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Childs Hill
Church Walk
Childs HillLocation within Greater London
Area	1.0163 km (0.3924 sq mi)
Population	6,406 (2011 Relevant Census Output Areas)
• Density	6,303/km (16,320/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ245865
London borough	Barnet
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW2, NW3
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Finchley and Golders Green
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
List of places UK England London 51°33′47″N 0°11′49″W / 51.563°N 0.197°W / 51.563; -0.197

Childs Hill is one of two areas at the south end of the London Borough of Barnet along with Cricklewood which straddles three boroughs. It took its name from Richard le Child, who in 1312 held a customary house and "30 acres" of its area. It is a mainly late-19th-century suburban large neighbourhood centred 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross bordered by the arterial road Hendon Way in the west and south-west, Dunstan Road in the north, West Heath and Golders Hill Park which form an arm of Hampstead Heath to the east and the borough boundary as to the short south-east border.

Child's Hill reaches relatively high ground in London along its eastern border. Adjoining Hampstead Heath features, less than a mile from the centre of Child's Hill, the summit of London's third-highest escarpment. From 1789 to 1847 Child's Hill hosted an optical telegraph station.

Politics

The area has long given its name to a ward of the United Kingdom and which has always taken in the heart of the area and many other neighbouring streets. It currently reaches to take in Cricklewood and in the opposite direction most of Golders Green; to give it a population of 20,049 across 3.089 square kilometres.

Due to large-scale exclusion of the parkland to the east and north-east, the ward as drawn is currently the most densely populated in the borough. For 2018-2022 it sends to Barnet Council two Conservatives, Shimon Ryde and Peter Zinkin, and one Labour Party councillor, Anne Clarke. The area has two Residents' Associations:

• GERA, for Granville Rd. and neighbouring roads
• CLAN, representing three residential streets at the heart of the neighbourhood - Crewys, Llanvanor and Nant Roads.

History

Childs Hill took its name from Richard le Child, who in 1312 held a customary house and "30 acres" of its area, believed to be on the ancient long-held borders within Hendon rather than Hampstead, the area having always whilst rural been so split. The earliest known use with the word Hill is in 1587. Today, the apostrophe in the name is optional. In the 18th century, Childs Hill was a centre for brick and tile making, supplying material for building Hampstead. The Castle Inn, since demolished, dated from this period: the first record of it is in 1751.

The land drains steeply from east to west. It reaches over 259 feet (79 m) above mean sea level in the east at the top of residential Platts Lane where Hampstead Heath starts. From 1789 to 1847 the east of Childs Hill hosted an optical telegraph station. In 1808 this became one of a line of telegraph stations stretching from the Admiralty to Great Yarmouth, erected as part of Britain's national defences. Only the name, Telegraph Hill, remains; it has been covered with housing (the Telegraph Hill south-east corner of Childs Hill is now inside the boundary of the London Borough of Camden).

An Act of Parliament in 1826 enabled Finchley Road giving a new road to the north other than two further east through hillier and higher, sometimes narrow urban lanes, which met at Highgate; it was completed by 1829. It had a tollgate at the Castle Public House. The road has a double-width bypass skirting Childs Hill. In the early 1850s a Colonel Evans speculatively built "The Mead", where brickworks had been, renamed Granville Road, the street name today. By the 1870s laundries were a major local industry. The last, the Initial Laundry in Granville Road, closed in 2006.

Housing

Childs Hill has streets of leafy semi-detached and relatively plain terraced housing. It is also characterised by four high rise blocks of flats and some blocks of mid-rise apartments.

The first block of the four was built by the building company Tersons for the Metropolitan Police in about 1956. These were homes for police families. Orchard Mead House, on the Finchley Road, later became Quarters/homes for armed/other emergency Services families for a short time before moving into the private sector.

The second and third blocks, in Granville Road were built in about 1960, by the local borough as housing in the local community. The fourth block, presumed to be the same, was built some time later.

Amenities

Childs Hill has a public library, as well as a square park, Childs Hill park, which also contains the Childs Hill Bowls Club, several shops and restaurants, small businesses, offices, primary schools and two churches (All Saints C of E with Primary School and Childs Hill Baptist).

