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East Finchley Time Line
The information below comes from various sources and accuracy cannot be 100% guaranteed
For the notes of the EF winter festival history walk visit www.tonero.me.uk/walk2013.htm
968 Sandgate mentioned in Edward the Confessor’s land charter
1190’s Bishop passes land to Friern Barnet Hospitallers
1199 King John awards a charter to the residents exempting them from tax on goods entering London. First
mention of Finchley Manor
1227 Pre, Bishops Park in existence
1298 Demesne estates created out of the woodland by this date
1300’s new road over the common, settlements at East End and North End
1318 Lords field and Little Redings converted to arable use
1318 Hunting in Bishop’s park probably ended
1349 John Monypeny left tenements in his will
1365 First hamlet at East End
1374 First mention of Finchley Manor!?
1400’s-1700’s Highway robberies took place
1410 Finchley Wood herbage rights existed
1365, 75 East End and park Gate first mentioned
Allen buys Finchley Manor from Bishop
1423 Hunts or Hunters Green mentioned
1437 Hunts Green mentioned
1441 Hunting lodge in ruins
1484 Thomas Sanny prosecuted for not having enough hops in his beer
1491 The Bishop’s interests in Finchley pass to the Lordship of Hornsey
1500’s Much conflict between Finchley men and the Bishop over pasture rights vs. timber protection
1500’s Original Elm House, predecessor of Elmhurst first built
1504 First use of the word Common for Finchley Wood
1506 Thomas Sanny gives land including pub to church for the poor (Homefield, Poor Tom’s)
1530 Worthy House, N side of EER by Hunters Green mentioned
1545 Timber was supplied to Tower of London and Westminster Palace
1548 Redings was a tenement by then
1577 Good Robins (at park gate) mentioned
1593 Well at Brownswell ‘re-edified’
1598 Knightons first mentioned
1612 Alms Houses constructed at Pointall’s , since rebuilt
1623 A cottage known at Brownswell
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1634 By then Ossulstone Hundred had 4 divisions Kensington, Holborn, Finsbury and Tower
1645 The bishop reserved all timber . At that time there was a great store of Oak and Hornbeam. He leased
out areas of woodland in his park
1647 A survey upheld the joint rights of freeholders, copyholders and leaseholders of Finchley and Hornsey
to all commons and wastes within the parish
1647 there were 2 cottages on the common (rising to 3 in 1651, 9 in 1652 and 25 in 1655)
1677-8 Cuckolds Haven in existence
1680s Thomas Odell of the George started twice weekly hog market, pigs on Pound Road
1686 Cromwell Hall was conveyed to Thomas Pengelly
Late 1600’s bushes, furze, leaf mould, loam, sand and gravel were taken from the common.
1700’s Common was thinning out
1709 Hog Market (according to Wiki there had been a Hog market since end C17)
1716 The original George public house built. Market: pigs sold on Monday were penned behind the George
from Saturday
1716 Fleur de Lis/Dirthouse/White Lion (1902) appeared
1718 Huntsman at Brownswell (became Green Man in 1731, finally demolished 1990s)
1721 Prospect House built
1724 Highwayman Dick Sheppard captured
1726 Two houses at Bull Lane/Long Lane (extended 1776 to 5 cottages)
1730s permanent gibbet installed on common by intersection of modern-day Lincoln Rd
1738 Bald-faced Stag appeared (licensed in 1790, orig. Jolly Blacksmiths)
1744 Bishop’s park allocated to tenants
1749 Oak Lodge existed (originally 3 tenements)
1751 Five Bells in existence (first recorded licensee)
1754 3 buildings at Brownswell
1774 Corporation of London claims the right to tax hay sold at Smithfield
1780 Oak Lodge rebuilt
1790’s Hampstead Lane diverted north at Kenwood House
1800 common denuded
1800 Bishop sells High Reding for development (Park Place)
1800’s East End Road named (but dates from 1300s) [Manor Lane, Finchley Road etc.]
1801 256 houses in Finchley
1802 Belle Vue EER in existence – replaced earlier house
1803 Verandah House Park Road
1804/4 Five Bells moved from Stanley Road to current site
1804 Congregationalists become active in EF
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1808-1835 workhouse on Philipe Lane/Green Lane/Workhouse Lane now Briar Close
1809 4 villas built on Park Place
1808-35 Workhouse in Green Lane (aka Philipe Lane, Briar Close)
1811 Inclosure Act received royal assent
1816 Enclosure of the Common Award signed
1817 Villas on East End Road for middleclasses become a feature of EE
1820 Reservoir drained, Park Place development starts
1821 Red Lion hill in existence
1824-44 Ten cottages built on allotment nr White Lion
1825 Prospect Place built to link EER to Hogmarket
1826 Regents Park Road
1827 Edward Butler renamed his house Cromwell Hall
1828 Prospect Place constructed
1829 Construction of Homefild House by Mark Plowman
1830 EF congregationalists build chapel on former common
1833-57 Anthony Salvin lived at Elmhurst
1840s bare-knuckle boxing at 5 bells
1841 Ossulstone Hundred dissolved
1841 Tithe map prepared for commutation survey
1841 Cottages built along Prospect Place
1842 School opened for infants at congregational chapel
1846 EF gets parish church Holy Trinity and school
1850s a pottery and brickworks stood where Baronsmere and Park Hall Rd are today
1850 second classroom opened at cong. chapel for older children
1851 Cottages and villas dotted along High Road between E and N Finchley
1853 Chapel Street built across former common linking chapel to marketplace
1853/4 St Pancras Cemetery opens
1854/5 Marylebone Cemetery opens on land purchased by St Marylebone burial board from Newmarket
Farm (47 acres)
