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!Michael StrachanHarrow on the Hill
Copyright © heritagewalks.london 2015 75 West Street, Harrow on the Hill, London HA1 3EL First published in the UK in 2012 Text and images copyright © Michael Strachan Michael Strachan has asserted his rights to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. (The cover illustration shows St Mary’s Church).
Michael StrachanHarrow on the Hill
INTRODUCTION Harrow on the Hill is first recorded in 767, when King Offa made a grant of land, its name then was Gumeninga Hergae, but the Normans called it Harwo, although "Herga" lives on in the names of streets. The parish church of St Mary, consecrated in 1094, still dominates the skyline today. Harrow school produced many famous and infamous men. You can still see the spot where the poet, Lord Byron, dreamed and wrote. His writ-ings, however, were overshadowed by his notoriety, with numerous love affairs and huge debts. One of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb fam-ously described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know” Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, another Harrow pupil, could not have been more different. He be-came a noted supporter of good causes, especially children’s welfare and workers’ conditions. Young Winston Churchill’s first mark at Harrow was not very auspicious. Describing his entrance exam-ination he said - "I wrote my name at the top of the page. I wrote down the number of the question '1'. After much reflection I put a bracket round it, thus (1). But thereafter I could think of nothing connec-ted with it that was either relevant or true." The ink blot that followed is legendary. 1
He went on to become a soldier, a war correspondent, a politician and a statesman of world renown. His leadership in World War II helped Britain survive the crisis of appeasement and bring to an end the horrors of Nazism. ‘The Coral Island’ by R. M. Ballantyne is an idyllic boys adventure which has never been out of print since it was published in 1856. He lived in this vil-lage and is commemorated here by a blue plaque. Harrow on the Hill grew around St. Mary's church, and was once the centre for Local Government. It has many beautiful old buildings, including Harrow school and some good restaurants and the Castle pub. It is still a beautiful London village thanks to the school and the local conservation society. A short distance from London’s bustle and you walk through the history of England. To hear this Introduction please click this icon 2If you would like to donate an amount which will help us cover our costs and continue to work on new publications please scan or tap the QR link below:
Planning Your Walk 1. If possible, walk with a friend. 2. Tell s om eo ne whe re y ou a re go in g. 3. Take c are wh en w alking a t nigh t. 4. Wear sensible clothes and footwear. 5. Always take a bottle of water to avoid de-hydration. 6. Don't try to do too much in one visit. 7. Check the opening times of all Museums and Galleries online. 8. Take y ou r camera o r camer a ph on e with b atteri es f ully charged. 9. If you are printing out this do staple these!pages!together!. 10. Don’t forget to download your free Quiz and Plaque scoresheets by using the URL links on the next page… Start at Harrow on the Hill Underground station. (Metropolitan/Chiltern line) End at Harrow on the Hill Underground station. (Metropolitan/Chiltern line) Use the Transport for London (TFL) planner to plan your journey. 34.8 km 3.0 miles 1-2 hrs
To make your walk more interesting… …we have created an on-line, interactive map which you can find by clicking the link below, or by scanning the green QR code opposite. This will only work if you are reading this guide on a smart device like an iPad: Plot-a-Route map We have also added some fun challenges - the first is a picture quiz. So you need to look out for interesting ob-jects such as ‘street furniture’, statues and architectural features shown in the I-Spy Challenge scoresheet. Click the link below, or scan the pink QR code opposite, to access a download for this scoresheet. It can then be printed or saved: I-Spy Challenge The second challenge is to ‘bag’ all the plaques along this walk. These are listed on a ‘Pastwalkers’ scoresheet along with their ‘what3words’ loca-tions. (Click the information icon op-posite for more about how ‘What3Words’ works). The plaque scores are based on age and quality rather than the importance of the person or event commemorated. Download by clicking on the link below, or by scanning the blue QR code opposite: Plaque Challenge 4Tick them off when you find them