At the Western extreme on the Hendon Way, is the Palm Hotel, formerly the Garth Hotel. Alexei Sayle's short story Barcelona Plates goes into some detail as its protagonist stays there for a while, noting, amongst many other features, the idiosyncratic design of the building, an amalgamation of suburban houses.

It has an off-centre park, Basing Hill Park. Golders Hill Park borders the east of its area; over half of it is included in two purely Childs Hill census output areas though it borders too Golders Green. Another park, Clitterhouse Recreation Ground is just over the usual borders of the area.

Neighbouring areas

v t e Neighbouring areas
Brent Cross Golders Green Hampstead Heath Cricklewood Childs Hill Hampstead Kilburn West Hampstead Swiss Cottage

Notable people

Childs Hill has blue plaques commemorating two famous former residents: Sportsman C. B. Fry who lived at Moreland Court, Lyndale Avenue, and Aviator Amy Johnson, who lived at Vernon Court on the Hendon Way.

Though not a resident John Constable, who lived in nearby Hampstead, painted Childs Hill in oils in 1825. (The work is entitled Childs Hill with Harrow in the Distance). The painting shows the view northwest along what is now Cricklewood Lane, with Harrow on the Hill visible beyond.

Notes and references

References

1. "KS101EW - Usual resident population (Key Statistics) Query Menu - Area and Usual Residents variables - output areas by map, 2011 Census". NOMIS. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. Election results on Barnet Council website
4. ^ T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Hampstead: Childs Hill', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9 ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 73-75. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp73-75 .
5. Will of John Nuttinge 1587,probated 1591>

Notes

1. The brickworks were last Morris Brickworks

Further reading

Hendon, Child's Hill, Golders Green and Mill Hill, by Stewart Gillies and Pamela Taylor (ISBN 0850338751)
Hampstead Heath, by Alan Farmer (ISBN 0948667400)

External links

• British History Online - Childs Hill section of the history of Hampstead ancient parish to 1989 - in the collaborative historian's project the Victoria County History, for the near-complete History of the County of Middlesex.

v t e London Borough of Barnet
Districts	Arkley Barnet Gate Brent Cross Brunswick Park Burnt Oak Childs Hill Chipping Barnet Church End, Finchley Colney Hatch East Barnet East Finchley Edgware Finchley Friern Barnet Golders Green Grahame Park The Hale Hampstead Garden Suburb Hendon The Hyde Mill Hill (including Mill Hill East) Monken Hadley New Barnet North Finchley Oakleigh Park Osidge Temple Fortune Totteridge West Hendon Whetstone Woodside Park Partly in the London Borough Cockfosters Colindale Cricklewood Muswell Hill New Southgate Abolished in 1965 Barnet East Barnet Finchley Friern Barnet Hendon
Attractions	artsdepot Avenue House Barnet Gate Mill Barnet Market Barnet Museum La Délivrance Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture RAF Museum
Parks and open spaces	Arrandene Open Space Barnet Gate Wood Basing Hill Park Bethune Park Bittacy Hill Park Brent Park Brent Reservoir Cherry Tree Wood Childs Hill Park Clitterhouse Recreation Ground Coppetts Wood Darland's Lake Nature Reserve Dollis Valley Greenwalk Edgwarebury Park Friary Park Golders Hill Park Greenhill Gardens Hendon Park King George's Fields Long Lane Pasture Lyttelton Playing Fields The Mill Field Mill Hill Park Moat Mount Open Space Princes Park Monken Hadley Common Oak Hill Park Oak Hill Wood Old Court House Recreation Ground Princes Park Rowley Green Common Scratchwood Stoneyfields Park Sunny Hill Park Swan Lane Open Space Totteridge Fields Tudor Sports Ground Victoria Park Victoria Recreation Ground Watling Park West Hendon Playing Fields Whalebones Park Whitings Hill Open Space
Constituencies	Chipping Barnet Hendon Finchley and Golders Green
Tube and rail stations	Brent Cross Burnt Oak Colindale Cricklewood East Finchley Edgware Finchley Central Golders Green Hendon Hendon Central High Barnet Mill Hill Broadway Mill Hill East New Barnet New Southgate Oakleigh Park Totteridge & Whetstone West Finchley Woodside Park
Other topics	Brent Cross Cricklewood Coat of arms Council Grade I and II* listed buildings Nature reserves People Public art Schools
Category Commons

• Districts of the London Borough of Barnet