1857 Christ’s College Finchley founded by Rector
1860 EF becomes the most populous part of Finchley
1862 toll removed
1863 The Grange built (demolished 1994???)
1864 Order of the Good Shepherd moved to EER, East End House became a convent
1867 The railway is opened (East End Finchley becomes Finchley 1886)
1867 Oak Lane named
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1868 Railway opened to Edgware
1868 5 bells rebuilt after fire (current building)
1870s Order of the Good Shepherd built a larger institution
1871 Trinity Road and Manor Park Road appear in the census
1872 Railway opened to High Barnet
1874-5 Trains run into Broad Street
1875 Congregational Chapel & school burned down
1876 St Pancras & Islington Cemetery bought Strawberry vale estate
1878 Congregational Church built whereViceroy Court is today (demolished in 1965)
1879 Ecclesiastical Commissioners granted 99yr building leases at East End
1880s rows of shops start to appear on High Road
1881 Hundreds of cottages built at East End
1881 Cong chapel school reopens as Board School
1884 Board School moves from chapel site to Long Lane (later called Alder School)
1890s Hog market mainly fizzled out, Aveton Road appears
1892 The Fuel Lands came under the jurisdiction of the Finchley Charities and became allotments
1883? Street lighting introduced to Finchley
1895 Local board becomes UDC
1895 Cong chapel sold to Roman Catholics
1897 Market Place named
1898 Metropolitan Electric Tramways opened between Highgate and Whetstone
1899 Finchley Divides into 3 wards
1899 there was an omnibus service every 15 minutes between Euston Road and Bald-faced Stag
1901 Sedgemere House sold for development
1902 Finchley Education Authority takes over Board School
1905 Tram lines installed by Metropolitan Electric tramways along High Road Archway to Whetstone
1909 Tram lines installed by Metropolitan Electric tramways along Woodhouse Lane
1909 Hamilton Walter Dickinson founded Hill View car manufactory (now carpet warehouse)
1911 Geo Sanger murdered at his winter quarters at Park Farm EER
1911-16 British & Colonial Films had film studio at Newstead House
1911 Summers Brown Ltd made cricket bats at/on Glencroft, Church lane
1911-16 Films made at Newstead House by British & Colonial Films (
1913 Holy Trinity church Hall built
1914 Large part of Homefield (near walks) leased to Finchley Presbyterian Lawn Tennis Club
1915 Finchley UDC bought Cherry Tree Wood (13 acres) from Ecclesiastical Commissioners
1916 Oak Lodge became a special school
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1919 The Grange became a piano factory
1919 The Grange sold to Simms motors with six acres for £30,000 (production only in1926)
1920s part of homefield leased to Burton Bakeries
1920 The three ends of Finchley joined by continuous lines of buildings
1920 King Street and Park Road named
1920 Fortis green Road named (previously Park Gate then Muswell hill Road)
1921 Knightons sold for building
1927 Large bakery built on The Walks (Burtons, Merry Miller by 30s, Clarks in 1960s, closed early 1980s
after fire)
1929 Prospect House demolished
1931 Former board school renamed Alder School
1932 council school renamed Martin School
1932 Glebeland (90acres) acquired
1933 Finchley becomes a Borough
1934 Cromwell Hall demolished; replaced by Abotts Gardens
1935 Land acquired for building of Grange estate
1935 Kingsway constructed
1938 Manorial rights extinguished
1938 First buildings of Grange Estate completed
1938 Trams replaced by trolley buses
1939 Elmhurst sold to developers
1939 Present-day Stanley Rd Field sold to Middx County Council for £3,407
1939 Northern Line reaches East Finchley
1940 Chapel (former cong now RC) destroyed by bomb
1941 All steam passenger services to East Finchley ended
1941 Alder School infants transferred to Martin School
1945+ Elmshurst Crescent and Pulham Avenue built
1951 The three wards subdivided into 8
1955 25 pigs kept around Prospect Place
1954-6 EF tower blocks at Market Place built
1959-62 All trolley buses disappeared
1960s Green Lane’s bridge over underground line demolished
1960s Causeway Cottages demolished
1972 Much of Convent of Good Shepherd burned down leading to housing estate around 1980
1964 Part of Poor Tom’s sold to Middx CC for new HT School
1965 Steam freight services through EF ended
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1968 Simms Motor Units merged with CAV Lucas
1972 Homefild Cottages demolished
1973 Homefield House/Garage demolished
1975 Municipal estate built at Vale Farm replacing older houses
1975 New HT School opens
1977 CAV factory employed 1600 people
1978 Alder School closed, pupils transferred to Christ’s College
1980s Oak Lodge demolished, school transferred to Heath View
1991 CAV Lucas factory closed