Product Code Database
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. Its bulk forms a late 19th century and early 20th century suburb with a commercial crossroads. The rest is of later build.
It was founded as a medieval hamlet in the large parish of Hendon, Middlesex. The parish was heavily superseded by Hendon Urban District in 1894 and by the Municipal Borough of Hendon in 1932, abolished in 1965. In the early 20th century, it grew rapidly in response to the opening of a tube station of the London Underground, adjacent to the Golders Green Hippodrome which was home to the BBC Concert Orchestra for many years. The area has a wide variety of housing and a busy main shopping street, Golders Green Road.
It is known for its large British Jews population as well as for being home to the largest Jewish kosher hub (located west of Hoop Lane after the rail bridge) in the United Kingdom, which attracts many Jewish tourists.
The building of Finchley Road (c. 1827) replaced Ducksetters Lane as a route to Finchley, and resulted in the development of a small hamlet. Hendon Park Row (c. 1860s) is of this period, and consisted of around thirty small dwellings built by a George Stevens, which were, with two exceptions, demolished around 1956. A small dame school and prayer house run by Anglican existed in the 1890s and 1900s, and developed to become St. Barnabas (1915). Along Finchley Road were a number of villas (c. 1830s), joined by the Royal Oak public house (c. 1850s). By the end of the 19th century there were around 300 people living in the area, which included a laundry and a small hospital for children with skin diseases. The principal industry was brick making.
In 1895, Golders Green Jewish Cemetery was established adjacent to Hoop Lane, with the first burial in 1897. Golders Green Crematorium was opened in 1902 (although much of it was built after 1905). A significant moment in Temple Fortune's development into a suburban area occurred in 1907, when transport links were vastly improved by the opening of Golders Green Underground station.
Although the area had been served by horse-drawn Bus (since at least the 1880s) and later motor buses (from 1907), the tram line of 1910, connecting Finchley Church End with Golders Green Station, led to the development of the area west of Finchley Road. The establishment of Hampstead Garden Suburb brought major changes to the area east of Finchley Road. Temple Fortune Farm was demolished and along the front of the road the building of the Arcade and Gateway House (c. 1911) established the Hampstead Garden Suburb's retail district.
Both the Golders Green Hippodrome, former home of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the police station opened in 1913. The now-demolished Orpheum Theatre (1930) was intended to rival the Hippodrome in Golders Green.
It is about to above sea level.
The area is adjacent to the Heath Extensions part of Hampstead Heath.
Ethnically, the Golders Green ward was 64% White (43% British, 21% Other, 1% Irish). Indians, Other Asians and Black Africans made up 5% each, while 6% claimed 'Any other ethnic group'.
There are close to fifty kosher restaurants and eateries under rabbinical supervision in Golders Green, and more than 40 synagogues throughout the area continuing into neighbouring Hendon, as well as 30 Jewish schools (some in outlying areas owing to space restriction), many of them independent.
Many bus routes pass through Golders Green, including the 210 to Finsbury Park, the 139 to Waterloo, the 13 to Victoria and the 102 to Edmonton Green, and from Golders Green station the 240 to Edgware, the 183 to Pinner, and both the 83 and the 245 to Alperton begin their routes.
The King Alfred School is located on North End Road and Henrietta Barnett School is located in nearby Hampstead Garden Suburb.
St Edward the Confessor, a Roman Catholic church, was built in 1915 and consecrated in 1931. A Carmelites monastery was established in Bridge Lane in 1908 and sold in 2007.Kevin Bradford [2]Property developers do not rule out demolishing Carmelite monastery, in Golders Green, after winning a High Court ruling against Barnet Council 26 November 2009 Hendon & Finchley Times Retrieved 1 May 2012
There is a Greek Orthodox cathedral on Golders Green Road, The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Cross & St. Michael Retrieved 1 May 2012 and a Coptic Orthodox church, St. Mary & Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church Golders Green, U.K. Retrieved 1 May 2012 both having been Anglican churches for most of the 20th century. The Greek Orthodox church was built in 1914.
The Golders Green Unitarian Church, built in 1925 on Hoop Lane, is listed building; Historic England singles out for mention a "notable temera mural by Ivon Hitchens", among other works. The congregation seceded from Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel (Hampstead) in 1903 but took a generation to build its own place of worship. St Ninian's Presbyterian Church on Helenslea Avenue was built in 1911 by T. P. Figgis, noted for designing stations on the Northern line. The congregation merged with Golders Green Methodist Church (now Trinity Church, Hodford Road) in 1979. The building found new life as a Hindu temple, but was decommissioned in 2013. Shree Swaminarayan Temple London Retrieved 29 November 2013
The Beth Shmuel Synagogue in 1942 in Oakfields Road and relocated at 169–171 Golders Green Road in 1945 and is one of the most prominent synagogues in North West London, with Grand Rabbi Elchonon Halpern its longest serving Rabbi for 72 years up until his passing in 2015. In about 1960 the Sephardi Jews established the Ohel David Eastern Synagogue at the Lincoln Institute, the former site of the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash. Jewish Communities & Records 14 December 2011 Retrieved 1 May 2012 The Machzike Hadath Synagogue moved to Golders Green in the 1970s, opening its present building in 1983. Jewish Communities & Records 12 December 2011 Retrieved 1 May 2012
Nearby Golders Green Crematorium has an extensive garden with features such as a special children's section and a pond, in keeping with the distinct Italianate air.
In chapter three of the 1932 book “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley wrote, “Eight hundred Simple Lifers were mowed down by machine guns at Golders Green.”
In his 1946 book "The Great Divorce," C.S. Lewis has a character from Golders Green. Sarah Smith and her husband are the last characters to enter the novel. She appears with great pomp and circumstance, arrayed in splendor and arriving behind a procession complete with music. She is beautiful and one of the "great ones" in heaven, but on earth had led an anonymous life in Golders Green.
Golders Green was alluded to in the phrase "half as gold as green" in the 1948 BBC radio sketch "Balham: Gateway to the South", written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden. It was also an allusion to John Burgon's 1845 poem "Petra", in which Petra is called "a rose-red city, half as old as time". "Half as old as time" was itself a quotation from Samuel Rogers' Italy (1822–28). The sketch was popularised through a 1958 recording by Peter Sellers.
George Harrison recorded an unreleased track titled "Going Down to Golders Green" during the sessions for his acclaimed triple album All Things Must Pass. The song was inspired by his visits to members of the pop group Badfinger, who lived at 7 Park Avenue, off North End Road, near the borders of Golders Hill Park.
The first posthumous (1997) album release of the music of Pete Ham of the pop group Badfinger was titled 7 Park Avenue, named after the address of Badfinger's band residence in Golders Green. A second posthumous (1999) album release was titled Golders Green.
|
|
