Stonebridge is a locality in the
London Borough of Brent
The London Borough of Brent () is a London boroughs, London borough in north-west London. It borders the boroughs of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow to the north-west, London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the north-east, London Borough of Camden ...
that forms the western part of
Harlesden
Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London.
Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...
in Northwest London, England. The A404 runs through the district known locally as Brentfield and Hillside, while to the south are railway tracks and to the west is the
North Circular Road
The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...
along with
Stonebridge Park station Stonebridge or StoneBridge may refer to:
Places
* Stonebridge Estate (disambiguation)
United Kingdom
* Stonebridge, Essex, a hamlet
* Stonebridge, London, an area in northwest London
* Stonebridge, Norfolk, a village
* Stonebridge, West Mid ...
. The area is known for the previously troubled 1960s Stonebridge housing estate, which was completely redeveloped in the 2000s.
Stonebridge is also the name of the largest electoral ward in the borough, which includes Stonebridge itself as well as
Park Royal and the southern half of
Neasden
Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...
including the
St Raphael's Estate
St Raphael's Estate is a housing estate in Neasden and part of the London Borough of Brent in Northwest London, England. A community centre is located within the estate on Rainborough Close. It forms part of the NW10 postcode.
The low-density es ...
; it is the most populated ward in Brent with a population over 17,000 with the majority of
Afro-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
heritage.
History
![Unisys buildings, NW10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Unisys_buildings%2C_NW10.jpg)
The area was named after a stone bridge built in the later 17th century (when most bridges were of wood) over the
River Brent
The River Brent is a river in west and northwest London, England, and a tributary of the River Thames. in length, it rises in the Borough of Barnet and flows in a generally south-west direction before joining the Tideway stretch of the Thame ...
to the north.
The exclusive Craven Park Estate of large houses was built in the 1860s and later, roughly at the same time as the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...
constructed the
Dudding Hill Line (now a freight line), which gave its new residents access to central
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 ...
. However, the passenger service on the line closed for a second and final time in 1902, but only after a sustained protest campaign by local people.
In January 1928, over 200 homes on the Brentfield Estate in Stonebridge Park were flooded. The River Brent broke its banks near the Harrow Road.
Although other high-quality housing had grown up around the now-closed nearby
Harlesden (Midland) railway station, the area failed to consolidate as an up-market suburb, because of the general expansion of London, increasing industry, and the building of low-quality, cheap housing, in the late nineteenth century. Sub-division of many of the large houses was carried out and Stonebridge became a low-income area, which continued after high-rise comprehensive redevelopment, mostly built in a single architectural style and called the 'Stonebridge Estate', in the 1960s and 1970s.
Some parts of Stonebridge have always been in private ownership, and not been part of the Stonebridge Estate.
![Princess Royal Distribution Centre (geograph 3916751)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Princess_Royal_Distribution_Centre_%28geograph_3916751%29.jpg)
Although Stonebridge is geographically adjacent to the
Park Royal industrial estate, it is almost entirely cut off from it because of the
Bakerloo
The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End of London, West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, ove ...
/
Watford DC/
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
railway tracks and a large
Royal Mail
, kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga
, logo = Royal Mail.svg
, logo_size = 250px
, type = Public limited company
, traded_as =
, foundation =
, founder = Henry VIII
, location = London, England, UK
, key_people = * Keith Williams ...
distribution centre.
Built environment
![Lawrence Avenue, Stonebridge NW10 - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Lawrence_Avenue%2C_Stonebridge_NW10_-_geograph.org.uk_-_297487.jpg)
During the 1950s the council planned a massive redevelopment covering almost 100 acres of Stonebridge. More than 2,000 units were built, mostly in high-rise blocks, the first of which opened in 1967.
Some improvements in the street scene happened in the early 1990s, as a result of the 'Harlesden City Challenge' award of government money to the area, which was by now regarded as one of the most troubled parts of London. In April 1994, ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' newspaper highlighted an unemployment rate of around 25% (compared to a national average of around 10% at the time), as well as widespread drug abuse, burglaries and violence.
Most improvements, however, came after 2000, when comprehensive redevelopment of the 1960s and 1970s housing started. This is mainly complete by 2010, although some empty high-rise buildings were still being demolished.
A traditional street layout has been introduced, largely of two- and three-storey houses, often with four-storey flats around street junctions.
The Stonebridge Estate has been redeveloped by Stonebridge
Housing Action Trust
Housing action trusts (HAT) were non-departmental public bodies, set up to redevelop some of the poorest council housing estates in England's inner-city suburbs.
Six housing action trusts were established under the Housing Act 1988. Each HAT wa ...
, set up in 1994 under the Housing Act 1988, and with the aim to "transform the 1,775 home Stonebridge Estate by providing innovative solutions to the problems of social and economic deprivation faced by local residents".
It responded with various training and leisure initiatives, and modern, low-rise houses with some four-storey blocks of flats, mainly on street corners to give variety to the street scene.
In 2008, the redevelopment was awarded the
European Urban and Regional Planning Award, under the category Public Participation in Planning, for its "exemplary approach to public participation".
