Mill Hill
Encyclopedia
Mill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet
. It is a suburb situated 9 miles (14.3 km) north west of Charing Cross
. Mill Hill was in the historic county
of Middlesex
until it was absorbed by London. Mill Hill consists of several distinct parts: the old original centre based around Mill Hill Village; the later-developed but now main hub of the area at Mill Hill Broadway, and the area around Mill Hill East. A further area at the western edge of the suburb, The Hale, is on the borders of Mill Hill and Edgware, and is partly in each.
Mill Hill Village is the oldest known inhabited part of the district, a ribbon development along a medieval route called 'The Ridgeway'. It is thought that the name 'Mill Hill' may be derived from a mill on The Ridgeway, built on an area of open ground (now a park) known as The Mill Field
. The village is bounded on the north and the south by Green Belt
land, and its High Street, at 100 yards, is the shortest in London. The area's proximity to the city made it popular as a country retreat from the 17th century onwards, and large houses and quaint cottages survive. William Wilberforce
(MP, and abolitionist of the slave trade) and Sir Stamford Raffles
(founder of colonial Singapore
) both briefly resided here, the former being the patron of Mill Hill’s first church, Saint Paul’s. In 1960 five shops existed in the Village (Griffin's sub-Post Office, The Blenheim Steps (Mill Hill School tuck shop), Cook & Son (sweets and groceries), Hawes Brothers (grocers) and Vincett's (butchers) but although the buildings survive, they have all been converted into private houses. As of February 2011, the only places in Mill Hill Village where money can be spent are The Three Hammers and Adam & Eve pubs and Belmont Farm (which includes the Waffle Café).
between 1905 and 1962. The 1941 reopening of the railway station, under war-time conditions, was to allow easy access to the barracks. As military needs have changed land has been progressively sold. The army postal depot was located here before moving to Northolt
. In 1988, a 23-year-old soldier Michael Robbins was killed and nine others were injured by an IRA
bomb blast.
Along Partingdale Lane is Seafield House, now a private home, but originally a nuclear bunker, designed to protect the 'London North Group' emergency regional government between (approx.) 1951 and 1958.
within the historic county boundaries
of Middlesex
. Mill Hill as part of Municipal Borough of Hendon
was merged into the London Borough of Barnet
in Greater London
in 1965. Mill Hill is one of 21 electoral wards in the borough. This ward has 3 out of the 63 seats on the Barnet Council.
Mill Hill was in the parliamentary constituency of Hendon
which was created in 1918. This lasted until 1945 when the constituency was split in two, Mill Hill in Hendon North
. In 1997, the Hendon constituency was recreated. From then until he lost his seat to the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election, Hendon has been represented in the House of Commons
by the Labour MP
, Andrew Dismore
.
"Partingdale" and "Burtonhole" form a distinct valley north of The Ridgeway. North is Folly Farm and Folly Brook
, a tributary of the Dollis Brook
, running west to east. Between The Ridgeway and Folly Brook are the National Institute for Medical Research
, Burtonhole Farm, a garden centre called Finchley Nurseries, and several sports grounds.
Arrandene Open Space and Featherstone Hill
is a large open space which is bordered by Wise Lane, Wills Grove, Milespit Hill and The Ridgeway. While there are many open spaces in the area, Arrandene is unique because of its many open fields, meadows and woodland. The open fields were originally hay meadows which provided feed for the horses pulling carriages north to Barnet and beyond.
There is a non-denominational Mill Hill Cemetery, formerly known as the "Paddington District Cemetery". The 1960s pop singer Billy Fury
is buried there, and there are also some Dutch war graves. To the southwest is a small suburban district called "Poets' Corner", and to the north an old estate, now a nature reserve, Moat Mount Open Space
.
station in 1868. The Broadway itself is now an important local retail area with numerous shops and cafes.
supermarket and housing developments. The small local retail area at Mill Hill East is at “Kelly’s Corner” (officially Holders Hill Circus) east of the station. To the south of Mill Hill East are Copthall and Holders Hill.
