Kenton is a district in north-west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, to the east of Harrow and historically in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. As with surroundings in Harrow,

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

and

Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...

, the area was a product of Metroland suburbia of the early 20th century. Both the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

and

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

reached the area by the 1920s. The main road through Kenton, the east-west

Kenton Road Kenton Road is a main road in the London Borough of Harrow and the London Borough of Brent. It lies in the areas of Harrow and Kenton. Route and landmarks Its eastern end is the border of Kenton in Middlesex and Kingsbury (in NW9) in London ...

, is a busy and important road that links Harrow to the major

Edgware Road Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...

. The road now forms the boundary between the

London borough The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at ...

s of Harrow and Brent.

History

Roscoe L&BR(1839) p069 - Harrow on the Hill

Windermere, North Wembley, HA9 (2468567053)

The hamlet was recorded as "Keninton" in 1232. The name derives from the personal name of the Saxon "Coena" and the Old English "tun", a farm – and means "the farm of Coena" and his family who once lived on a site near here. Before the 20th century, the tiny settlement was concentrated around in what was Kenton Lane (the easternmost part of which remains as Old Kenton Lane to the east of Kingsbury station) and is now part of the present-day Woodgrange Avenue and Kenton Road. The Windermere is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in Windermere Avenue. It is on the

Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is th ...

's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and was built in 1938. The Plough public house was Kenton's first, opening in the early 18th century; the current building is not the original. It is now an Indo-Chinese fusion restaurant and bar called ''Blue Ginger''. Local Primary Schools include Uxendon Manor on Vista Way and Priestmead Primary School on Hartford Avenue. The local high school is Claremont High School on Claremont Avenue off Kenton Road.

Kenton station Kenton is a railway station on the Watford DC line and the London Underground Bakerloo line, situated on Kenton Road in Kenton, north-west London. The station is served by London Overground and London Underground services. It has an out of s ...

was opened by the

on 15 June 1912. The

's Northwick Park and Kenton station (later renamed

Northwick Park Northwick Park is a large green public park between Harrow and Kenton in north-west London, forming part of the London Borough of Brent. Most of the park consists of playing fields. It is also the name of the electoral ward of Brent that cover ...

) followed on 28 June 1923.

Geography

From its original location near The Grange, Kenton expanded toward

Wealdstone Wealdstone () is a district located in the centre of the London Borough of Harrow, England. It is located just north of Harrow town centre and is south of Harrow Weald, west of Belmont and Kenton, and east of Headstone. The area accommodates ...

and

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, which ...

after the opening of

on the Euston to Watford Junction railway in 1912 and grew into a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

of London from the 1920s. The South Kenton area is distinct from Kenton, being almost contiguous with

North Wembley North Wembley is a district in North West London, England. It is located in the London Borough of Brent and is mostly made up of the 1930s Sudbury Court Estate. North Wembley forms the north-western part of the district of that is its namesake. ...

and Preston. It is entirely within Brent. Most of the district is part of the HA3 postcode, but the southern part is in HA9 and

is in HA1.

Waterways

The Wealdstone Brook is the only visible waterway within the area. It has two branches, one originating in Wealdstone and the other in Stanmore; these combine underground near the junction of Kenton Lane and Kenton Road. The Western (Wealdstone) branch is in culvert as far as the south side of the Kenton Recreation Ground; the Eastern (Stanmore) branch is mostly in culvert from near the source on Clamp Hill to where it combines with the Western branch. It functions mainly as a land drain devoid of wildlife until it reaches Woodcock Park and was previously heavily polluted by run-off water and illicit connections from adjacent houses; a 2013 Thames Water project in the vicinity of Woodcock Park identified 140 premises discharging into the Brook.

Housing

The coming of the railways was soon followed by suburban development, most of Kenton being built between the Wars. The

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

built the Kenmore Park cottage estate between the wars. There are 654 houses on the site, a housing density of 11.3 per acre (28/ha). Thomas Francis Nash owned building companies which from the 1920s onward built numerous private

housing estates A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States a ...

in Kenton,

Ruislip Ruislip ( ) is an area in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, and in the historic county of Middlesex. Ruislip lies west-north-west of Charing Cross, London. The manor of Ruislip appears in the Domesday Book, and some of the ear ...

and other parts of the " Metroland" area of

. F. & C. Costin was another local building company that built much of Kenton between the wars. Local

estate agents An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged i ...

still use the term "Nash-built" or "Costin-built" to describe properties built by them in Kenton.

Culture and media

Apart from the infamous appearance of several of Kenton's streets in the "

Gourmet Night ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Televisio ...

" episode of the BBC-TV comedy series ''

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television ...

'' starring John Cleese, the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song "Kenton Kev", by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band The Magoo Brothers on their album "Beyond Believable", released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988. The song refers to the "pleasant valley" high suburban boredom factor then prevalent in the area, and cites local characters and places, some fairly well known. It is said that "Kenton Kev" refers in fact to Kevin Jones, the US-based property magnate, who was actually born in Kenton. The song was written by

Paul Bonin Paul Bonin is a singer and musician (electric bass, guitar) and a songwriter/composer. His body of published recorded work spans from 1980 to the present day. Bonin was born in Hammersmith, London and grew up in north London. He began playing b ...

, Philip Ulysses Sanders and Melanie Hickford, all of whom grew up and lived in the area.

