Colindale

 

This station opened in August 1924 on what used to be the Hampstead and Highgate Line. It is part of the Edgware branch of the Northern Line. The original station was designed by Stanley Heaps but it was severely damaged during WW2 bombing. In September 1940 it was hit by a huge bomb whilst two trains with 400 passengers between them were at the station. Thirteen people were killed with many more injured. A temporary station was erected which lasted until 1962. The station was here to serve the Hendon Aerodrome which was open from 1908 to 1968.

T. E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) regularly used the station when he was stationed at Hendon. He used the name 'Colin Dale' when he submitted articles to The Spectator during 1927-28. The opening of the station, as with many stations, was the beginning of development in this area.

 Recently it has been rebuilt again with the new entrance just opened in Jan 2025.

It has a large, light entrance and ticket hall.

The whole area is being regenerated with thousands of new homes being built. Since 2009 the population of Colindale has grown by 70% and station usage by 88%. The design of the entrance was inspired by the aerodrome so I thought my first visit to Colindale needed to be the RAF Museum on the site of Hendon Aerodrome.

It is about a 10 minute walk from the station to the museum which is free entry.

The history of Hendon goes back before the formation of the RAF in April 1918 with the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. In 1909 a local company, Everett and Edgcombe built an aeroplane and a shed to accommodate it at the end of Colindale Ave.  A year later a large area had been cleared and other organisations were using the airfield including a school founded by Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel.

Claude Grahame-White bought the land and it became the London Aerodrome in 1911. Air displays and races were held here. In 1912 the first Aerial Derby, an air race around London started and finished at Hendon and was watched by an estimated 500,000 spectators.

The Grahame White Aviation Company began making aircraft. During World War One, the factory was building aircraft for the Admiralty and the War office. Pilots were trained at Hendon for both the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps. After the war air displays began again. However, Hendon was now controlled by the RAF and the Grahame White factory was closed down. In 1925, compensation was paid and ownership was passed to the RAF. In the 1930s the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York kept their aircraft at Hendon, this became the forerunner of the modern King's Flight

During WW2 a number of fighter squadrons used the airfield. Runways were built for heavier aircraft. The building of more  huts to accommodate the increase in staffing went alongside requisitioning  local houses and hotels. RAF Hendon was attacked in August 1940 which caused damage to one of the hangars and local housing. In 1944 more V1 flying bombs caused death and destruction.

On 15th September 1945 Hendon held one of the first post war displays. Over 20 aircraft took part in a flying display watched by thousands of spectators. In the mid 1950s the US Navy left as did the last of the RAF squadrons. There was still some flying at Hendon by a gliding school. In 1968 the last aircraftto to use Hendon, a Blackburn Beverley, flew in and was put on display. Most of the site was sold off for housing. In 1972 the RAF Museum was opened here by Queen Elizabeth II. Although the museum site looks large it is only a small part of the original RAF Hendon airfield. There are still some of the original buildings on site.

I had a very quick look around as I soon realise another day would be needed to come and visit it at leisure but today, I wanted to finish looking around the rest of Colindale.

Just a few photos but sorry I can't match up the photos with the correct information boards!

Colindale tube station is the closest station to Hendon Police College. It was opened in May 1934 in the former  buildings in Hendon Country club, Hendon aerodrome clubhouse. It became the primary training school for London Police. When the RAF left Hendon in the 1960s, the Metropolitan Police decided to rebuild the college and rename it The Peel Centre after Robert Peel, twice prime minister and creator of the Metropolitan Police. It had forensic science laboratories, detective training facilities and a police driving school. The formal training of recruits ended in September 2007, though the site is still a main police hub. 

Walking back from the Police college I passed this interesting sculptural frieze on the front of a semi drelict building I but could find no information about it.

There are many new developments which have been built on land once owned by the airfield.

This is the Silk Stream which runs through Colindale and WEst Hendon where it joins the Brent reservoir. The stream is approx 2 miles long. It looks quite pleasant from this photo but from other views the banks are strewn with rubbish.

Close by is the newly built Jain centre. This will be a major place of worship for the Jain community.

The UK Health Security centre is also on this road. This is the main centre for the protection of the public's health by preparing for and responding to infectious diseases and environmental hazards.

Although Colindale has a retail Park I didn't find a central shopping area. I was amazed by the number of new housing developments which had their own few shops and cafes. It seems a popular place to live with a direct underground line into London and what more could you want than a 24hr McDonalds!

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.