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Home , Barnet Museum, Brent Cross, Burnt Oak, Chipping Barnet, Colney Hatch, Cricklewood

Barnet The growth of through Map of London’s boroughs

10 The map shows the current Key boundaries of London’s Barnet boroughs. The content of this 2 1 Barking 17 album relates to the area & 15 31 18 highlighted on the map. 14 26 2 Barnet 16 19 This album is one of a series 3 20 Kensington 17 4 6 12 looking at London boroughs 19 4 Brent & Chelsea and their transport stories 1 25 5 21 Kingston from 1800 to the present day. 30 33 7 6 Camden 22 9 7 23 13 20 28 8 24 18 11 3 9 25 Newham 22 32 23 26 Redbridge 27 10 Enfield 11 27 Richmond 28 24 12 Hackney 29 Sutton 21 13 5 & 30 Tower Hamlets 29 8 14 Haringey 31 Waltham Forest 15 Harrow 32 16 Havering 33 Map of Barnet

London Transport would like to thank staff at Barnet Hill Barnet Local Studies & Archives ( Library Service) and

Oakleigh , and David Park Ruddom, former Borough Librarian of Barnet, for their help with this album. The Museum has worked closely with local partners CANONS to produce the series. PARK Details of the partners contributing to this album Watling Estate can be found at the back of the book. References for the images Bald Faced Stag are at the bottom of each page. Those in the collection at Barnet Local Studies & Garden Archives are marked LBB; at Barnet Museum BM; Welsh Harp station (site of) and David Ruddom’s Manor House Hospital (site of) collection DR.

* Asterisks indicate a story in the text.  Timelines

World events Local stories 1800– 49 1825 Opening of the world’s first steam-powered passenger railway, 1823 Steep slope on Barnet Hill on the Great North Road the Stockton & Darlington, UK eased by road improvement scheme 1838 Slavery abolished throughout British Empire 1831 Ninety stage coaches pass through Whetstone daily on the Great North Road

1850– 99 1861 Start of American Civil War (ends 1865) 1850 Great Northern Railway opens from London to 1863 Opening of world’s first underground passenger railway, Peterborough, the first railway through the borough London, UK 1856 Mail coaches between Barnet and the City taken over by London General Omnibus Company 1867 First railway to and 1900– 49 1912 Ocean liner RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg 1904 First electric tramway through the borough from 1947 India gains independence from Britain. Country is partitioned to Edgware into India and Pakistan 1907 Hampstead Tube opens to 1940 station is destroyed by wartime bomb

1950– 99 1969 American Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on 1956 Prototype Routemaster enters service on route 2 the moon from Golders Green 1994 Channel Tunnel opens linking Britain to European mainland 1976 London’s first out-of-town shopping centre at Brent for first time Cross generates new traffic

2000 onwards 2001 World Trade Centre in New destroyed in terrorist attack 2005 Bus station opens in the new ‘’ complex at 2005 London is awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games for 2012

 Image of Titanic courtesy of Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Barnet’s transport story

Barnet has been a staging post for travellers to London since Roman times. By the 19th century, Barnet Fair was thriving and local inns were busy. Stagecoaches dominated the Great North Road. The arrival of the railways from 1850 changed the pattern of movement and development in the borough. Suburban stations, electric , the Underground and new arterial roads transformed Barnet into a commuter area for London. After the Second World War, a ‘green belt’ around London halted suburban sprawl and ensured in the north retained the character of a country town.

A full heading for stands in front of Barnet Church, c1907. 1998/19275  Age of the horse

Laden stagecoaches to and from London were once a familiar sight in Barnet. Turnpike trusts charged tolls to maintain the Great North Road. Around 90 stage coaches passed through Whetstone tollgate every day in 1831. The steep slope on Barnet Hill was reduced in 1823 to make it easier for horses pulling goods and passenger vehicles up the hill. By the 1850s horse had replaced the stagecoach services from Barnet to the City.

A stagecoach arriving at the top of Barnet Hill, 1812. Watercolour by Thomas Rowlandson. BM Horse bus outside the Bald Faced Stag pub, , c1860. LBB  The railway ‘It was originally started by my Great Grand-Father arrives in Barnet Mr T Parsloe... and on his death taken over by my Father... until the electric trams were started when the bus became rather obsolete... The single decker Railways hastened the end was mostly used for the journey between New of stagecoaches. The Great Barnet and Hadley Highstone.’ Northern Railway (GNR) originally opened through L Parsloe describes in 1957 the old family horse bus service Barnet in 1850 with two between and Hadley Highstone. 2003/2821 stations: (now ) and Barnet (now New Barnet). Parsloe’s horse bus was one of several local services which carried passengers on their onward journey. In 1867 Edgware got its first railway connection with London via a branch line through Finchley to the GNR main line. Five years later High Barnet station opened on an extension from Finchley Church End.

