Communications.
The Roman Watling Street,
part of it later known as Edgware Road, passed over
the Brent and Silk stream, and, at the northernmost
extremity, crossed Edgware brook at Edgware
bridge. (fn. 22) There was a grant of pavage in 1389 to six
persons, including John atte Hegge of Hendon, to
repair the road. (fn. 23) In 1621 Brent and Silk bridges
were so decayed as to form a serious danger to wayfarers (fn. 24) but the first was rebuilt in 1770, 1788, and
1818, (fn. 25) and the second, then very old and ruinous,
in 1821. (fn. 26) Brent bridge was known as Harp bridge
in 1826 (fn. 27) because of its proximity to the Welsh
Harp inn, but later it reverted to its original name.
Both bridges were rebuilt with the construction of
Brent reservoir and they effectively disappeared in
the 1920s, when the rivers were made to pass under
the road in culverts. The Hendon section of Edgware
Road was turnpiked in 1711. (fn. 28) Part of another
Roman road was discovered in Copthall Fields in
1967 (fn. 29) but its significance is uncertain.
The second important route, from London via
Hampstead, entered the parish at Golders Hill and
joined Edgware Road north of the Hyde, after
passing through Golders Green and Brent Street to
the Burroughs, whence it bore north-west along
Colindeep Lane. The route, part of it called
Hendon path ('wante'), was said in 1593 to be an
'ancient highway now unaccustomed', (fn. 30) suggesting
that it had formerly been preferred to Edgware
Road; part of Colindeep Lane was known as late as
1863 as Ancient Street. (fn. 31) The road crossed the river
Brent by Brent Street bridge at the foot of Brent
Street; parishioners were indicted for failing to
repair the bridge in 1623 (fn. 32) but a new one of brick and
stone with three arches was built by subscription in
1782. (fn. 33) At Colin Deep there was a ford across Silk
stream and, in 1826, a footbridge. (fn. 34) A permanent
bridge for vehicles was built later.
A network of minor roads included Parson Street,
the northward continuation of Brent Street, which
by 1321 (fn. 35) was presumably part of the main route to
the north of the parish. The road led via Holders
Hill to Bittacy Hill, at the top of which it became
the Ridgeway, so called by 1471. (fn. 36) The Ridgeway
followed the high ground north-westward to
Highwood Hill, where it met a road which ran
north-eastward across the parish from a point south
of Edgware bridge to Totteridge, passing through
the Hale and known in its western portion as Deans
Lane, in the centre as Selvage Lane, and in the east
as Marsh Lane. Farther east Hendon Wood Lane
left Highwood Hill to run north to the county
boundary at Barnet Gate. (fn. 37) A second northerly
route in 1594 (fn. 38) left Parson Street and followed
Ashley Lane, Dole Street, and Milespit Hill, to join
the Ridgeway at Mill Hill. A third ran from the
parish church along the present Hall Lane, Page
Street, Featherstone Hill, and Wise Lane, to join
the Ridgeway by the Three Hammers. (fn. 39) Bunns Lane
left Page Street by Copt Hall and led in a northwesterly direction along Hale Lane to the Hale and
thence to Edgware. The northern hamlets and farms
were linked by several minor roads, including
Lawrence (or Gladwin) Street, which in the early
18th century joined Bunns Lane with Holcombe
Hill. (fn. 40)
Several routes in the less populous southern part
were no more than winding tracks. In 1754 they
included Burroughs Lane (later Station Road), from
the Burroughs to Edgware Road south of Silk bridge,
Finchley Lane, from Church End to Finchley,
Cowhouse Green (later Cricklewood Lane), which
linked Cricklewood with Childs Hill and continued
along a road later known as Childs Hill Lane and
Hermitage Lane to West Heath, Hampstead, and
Bell Lane, which ran south-east from Brent Street to
Temple Fortune, crossing the Brent at Mutton
bridge. (fn. 41) In 1826 the bridge was of brick, with one
arch over the river and another three arches over an
adjoining decoy; (fn. 42) it was frequently drawn by
artists, including Constable, (fn. 43) but was rebuilt in