The Housing Action Trust was dissolved in 2007, and housing is now a mixture of housing association ownership (Hillside Housing Trust, part of the Hyde Group) and reversion to the London Borough of Brent. Tenants were given a choice about which ownership they preferred.
![Winchelsea Road Streetscene](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Winchelsea_Road_Streetscene.png)
New development on Hillside, part of the
A404 Harrow Road through the area, includes private ownership of flats above offices, and a health centre. Redevelopment has gone hand-in-hand with training and sports initiatives for local people.
A
tree preservation order
A tree preservation order (TPO) is a part of town and country planning in the United Kingdom. A TPO is made by a local planning authority (usually a local council) to protect specific trees or a particular area, group or woodland from deliberate d ...
has been adopted by Brent Council on Winchelsea Road nearby, to protect the street scene, forcing new buildings to be set back from the road. The "exemplary approach to public participation" award quoted above may well have been justified regarding estate residents, but there were local media claims in 2007 that it was not true regarding neighbours, as evidenced by Brent Council's willingness to protect the Winchelsea Road trees.
Crime
Stonebridge suffers from high rates of violent crime. In 2015 it had the highest recorded gun crime of any ward in London, with 16 individual reports of gunshots.
Police figures for 2016-2017 included 768 incidents of violence and sexual offences and 868 incidents of antisocial behaviour; in this period police abandoned more than 41 percent of cases because no culprit was identified.
Neighbouring
Harlesden
Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London.
Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...
witnessed a huge increase in shootings from around 1999, becoming the highest murder rated district nationwide by 2001. This contributed to Stonebridge's reputation as one of the most dangerous places in the UK, as most perpetrators were associated or lived in the Stonebridge estate.
In 2003, 21-year-old college student Kavian Francis-Hopwood was shot dead on the Stonebridge Park estate. In the same year 7-year-old Toni-Ann Byfield was shot dead alongside her father. In August 2005 two sisters and their mother's partner were murdered in a
contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
in Clark Court, Stonebridge,. In 2009 a young father was murdered outside a party at a Stonebridge primary school. And in 2010 former
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
footballer Gavin Grant was one of three men found guilty of shooting dead Leon Labastide on a street in Stonebridge: Stephen Batten QC, prosecuting, said the case reflected a "law of the jungle" culture of shootings and drug dealing on the estate.
As regeneration continues, negative press coverage is inching toward the positive. However, crime figures remain high. Police officers say gun crime in particular remains a serious problem.
Rapper from the
USG crew USG may refer to:
Business
* Unix Systems Group, a former division of Novell
* USG Corporation (formerly United States Gypsum Corporation), a construction materials manufacturer
* U.S. Gauge, a division of Ametek, manufacturer of pressure and temp ...
, Smalls, was murdered outside a chicken shop near Stonebridge Park station on 5 July 2019.
On 4 June 2020, a suspected member of
USG travelled to Harlesden, Church Road and performed a quadruple shooting, in retaliation for a previous incident. This was yet another case of the ongoing tit-for-tat shootings between gangs in the Harlesden and Stonebridge area. A toddler was shot in the head in the incident, but miraculously survived.
On 16 July 2020 a member of Harrow Road Boyz gang, Billy McCullagh (also known as Billy The Kid), was shot dead on Windrush Road in the Stonebridge Estate as the norm of tit-for-tat shootings continues.
Demography
Stonebridge has a large black population, the highest in the
London Borough of Brent
The London Borough of Brent () is a London boroughs, London borough in north-west London. It borders the boroughs of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow to the north-west, London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the north-east, London Borough of Camden ...
.
[2011 census ward brief]
/ref> The 2011 census showed that 47.2% of the population was black, up from 45.8% in 2001.[ Whites formed 23.5% of the population in the 2011 census, down from 33% in 2001.][ ]Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
and Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
form 49.9% and 28.2% of the population respectively.[
The majority of the population of Stonebridge are social renters, at 63.3%.][
]
Transport
London Buses serving Stonebridge are:
Buses
Trains
Nearest places
Notable residents
* K Koke
Kevin Georgiou (born 22 May 1985), known professionally as K Koke, is an English rapper. He is best known for his "Are You Alone" Diss track and ''Fire in the Booth'' freestyle on Charlie Sloth's show on BBC Radio 1Xtra, which has accumulate ...
See also
* Brent Park
* Harlesden station
Harlesden is a Network Rail station on Acton Lane in northwest London, served by London Overground and by London Underground Bakerloo line trains. The railway line here is the border between the Harlesden and Stonebridge residential area in th ...
* Park Royal
* Stonebridge Park station Stonebridge or StoneBridge may refer to:
Places
* Stonebridge Estate (disambiguation)
United Kingdom
* Stonebridge, Essex, a hamlet
* Stonebridge, London, an area in northwest London
* Stonebridge, Norfolk, a village
* Stonebridge, West Mid ...
* St Raphael's Estate
St Raphael's Estate is a housing estate in Neasden and part of the London Borough of Brent in Northwest London, England. A community centre is located within the estate on Rainborough Close. It forms part of the NW10 postcode.
The low-density es ...
* Church End
* South Kilburn
References
External links
Trainspots photographs
The nearby Dudding Hill Line in Craven Park
Stonebridge ward profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stonebridge
Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Brent
Places formerly in Middlesex