The United Kingdom / Carl Zeiss / Bausch & Lomb Optical Works was established at Mill Hill East in 1912 and demolished in about 1990, to be replaced by a large building owned by the Jehovah Witnesses, to complement their nearby Watchtower House built on the site of the former Bittacy House.
is situated off The Broadway. (It is the top red circle, in the middle above.) The station is operated by First Capital Connect
, located on the Midland Main Line
as part of the Thameslink
service. There are regular trains to St. Albans and Luton Airport to the north, and West Hampstead (8 minutes) and St. Pancras International (17 minutes) to the south, with most services running through central London and serving Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, and beyond. It is in Travelcard Zone 4. The station platforms are being lengthened from eight to twelve carriages, to cope with longer Thameslink Programme
trains.
The area was also served by another smaller station, Mill Hill (The Hale)
, opened by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
in 1867, but passenger services ended in 1939, and freight traffic in 1964.
(the right-hand red dot above), situated off Bittacy Hill, is the only station on a branch line from Finchley Central
on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line
. The normal off-peak service is four trains an hour to and from Finchley Central, but through trains are provided during peak hours, and when the line is disrupted by engineering works.
The branch was opened in 1867 as part of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
, which also built the attractive Dollis Brook Viaduct
to the east of the station. It originally continued west to Edgware
and east to the Great Northern
main line at Finsbury Park station
, following the present Northern Line route as far as Highgate.
In 1935, as part of the London Transport New Works Programme
, plans were announced to modernise and electrify the railway and transfer it to the London Underground. Work was started, and steam passenger services between Edgware and Finchley Central were withdrawn in September 1939 to facilitate it. However, World War II
soon caused the project to be cut short. The Finchley Central – Mill Hill East section had wartime priority (due to the Inglis Barracks) and was completed in 1941,
but the plans to complete the modernisation and restart passenger services to Edgware were never resumed and were abandoned in 1950.
Steam freight trains continued to run between Finchley and Edgware until 1964; the track beyond Mill Hill East was lifted the following year. Although partly built over, including by the M1 motorway
, most of the old track bed has become a footpath, and decaying 1930s concrete infrastructure, never used, can still be seen.
converge as they enter Mill Hill at Fiveways Corner, this section is known as the Watford Way. The dual carriageway
passes through Mill Hill, and the routes diverge at Apex Corner (officially Northway Circus). The M1 motorway
was built through the western part of Mill Hill in 1967. There is a disused southbound exit slip road which passes under the Watford Way and which covers part of the old railway between Mill Hill East and Edgware Town.
Mill Hill Broadway railway station is also a hub for local buses. It is served by bus routes 114, 186, 221, 240, 251, 302 and 303. Additionally, route 113 between Edgware and Marble Arch runs along the nearby A1/A41. Bus routes 221, 240 and 382 serve the Mill Hill East tube station. No night buses have served Mill Hill since the withdrawal of the N59 in the early 1990s.
in his London Plan
as a 'proposed area of intensification', in and around the Inglis Barracks site. As a result, Barnet Council designated the 'Mill Hill East Area Action Plan
' (AAP) and carried out public consultation events. An at-times noisy 'examination in public', to test the ‘soundness’ of the Council's submitted AAP proposals, was held in October 2008, conducted by the Planning Inspectorate
, and the subsequent report broadly agreed with the Council's plans.
Representations were made to the Planning Inspectorate to reopen the railway line from Mill Hill East station to the west.
A small victory for local protesters was that the report reaffirmed that a local closed road, Sanders Lane, would not be reopened for traffic, if only because the road was outside the AAP boundary (this had already conceded by the council) and would need separate consideration. However, speakers at the enquiry drew attention to the 'co-incidence' that a collector road
proposed in the AAP happened to meet the main road (Bittacy Hill) exactly opposite the short section of Sanders Lane still open to traffic. They suggested to the inspector that it was no coincidence at all, but the matter was left unresolved. The inspector stated in his report of December 2008:
The amended AAP was formally adopted by the Council on 27 January 2009.
started work on the first Oxford English Dictionary
in 1879, whilst teaching at Mill Hill School
. He had a building built in the school grounds to house the quotation slips and his small editorial staff. Murray called this building his scriptorium
, when the project moved to Oxford
the building was used by the school as a reading room.
