Golders Green

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Coordinates: 51°34′24″N 0°11′54″W / 51.5734°N 0.1982°W / 51.5734; -0.1982

Golders Green
Golders Green clock tower in 2007.jpg
Golders Green clock tower
Golders Green is located in Greater London
Golders Green

 Golders Green shown within Greater London
OS grid reference TQ248876
London borough Barnet
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region London
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district NW11
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament Finchley & Golders Green
Hendon
London Assembly Barnet and Camden
List of places
UK
England
London

Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Although having some earlier history, it is essentially a 19th-century suburban development situated about 5.3 miles (8.5 km) north west of Charing Cross and centred on the crossroads of Golders Green Road and Finchley Road.

In the early 20th century it grew rapidly in response to the opening here of a tube station of the London Underground, adjacent to the Golders Green Hippodrome - home to the BBC Concert Orchestra for many years. It has a wide variety of housing and a busy main shopping street, Golders Green Road. The area is noted especially for its large Jewish population.

Contents

History [edit]

The name Golders comes from a family named Godyere who lived in the area and Green alludes to the manorial waste the settlement was built on.[1] Golders Green has been a place in the parish and manor of Hendon since around the 13th century. The earliest references to the name of the adjacent district of "Temple Fortune" is on a map (c. 1754). However this name reveals a much earlier history. It is likely that the name refers to the Knights of St John, who had land here (c. 1240). Fortune may be derived from a small settlement (tun) on the route from Hampstead to Hendon. Here a lane from Finchley, called Ducksetters Lane (c. 1475), intersected. It is likely that the settlement was originally the Bleccanham estate (c. 10th century). By the end of the 18th century Temple Fortune Farm was established on the northern side of Farm Close.

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 (c. 1956). A small dame school and prayer house run by Anglican deaconesses 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.

Golders Green tube station

In 1895 a 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 tube station.

Although the area had been served by horse-drawn omnibuses (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.[2] The now-demolished Orpheum Theatre (1930) was intended to rival the Hippodrome in Golders Green.

Geography [edit]

Originally Golders Green was part of the NW4 (Hendon) postal district,[citation needed] but, owing to an expanding population, the district was split in two, creating the new NW11 district. This is why it is out of sequence with the London postal districts' alphabetical pattern, starting from the second district in each area.

Neighbouring areas
Hendon Temple Fortune Hampstead Garden Suburb
Brent Cross Hampstead Heath
  Golders Green  
Cricklewood Childs Hill Hampstead

The area is adjacent to the Heath Extensions part of Hampstead Heath.

Demography [edit]

Golders Green is a cosmopolitan district. It has many prominent families. There has been a prominent Jewish community since the 20th century. There are also many Japanese and Southeast Asian families living in the district.[3]

Economy [edit]

The area has restaurants with cuisines from all over the world, from Kosher food, through to Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Italian eateries. These are over a dozen coffee bars; together with a number of niche food stores, including two Japanese, two Iranian, two Korean and one Malaysian.

Transport [edit]

Golders Green station is a London Underground tube station on the Northern Line. It is the first surface station on the Edgware branch when heading north. On the station's forecourt is Golders Green bus station. This is a major hub for London Buses in North West London.[4] National Express coaches also stop at the bus station before/after central London.

Education [edit]

There are six state aided primary schools in Golders Green; these include: Brookland infant & junior, Garden suburb infant & junior, Menorah primary school and Wessex Gardens.[5] Henrietta Barnett School is located in nearby Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Religious sites [edit]

Golders Green Parish Church (Church of England)

The Carmelite Monastery was established in Bridge Lane in 1908[6] and sold in 2007.[7] St. Edward the Confessor, a Roman Catholic church, was built in 1915 and consecrated in 1931.[8] Golders Green Synagogue opened in Dunstan Road in 1922.[9] The Golders Green Beth Hamedrash opened in Golders Green in 1935, moving to The Riding in 1956.[citation needed] The Machzike Hadath Synagogue moved to Golders Green in the 1970s, opening its present building in 1983.[10] In about 1960 the Eastern Jewish Community established the Ohel David Eastern Synagogue at the Lincoln Institute, the former site of the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash.[11] There are also a large Hindu temple,[12] a Greek Orthodox cathedral,[13] and a Coptic Orthodox church.[14] The synagogue Beth Shmuel has been located at 171 Golders Green Road since 1974 [15] and is one of the most prominent synagogues in North West London. The Hindu temple on Finchley Road was formerly St Ninian's Presbyterian Church, built in 1911 by T.Phillips Figgis who was also noted for designing some stations on the Northern Line. The congregation merged with Golders Green Methodist Church (now Trinity Church, Hodford Road) in 1979. There is a Unitarian chapel built in the Romanesque style on Hoop Lane which contains some interesting murals from the 1920s. The former Hippodrome theatre is now the El Shaddai International Christian Centre.

