Harrow, London

Grade II listed St John's Greenhill church originally served the hamlet of Greenhill - parts of the original building were demolished in 1905; today it is located in town on Sheepcote Road[12]

By 1865, a series of roads had been built in Greenhill, including College, Roxborough, Kymberley, Headstone, Clarendon, Byron and St Anns - but few houses.[13] A parish church, St John's Church, was built in 1866 on a farm and Greenhill became a separate parish in 1896. The church building has been Grade II listed since 1994.[14] The Metropolitan Railway connection dates from 1880 with the building of Harrow-on-the-Hill station, which led to a housebuilding boom[15] and a population of 4,892 by 1902.[16] Developments westward along the railway in the Headstone and Pinner as well as Roxborough and Wealdstone engulfed Greenhill with new developments, and soon enough there was nothing left of the original village.[13]

Looking towards Grove Hill - behind the photographer was the scene of the 1899 car accident

.

In 1899, the junction of Grove Hill and Lowlands Road is said to have been the scene of Britain's first fatal car accident.[17] There is a plaque to commemorate this at the top of Grove Hill where it meets the High Street and Peterborough Hill.

In Greenhill, there was a workmen's club from the 1860s and a public hall, Victoria Hall, by 1888.[18]

By 1895, most of Greenhill (along with Roxeth) became part of the Harrow on the Hill Urban District, while a small part in the north became part of Wealdstone Urban District. It would remain so until 1934 with the creation of Harrow Urban District.[18] One of the oldest surviving buildings in what is today Harrow is the Grade I listed Headstone Manor from the 15th century.

Harrow contributed to the growing photographic industry in the UK; a large industrial premises was built in 1890 by the American Eastman Kodak company in Wealdstone, and by 1965 there were over 100 buildings on a 55-acre site at Kodak Harrow, employing 5,500 people,[19] including a research centre. This facility operated for 125 years. The long chimney has been a landmark in Harrow ever since.[20]

College Road, Harrow (c. 1937)

315 Station Road, Grade II listed building designed by Sir Banister Fletcher in 1915, which houses a NatWest bank today

In 1914, a major department store named Sopers opened on Station Road. The site became a Debenhams store;[21] it closed in May 2021 after the collapse of the Debenham's chain.[22] Its facade dated from the 1960s.[23]

During the inter-war period Harrow had grown into a suburb.[24] Almost two-thirds of housing stock in the present day Borough of Harrow dates back to the interwar period.[23]

The modern town of Harrow and much of the borough overall has been defined historically by the growth of the railways, as Harrow expanded and saw housing developments as a result of the building of the Metropolitan Railway into what was, in early Victorian times, the rural areas to the north-west of London. The borough bow has many train stations.

Harrow has been the location of several serious train accidents.[25] On 7 August 1838, Thomas Port died from injuries received in a train accident near Harrow. His gravestone in the parish churchyard of St Mary's, Harrow-on-the-Hill, states: "To the memory of Thomas Port, son of John Port of Burton-upon-Trent in the County of Stafford, Hat Manufacturer, who near this town had both legs severed from his body by the railway train. With great fortitude, he bore a second amputation by the surgeons and died from loss of blood, August 7th 1838, aged 33 years." On 26 November 1870, two trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station, killing 9 and injuring 44.[26] On 8 October 1952, three trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station, killing 112 people.[27] Of the dead, 64 were railway employees on their way to work.

Although The Blitz is generally claimed to have started on 7 September 1940, many sources state that one of the earliest bombing raid from the Luftwaffe occurred in Harrow and Wealdstone on 22 August 1940. It caused damage to cinemas, houses and a bank, but with no fatalities.[28] Although Harrow was then in Middlesex, it was classed as a London area by the civil defence as it came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police.[29] The very first air raid on the present day London area is believed to be the accidental bombing of Croydon Airport on 15 August 1940, which was then in Surrey.[28]

The town was part of the Harrow Urban District, a district council within the county of Middlesex, from 1934 until 1965, which also included parts of Edgware, Hendon, Wembley and Pinner. The London Borough of Harrow was formed in 1965 as the only London borough unaffected by boundary changes.[19]

Harrow Civic Centre, built in 1972

By the 1950s, Harrow was described as the "capital city of Metro-land".[30] The borough's council Civic Centre building complex was built in 1970–1972, opened 6 May 1973, on Station Road in Wealdstone.[31] Six storeys high and designed by architect Eric Broughton, the building is considered "outdated and costly" in 2018 and was expected to be imminently redeveloped.[32] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many new office blocks were built in the town, especially in Lyon Road and the western end of College Road.[23]

In 1974, the Kodak Mural designed by Pentagram was completed on the first floor of the recently opened Civic Centre. It contains almost one thousand photographic tiles representing Harrow and designed to commemorate the town and borough's links with Kodak.[33]

