Barnet - London Transport Museum

Barnet
The growth of London through transport
Map of London’s boroughs
10
The map shows the current
boundaries of London’s
boroughs. The content of this
album relates to the area
highlighted on the map.
This album is one of a series
looking at London boroughs
and their transport stories
from 1800 to the present day.
Key
Barnet
2
15
31
14
17
4
6
13 20
28
18
32
27
22
11
23
24
21
5
29
16
1
25
30
7
33
9
26
12
19
8
1 Barking
& Dagenham
18 Hounslow
2 Barnet
19 Islington
3 Bexley
4 Brent
20 Kensington & Chelsea
5 Bromley
21 Kingston
6 Camden
22 Lambeth
7 City of London
23 Lewisham
8 Croydon
24 Merton
9 Ealing
25 Newham
10 Enfield
26 Redbridge
11 Greenwich
27 Richmond
12 Hackney
28 Southwark
3
17 Hillingdon
13 Hammersmith 29 Sutton
30 Tower Hamlets
& Fulham
14 Haringey
31 Waltham Forest
15 Harrow
32 Wandsworth
16 Havering
33 Westminster
Map of Barnet
London Transport Museum
would like to thank staff at
Barnet Local Studies &
Archives (London Borough of Barnet Library Service) and
Barnet Museum, and David
Ruddom, former Borough
Librarian of Barnet, for their
help with this album.
Barnet Hill
Oakleigh
Park
The Museum has worked
closely with local partners to produce the series.
Details of the partners
contributing to this album
can be found at the back of the book.
CANONS
PARK
Watling Estate
Bald Faced Stag pub
Hampstead
Garden Suburb
Welsh Harp
station (site of )
Manor House Hospital (site of )
References for the images
are at the bottom of each
page. Those in the collection
at Barnet Local Studies &
Archives are marked LBB; at Barnet Museum BM; and David Ruddom’s
collection DR.
* Asterisks indicate a
story in the text.
Timelines
World events
1825 Opening of the world’s first steam-powered passenger railway, the Stockton & Darlington, UK
1838 Slavery abolished throughout British Empire
Local stories
1823 Steep slope on Barnet Hill on the Great North Road eased by road improvement scheme
1831 Ninety stage coaches pass through Whetstone daily on the Great North Road
1850– 99
1861 Start of American Civil War (ends 1865)
1863 Opening of world’s first underground passenger railway, London, UK
1850 1856 1867 Great Northern Railway opens from London to Peterborough, the first railway through the borough
Mail coaches between Barnet and the City taken over by London General Omnibus Company
First railway to Finchley and Edgware
1900– 49
1912 Ocean liner RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg
1947 India gains independence from Britain. Country is partitioned
into India and Pakistan 1904
1907
1940
First electric tramway through the borough from
Cricklewood to Edgware
Hampstead Tube opens to Golders Green
Colindale station is destroyed by wartime bomb
1950– 99
1969
1994
1956 1976 Prototype Routemaster bus enters service on route 2 from Golders Green
London’s first out-of-town shopping centre at Brent Cross generates new traffic
1800– 49
2000 onwards
American Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on the moon
Channel Tunnel opens linking Britain to European mainland for first time
2001 World Trade Centre in New York destroyed in terrorist attack
2005 London is awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games for 2012
Image of Titanic courtesy of Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
2005 Bus station opens in the new ‘artsdepot’ complex at North Finchley
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
trams, 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 Chipping Barnet in
the north retained the
character of a country town.
A full tram heading for Highgate
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
buses 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, East Finchley,
c1860. LBB
‘It was originally started by my Great Grand-Father
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
was mostly used for the journey between New
Barnet and Hadley Highstone.’
L Parsloe describes in 1957 the old family horse bus service
between New Barnet and Hadley Highstone. 2003/2821
The railway
arrives in Barnet
Railways hastened the end
of stagecoaches. The Great
Northern Railway (GNR)
originally opened through
Barnet in 1850 with two
stations: Colney Hatch
(now New Southgate) 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.
Hendon’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 Canons Park 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.
Suburbs 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 Royal
Air Force continued to put
on air displays. The shows
attracted huge crowds,
particularly after Colindale
Tube station 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
Hampstead Garden Suburb
was one of several pioneering
developments aimed at
retaining green space in
London. It was set up by
Dame Henrietta Barnett from
1906 to provide a healthy,
well-designed environment
for working people. In fact
the suburb soon became
largely middle class.
Residents included Frank
Pick, Managing Director
of London Underground
in the 1920s and later
Chief Executive of
London Transport.
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 Burnt Oak, where the
London County Council
(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 North
Circular Road.
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 Brent Cross)
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
trolleybuses
Trams were replaced by more
flexible trolleybuses from
1936, beginning with routes
along the Edgware Road, and
through Cricklewood up to
North Finchley. Barnet’s last
tram ran in 1938.
Eight trolleybus 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
Northern line in 1940.
The line was electrified at the
same time to enable Tube
trains from central London 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 Mill Hill East by 1941,
but abandoned due to the
Second World War.
New Tube train at High Barnet,
replaces the steam service
(left), 1940. BM
Eric Aumonier’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 London Transport
Museum’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