please empty your brain below
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Wot no April fool ?
Sad face.
Jon Allen | 01.04.15 - 4:50 a.m. | #
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It's a sign, I tell you, a sign.
Blue Witch | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 6:42 a.m. | #
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What an educational mini series, loved it. As I've only lived in London a mere 30 years, this is all history that I wasn't aware of.
IslandDweller | 01.04.15 - 6:52 a.m. | #
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Sadface re the apparent April fool lack too - but well, we're all growing up and: hmm, Muswell Hill + Highgate + Crouch End = the London Borough of Highgate? Only until midday?!
Dominic H | 01.04.15 - 7:37 a.m. | #
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Ealing's old town hall wasn't on the same site as the new one, it still stands as the Natwest Bank on the Mall. Though that would be a very subtle April fool.
Ben | 01.04.15 - 7:53 a.m. | #
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Happy Fools Day!
But seriously-the former Ealing Town Hall is still standing in The Mall-it's the NatWest bank. So not on the same site as our current one which is a five minute walk down the road to the west. Both buildings were designed by the Borough Surveyor, Charles Jones.
There are plans to sell off our lovely Town Hall, so we may see it turned into yet another hotel (five other are planned or newly opened) on the Uxbridge Road.
HoosierSands | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 8:02 a.m. | #
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Oh! Snap!
HoosierSands | 01.04.15 - 8:04 a.m. | #
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'Our strength is a tree' made me giggle a bit.
And the London Borough of Highgate made me Google a bit...
martin | 01.04.15 - 8:41 a.m. | #
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Try this
http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/heritage/poll_is_havering_london_or_essex_1_4016858
Running Correspondent | 01.04.15 - 8:57 a.m. | #
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Truth is stranger than fiction.
Do we even know where the first open-plan offices were? For example, computers and clerks (and later typists) were in large pools for quite some time. The (listed) Heinz building in Hillingdon is an early example of a purpose-built open-plan building...
Andrew | 01.04.15 - 9:24 a.m. | #
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Highgate = Crouch End + Highgate + Muswell Hill
Population 1965: 203,000 / Population 2015: 203,000
err, no increase in population since 1965?
this must be an april fool
dave | 01.04.15 - 9:29 a.m. | #
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I suspect Ealing Council's attention to its history is in some measure down to Phil Portwood, such as these regular snippets,
https://twitter.com/eastacton/status/583150331275661312
Tunnel Bore | 01.04.15 - 9:41 a.m. | #
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I'd thought the redevelopment of Hornsey Town Hall had gone ahead. Very sad to read that it hasn't. It's criminal to leave such a gorgeous building empty and decaying.
Chz | 01.04.15 - 9:55 a.m. | #
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What I don't understand is if Middlesex ceased to exist as of 1965 why were we still taught, where I grew up in the 1970s (borough of Barnet), to address letters to Edgware and Harrow etc as if still in Middlesex?
In fact I still do, and if I knew anyone to write to in Croydon I'd address it as Croydon, Surrey etc!
Cornish Cockney | 01.04.15 - 10:21 a.m. | #
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oh I absolutely love this one ...
"Crouch End: Council administration was based in Bakers House on Topsfield Parade, and originally linked by tunnel to The Maynard Arms pub for unobserved access"
Caroline | 01.04.15 - 10:40 a.m. | #
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@Cornish Cockney
Middlesex County Council may have ceased to exist in 1965, but the area it used to administer didn't disappear into a hole in the ground, any more than Greater London ceased to exist during the interregnum between 1986 and 2000.
The Royal Mail still recognises Middlesex, just as it still recognises Westmoreland. Both Harrow and Edgware have namesakes in other parts of the world, although in these particular cases confusion is unlikely.
timbo | 01.04.15 - 10:44 a.m. | #
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Muswell Hill being a lost piece of Essex also caught my eye....
Re postal counties - they remained the same after 1965, and have nothing to do with administrative divisions. Maybe one reason (much more recently) they have been abolished entirely - the post office now officially only requires the town name and postcode.
Dominic H | 01.04.15 - 10:46 a.m. | #
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I used to live in Haringey. It's funny to think that the Piccadilly line was built in deep tunnel when the area was "countryside".
Greg | 01.04.15 - 11:33 a.m. | #
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Nice obscure April Fools. Highgate is of course part of Haringey now. Could not find any mention in wikipaedia to the Highgate Hunger Strike.Also would there be a town hall adjacent to Kenwood House in such an upmarket area?
kissenme | 01.04.15 - 1:18 p.m. | #
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Staines and Sunbury, of course, are also ex-Middlesex, and were transferred to Surrey. This has always struck me as more disturbing than the transfer of Potters Bar: I feel it is of the very essence of Surrey that it should be south of the river.