Parsloe horse bus, New Barnet station, c1903. 2003/2819 Finchley Church End (now Finchley Central) station, 1906. An experimental steam railcar arrives from Edgware. LBB  Transport to leisure

The Midland Railway (MR) originally served London using the Great Northern Railway line. Congestion at King’s Cross led the MR to open its own line from Bedford to St Pancras in 1868. ’s Welsh Harp reservoir and inn were famous for hosting sporting events. The resort had its own railway station from 1870, and on bank holidays during the 1880s Welsh Harp station served 25,000 people. The lake became less popular in later years and the station closed in 1903. Horse bus at the Midland railway hotel, Hendon, on a shuttle service to the Welsh Harp, c1905. LBB Skaters on the Welsh Harp reservoir, c1910. 2005/7223 Bus ticket from Cricklewood to the Welsh Harp, c1900. 2003/10532  Electric trams arrive

The horse-drawn trams common in other parts of London never ran in Barnet. Metropolitan Electric Tramways launched the borough’s first electric tram service in 1904 between Cricklewood and Edgware, a relatively undeveloped area at the time. Trams were the first affordable transport service for all. They ran between Whetstone and Highgate from 1905 and further extensions brought services to in the west and Barnet Church in the north by 1907.

First tramcar through North Finchley, 1905. DR Tram terminus, Cricklewood, 1905. 2004/16310 Workers lay tram tracks in the High Road, North Finchley, c1904. LBB  First tube suburb

When the Hampstead Tube opened to Golders Green in 1907, it led to the creation of the first Tube suburb. built at Golders Green, Hendon and Edgware alongside the extending Underground lines offered cheap and fast access to the city and proved very popular. Among the new residents were many Jewish families who moved out of London’s overcrowded East End.

Rural Golders Green before construction of the Underground station, 1904. 1999/20099 Poster for tram services to Finchley and Cricklewood, 1909. 1983/4/141 Golders Green in 1927, transformed from the scene above into a busy suburban Tube and bus interchange. 1998/76915  Flying high

Claude Grahame-White opened the London Aerodrome at Hendon in 1911. Hendon became famous for its flying school and as a pioneering centre for aircraft development and production. From 1912 air displays attracted thousands of spectators. The site was later taken over by the government, and from 1920–37 the continued to put on air displays. The shows attracted huge crowds, particularly after opened nearby in 1924.

Poster by Tony Sarg, 1913. 2006/12304 Poster by Charles Turner, 1925. 1999/38417 Crowds at Colindale station after the RAF Pageant at Hendon Aerodrome (now the RAF Museum), 1930. 2005/1171 

Hampstead Garden Suburb was one of several pioneering developments aimed at retaining green space in London. It was set up by Dame from 1906 to provide a healthy, well-designed environment for working people. In fact the suburb soon became largely middle class. Residents included , Managing Director of in the 1920s and later Chief Executive of .

London’s Latest Suburbs, 1910. 1996/1899 Frank Pick’s former home in Wildwood Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb, 1981. 1998/41023 Frank Pick, 1931. Pick’s design standards made London Transport famous. 1999/19368 10 Underground extensions

The rapid development of Golders Green prompted the extension of the Hampstead Tube after the First World War. The extension north from Golders Green to Hendon Central opened in 1923. Fred Taylor’s poster illustrates the new suburban housing which quickly followed. The Tube reached Edgware in 1924 with stations at Colindale and , where the (LCC) established the large Watling housing estate.

Poster by Fred Taylor, 1925. 1983/4/1576 LCC Watling Estate behind the trees at Burnt Oak station, 1928. 2004/20184 Edgware station forecourt on a busy Saturday afternoon, 1927. 1999/20702 11 Barnet gets busier

In the late 1920s and 1930s, suburban development in Barnet was encouraged by both the Edgware Tube extension and new arterial roads, particularly the . When the new roads first opened, few Londoners had a car. Most local traffic was on bus services, which linked residential areas with nearby shopping centres.