1931. (fn. 44) West of Edgware Road, Kingsbury Road
and Cool Oak Lane linked Hendon with Kingsbury. (fn. 45)
The first major addition to the old road structure
was Finchley Road, running from Childs Hill
through Golders Green to Finchley, and, like other
additions, intended to improve access to the west
end of London. (fn. 46) It was established by an Act of
1826 under the control of the Marylebone and
Finchley turnpike trust, with toll-gates at Childs
Hill and Golders Green, and was opened to traffic
in 1830. (fn. 47) It later came, like Edgware Road, under
the control of the commissioners for the metropolitan turnpike roads. No further significant
alterations were made until 1924, when a large scheme
began with the construction of the North Circular
Road along the Brent valley from a point south of
Brent bridge to one adjacent to Mutton bridge. (fn. 48) In
the same year work began on Hendon Way, which
leaves Finchley Road at Childs Hill and runs north
to Hendon Central Underground station. The
northern section of the road, called Watford Way,
continues to Northway Circus at the end of Selvage
Lane, where Barnet Way heads north to the Hertfordshire border at Stirling Corner and Edgware
Way takes a westerly course across Dean's brook
into Edgware. The North Circular Road and
Watford Way were finished in 1927 and connected
by Great North Way, which was built in 1926. No
more new roads were built until 1967, when the
M1 motorway was extended south through the
parish to a junction with Watford Way near its
bridge over Bunns Lane; a short extension to Five
Ways Corner at the northern end of Great North
Way, where a fly-over was built, was opened in 1970.
A stretch of the motorway farther south to the
North Circular Road was near completion in 1974.
Access to the motorway was improved by a large
3-tier fly-over built in 1965 at Brent Cross, where
Hendon Way crosses the North Circular Road. (fn. 49)
Coaches travelled from Hendon to the Old Bell,
Holborn, via Hampstead at the end of the 17th
century. (fn. 50) In 1839 there was a daily coach to
London from the Bell, while one carrier operated
from Hendon and another from Mill Hill; (fn. 51) a coach
for Hendon and Mill Hill left the Blue Post,
Tottenham Court Road, every afternoon. (fn. 52) The
centre of the parish remained relatively inaccessible
until an omnibus began to run from Church End to
Hendon station after the building of the Midland
Railway in 1868. Infrequent omnibus services, some
of them short-lived, were later introduced to Swiss
Cottage Metropolitan Railway station and Marble
Arch. (fn. 53) By 1904, when a tramway was built along
Edgware Road from Cricklewood to Edgware, road
transport in most parts of Hendon was still poor,
although omnibuses ran along Finchley Road to
Finchley through Golders Green and from Cricklewood to Oxford Circus. (fn. 54) Eight trams an hour in
each direction ran between Cricklewood and
Edgware but London-bound passengers had to
change at Cricklewood. (fn. 55) Another tramway was
opened in 1909 by the Metropolitan Electric Tramways Co., from Finchley along Finchley Road to
Hampstead, and a link was opened from the Castle
inn, Childs Hill, to Cricklewood along Cricklewood
Lane; all routes were converted for trolley-buses
in 1936 but in 1970 they were being served by
motor-buses. (fn. 56) By 1903 an omnibus service, at
15-minute intervals, had started between Hendon
and Oxford Circus along Finchley Road (fn. 57) and by
1912 another service, between the Bell and London
Bridge, had been introduced. In the north motorbuses did not run regularly until after the First
World War; they linked Golders Green station with
Harrow via Mill Hill by 1923 (fn. 58) and the building of
the Underground railway to Edgware had given rise
to a network of connecting routes in all parts by
the early 1930s. (fn. 59)
HENDON IN 1754
The first railway was the G.N.R.'s branch line
from Finsbury Park to Edgware, which was opened
in 1867 and entered the parish by an impressive
13-arched viaduct over Dollis brook; Mill Hill East
station was opened, as Mill Hill, in the same year.