Town centre pedestrianised in the 1980s (Havelock Place)

The golden woman sculpture on the Hygeia Building

The town underwent regeneration in the 1980s with the building of a bus station in College Road and the pedestrianisation of St Anns Road. A statue called "Skipping Katie" was unveiled by the local council in May 1987 to celebrate the completion of the pedestrianisation. The landmark was designed by James Butler inspired by watching his daughter skip.[34] A plaque on Katie was unveiled in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the 50th anniversary of the London Borough of Harrow.[34]

In the autumn of 1987, Diana, Princess of Wales visited Harrow, where she officially opened the new St Anns shopping centre amid a large crowd of locals.[35] Located opposite the central train station on College Road, the centre was built on demolished buildings including Heathfield School for Girls, which moved away to Pinner in 1982.[36]

Nearby St Anns shopping centre, another indoor retail outlet was built which was opened as St George's Shopping and Leisure Centre on St George's Day in 1996. The town's Woolworths store on Station Road closed and was replaced by a new branch inside St George's.[36][37] Other landmarks built during the decade include the Hygeia building in 1991,[38] which has an erected golden coloured sculpture of Roman goddess Hygeia facing the bus station. Furthermore, in 1991, Lower Mead stadium on Station Road, the home of Wealdstone F.C., was sold to Tesco and demolished. In its place a new large Tesco superstore was built.[39][40]

Bradstowe House, one of the 21st century developments

The town centre has undergone a new wave of redevelopment. In 2011, the one-way single lane section of Station Road was widened to allow two-way bus traffic.[41] The 11 storey luxury apartments of Bradstowe House was completed in 2016 after long delays.[42] Former office buildings on Lyon Road (including Coal House, once belonging to the National Coal Board) have been regenerated into new mixed use buildings in the 2010s, whereas on Pinner Road behind St George's centre a new eight storey development called Trident Point was built which includes a Morrisons supermarket opened in 2013.[43] The former post-office sorting building on College Road, next to the train station, remained vacant for some years until plans for a 19-storey skyscraper was approved by the council in 2015. The development, called Harrow Square, was partly completed with 318 apartments across four buildings in 2018.[44][45] It includes a bottom floor 1,450 square metres (15,600 sq ft) library still under construction which will replace the current Gayton Library on St John's Road.[46][47] The building next to it, formerly First National House,[48] has been refurbished into luxury apartments called The Hub.[49]

The borough received a £1 million grant from the Mayor of London that will go towards a new public square and a "pop-up test eatery" at the site of the former Cumberland Hotel on Lyon Road, expected to be completed by 2020.[50] The 1930s art deco facade of the Safari Cinema, which has been hidden since the 1960s, is set to be restored from 2020.[51][52] The council aims to invest over a billion in the town centres of Harrow and Wealdstone and the Station Road corridor in between.[53]

Safari Cinema

The borough's Harrow Arts Centre is located in Pinner and includes a theatre and several meeting rooms for various arts groups.

The St George's centre has a large Vue cinema. Formerly Sheepcote Road was home to Granada Theatre, opened in 1937, which became a 3 screen cinema in 1973. The building, interior designed by Theodore Komisarjevsky,[77] was Grade II listed in 1988.[78] The cinema went through ownership and name changes from 1989 until it was permanently closed in 1996, six months after the other cinema opening at St George's. After a few years in a derelict condition, the building became a health club gymnasium operated by Gold's Gym. The theatre's original Wurlitzer organ is retained in the building, although currently not accessible to the public,[78] although it reported to remain in perfect working condition.[77]

An art-deco cinema called Dominion opened in 1936 adjoining Lower Mead football ground, on much of tge site of Greenhill Farm.[19] It was later purchased by ABC Cinemas, and the Dominion's original art deco design was covered in new metal cladding in 1962.[79] In the 1970s the lower floor was converted to a bingo hall and in the 1990s the cinema became the Safari, showing Bollywood films. This closed in the 20teens and it was not until January 2020 when plans to restore the art deco (and building 78 flats at the site) were approved by Harrow council. This is currently under re-construction.[80]

St Mary's Church on Harrow Hill

Some of the major churches in Harrow include the Grade I listed St Mary's Church, St John's Greenhill, All Saints Harrow Weald, Holy Trinity Wealdstone, Christ Church Roxeth, and Kenton Methodist Church.

Harrow has a Hindu temple dedicated to Sri Lord Ayyappa and is known as Sri Ayyappan Kovil, located in the Wealdstone neighbourhood. In the same area is the large Harrow Central Mosque, and a smaller local mosque, Masjid Imam Muqbil, is located in South Harrow. On Bessborough Road in the town is the Mosaic Reform Synagogue, and there is a United Synagogue in the Kenton part of Harrow. There is a Zoroastrianism centre in Rayners Lane.