During the Second World War the Maudsley Hospital
moved to the evacuated Mill Hill School as the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital. Here John C. Raven developed a verbal intelligence test called the Mill Hill Vocabulary scale.
University of London Observatory
is a teaching astronomical observatory which is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London
. It is situated on the A41
Watford Way, southeast of The Broadway. The Observatory was opened on 8 October 1929 by the Astronomer Royal
Frank Watson Dyson
. In 2009, student astronomers at the observatory tracked the extrasolar planet
HD 80606 b
and for the first time accurately calculated its size.
The National Institute for Medical Research
is a large medical research facility situated on the Ridgeway. Researchers at the Institute have, amongst other achievements, developed liquid and gas chromatography
, discovered interferon
and also discovered the sex determining gene SRY
.
supplies Mill Hill's water. EDF Energy Networks
is the Distribution network operator
licensed to distribute electricity from the transmission grid to homes and businesses in Mill Hill. On Partingdale Lane there is a large electrical station, built in 1961. The station is served by very high voltage cables underground along Totteridge Valley. The proposed above-ground pylons and cables were rejected after a high-profile residents' campaign. British Gas had a large gasworks
at Mill Hill East with two Gasometers, now replaced with housing and shops.
London Ambulance Service
responds to medical emergencies
in Mill Hill. Statutory emergency fire service
is provided by the London Fire Brigade
. Mill Hill Fire station and Ambulance station are on Hartley Avenue off Mill Hill Broadway. Home Office
policing in Mill Hill is provided by the Metropolitan Police Service
.
lived at Mill Hill for much of his adult life. The botanist Peter Collinson and the English traveller Celia Fiennes
.
The founder of Singapore
Sir Stamford Raffles
, the abolitionist
William Wilberforce
, and the parliamentarian
John Wilkes
.
In 2010 The X Factor
contestants took up residence.
London Borough of Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 331,500 and covers . It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east and Enfield to the...
. It is a suburb situated 9 miles (14.3 km) north west of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
. Mill Hill was in the historic county
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
of Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
until it was absorbed by London. Mill Hill consists of several distinct parts: the old original centre based around Mill Hill Village; the later-developed but now main hub of the area at Mill Hill Broadway, and the area around Mill Hill East. A further area at the western edge of the suburb, The Hale, is on the borders of Mill Hill and Edgware, and is partly in each.
History
The area's name was first recorded as Myllehill in 1547 and appears to mean "hill with a windmill". However, there is no evidence that a mill ever existed here.Mill Hill Village is the oldest known inhabited part of the district, a ribbon development along a medieval route called 'The Ridgeway'. It is thought that the name 'Mill Hill' may be derived from a mill on The Ridgeway, built on an area of open ground (now a park) known as The Mill Field
The Mill Field
The Mill Field is a Local Nature Reserve, Borough Grade II, in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a large open space , which slopes steeply down from the road called The Ridgeway. It may be the site of the windmill which gave the area its name...
. The village is bounded on the north and the south by Green Belt
Green belt
A green belt or greenbelt is a policy and land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an...
land, and its High Street, at 100 yards, is the shortest in London. The area's proximity to the city made it popular as a country retreat from the 17th century onwards, and large houses and quaint cottages survive. William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
(MP, and abolitionist of the slave trade) and Sir Stamford Raffles
Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, FRS was a British statesman, best known for his founding of the city of Singapore . He is often described as the "Father of Singapore"...