From 1868 trains ran from Edgware to Ludgate Hill
and Loughborough Junction (Surr.) but in 1869
they were diverted to Moorgate; in 1872, with the
building of the branch from Finchley to High Barnet,
through services were withdrawn from the Edgware
line and a shuttle service was instituted from
Edgware to Finchley. A station was opened near the
Hale, in Bunns Lane, in 1906 (fn. 60) but the line later
suffered from road competition and was closed to
passenger traffic in 1939. A proposal under the
1935-40 New Works Programme to link it to
London Transport's Underground system was not
carried out in full; the eastern end of the branch,
from Finchley Central to Mill Hill East, was
electrified in 1941 to serve the near-by barracks,
while frequent Underground trains began running
to the west end of London, the City, and Morden
(Surr.) over the Northern line. (fn. 61) In 1970 the rest of
the railway lay derelict.
The main line of the Midland Railway from
Bedford to London was opened for goods traffic in
1867 and for passengers in 1868; (fn. 62) it ran south
through Hendon, crossing the Brent by a viaduct
west of Edgware Road. Passenger stations were
opened in 1868 in Bunns Lane (later Mill Hill
Broadway), at the foot of Burroughs Lane, and in
Cricklewood Lane; another station called Welsh
Harp was opened near the inn of that name to cater
for excursion traffic in 1870 (fn. 63) but was closed in
1903. (fn. 64) Stopping trains were infrequent and there
were several complaints about the slowness of
journeys to St. Pancras or Moorgate. (fn. 65) A through
service from Hendon to Victoria via Moorgate,
Ludgate Hill, and Loughborough Junction was
instituted in 1875 (fn. 66) but was discontinued in 1908. (fn. 67)
Services from Mill Hill, Hendon, and Cricklewood
to St. Pancras and Moorgate remained poor until
1960, when steam trains were replaced by a diesel
service, running hourly throughout the day and
more frequently at rush hours. An important feature
of the Midland Railway's installations in Hendon
was the Brent sidings and marshalling yard for
goods and coal traffic, which covered a large area
north of Childs Hill (later Cricklewood) station. (fn. 68) To
connect the yard with the G.W.R. and the L.S.W.R.,
the Midland & South Western Junction Railway
opened a line to Acton in 1875. A passenger service
was later provided by the Midland, from 1878 to
1880 forming part of its 'Super Outer Circle' from
St. Pancras to Earl's Court, but Childs Hill never
became an important passenger junction. The line
carried only an intermittent shuttle service to
Gunnersbury from 1894 and was closed to passengers
in 1902, (fn. 69) although the 'Dudding Hill Loop', as it
was known, was still open to goods traffic in 1970.
Short-lived services were also provided from Childs
Hill to Richmond in 1875 and to Dudding Hill and
Stonebridge Park in 1880. (fn. 70)
The inadequacy of the services provided by the
G.N.R. and the Midland led to several fruitless
proposals for new railways, including a plan put forward by the Metropolitan Railway for a line from
Wembley, which was thwarted by the price asked
by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for their land. (fn. 71)
In 1902, however, the Underground Electric
Railway Co. obtained powers to extend to Golders
Green its proposed line from Charing Cross to
Hampstead tube, and in the same year the Edgware
& Hampstead Railway Co., promoted by the Underground Group, was empowered to extend the line
across Hendon to Edgware. (fn. 72) The line was opened in
1907 as far as Golders Green, where a surface
station was built; after delays caused by the First
World War the extension to Hendon Central was
opened in 1923, although trains did not run through
to Edgware until 1924. (fn. 73) From Golders Green the
railway ran above the surface, apart from a tunnel
at the Burroughs north of Hendon Central station,
and a viaduct was built over the river Brent; four
intermediate stations, Brent, Hendon Central, Colindale, and Burnt Oak, were opened. The underground
railway, providing Hendon for the first time with a
fast and frequent train service to London, greatly
stimulated suburban development. (fn. 74) In 1924 rushhour trains ran as often as every 8 minutes from
Edgware to Moorgate and every 4 minutes from
Golders Green to Charing Cross; (fn. 75) in 1970 intervals
were nominally similar but many trains ran south
to Morden, either via the Bank or via Charing Cross.
Since 1937, four years after its acquisition by the
London Passenger Transport Board and after
several changes of name, the railway has formed
part of the Northern line. (fn. 76)