Harrow on the Hill It’s best to arrive in Harrow on the Hill by train - there is parking in Harrow town itself, but very little on the Hill. However, the area is served by the Metropolit-an and Chiltern lines at Harrow on the Hill tube and Overground station. Use the Transport for Lon-don travel planner on page 3 to find the best route. (Do note that Harrow and Harrow on the Hill are not the same place!) As you exit the station’s electronic gates turn left and walk down the steps and along a short stretch of road to the junction with Lowlands Road… Cross over and turn left along Lowlands Road keeping the Grove Open Space on your right… Across the road you will see the site where the new ‘Lowlands Recreation Ground’ has been created. This is part of Harrow Council's plan to im-prove the area around the town centre and will house outdoor events. There is a children’s play area and a combined stage and cafe. (See the illustration above and right…) A little further on you will see ‘Harrow College’ and ‘Lowlands House’ ‘dating from 1829, when it formed part of the estate of Benjamin Rotch. 5‘What3Words’ Scan or tap
He was! a British barrister, politician, author and! MP for Knaresborough from 1832 to 1835.!He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. The next building, (still part of Harrow Col-lege), was originally named the ‘Girls’ County School’. A well-loved Grammar School, founded in 1914, it was closed in 1975, with the reorganisation of education in the Bor-ough of Harrow, Middlesex. Turn right into Grove Hill by the Harrow Town War memorial and walk uphill …. Grove Hill was the old road leading down from the Hill to the towns of Greenhill and Harrow Weald but was considered too steep for traffic and was re-placed by the nearby Peterborough Road in the late 19th century. Perhaps the fatal accident which took place at the top of this road in 1899 had something to do with this change. (You’ll find a plaque commemor-ating this tragic incident described below…) As you walk up the hill you enter the area of Harrow School with its boarding houses on each side. On your right you will see a low red brick building with a plaque nearby. This is known as Sheridan’s Stables, where the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan kept his horses when living at The Grove (1780-85). 6Benjamin RotchRichard Sheridan
The plaque, (shown on the brick pillar in the picture above), marks the spot where, in 1646, King Charles I is said to have halted to water his horses on his way to join the Scots Army, leading, eventually, to his arrest and execution. At the junction with Peterborough Road look across the road for a small plaque ‘TAKE HEED’ marking the site of Britain’s first motoring fatalit-ies - Mr E.R. Sewell and Major James Stanley Richer… On the other side of Peterborough Road at the junction with Football Lane is the building which used to house the Harrow School Life Museum. The School offers three open tours per year. These last approximately 2 hours and give a good insight into the workings of the School. Click here for further details… Cross back over Grove Hill and walk to where the school building ends and you will find an impressive set of stone steps on your right. Take these up to Church Hill… Turn right up Church Hill and through the Lych-Gate… This famous structure shown above was built in honour of John Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow for 50 years (1811-1861). In the churchyard, you’ll see a 7
poignant plaque, just beside the entrance or porch, to Allegra Lord Byron’s illegitimate daughter and a slate memorial on the right of the churchyard path to Thomas Port, the first local victim of a fatal railway accident in 1836. The Parish church of St. Mary’s was founded by one Archbishop of Canterbury (Lanfranc) in 1087, and was consecrated by another (St. Anselm) in 1094, and was often visited by a third, Thomas Becket. The famous spire, visible for many miles around and much admired by King Charles ll, was built about 1450 when the beautiful carved timber roof was also added. It was extensively restored in 1847 by George Gil-bert Scott in a typical Victorian style. Before the school chapel was built, generations of Harrow Schoolboys worshipped in specially built galleries, suspended under the belfry and along the north aisle. Continue along the churchyard path to the viewpoint terrace, viewpoint map and the Peachy Stone... The views are mapped on a bronze plate on the wall overlooking the Church Fields. George Gordon Byron (1788 - 1824), a lead-ing Romantic poet was a frequent visitor to this viewpoint as a Harrow schoolboy (1801 - 1805). Here he often sat dreaming by his 8Byron’s elm tree
favourite tombstone" (the “Peachy Tomb"), recor-ded in the poem shown nearby on a memorial erec-ted by the son of one of Byron's school friends in 1905. See a copy by following this link… "Lines Written beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Har-row", The Elm itself burnt down before 1935. Amongst his best-known works are ‘She Walks in Beauty’, ‘When We Two Parted’, and ‘So, we'll go no more a roving’, and the narrative poems ‘Childe Harold's Pilgrimage’ and ‘Don Juan’. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and is still widely read throughout the world. Byron's life was filled with aristocratic excesses, love affairs, huge debts, and a self-imposed exile. He served as a regional leader of Italy's revolution-ary organisation, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. Later he fought against the Otto-man Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever in Greece. 9Lord Byron
