Edgware

Edgware is an Old English place-name meaning Ecgi's weir. Ecgi is a Saxon name and the weir relates to a pond where his people would catch fish.[4] A legal record of 1422 mentions "Eggeswer", in Middlesex, which, being in Latin, may have been written deliberately using an older form of the spelling.[5] By 1489, and the beginning of the Tudor period those writing the name added the "d" and it was Edggeware.

Edgware was a large ancient parish of 2,089 acres (8.45 km²) in the county of Middlesex. The town of Edgware extended into the parish of Little Stanmore.[6]

Both Edgware and Little Stanmore parishes formed part of the Hendon Rural District from 1894.[7] During the early 1930s the rural district was abolished with Edgware becoming part of the Hendon Urban District in 1932 and Little Stanmore becoming part of Harrow Urban District in 1934.[8]

The Romans made pottery at Brockley Hill, thought by some to be the site of Sulloniacis. Canons Park, to the north-west, was developed as an estate by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and was the site of his great palace Cannons.

The manor does not appear in the Domesday survey so is likely to have been created later. The manorial centre has, since at least 1216, been Edgwarebury Farm. James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos erected a palace at Cannons Park around 1713 for £250,000 (equivalent to £39,606,272 in 2021) and was by far the wealthiest resident in its pre-20th century history. The ancient parish served by St Margaret's church was larger than the manor and included parts of Elstree in the north, but not land south of Deans Brook and Edgware Brook, or Little Stanmore parish west of the Edgware Road marking a traditional longest boundary of Edgware. The area of Edgware was little altered and was in the 1930s 3.26 square miles (8.4 km²).[6]

The St Margaret of Antioch Church

Edgware Road follows the same line as the ancient Watling Street, an important Roman Road, and used in the medieval period by pilgrims. The Road was improved by the Edgware-Kilburn turnpike trust in 1711, and a number of the local inns functioned as a stop for coaches. By 1867 a railway line had been built between Edgware and Finsbury Park and a station was built.

By the 17th century Edgware had a small market selling cattle driven from other parts of England and fattened and sold locally. Local trades included butchers, tailors, colliers (charcoal sellers) and brewers. The market was held every week but petered out in 1790s.[9]

Edgware was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin- the infamous scene of his worst incident, which happened on 4 February 1735, when five gang members, including Turpin, broke into a farmhouse owned by Joseph Lawrence, called Earlsbury Farm. Lawrence was at least 70 (so considered fairly old) and yet Turpin et al. beat him with their pistols and tortured him by setting him on a fire whilst naked, before announcing that they would amputate his legs. While this was going on, the leader of the gang took a servant girl upstairs and raped her.[10]

Industry played a minor role in the economy of Edgware. There was a cattle and pleasure fair from 1760s to 1860s with horse racing between 1834 and 1855.[11]

Gravel pits were probably being worked by 1802 and certainly by 1834, partly at least by the labour of the able-bodied poor as a parish employment, and in 1963 gravel was still being extracted on the eastern side of the parish. In 1831 there were no persons engaged in manufacturing in the parish, and in fact there were no industries until in 1900 the firm of Chas. Wright Ltd., manufacturing engineers, moved from Clerkenwell: employed for the UK government in World War I and after this it struck 2,000,000 Mons or 1914 Stars and Victory Medals. Its largest production in World War II was for the metal parts of respirator filters: making 94½ million between 1937 and 1943. In 1963 the company was chiefly engaged in the manufacture of car registration plates. There were 70 workmen employed, together with an office staff of 30. The firm of A.E.W. Ltd., founded in 1923 and established in Edgware in 1927, at the start of the 1970s employed 50 people and manufactured laboratory and industrial electric ovens and furnaces.[11]

This place, from its situation within an easy distance of the metropolis, and the excellence of the road to it through an almost uninterrupted succession of elegant villas and agreeable scenery, has become the residence of numerous opulent and respectable families.

— S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1848[12]

Edgware had few residents for its size but saw some prosperous commerce: in 1870, for instance, there were six insurance agents in the village. The opening of the Great Northern Railway branch in 1867, however, seems to have had little effect on the expansion of the village, and plans to extend the railway met with strong local opposition. A Bill to establish a line from Watford to Edgware, brought before Parliament in 1896 and 1897, was opposed by residents, and it was said that the real harm of the railways was the opening up of building sites 'which are quickly covered with architectural atrocities'. In this time the parish had begun to display a tendency to split into an opulent north and a workaday south, separated by an agricultural buffer zone. By 1896 several large houses had been built in the Elstree area or along the Elstree—Barnet road, while the old village gained the post office, the infants' school, the station, and the Railway Hotel. The southern part of the parish was unable to repel the tide of suburban development, but the threatened distinction was to a large extent averted by the quality of buildings between the two world wars.[11]

Grade II listed, former Railway Hotel on Station Road

Station Road, Edgware.

The first (non-tube connected) railway accompanied a brief decline in population. By the mid 19th century the area was almost entirely for the purpose of hay production. In 1939 the overground railway passenger service ceased to run, and goods traffic ceased by 1964. A tram service began in 1904.[9] In 1921 the population was 1,516. Although much suburban development was encouraged by the opening of the tube station in 1924, the area was already attracting developers like George Cross to the area by 1919. The conurbation increased as far north as the Edgware Way. In 1932 the parish became a part of Hendon Urban District. The shopping district around Station Road developed to include the Ritz Cinema, which opened in May 1932. Following several name changes the cinema was eventually demolished in 2001 and replaced by a large gym, apartments and a Caffè Nero. The Edgware Town F.C. was founded in 1939 after a predecessor team in 1915.[9]

A general hospital on Burnt Oak Broadway dates back to an infirmary that was added at a workhouse from the Hendon Board of Guardians in 1865, with an all new site adjacent to it built and opened with 175 beds in December 1927 as Redhill Hospital. It was extended greatly by Middlesex County Council in the late 1930s. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was renamed Edgware General Hospital.[13]

Post-war development has been restricted by the Metropolitan Green Belt, sparing urban sprawl into the Scratch Wood and Deacons Hill areas apart from the M1 motorway. By this time the population was more than 17,000. In 1990, the Mall Shopping Centre, originally called the Broadwalk Shopping Centre, replaced the station pulled down in 1961.

Following a review in 1994, Edgware General Hospital was controversially closed by the Conservative government of John Major in April 1997 despite public opposition.[14] After the Labour Party election victory the closure was upheld, leading to further outcry from the public. Eventually a review and lengthy consultations took place with local campaigners and authorities, which resulted in the building of a community hospital.[15][16] The General Hospital site was demolished and Edgware Community Hospital, which cost £38 million, opened in its place in February 2005.[14]

Edgware was identified in 2008 as a major centre for preferred development in the London Plan.[17]

In the mid 2010s, many new apartments have been built on Green Lane.[18]

Like most parts of northwest London, Edgware is served very well by the London Underground and there are four stations serving the area:

• Edgware (Northern line)
• 

  Edgware tube station.
  Burnt Oak (Northern line)
• Canons Park (Jubilee line)
• Queensbury (Jubilee line)

Edgware bus station.

Fifteen day London Buses serve Edgware, along with three night services, three school services, and two non-TfL routes operated by Uno.