Community facilities [edit]

Water Garden in Golders Hill Park

Golders Hill Park, adjoining the West Heath of Hampstead Heath, is a formal park. The site of a large house which burned down in the 1930s, it has a walled garden, ponds, a water garden, café, butterfly house and a small zoo. The zoo has been renovated and contains many varieties of birds and other animals. During the summer, children's activities are organised and there is often live music on the bandstand. The park is adjoined by the Hill, a formal garden with an extensive and imposing pergola.

Golders Green Crematorium is perhaps the area's most famous feature, and has an extensive garden with features such as a special children's section and a pond. Its main buildings have a distinct Italianate air. It is sometimes referred to as the 'celebrity crematorium' because of the high proportion of nationally and internationally renowned public figures to have been cremated there. Famous people whose cremations have taken place include Kingsley Amis, Stanley Baldwin, Marc Bolan (born, Mark Feld), Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Hugh Gaitskell, John Inman, Keith Moon, Ivor Novello, Anna Pavlova, Frank Rutter,[16] Peter Sellers, Ghisha Tuckman (born, Ghisha Koenig) Amy Winehouse, Michael Foot and Wendy Richard.

Appearances in popular culture [edit]

The area is the setting of the humorous short story "The Ghoul of Golders Green" (May Fair, 1925) by Michael Arlen. In the Goon Show, a running gag was that the Israeli Embassy was located in Golders Green, owing to the suburb's large Jewish community.

George Harrison recorded an unreleased track called "Going Down to Golders Green". This came about because he would visit members of the pop group Badfinger, who lived at 7 Park Avenue, off North End Road, situated on the borders of Golders Hill Park. Golders Green is the name of a character in the 2002 film 9 Dead Gay Guys.

A second posthumous album release of the music of Pete Ham of the pop group Badfinger is entitled Golders Green. The first posthumous album release was entitled 7 Park Avenue, named after the address of Badfinger's band residence in Golders Green.

Andrew Sanger's novel The J-Word (Snowbooks, 2009) is set in Golders Green. Protagonist Jack Silver is attacked by an anti-semitic mob behind the tube station. He saves a rabbi's life before they turn on him. In 2009 a house on West Heath Avenue was used by TV show The X Factor for the contestants and received press coverage after it was mobbed by fans.[17]

The classical chant Jolly-Bob från Aberdeen by the Swedish singer Lasse Dahlquist, tells the story about a young sailorman from Aberdeen town who is getting married with a damsel from Golders Green.

Golders Green is mentioned in the 1966 song 'Finchley Central' by the New Vaudeville Band.

Places of interest [edit]

Notable people [edit]

Notes and references [edit]

  1. ^ Weinreb, Ben (2008). The London Encyclopaedia (3rd ed.). pp. 328–329. ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5. 
  2. ^ St Edward Home page
  3. ^ Kosher in the country The Economist 1 June 2006 accessed 14 August 2007
  4. ^ "Buses from Golders Green". Transport for London. July 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-09. 
  5. ^ http://www.barnet.gov.uk/schools-primary.htm?search=true&postcode=NW11
  6. ^ Carmelite monastery Bridge Lane
  7. ^ Kevin Bradford 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
  8. ^ St Edward the Confessor
  9. ^ Golders Green Synagogue
  10. ^ Jewish Communities & Records 12 December 2011 Retrieved 1 May 2012
  11. ^ Jewish Communities & Records 14 December 2011 Retrieved 1 May 2012
  12. ^ Shree Swaminarayan Temple London Retrieved 1 May 2012
  13. ^ The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Cross & St. Michael Retrieved 1 May 2012
  14. ^ St. Mary & Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church Golders Green, U.K. Retrieved 1 May 2012
  15. ^ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=26890
  16. ^ "Deaths", The Times, 20 April 1937, p. 1.
  17. ^ "X Factor house on the market for a song, as asking price drops by over half a million". Daily Mail. 25 March 2010. 
  18. ^ Oldfield, Sybil (January 2008), "Simon, Dame Kathleen Rochard, Viscountess Simon", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press), retrieved 4 January 2013  (subscription required)
  19. ^ McIntyre, Michael. Life and laughing (Large print ed. ed.). Bath: Paragon. ISBN 1445856182. 
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