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West Harrow is a suburban area in the London Borough of Harrow that forms the western part of Harrow, historically in the county of Middlesex.
The area was rural until the late 19th century when the Metropolitan Railway expanded into Harrow. In the early 20th century, the area was developed into predominantly residential estates.
As the Metropolitan Railway extended to Harrow late in the 19th century, residential developments, including on the nearby Roxborough Park, sprung up in the surrounding area. In 1898, development began on the roads in the Bessborough Estate and they were largely completed by 1911. The roads in the estate were named after former Harrow School headmasters including Charles John Vaughan (Vaughan Road), George Butler or Henry Montagu Butler (Butler Road and Butler Avenue), Robert Carey Sumner (Sumner Road) and Joseph Drury (Drury Road). West Harrow Recreation Ground was added in 1923 and house building further west of the estate near Shaftesbury Avenue continued into the 1930s. The Metropolitan Railway marketed the developments of the early 20th century as Metro-land. In John Betjeman acclaimed documentary Metro-Land (1973), he stands on Vaughan Road as he ponders the “nice little speculation” at the “foot of Harrow Hill, alongside the Metropolitan electric trains”, “built in the ‘80s or ‘90s”.
The Metropolitan Railway laid tracks through the area in 1904 as it extended towards Uxbridge. Initially, no station was built in the area. However, as the Bessborough Estate expanded, landowners and residents pressured the Metropolitan Railway to build one nearby (Harrow-on-the-Hill being the closest at the time). In 1913, a wooden halt accessible from Vaughan Road was built. The station platforms were reconstructed in 1971 and the station further renovated in 1989.
In 2024, Harrow Council recommended a resident consultation after proposing West Harrow Recreation Ground and parts of Butler Road and Lance Road for designation as Local Areas of Special Character (LASC). The well-preserved quality of Victorian and Edwardian architecture was noted, as was the historical association of the street names to Harrow School.
Ahead of the 2022 revisions, focus groups noted the ward lacked community identity. The changes proposed by the council compacted the ward and transferred some areas from neighbouring wards, including Harrow on the Hill, to reflect what the community identifies as West Harrow. Additionally, the number of councillors representing the ward was reduced from three to two.
In 2022, Labour candidates Rekha Shah and Asif Hussain were elected councillors to represent the ward while the Conservative Party took control of the council.
West Harrow is in the Brent and Harrow constituency for the London Assembly which has been represented since 2021 by Krupesh Hirani. It is also in the Harrow West parliamentary constituency which has been represented since 1997 by Gareth Thomas (Labour).
In the area near West Harrow station, Victorian and Edwardian terraces dominate the urban landscape. Many of these have now been converted into flats. Further south near Shaftesbury Circle, the neighbourhood consists of mostly inter-war housing stock, including many maisonettes. There are also shopping facilities on Shaftesbury Circle itself.
In the 2021 census, 31.5% of households in the ward were reported as semi-detached, 28.3% terraced, 24.5% flats and 10.9% converted or shared properties. West Harrow ranked first in the London Borough of Harrow for households classified as Caravan or other mobile structure, with a total of 4 (0.11%).
In the 2021 census, 37.0% of respondents identified as Christian followed by 19.6% as Hindu and 18.4% as Muslim. The ward ranked third in Harrow among those identifying as No Religion at 15.86%.
Harrow is the second safest borough in the Greater London Authority area.
| Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh | 3,763 | 36.3 |
| Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African | 1,107 | 10.7 |
| Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups | 587 | 5.7 |
| White | 4,098 | 39.5 |
| Other ethnic group | 807 | 7.8 |
The original site of the Shri Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple was on Vaughan Road in West Harrow. It was established in 1976 but moved to a new location in Kenton in 1996 owing to the growing size of its congregation.
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