Andrew M | 01.04.15 - 1:36 p.m. | #
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@Andrew M
Indeed - the name Surrey is derived from Suthrige, meaning "southern region", the part of the Middle Saxon territory that was south of the Thames.
timbo | 01.04.15 - 2:36 p.m. | #
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Re: Crouch End, FYI your photo link misdirects to an image of Wood Green crown court in N22.
F Flaherty | 01.04.15 - 4:06 p.m. | #
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I do love how people cling to postal counties as some sort of "recognition" that their "beloved county" still exists.
This will be unpopular with some people, but there is nothing special about any county - young or old. Each is just a division of land for tax and people management purposes, and the provision of facilities. The older counties were basically set up based on who was mates with the King at the time, the younger ones based on population. Some people get so stroppy about Kingston (for example) not being in Surrey, but what on earth does it matter?
Besides which, people often get it wrong. To take an example from near where I grew up in Greater Manchester... The are people on Facebook insisting the town of Reddish is in Cheshire not Greater Manchester. It's Cheshire. Always was, always will be.
Except that Reddish was part of Lancashire until 1901 when it was moved out of Manchester council and into Stockport council's area. Because of that it was moved into Cheshire.
Why did that happen? Stockport needed more land. So they nabbed it and therefore Reddish's tax income.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 4:22 p.m. | #
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Kingston may not be in Surrey any more, but given the location of the County Council offices, Surrey is still very much in Kingston.
Richmond, like Kingston, has namesakes in other parts of the country so is more likely than most to have "Surrey" appended to its name - even though the greater part of the borough is actually in Middlesex.
Timbo | 01.04.15 - 4:35 p.m. | #
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Re: Andrew Bowden
The names of counties are important. They are part of our heritage and history. Every bit of history or heritage that is lost diminishes us as a country and people. I always use Middlesex, Surrey or Kent when addressing a letter. And not just to please Russell Grant
Anthony Finerty | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 6:15 p.m. | #
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Anthony - and why are they "important"? Because some King gave some land to his friend for the purposes of tax and management centuries ago. A rich friend of course.
That is the only reason they existed. To me that is not a reason for them existing now. We should never forget history but that's no good reason to be beholden to a quirk of fate from history for centuries.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 6:29 p.m. | #
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Or to put it a different way, if Cameron gave his mate Johnson tomorrow all the land in Uxbridge to look after, and to tax, would this be worthy of celebrating in the year 4015?
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.15 - 6:31 p.m. | #
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To be fair to Newham, they have a web page about it, although it doesn't say much, and a similar page in thenewhammag
Ben | 01.04.15 - 7:37 p.m. | #
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Kingston doesn't take part in London's Open House event; they choose to be in Surrey's the week before. Now I understand why.
Roehamster | 01.04.15 - 7:44 p.m. | #
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There have been no GLC celebrations because we now live in The Capital.
Chris | 01.04.15 - 8:10 p.m. | #
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Not entirely unnoticed...
www.londonist.com/2015/04/celebrating-50-years-of-the-london-boroughs
Frank F | 01.04.15 - 9:10 p.m. | #
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Shame on me for not spotting the London Borough of Highgate until a commentor pointed it out. My skim reading just got too skimmy.
Mind you, Muswell Hill did contain an exclave of Clerkenwell at one time, and Clerkenwell was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex. (But so was the rest of Middlesex, which rather spoils my argument).
Malcolm | 01.04.15 - 9:12 p.m. | #
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@Cornish Cockney -- Royal Mail has always been a law unto itself as far as postal addresses are concerned. The London postal districts - N, E, SE, SW, W and NW, plus EC and WC, never had any connection with the old county of London, nor with individual boroughs. Parts of SE3, where I live, are in Greenwich and parts are in Lewisham. There is a bit of inner-London Lewisham borough whose postal address is Bromley (Kent, the PO would have it).
And Staines (or Staines upon Thames) is Staines, Middx, according to the RM, even though for the past 50 years it's been in Surrey.
But these days, apparently, you don't need to put the old county names so long as you put the postcode.
Alan Burkitt-Gray | 02.04.15 - 10:21 a.m. | #
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Being older than Greater London (just!), old habits die hard and as I was taught to put the county on addresses, I suppose I always will!
As a genealogist as well, counties are very important to me, which just further reinforces my observance of them!
Cornish Cockney | 02.04.15 - 12:05 p.m. | #
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