(founder of colonial Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
) both briefly resided here, the former being the patron of Mill Hill’s first church, Saint Paul’s. In 1960 five shops existed in the Village (Griffin's sub-Post Office, The Blenheim Steps (Mill Hill School tuck shop), Cook & Son (sweets and groceries), Hawes Brothers (grocers) and Vincett's (butchers) but although the buildings survive, they have all been converted into private houses. As of February 2011, the only places in Mill Hill Village where money can be spent are The Three Hammers and Adam & Eve pubs and Belmont Farm (which includes the Waffle Café).
Military
Inglis Barracks at Mill Hill East which was the home of the Middlesex RegimentMiddlesex Regiment
The Middlesex Regiment was a regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms when the 57th and 77th Regiments of Foot were amalgamated with the county's militia and rifle volunteer units.On 31 December 1966 The Middlesex Regiment was amalgamated with three...
between 1905 and 1962. The 1941 reopening of the railway station, under war-time conditions, was to allow easy access to the barracks. As military needs have changed land has been progressively sold. The army postal depot was located here before moving to Northolt
Northolt
Northolt is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, England. The town has London Underground and Network Rail stations and is on the A40 road...
. In 1988, a 23-year-old soldier Michael Robbins was killed and nine others were injured by an IRA
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
bomb blast.
Along Partingdale Lane is Seafield House, now a private home, but originally a nuclear bunker, designed to protect the 'London North Group' emergency regional government between (approx.) 1951 and 1958.
Governance
Mill Hill was part of the ancient civil parish of HendonHendon
Hendon is a London suburb situated northwest of Charing Cross.-History:Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday , but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier...
within the historic county boundaries
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
of Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
. Mill Hill as part of Municipal Borough of Hendon
Municipal Borough of Hendon
Hendon was an ancient civil parish of around which included Mill Hill, as well as Golders Green and Childs Hill. In 1894 it was created an urban district of Middlesex and in 1932 it became a municipal borough...
was merged into the London Borough of Barnet
London Borough of Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 331,500 and covers . It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east and Enfield to the...
in Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
in 1965. Mill Hill is one of 21 electoral wards in the borough. This ward has 3 out of the 63 seats on the Barnet Council.
Mill Hill was in the parliamentary constituency of Hendon
Hendon (UK Parliament constituency)
Hendon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The current MP, since 2010, is Matthew Offord of the Conservative Party.-History:The constituency was originally...
which was created in 1918. This lasted until 1945 when the constituency was split in two, Mill Hill in Hendon North
Hendon North (UK Parliament constituency)
Hendon North was a constituency in the former Municipal Borough of Hendon which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
. In 1997, the Hendon constituency was recreated. From then until he lost his seat to the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election, Hendon has been represented in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
by the Labour MP
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, Andrew Dismore
Andrew Dismore
Andrew Hartley Dismore is a British Labour Party politician and a Vice-Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group who was the Member of Parliament for Hendon from 1997 until 2010 when he was beaten by Conservative Party candidate Matthew Offord.-Early life:Dismore was born in Bridlington,...
.
Mill Hill Village
The village is a ribbon development along The Ridgeway. It has green belt either side."Partingdale" and "Burtonhole" form a distinct valley north of The Ridgeway. North is Folly Farm and Folly Brook
Folly Brook
Folly Brook is a 2¼ mile long brook in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a tributary of Dollis Brook, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames....
, a tributary of the Dollis Brook
Dollis Brook
Dollis Brook runs through the London Borough of Barnet in North London. It is a tributary of the River Brent, which is itself a tributary of the River Thames. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk follows almost all of Dollis Brook, apart from a short section at the beginning which passes through private...
, running west to east. Between The Ridgeway and Folly Brook are the National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
, Burtonhole Farm, a garden centre called Finchley Nurseries, and several sports grounds.
Arrandene Open Space and Featherstone Hill
Arrandene Open Space and Featherstone Hill
Arrandene Open Space and Featherstone Hill is a 25 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a Site of Metropolitan Importance....
is a large open space which is bordered by Wise Lane, Wills Grove, Milespit Hill and The Ridgeway. While there are many open spaces in the area, Arrandene is unique because of its many open fields, meadows and woodland. The open fields were originally hay meadows which provided feed for the horses pulling carriages north to Barnet and beyond.