The 1918 novel The Return of the Soldier is based in Harrow.[81]

The wedding of characters Peggy Mitchell and Frank Butcher of EastEnders in 1999 was filmed in Harrow.[82] The classroom in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was filmed at the Fourth Form Room of Harrow School. The school was also used to shoot many scenes of the drama The Crown.[83] The British Asian soap drama Cloud 9 was shot in Harrow in 2013.[84] The exterior of Clark's house in the 2016 film Me Before You was shot in Harrow.[85]

The Harrow Times is a local newspaper for the borough, and formerly the historic Harrow Observer that dates back to the 19th century. The Brent & Kilburn Times and Watford Observer also cover Harrow.

Radio Harrow is a local charity radio that broadcasts from Northwick Park Hospital. Launched in 2015 in its current form, its predecessor Radio Northwick Park had already been broadcasting for four decades before.[86] A student radio called Smoke Radio broadcasts from the University of Westminster campus since 2004.[87]

Harrow is represented by the association football club Wealdstone F.C., who play in the National League (fifth tier); they are currently based away in Ruislip, having been forced to leave their original stadium in Harrow in 1991. Another local club is Harrow Borough F.C. who are based at Earlsmead Stadium and currently play in the Isthmian League Premier Division (seventh tier).

Harrow Leisure Centre and Harrow Skate Park are located by Byron Park in Wealdstone. There is a golf course at Northwick Park.

Underground trains at the platforms of Harrow-on-the-Hill station.

Harrow is served by many London Underground and National Rail services:

• Harrow-on-the-Hill (Metropolitan line & Aylesbury Line/Chiltern Railways)[n 1]
• Harrow & Wealdstone (Bakerloo line, London Overground, London Northwestern Railway and Southern)
• West Harrow (Metropolitan line)
• South Harrow (Piccadilly line)
• Rayners Lane (Metropolitan/Piccadilly lines)
• North Harrow (Metropolitan line)
• Kenton (Bakerloo line & London Overground)
• Headstone Lane (London Overground)
• Northolt Park (Chiltern Main Line/Chiltern Railways) [On Boundary between Ealing & Harrow]
• Sudbury Hill Harrow (Chiltern Main Line/Chiltern Railways)
• Northwick Park (Metropolitan line) [On boundary between Brent & Harrow]
• Sudbury Hill (Piccadilly line)

Harrow-on-the-Hill is the town's central station, located on College Road/Lowlands Road. The station provides direct Underground and rail links to the West End, the City, Uxbridge, and through the Chiltern Hills to Aylesbury. The other major station - and both the largest and busiest of Harrow - is Harrow & Wealdstone, a short distance north from the town, which has direct trains to the West End, Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Watford, Hemel Hempstead and beyond towards Brighton and Birmingham respectively. Both stations are in Travelcard zone 5. Trains towards Gerrards Cross are served by the smaller Sudbury Hill Harrow station which also provides an alternative route towards the West Midlands.

Harrow-on-the-Hill is a much busier tube station compared with the town's other principal station, Harrow & Wealdstone, recording over 10.3 million London Underground passengers in 2018/2019. However, the latter is served more extensively by National Rail services, as well as the London Overground and because of this it's a busier National Rail station.

A short railway line called the Stanmore branch line formerly ran from Harrow & Wealdstone via Belmont to Stanmore Village, but this line was closed in 1964.[91]

On 23 December 1991, the IRA exploded a bomb on a train at Harrow-on-the-Hill station; there were no injuries.

Buses at Harrow's bus station

Harrow bus station is adjacent to St Anns shopping centre and Harrow on the Hill railway station.[92] All buses are managed by Transport for London and links are provided to Ruislip, Watford, Edgware, Northwood, Golders Green, Wembley, Ealing, Hayes and Heathrow Airport. Many local buses have a H-prefix in the range 9–19.

During the privatisation of London bus services, Harrow was one of the first places with its own London Regional Transport operating unit, called Harrow Buses and operating from November 1987 in red and cream branded livery.[93] The scheme was not successful and the service gained the nickname "Harrowing Buses" from the local press.[94]

Harrow was the place where the first major electronic contactless smart card technology was being tested on buses. In a £2 million trial that started in February 1994,[95] cards were provided by London Transport at the bus station and could be used on 21 bus routes in Harrow, the largest trial of its kind in the world. Within two months, 9,000 smart photocards were issued. The scheme was a success by the time it ended in December 1995, and led to the development of the Oyster card in 2003.[96]

There are no trunk roads in the vicinity of Harrow. The A312 road starts in Harrow as Bessborough Road - however the A312's section in Harrow is merely an urban road, and the primary trunk road starts over 3 miles away in Northolt. It is here where there is a crossing with the A40 Western Avenue. The A406 is 5 miles away via Neasden, Wembley or Hanger Lane Gyratory. There is access to junction 2 of the M1 motorway 6 miles away via the A41 in Edgware.