What's in a Name?
East Finchley started life in the Middle Ages as a collection of small hamlets
strung along the road called variously the Bishop's Causeway and Manor Waie,
and now East End Road. These
settlements at present day Market Place (Hog Market, Park Gate), Church Lane
(formerly Bulls Lane) and Red Lion Hill (formerly Cuckold's Haven) were interconnected
by a series of lanes
and footpaths long since absorbed into the road system and were known collectively
as East End.
By the 1700's the population around Market Place was growing to service the needs of London and its travellers. The affluent bit developed along East End Road and Fortis Green, while the poor bit, with its seedy reputation for squalor, immorality & violence, grew around Market Place. The condition of these inhabitants, and the competition of non-conformist mission work, precipitated the formation of East Finchley Parish in 1846, with a Parish Church on renamed Church lane. See The Archer issue 57
In the 1850-1860's, even before the arrival of the railway, cottages appeared northward around Church Lane and Red Lion Hill.1
Later in the century with the improvements in transport came the suburban residents and the population increased dramatically.
The newcomers did not like the connotations associated with the name East End and this was phased out, the railway station changing from East End to East Finchley in 1886.
The centre of population shifted eastward as Finchley Common was built over to form, amongst others, Chapel Street1 (since disappeared), Park Hall Road, and the Counties estate, while the High Road, which for centuries had effectively bypassed the main settlements, became an early example of a green-field shopping development! The shops around Market Place no doubt complained at the time, but to no avail, and they have since disappeared.
To cater for the eastward shift of population, another parish was formed, based on All Saints, Durham Road.
A separate electoral identity followed in 1899 when Finchley UDC was divided into 3 wards, East Finchley taking the part south of Strawberry Vale Brook, Squires Lane and the since disappeared Green Lane (formerly Workhouse Lane, Phillippa Lane). The railway bridge approach is just visible, south of the NCR. Since then the northern boundary has been shifted south to the North Circular Road.
Many names have come and gone, but it would be ironic if Church Lane, with its Parish Church, Neighbourhood Centre and village atmosphere were to end up outside the newly designated village.
1 Cottages in Long Lane (western side, the eastern is yet later) , Trinity and Manor Park Roads
were built at the same time as the track and were very much part of the same development. The
period from 1816 to the arrival of the railway is to be addressed (hopefully) in more detail at a
later date.
