Neasden

Neasden
OS grid reference	TQ215855
London borough	Brent
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW2, NW10
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
London Assembly	Brent and Harrow

Neasden Lane North, Neasden

Neasden is an area of Brent, London, England.

History

The area was recorded as Neasdun in 939 AD and the name is derived from the Old English nēos = 'nose' and dūn = 'hill'. It means 'the nose-shaped hill' referring to a well-defined landmark of this area. In 1750, it was known as Needsden and the present spelling appeared at a later date.

Neasden was a countryside hamlet on the western end of the Dollis Hill ridge. The land was owned by St.Paul's Cathedral. In the medieval times the village consisted of several small buildings around the green near the site of the present roundabout.

In the 15th-17th century the Roberts family were the major landowners in the area. Thomas Roberts erected Neasden House (on the site of the modern Clifford Court) in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1651 Sir William Roberts bought confiscated church lands.After the Restoration the estates went back to the Church, but were leased to the Roberts family. Sir William improved Neasden House and in 1664 it was one of the largest houses in Willesden parish.

During the 18th century the Nicoll family replaced the Roberts as the dominant family in Neasden. In the 19th century these farmers and moneyers at the Royal Mint wholly owned Neasden House and much of the land in the area.

Neasden was no more than a ‘retired hamlet’ when enclosure was completed in 1823. At this time there were six cottages, four larger houses or farms, a public house and a smithy, grouped around the green. The dwellings include The Grove, which had been bought by a London solicitor named James Hall, and its former outbuilding, which Hall had converted into a house that became known as The Grange.

Hindu temple

The Welsh Harp reservoir was completed in 1835 and breached in 1841 with fatalities. It had a dramatic effect on the landscape as the damming of the River Brent put many fields and meadows underwater.

In the early 1850s, Neasden had a population of about 110. In the Victorian times the horse was the main form of transport, and as London grew, the demand for horses in the capital soared in the second half of the 19th century. Neasden farms concentrated on rearing and providing horses for the city. Town work was exhausting and unhealthy for the horses, and in 1886 the RSPCA formed a committee to set up the Home of Rest for Horses with grounds in Sudbury and Neasden, where for a small fee town horses were allowed to graze in the open for a few weeks.

The urbanisation of Neasden began with the arrival of the railway. The first railway running through Neasden - Hendon-Acton and Bedford - St. Pancras was opened for goods traffic in October 1868, with passenger services following soon. In 1875, Dudding Hill, the first station in the area, was opened, and the Metropolitan Railway was extended through Neasden shortly afterwards. Neasden station was opened on Neasden Lane in 1880. New housing, initially for railway workers, was built in the village (particularly around Village Way) with all the streets named after Metropolitan stations in Buckinghamshire. In 1883, an Anglican mission chapel, St Saviour's, was set up in the village. Its priest, the Reverend James Mills, became an important and popular figure in late 19th century Neasden. In 1885 Mills took over St Andrew's, Kingsbury and became vicar of a new parish, Neasden-cum-Kingsbury, created because of the area's rising population.

Before Mill's arrival, the only sporting facilities in Neasden had been two packs of foxhounds, both of which had disbanded by 1857. Mills became founder president of Neasden Cricket Club and encouraged musical societies. In 1893 a golf club was founded at Neasden House, however only 10% of its members came from Neasden.

In the 1890s change led to a conscious effort to create a village atmosphere. At this time, the Spotted Dog became a social centre for local people. By 1891 Neasedn had a population of 930, half of whom lived in the village. Despite the presence of the village in the west, it was the London end that grew fastest.

In 1893 the Great Central Railway got permission to join up its main line from Nottingham with the Metropolitan. Trains ran on or alongside the Metropolitan track to a terminus at Marylebone (this is now the modern day Chiltern Line). The Great Central set up a depot south of the line at Neasden and built houses for its workers (Gresham and Woodheyes roads). The Great Central village was a “singularly isolated and self-contained community” with its own school and single shop, Branch No. 1 of the North West London Co-operative Society. It is now part of a conservation area. There was considerable sporting rivalry between the two railway estates and a football match was played every Good Friday. By the 1930s the two railways employed over 1000 men.