There is a non-denominational Mill Hill Cemetery, formerly known as the "Paddington District Cemetery". The 1960s pop singer Billy Fury
Billy Fury
Billy Fury, born Ronald William Wycherley , was an internationally successful English singer from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. Rheumatic fever, which he first contracted as a child, damaged his heart and ultimately contributed to his death...
is buried there, and there are also some Dutch war graves. To the southwest is a small suburban district called "Poets' Corner", and to the north an old estate, now a nature reserve, Moat Mount Open Space
Moat Mount Open Space and Mote End Farm
Moat Mount Open Space is a Local Nature Reserve, Borough Grade II, in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. The site is an extensive area bounded by Barnet Way, Barnet Road and Hendon Wood Lane. It includes Barnet Gate Wood and Scratchwood Countryside Park, but is separate from Scratchwood...
.
Mill Hill Broadway
The modern-day centre of Mill Hill is at Mill Hill Broadway (previously known as Lawrence Street). This is a suburban district which developed from the 1890s onwards, and especially in the early part of the 20th century, after the arrival of the Midland RailwayMidland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
station in 1868. The Broadway itself is now an important local retail area with numerous shops and cafes.
Mill Hill East
Parts of the eastern side of Mill Hill have recently undergone redevelopment, with the old gas works replaced by a WaitroseWaitrose
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...
supermarket and housing developments. The small local retail area at Mill Hill East is at “Kelly’s Corner” (officially Holders Hill Circus) east of the station. To the south of Mill Hill East are Copthall and Holders Hill.
The United Kingdom / Carl Zeiss / Bausch & Lomb Optical Works was established at Mill Hill East in 1912 and demolished in about 1990, to be replaced by a large building owned by the Jehovah Witnesses, to complement their nearby Watchtower House built on the site of the former Bittacy House.
Transport
Rail
Mill Hill Broadway stationMill Hill Broadway railway station
Mill Hill Broadway railway station is in the London Borough of Barnet in North London.The station lies on the Midland Main Line and is served by First Capital Connect trains as part of the Thameslink Line service. It is in Travelcard Zone 4...
is situated off The Broadway. (It is the top red circle, in the middle above.) The station is operated by First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect is a passenger train operating company in England that began operations on the National Rail network on 1 April 2006...
, located on the Midland Main Line
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway route in the United Kingdom, part of the British railway system.The present-day line links London St...
as part of the Thameslink
Thameslink
Thameslink is a fifty-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport. It opened as a through service in 1988 and by 1998 was severely overcrowded, carrying more than...
service. There are regular trains to St. Albans and Luton Airport to the north, and West Hampstead (8 minutes) and St. Pancras International (17 minutes) to the south, with most services running through central London and serving Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, and beyond. It is in Travelcard Zone 4. The station platforms are being lengthened from eight to twelve carriages, to cope with longer Thameslink Programme
Thameslink Programme
The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, is a £6 billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the south of London without requiring passengers to change...
trains.
The area was also served by another smaller station, Mill Hill (The Hale)
Mill Hill (The Hale) railway station
Mill Hill railway station was a station in Mill Hill, London NW7 on the now-removed railway between Mill Hill East station and Edgware railway station...
, opened by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
The Edgware, Highgate and London Railway was a railway in north London. The railway was a precursor of parts of London Underground's Northern Line and was, in the 1930s the core of an ambitious expansion plan for that line which was thwarted by the Second World War...
in 1867, but passenger services ended in 1939, and freight traffic in 1964.
Tube
Mill Hill East stationMill Hill East tube station
Mill Hill East tube station is a London Underground station in Mill Hill in North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line, and is the terminus, and only station, of a branch from Finchley Central station...
(the right-hand red dot above), situated off Bittacy Hill, is the only station on a branch line from Finchley Central
Finchley Central tube station
Finchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
. The normal off-peak service is four trains an hour to and from Finchley Central, but through trains are provided during peak hours, and when the line is disrupted by engineering works.