The busy new shopping centre at Edgware by Christine Jackson, 1930. 1999/38462 Heathfield Gardens entrance to Brent (now ) Underground station, 1933. 1998/81674 Bus stop on the newly built Falloden Way, Finchley, now part of the A1, 1934. 1998/84265 12 From trams to

Trams were replaced by more flexible trolleybuses from 1936, beginning with routes along the , and through Cricklewood up to North Finchley. Barnet’s last tram ran in 1938. Eight routes met at North Finchley. They used a turning circle and terminus created as part of the giant Gaumont cinema development in the 1930s. The web of trolleybus wires around the huge cinema complex dominated Tally Ho Corner for over 20 years.

Inspecting a new trolleybus in front of Barnet Church, 1938. Barnet Press Last tram night at Finchley Depot, March 1938. New trolleybuses wait to take over. Tramway Museum Society Gaumont cinema complex, 1958. 1998/85153 13 Out of steam

The steam branch line through Finchley became part of the Underground’s in 1940. The line was electrified at the same time to enable Tube trains from to run through to High Barnet. In 1939 East Finchley station (formerly East End Finchley) was rebuilt in London Transport’s modern style. Electrification of the branch line from Finchley Central to Edgware was completed as far as East by 1941, but abandoned due to the Second World War.

New Tube train at High Barnet, replaces the steam service (left), 1940. BM ’s archer at East Finchley station. 1999/41639 Last regular steam passenger train at High Barnet, 13 April 1940. BM 14 Second World War

Green Line coaches were converted into ambulances during the Second World War. In 1940, after the German invasion of France, they collected French and British troops evacuated from Dunkirk. The memorial laboratory at Manor House Hospital, Golders Green, was built in 1954. London Transport bus trade unionists raised £10,000 by subscription towards it. The hospital was demolished in 2000.

At New Barnet, Green Line ‘ambulances’ pick up wounded soldiers, 1940. BM Colindale station, destroyed by a bomb in September 1940. Thirteen people died. 1998/35605 Manor House laboratory facade, now at ’s Depot. 2000/15806 15 Exit the trolleybus

In 1956, the prototype (RM1) of London’s famous Routemaster bus entered public service on route 2 from Golders Green to Crystal Palace. Diesel buses soon replaced all trolleybuses. The borough’s last trolleybus ran through Barnet in the early hours of a cold January night in 1962, bringing electric street traction in the borough to an end after 58 years.

Routemaster RM1 at Golders Green before its first journey, 1956. 1998/86785 Sheila Fee, Hendon bus conductor takes fares using a revolutionary Gibson roll ticket machine, 1959. 1998/55523 Driver Bert Chivers and Inspector Jock Dow with Barnet’s last trolleybus at Barnet Church, 1962. DR 16 Into modern times

In 1974 Hampstead Garden Suburb featured an experimental ‘Dial-a-bus’ service. Residents could ask to be picked up from anywhere within the suburb. National rail services in the borough were electrified in the 1970s. In the 1990s new Underground trains were introduced on the Northern line, improving its ‘misery line’ image. Today, fully accessible buses link all parts of Barnet with transport and shopping hubs at Brent Cross, Golders Green and North Finchley. ‘Dial-a-bus’, Hampstead Garden Suburb, 1975. 1998/66071 After 50 years, the last red Northern line train heads south from Edgware, 1988. DR ‘artsdepot’ including new bus station, replaces the Gaumont (see page13) 2006. 2007/11220 17 Barnet now

Barnet today has good public transport links with central London, but in the borough itself most journeys are still made by car. Local initiatives are aiming to reduce car use in favour of public transport, to ease road congestion and reduce pollution. A major regeneration scheme is planned for Hendon, Brent Cross and Cricklewood. This includes a new town centre and better integration of local road and rail services. Improved routes for walking and cycling combined with limited parking for new developments are all designed to discourage use of the car for non-essential journeys.

Accessible modern bus at Barnet Church, 2007. 2007/11221 18 Want to know more?

Barnet Local Studies & Archives Centre 80 Daws Lane Mill Hill London NW7 4SL

Tel: (020) 8359 3960 Email: library.archives@ barnet.gov.uk

www.barnet.gov.uk

Barnet Museum 31 Wood Street Barnet, Herts EN5 4BE Tel: (020) 8440 8066

www.barnetmuseum.co.uk

Barnet Local Studies & Archives Centre, 2007. 2007/11222 Barnet Museum, 2007. 2007/11223 19 © London Transport Museum 2008