Childs Hill is one of two areas at the south end of the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in north London, England. Forming part of Outer London, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It is the ...

along with

Cricklewood Cricklewood is a town in North London, England, in the London Boroughs of Camden, Barnet, and Brent. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north-west of Charing Cross. Cricklewood was a small rural hamlet ...

which straddles three boroughs. It took its name from Richard le Child, who in 1312 held a customary house and "30 acres" of its area. It is a mainly late-19th-century suburban large neighbourhood centred 5 miles (8 km) northwest of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

bordered by the arterial road Hendon Way in the west and south-west, Dunstan Road in the north, West Heath and Golders Hill Park which form an arm of Hampstead Heath to the east and the borough boundary as to the short south-east border. Child's Hill reaches relatively high ground in London along its eastern border. Adjoining

Hampstead Heath Hampstead Heath is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling ...

features, less than a mile from the centre of Child's Hill, the summit of London's third-highest escarpment. From 1789 to 1847 Child's Hill hosted an

optical telegraph An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals (a form of optical communication). There are two main types of such systems; the semaphore telegraph whic ...

station.

Politics

The area has long given its name to a ward of the United Kingdom and which has always taken in the heart of the area and many other neighbouring streets. It currently reaches to take in

and in the opposite direction most of

Golders Green Golders Green is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, northwest of Charing Cross. It began as a medieval small suburban linear settlement near a farm and public grazing area green, and dates to the early 19th century. It ...

; to give it a population of 20,049 across 3.089 square kilometres. Due to large-scale exclusion of the parkland to the east and north-east, the ward as drawn is currently the most densely populated in the borough. For 2018-2022 it sends to Barnet Council two

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

s, Shimon Ryde and Peter Zinkin, and one Labour Party councillor, Anne Clarke. The area has two Residents' Associations: *GERA, for Granville Rd. and neighbouring roads *CLAN, representing three residential streets at the heart of the neighbourhood - Crewys, Llanvanor and Nant Roads.

History

Childs Hill took its name from Richard le Child, who in 1312 held a customary house and "30 acres" of its area, believed to be on the ancient long-held borders within

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

rather than

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, the area having always whilst rural been so split. The earliest known use with the word Hill is in 1587.Will of John Nuttinge 1587,probated 1591> Today, the apostrophe in the name is optional.T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Hampstead: Childs Hill', in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9'' ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 73-75. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp73-75 ccessed 10 May 2018 In the 18th century, Childs Hill was a centre for brick and tile making, supplying material for building

. The Castle Inn, since demolished, dated from this period: the first record of it is in 1751. The land drains steeply from east to west. It reaches over

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

in the east at the top of residential Platts Lane where

starts. From 1789 to 1847 the east of Childs Hill hosted an

station. In 1808 this became one of a line of telegraph stations stretching from the Admiralty to Great Yarmouth, erected as part of Britain's national defences. Only the name, Telegraph Hill, remains; it has been covered with housing (the Telegraph Hill south-east corner of Childs Hill is now inside the boundary of the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

). An Act of Parliament in 1826 enabled

Finchley Road Finchley Road is a designated arterial road in north-west London, England. The Finchley Road starts in St John's Wood near central London as part of the A41 road, A41; its southern half is a major dual carriageway with high traffic levels oft ...

giving a new road to the north other than two further east through hillier and higher, sometimes narrow urban lanes, which met at

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

; it was completed by 1829. It had a tollgate at the Castle Public House. The road has a double-width bypass skirting Childs Hill. In the early 1850s a Colonel Evans speculatively built "The Mead", where brickworks had been, renamed Granville Road, the street name today. By the 1870s laundries were a major local industry. The last, the Initial Laundry in Granville Road, closed in 2006.

Housing

Childs Hill has streets of leafy semi-detached and relatively plain terraced housing. It is also characterised by four high rise blocks of flats and some blocks of mid-rise apartments. The first block of the four was built by the building company Tersons for the Metropolitan Police in about 1956. These were homes for police families. Orchard Mead House, on the Finchley Road, later became Quarters/homes for armed/other emergency Services families for a short time before moving into the private sector. The second and third blocks, in Granville Road were built in about 1960, by the local borough as housing in the local community. The fourth block, presumed to be the same, was built some time later.

Amenities

Childs Hill has a public library, as well as a square park, Childs Hill park, which also contains the Childs Hill Bowls Club, several shops and restaurants, small businesses, offices, primary schools and two churches (All Saints C of E with Primary School and Childs Hill Baptist). At the Western extreme on the Hendon Way, is the Palm Hotel, formerly the Garth Hotel.

Alexei Sayle Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th g ...

's short story ''Barcelona Plates'' goes into some detail as its protagonist stays there for a while, noting, amongst many other features, the idiosyncratic design of the building, an amalgamation of suburban houses. It has an off-centre park, Basing Hill Park. Golders Hill Park borders the east of its area; over half of it is included in two purely Childs Hill census output areas though it borders too

. Another park,

Clitterhouse Recreation Ground Clitterhouse Recreation Ground or Clitterhouse Playing Fields is a park and Site of Nature Conservation Interest, Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation in Brent Cross in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a large area of mown grass w ...

is just over the usual borders of the area.

Neighbouring areas

Notable people

Childs Hill has blue plaques commemorating two famous former residents: Sportsman C. B. Fry who lived at Moreland Court, Lyndale Avenue, and Aviator

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records dur ...

, who lived at Vernon Court on the Hendon Way. Though not a resident

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

, who lived in nearby

, painted Childs Hill in oils in 1825. (The work is entitled ''Childs Hill with Harrow in the Distance''). The painting shows the view northwest along what is now Cricklewood Lane, with Harrow on the Hill visible beyond.

Notes and references

;References ;Notes

External links

British History Online - Childs Hill section of the history of Hampstead ancient parish to 1989
- in the collaborative historian's project the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

, for the near-complete History of the County of Middlesex. {{Areas of London Districts of the London Borough of Barnet