The branch was opened in 1867 as part of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
The Edgware, Highgate and London Railway was a railway in north London. The railway was a precursor of parts of London Underground's Northern Line and was, in the 1930s the core of an ambitious expansion plan for that line which was thwarted by the Second World War...
, which also built the attractive Dollis Brook Viaduct
Dollis Brook Viaduct
The Dollis Brook Viaduct, also known as the Dollis Road Viaduct, Dollis Viaduct, Mill Hill Viaduct and Finchley Viaduct, is a railway viaduct in Finchley, North London, United Kingdom. It currently carries the London Underground's Northern line from Mill Hill East station to Finchley Central station...
to the east of the station. It originally continued west to Edgware
Edgware tube station
Edgware tube station is a London Underground station in Edgware, in the London Borough of Barnet, in North London. The station is the terminus of the Edgware branch of the Northern Line and the next station towards central London is . Edgware is in Travelcard Zone 5.-Location:The station is in...
and east to the Great Northern
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....
main line at Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place...
, following the present Northern Line route as far as Highgate.
In 1935, as part of the London Transport New Works Programme
New Works Programme
The "New Works Programme, 1935 - 1940" was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board , commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolleybus and bus services in the capital and the surrounding areas...
, plans were announced to modernise and electrify the railway and transfer it to the London Underground. Work was started, and steam passenger services between Edgware and Finchley Central were withdrawn in September 1939 to facilitate it. However, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
soon caused the project to be cut short. The Finchley Central – Mill Hill East section had wartime priority (due to the Inglis Barracks) and was completed in 1941,
but the plans to complete the modernisation and restart passenger services to Edgware were never resumed and were abandoned in 1950.
Steam freight trains continued to run between Finchley and Edgware until 1964; the track beyond Mill Hill East was lifted the following year. Although partly built over, including by the M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
, most of the old track bed has become a footpath, and decaying 1930s concrete infrastructure, never used, can still be seen.
Road
The A1 and A41A41 road
The A41 is a formerly-major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now largely been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton,...
converge as they enter Mill Hill at Fiveways Corner, this section is known as the Watford Way. The dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
passes through Mill Hill, and the routes diverge at Apex Corner (officially Northway Circus). The M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
was built through the western part of Mill Hill in 1967. There is a disused southbound exit slip road which passes under the Watford Way and which covers part of the old railway between Mill Hill East and Edgware Town.
Mill Hill Broadway railway station is also a hub for local buses. It is served by bus routes 114, 186, 221, 240, 251, 302 and 303. Additionally, route 113 between Edgware and Marble Arch runs along the nearby A1/A41. Bus routes 221, 240 and 382 serve the Mill Hill East tube station. No night buses have served Mill Hill since the withdrawal of the N59 in the early 1990s.
Development
Mill Hill East has been designated by the Mayor of LondonMayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
in his London Plan
London Plan
The London Plan is a planning document written by the Mayor of London, England in the United Kingdom and published by the Greater London Authority. The plan was first published in final form on 10 February 2004 and has since been amended. The current version was published in February 2008...
as a 'proposed area of intensification', in and around the Inglis Barracks site. As a result, Barnet Council designated the 'Mill Hill East Area Action Plan
Area Action Plan
An area action plan is an optional development plan document specified in United Kingdom planning law forming part of a local development framework...
' (AAP) and carried out public consultation events. An at-times noisy 'examination in public', to test the ‘soundness’ of the Council's submitted AAP proposals, was held in October 2008, conducted by the Planning Inspectorate
Planning Inspectorate
The Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales is an executive agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government of the United Kingdom Government. It is responsible for determining final outcomes of planning and enforcement appeals and public examination of local development plans...
, and the subsequent report broadly agreed with the Council's plans.
Representations were made to the Planning Inspectorate to reopen the railway line from Mill Hill East station to the west.
