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Pinner

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For other uses, see Pinner (disambiguation).
Pinner
File:Pinner High Street.jpg
Pinner High Street
PopulationExpression error: "19,156[1]" must be numeric
OS grid referenceTQ115895
• London12.5 miles (20.1 km) SE
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPINNER
Postcode districtHA5
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London

Pinner is a suburb in the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London, England, 12.5 miles (20.1 km) north-west of Charing Cross. The area was in the county of Middlesex until 1965, when it was absorbed by the London Government Act 1963 into Greater London.

History

Pinner was originally a hamlet, first recorded in 1231 as Pinnora,[2] although the already archaic -ora (meaning 'hill') suggests its origins lie no later than c.900.[3] The oldest part of the village lies around the fourteenth-century parish church of St John the Baptist,[4] at the junction of the present-day Paines Lane, High Street and Church Lane. The earliest surviving private dwelling, East End Farm Cottage, dates from the late fifteenth-century.[5]

Pinner has had an annual street fair since 1336, when it was granted by Royal Charter by Edward III;[6] it remains popular today, being the last of its kind in Middlesex, and featured in Sir John Betjeman's BBC TV documentary Metro-land (1973). The village expanded rapidly between 1923 and 1939, when a series of garden estates – encouraged by the Metropolitan Railway – grew around its historic core,[7] and at this time assumed much of its present-day suburban character.

Governance

Pinner has three tiers of government: Harrow Council and the London Assembly ("local"), the United Kingdom parliament ("national"), and the European Parliament ("Europe").

Harrow Council has been governed since 2006 by the Conservatives, led by David Ashton. The mayor – a ceremonial post which rotates annually – is John Nickolay (Conservative). Pinner is represented by two wards, Pinner and Pinner South, each of which currently returns three Conservative councillors.

Pinner forms the north-west corner of the Brent and Harrow constituency in the London Assembly, which has been represented since 2008 by Navin Shah (Labour), and the Harrow West constituency in the United Kingdom parliament, represented since 1995 by Gareth Thomas (Labour). Following a Boundary Commission review, it will form part of a new parliamentary constituency, Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, at the next general election.[8]

Pinner lies within the London European Parliament constituency, which elects nine MEPs by proportional representation – currently three Conservative, three Labour, one Liberal Democrat, one Green and one UKIP member.[9]

Transport

Pinner is served by London Underground's Metropolitan Line, and by four London Buses bus routes: 183 (towards Golders Green), H11 (towards Harrow and Mount Vernon Hospital), H12 (towards South Harrow and Stanmore), and H13 (towards Ruislip Lido and St Vincent's Hospital).

Notable people

File:Pinner Memorial Park.jpg
The lake at Pinner Memorial Park

A number of notable literary figures have an association with Pinner. The poet laureate Henry James Pye retired to East End House at the end of his career in 1811,[10] the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote Eugene Aram at Pinner Wood House in 1832,[11] and Samuel and Isabella Beeton lived on the Woodridings estate between 1856 and 1862, during which Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was published.[12] The novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in the village in 1884,[13] and the playwright W. S. Gilbert, although he did not live in Pinner, was a magistrate there from 1893 onwards.[14] Twentieth-century figures include the cartoonist William Heath Robinson, who lived in Moss Lane between 1913 and 1918,[15] and now has a museum dedicated to him at West House in Pinner Memorial Park, and the current children's laureate Michael Rosen, who was born in Pinner in 1946, and lived there until 1962.[16]

Figures in the world of entertainment associated with Pinner include the musicians Sir Elton John and Simon LeBon, who both grew up there and attended the local County Grammar School before moving away,[17][18] actor David Suchet and comedian Ronnie Barker, both one-time owners of 17th-century Elmdene in Church Lane,[19] actress Jane March, who grew up there before moving to the United States,[20] actress Molly Weir, who lived there until her death in 2004,[21] and broadcaster Bob Holness, who still lives there.[22] The Monster Raving Loony Party leader Screaming Lord Sutch, who lived in nearby South Harrow, is buried in Pinner New Cemetery.[23]

Other notable figures include Horatia Nelson, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, who lived there from 1860 until her death in 1881,[24] the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, born there in 1923,[25] the documentary film-maker Jo Durden-Smith, born there in 1941,[26] and the Iraq hostage Norman Kember, a long-time resident of the town.[27]

Filmography

The BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave, although filmed elsewhere, was set in Pinner,[28] as was the sitcom May to December, which filmed its exterior shots in the High Street. Location shots in My_Hero_(TV_series) were filmed near the flats in Capel Gardens. Their landmark green roofs are often seen through windows or in extrenal shots and the show features comic references to neighbouring Northolt that are probably deeply puzzling to the show's national audience.

Notes

  1. ^ Combined total for the Pinner and Pinner South wards at the 2001 census.
  2. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.11
  3. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.1
  4. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.34. The church was originally a chapel of ease to St Mary's Church in Harrow, and was first mentioned in 1234. It was rebuilt in the early fourteenth-century, and rededicated in 1321. The parish became independent of St Mary's in 1766, when the first perpetual curate was appointed; not until the Wilberforce Act of 1868 did it appoint its first vicar, one William Hind.
  5. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.18
  6. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.25
  7. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, pp.176-184
  8. ^ www.statistics.gov.uk. Accessed 14 August 2008.
  9. ^ European Parliament official site. Accessed 14 August 2008.
  10. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.11
  11. ^ Pinner Local History Society. Accessed 13 August 2008.
  12. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.155
  13. ^ Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Accessed 12 August 2008.
  14. ^ Views of W. S. Gilbert. Accessed 12 August 2008.
  15. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.192
  16. ^ Michael Rosen: The Website. Accessed 7 August 2008.
  17. ^ Elton John official website. Accessed 12 August 2008.
  18. ^ www.yuddy.com. Accessed 12 August 2008.
  19. ^ Pinner Local History. Accessed 12 August 2008
  20. ^ www.tv.com. Accessed 13 August 2008.
  21. ^ The Gazetteer for Scotland. Accessed 7 August 2008.
  22. ^ BBC Kent: Profile of Bob Holness. Accessed 13 August 2008.
  23. ^ www.bbc.co.uk. Accessed 13 August 2008.
  24. ^ Clarke, A History of Pinner, p.155
  25. ^ www.bbc.co.uk. Accessed 13 August 2008.
  26. ^ Obituary of Jo Durden-Smith, The Independent, 5 June 2007. Accessed 14 August 2008.
  27. ^ 'No word on fate of Iraq peace hostages', The Independent, 12 December 2005. Accessed 14 August 2005.
  28. ^ Harrow Council. Accessed 12 August 2008.

References

  • Patricia A. Clarke, A History of Pinner, Phillimore, 2004 ISBN 1-86077-287-0
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