peaceful place and I sat in the sunshine for a while before going home.  

On the way back to the station was this old Scottish police car outside a second hand car garage. I needn't have worried about feeling uncomfortable taking photos of the are, I just need to take more care about where I put my feet. I will remember Go;ders Green but probably for the wrong resons.