A small victory for local protesters was that the report reaffirmed that a local closed road, Sanders Lane, would not be reopened for traffic, if only because the road was outside the AAP boundary (this had already conceded by the council) and would need separate consideration. However, speakers at the enquiry drew attention to the 'co-incidence' that a collector road
Collector road
A collector road or distributor road is a low to moderate-capacity road which serve to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collectors are also designed to provide access to residential properties...
proposed in the AAP happened to meet the main road (Bittacy Hill) exactly opposite the short section of Sanders Lane still open to traffic. They suggested to the inspector that it was no coincidence at all, but the matter was left unresolved. The inspector stated in his report of December 2008:
The amended AAP was formally adopted by the Council on 27 January 2009.
Education
Infant and Junior Schools
- Courtland, a mixed community school
- Deansbrook Infant, mixed community school
- Deansbrook Junior, mixed community school
- Dollis Infant, a mixed community school
- Dollis JuniorDollis Junior SchoolDollis Junior School is a Junior School in Mill Hill, in the London Borough of Barnet. The school opened in 1939. The students wear green uniform. For both, they either wear a white polo shirt or a white sleeved/short sleeved shirt...
, a mixed foundation school - Fairway, a mixed community school
- Grimsdell, an independent co-educational pre-preparatory school run by Mill Hill School Foundation
- Mathilda Marks Kennedy, a mixed Jewish voluntary aided school
- St. Martin's, an independent co-educational preparatory school
- St. Paul's CE a mixed, voluntary aided school
- St. Vincent's Catholic Primary School
- Etz Chaim Primary School, Free school
Secondary Schools
- Copthall, a community girls school
- Mill Hill County HighMill Hill County High SchoolMill Hill County High School is a large secondary school located in Mill Hill, London, England.-Admissions:It is for students aged 11 to 18. The school has 1,700 pupils as of 2009. The current headmaster of the school is Geoffrey Thompson....
, a mixed foundation school
Independent Schools
- Belmont, the preparatory school within the Mill Hill School Foundation
- Mill HillMill Hill SchoolMill Hill School, in Mill Hill, London, is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day pupils aged 13–18. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an organisation of public schools in the United Kingdom....
, an independent boarding and day school - The Mount, an independent day school for girls aged 4 to 18 years
Invention and discovery
In 1749 the botanist Peter Collinson inherited an estate which is now part of Mill Hill School, here he created a botanical garden. The lexicographer James MurrayJames Murray (lexicographer)
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray was a Scottish lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death.-Life and learning:...
started work on the first Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
in 1879, whilst teaching at Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School, in Mill Hill, London, is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day pupils aged 13–18. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an organisation of public schools in the United Kingdom....
. He had a building built in the school grounds to house the quotation slips and his small editorial staff. Murray called this building his scriptorium
Scriptorium
Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
, when the project moved to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
the building was used by the school as a reading room.
During the Second World War the Maudsley Hospital
Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in South London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the country...
moved to the evacuated Mill Hill School as the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital. Here John C. Raven developed a verbal intelligence test called the Mill Hill Vocabulary scale.
University of London Observatory
University of London Observatory
The University of London Observatory at Mill Hill in London is an astronomical teaching observatory, part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London....
is a teaching astronomical observatory which is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. It is situated on the A41
A41 road
The A41 is a formerly-major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now largely been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton,...
Watford Way, southeast of The Broadway. The Observatory was opened on 8 October 1929 by the Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....
Frank Watson Dyson
Frank Watson Dyson
Sir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS was an English astronomer and Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in testing Einstein's theory of general relativity.- Biography :Dyson was born in Measham, near...
. In 2009, student astronomers at the observatory tracked the extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b
HD 80606 b is a superjovian planet 190 light-years distant in the constellation of Ursa Major. The planet was discovered orbiting the star Struve 1341 B in April 2001 by a team led by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Based on its mass, at 4 times that of Jupiter, it is a gas giant...
and for the first time accurately calculated its size.