Demography

Kenton is represented by three

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

s: Kenton East and Kenton West in Harrow, and Kenton in Brent. All together the population was 35,600 as of 2015. Kenton has a high degree of its population belonging to ethnic minorities, over 70% in all three wards and higher than the Harrow and Brent averages; like much of Harrow and

, there is a particularly large number of people from

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

descent. The Kenton ward in Brent has a female life expectancy of 91.6 years, which is the third-highest in Greater London. The male expectancy was 83.3 years. The crime rate of Kenton East ward in Harrow was 33.5 in 2014/15, which was one of the lowest out of all wards in Greater London. Kenton East also has the lowest proportion of bicycle commuters in Greater London, amounting to only 0.2% of the population.

Governance

Kenton is part of both the

Harrow East Harrow East is a constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative. Constituency profile The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelming ...

parliamentary constituency, most recently represented by

Bob Blackman Robert John Blackman (born 26 April 1956) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 C ...

(

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

), and the

Brent North Brent North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Barry Gardiner of the Labour Party. History Created in 1974 from the former seats of Wembley North and Wembley South, Brent North was a Co ...

constituency which is represented by Barry Gardiner (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Public services

Kenton Library, Harrow, Middlesex - geograph

Kenton Library, run by Harrow Council, is located in Kenton Lane. Kenton Ambulance Station is located at the eastern end of Kenton, near

Circle.

Northwick Park Hospital Northwick Park Hospital (NWPH) is a major National Health Service hospital situated near the town of Harrow, London, Harrow, North West London, managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. It is located off Watford Road in th ...

is located very close by Kenton.

Parks and sports

There are three large open spaces in or near Kenton: Woodcock Park, Kenton Recreation Ground, and

directly to the west in the northern part of Wembley. The Kenton Sports Club and its ground is located on Kenton Lane which consists of cricket, tennis and table tennis.

Education

Secondary schools in the area are: St Gregory's Catholic Science College, Claremont High School, and JFS.

Religion

St Mary, Kenton Road, Harrow - Tower - geograph

Kenton has several religious institutions. Churches in the area include the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kenton

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Church, Kenton

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Church, and Kenton

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Church. Further east on Kenton Road are the All Saints

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Church, and the St Panteleimon

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...

Church, the latter being one of the capital's few Greek Orthodox churches outside North London. The building of St Panteleimon's dates back to 1932. It was originally built as a mission church for St Mary's, used by the Orthodox community from 1989, and acquired fully in 1994. There are two Hindu mandirs: Haridham Swaminarayan Temple on Woodcock Hill, and Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple by Kenton Road. Kenton is also home to one of the UK's

Derasar A Jain temple, Derasar (Gujarati: દેરાસર) or Basadi (Kannada: ಬಸದಿ) is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Jain architecture is essentially restricted to temples and monasteries, and Jain buildings gen ...

s on the east side of Kenton Road which serve followers of

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...

. By Woodcock Park is also a

United Synagogue The United Synagogue (US) is a union of United Kingdom, British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations (including 7 affiliates and 1 associate, ), comprising 40,000 members, it ...

. There are no mosques in Kenton itself but the

Harrow Central Mosque Harrow Central Mosque is a Sunni mosque and Islamic community hub in Harrow, England. The current centre opened in 2011 on no. 34 Station Road, adjacent to Harrow Civic Centre and a short distance south of Wealdstone town centre. The purpose-b ...

is quite proximate from some parts.

Transport

Buses

The following

London Bus Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...

routes operate through the area:

Tube/trains

Stations in the area are: *

Kenton Station Kenton is a railway station on the Watford DC line and the London Underground Bakerloo line, situated on Kenton Road in Kenton, north-west London. The station is served by London Overground and London Underground services. It has an out of s ...

(

Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...

Watford DC Line The Watford DC line is a suburban line from London Euston to Watford Junction in Watford, Hertfordshire. Its services are operated by London Overground. The line runs beside the West Coast Main Line (WCML) for most of its length. The London ...

) *

South Kenton Station South Kenton is a station in Kenton, north-west London. The station is served by suburban services operated by London Underground on the Bakerloo line and London Overground on the Watford DC line. In the Bakerloo line, the station lies between ...

(Bakerloo line & Watford DC Line) * Northwick Park Station (

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...

)

Notable people

* Actress

Michele Austin Michele Austin is a British actress best known for her role as PC Yvonne Hemmingway on ITV's ''The Bill'', for which she won the Screen Nation award for best television actress in 2005. Early life and career She studied acting at Rose Bruford ...

, best known as PC

Yvonne Hemmingway ''The Bill'' is a long-running British television police procedural television series, named after a slang term for the police. The characters are all police officers or civilian staff at the fictional Sun Hill police station in London. Senior ...

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused on ...

'', attended Claremont High School in Kenton * Baroness

Shami Chakrabarti Sharmishta "Shami" Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes ...

, the human rights lawyer, was born in Kenton * Cricketer Denis Compton (1918–1997) lived in Kenton * TV exercise instructor Mr Motivator (Derrick Evans) lived in Kenton *

Mary Millington Mary Ruth Maxted (née Quilter; 30 November 1945 – 19 August 1979), known professionally as Mary Millington from 1974 onwards, was an English model and pornographic actress. Her appearance in the short softcore film ''Sex is My Business'' ...

(1945–1979), 1970s

sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...

, was born in Kenton * Actress

Sophie Okonedo Sophie Okonedo (born 11 August 1968) is a British actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Television Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She began her f ...

lived in Kenton * Stuart "Psycho" Pearce, football manager and former player, attended Claremont High School in Kenton * Actress

Pam St. Clement Pamela Ann Clements (born 11 May 1942), known professionally as Pam St Clement, is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Pat Butcher in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' from June 1986 until January 2012, with a guest appe ...

, best known as Pat in

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...