Apart from the railways, Neasden was dominated by agriculture until just before the First World War. In 1911, Neasden's population had swelled to 2,074. By 1913, light industry at Church End had spread up Neasden Lane as far as the station.

In the 1920s, the building of the North Circular Road, a main arterial route round London, brought another wave of development; it opened in 1922-23. The 1924-5 British Empire Exhibition led to road improvements and the introduction of new bus services. Together with the North Circular Road, it paved the way for a new residential suburb at Neasden. In 1930 Neasden House was part demolished. The last farm in Neasden (covering The Rise, Elm Way and Vicarage Way) was built over in 1935. The Ritz cinema opened in 1935 and Neasden Shopping Parade was opened in 1936, and was considered the most up-to-date in the area. All of Neasden’s older houses were demolished during this period, except for The Grange, and the Spotted Dog was rebuilt in mock-Tudor style. Industries sprung up in the south of the area, and by 1949, Neasden's population was over 13,000.

The post-war history of Neasden is one of decline; traffic problems necessitated an underpass on the North Circular Road that effectively cut Neasden in half and had a disastrous effect on the shopping centre. The decline in industry through the 1970s contributed to the area's decline. But Neasden has survived, largely due to a succession of immigrant communities keeping the local economy afloat.

Recent History

McDonalds opened its first drive-through restaurant in the UK in Neasden in 1988. The Grange Tavern (previously called The Old Spotted Dog) on Neasden Lane was closed in the 1990s and demolished to make way for a block of flats, bringing to an end the inn that had stood there for around two centuries. Another old pub, The Pantiles which stood on the North Circular Road was converted to another McDonalds restaurant. The Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA opened its first UK outlet in Neasden in the 1990s.

In 1995 Neasden became the home of the biggest Hindu temple outside India: the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.

In 2004, the Shopping Centre area was partially redeveloped by the council in an effort to reverse its fortunes. It remains to be seen if these measures have proved effective. The Grange, which had housed a museum about the people of Brent was closed by the council in 2004.

Neasden gained media notoriety when seven youths who were banned from streets in Neasden and the notorious Chalkhill area in Wembley. The gang from Press Road Estate were the first gang in London to be collectively slapped with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo).

Neasden in popular culture

Private Eye

Neasden has achieved a certain notoriety thanks to the British satirical magazine, Private Eye. Since early in its history the magazine has used Neasden as an exemplar of the suburban environment in pieces parodying current events, personalities, and mores (for example, the University of Neasden). Spoof sports reports usually feature the perennial losers, Neasden F.C..

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

In a celebrated spoof of the Early Music phenomenon which grew enormously in the late 1960s, Neasden was selected by BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer David Cain as the home of a fictional ensemble dedicated to historically-informed performances on authentic musical instruments from an indeterminate number of centuries ago. It was thus that in 1968, listeners to BBC Radio 3 were given a recital by the Schola Polyphonica Neasdeniensis whose members performed on the equally fictional Shagbut, Minikin and Flemish Clackett.

Athletico Neasden

Athletico Neasden was an amateur football team of mostly Jewish players, which played in the Maccabi (Southern) Football League in the 1970s and 1980s and was named after the place, though it did not actually play in the area. The team eventually team merged with North West Warriors to form North West Neasden. (See also - Son of Neasden and Neasden Academicals).

Literature

David Sutherland’s children’s novel 'A Black Hole in Neasden' reveals a gateway to an alternate universe in a Neasden back garden.

Transport and locale

Nearest places

• Willesden
• Wembley
• Stonebridge
• Cricklewood
• Hendon
• Kingsbury
• Harlesden

Nearest tube station

• Neasden tube station - Jubilee Line, formerly the Bakerloo Line

Notable Neasdonians

• Twiggy (model and actress)
• Judy Grinham (Olympic swimmer)
• Gary Warren (actor)
• Ginger Baker (musician)
• Mario Fabrizi (film, TV and radio personality)
• Charlie Kunz (musician)

References

Congregation Data - Ahavath Shalom Synagogue