The National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
is a large medical research facility situated on the Ridgeway. Researchers at the Institute have, amongst other achievements, developed liquid and gas chromatography
Gas-liquid chromatography
Gas chromatography , is a common type of chromatography used in analytical chemistry for separating and analysing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. Typical uses of GC include testing the purity of a particular substance, or separating the different components of a mixture...
, discovered interferon
Interferon
Interferons are proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of pathogens—such as viruses, bacteria, or parasites—or tumor cells. They allow communication between cells to trigger the protective defenses of the immune system that eradicate pathogens or tumors.IFNs belong to...
and also discovered the sex determining gene SRY
SRY
SRY is a sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome in the therians .This intronless gene encodes a transcription factor that is a member of the SOX gene family of DNA-binding proteins...
.
Religious sites
There are several religious institutions along the Ridgeway, including:- The Missionary Institute (which was present on the Ridgeway until 2007)
- Holcombe House (part of the Institute)
- the motherhouse of the British Province of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul
- until 2007, Saint Joseph's College, a large seminary.
- The Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
have had a centre since 1958, and they redeveloped the Carl Zeiss optical works to become the International Bible Students' Association in 1988. - The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, an African church next to the Village Pond at the junction of Milespit Hill, High Street and The Ridgeway, occupying the former Methodist Church.
Public services
Veolia Water Central Limited formerly Three Valleys WaterThree Valleys Water
Veolia Water Central is a privately owned company supplying water to Hertfordshire and parts of Surrey, North London and Bedfordshire, in England....
supplies Mill Hill's water. EDF Energy Networks
EDF Energy
EDF Energy is an integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, with operations spanning electricity generation and the sale of gas and electricity to homes and businesses throughout the United Kingdom...
is the Distribution network operator
Distribution Network Operator
Distribution network operators are companies licensed to distribute electricity in Great Britain by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets....
licensed to distribute electricity from the transmission grid to homes and businesses in Mill Hill. On Partingdale Lane there is a large electrical station, built in 1961. The station is served by very high voltage cables underground along Totteridge Valley. The proposed above-ground pylons and cables were rejected after a high-profile residents' campaign. British Gas had a large gasworks
Gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
at Mill Hill East with two Gasometers, now replaced with housing and shops.
London Ambulance Service
London Ambulance Service
The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the largest "free at the point of contact" emergency ambulance service in the world. It responds to medical emergencies in Greater London, England, with the ambulances and other response vehicles and over 5,000 staff at its disposal.It is one of 12...
responds to medical emergencies
Medical emergency
A medical emergency is an injury or illness that is acute and poses an immediate risk to a person's life or long term health. These emergencies may require assistance from another person, who should ideally be suitably qualified to do so, although some of these emergencies can be dealt with by the...
in Mill Hill. Statutory emergency fire service
Fire service in the United Kingdom
The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales...
is provided by the London Fire Brigade
London Fire Brigade
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London.Founded in 1865, it is the largest of the fire services in the United Kingdom and the fourth-largest in the world with nearly 7,000 staff, including 5,800 operational firefighters based in 112 fire...
. Mill Hill Fire station and Ambulance station are on Hartley Avenue off Mill Hill Broadway. Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
policing in Mill Hill is provided by the Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
.
Notable people
The racing driver Graham HillGraham Hill
Norman Graham Hill was a British racing driver and two-time Formula One World Champion. He is the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500 and Formula One World Championship.Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair both to...
lived at Mill Hill for much of his adult life. The botanist Peter Collinson and the English traveller Celia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes was an English traveller. Born in Wiltshire, she was the daughter of an English Civil War Parliamentarian Colonel, who was in turn the second son of the William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. Celia Fiennes died in Hackney in 1741.-Pioneering Female Traveller:Fiennes never married...
.
The founder of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
Sir Stamford Raffles
Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, FRS was a British statesman, best known for his founding of the city of Singapore . He is often described as the "Father of Singapore"...
, the abolitionist
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
, and the parliamentarian
John Wilkes
John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
.
In 2010 The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...
contestants took up residence.