Return across the churchyard, through the Lych Gate and down Church Hill… On your right look for a plaque commemorating Anthony Ashley Cooper - Lord Shaftesbury… As the plaque records, whilst at Harrow, he was deeply affected by watching a pauper’s funeral. He later became a Tory MP (Member of Parliament) in 1826, and a leader of the movement for factory re-form. He was largely responsible for the Factory Acts of 1847 and 1853, as well as the Coal Mines Act of 1842 and the earlier Lunacy Act 1845. One of his chief interests was the wel-fare of children, and he was chairman of the Ragged Schools Union and a keen supporter of Florence Nightingale. Shaftesbury was a proponent of the Restora-tion of the Jews to the Holy Land. A commit-ted Christian and a loyal Englishman, Shaft-esbury argued for a Jewish return because of what he saw as the political and economic advantages to England and because he be-lieved that it was God’s will. The Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, Lon-don, erected in 1893, was designed to commemor-ate his philanthropic works. That Memorial is crowned by Alfred Gilbert's aluminium statue of Anteros as a nude, butterfly-winged archer. 10Lord Shaftesbury
A little further down Church Hill… …and you will see the first of a series of Harrow Heritage Trust plaques that can be found on the Hill marking the original Harrow School building ‘finished in 1615, and enlarged in 1820 by Charles Robert Cockerell - a noted Victorian architect. Continue down to the end of Church Hill… As you look back back up Church Hill you will see the Old School and, on the right, the Speech Room building where young Winston Churchill won his famous prize for reciting the 1200 lines of Ma-cauley’s ‘Lays of Ancient Rome’ from memory. After several disastrous starts at various prep schools young Winston entered Harrow School in 1888. Within weeks of his arrival he had joined the Harrow Rifle Corps, thus kind-ling a life-long interest in military matters and soldiering. Churchill was rarely visited by his mother, the former Jenny Jerome, and wrote letters beg-ging her either to come to the school or to allow him to come home. His relationship with his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was distant and they rarely spoke to one another. His father died in 1895, aged only 45, leaving Churchill convinced that he too would die young and so should be quick about making his mark on the world. 11Winston Churchill as a cadet
He went on to occupy many important gov-ernment posts and eventually, as Prime Min-ister, led Great Britain, with her Allies, to vic-tory over the Axis powers in World War 2. Cross over the road to the Vaughan Li-brary… This is an English Heritage listed building de-signed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a leading architect in the Gothic revival in British archi-tecture, and was built between 1861 and 1863. It was named for Charles John Vaughan who was headmaster for only a few years before resigning to accept the bishopric of Rochester, from which he withdrew without taking office. However, re-cent research has suggested that he may have been forced out by the threat of the revelation of a homosexual affair - but this is disputed. A Harrow Heritage Trust plaque can be seen just by the entrance pathway. Continue down to the ‘Obadiah Slope’… This tiny downward-sliding alley through an arch on your left is named after one of the lasting characters in the Barchester series created by Anthony Trollope. A BBC TV version gave the books a new lease of life. The self-advancing scheming chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Barchester, Obadiah Slope, was played brilliantly by Alan Rickman. 12George Gilbert Scott Charles John Vaughan
In his scheming to gain advancement he meets his ecclesiastical end at the hands of his literally un-blinking enemy, His Grace's wife, Mrs. Proudie, played exquisitely by Geraldine McEwan. You can now cross the road to view the Hudson fountain where local people once drew their wa-ter - now marked by the next plaque… This is the site of the former town well which was sunk in 1816 and was the main source of drinking water for the residents of Harrow on the Hill. In 1880 it was replaced with this fountain by Thomas Charles Hudson, a local businessman. Enter West Street which leads down to your left… 13
Many of the buildings on your right used to be shops - this was one of the most popular shopping streets in Harrow on the Hill. Number 15 West Street, the ‘Hatmaker’s Shop’, and number 13, ‘Sugarloaf’, are fine examples of old premises converted to modern houses. Look out for a small fire insurance plaque… As you continue down West Street to the junc-tion with Crown Street you pass the old ‘Poor House’ on your right… In the nineteenth century, when the surrounding area was still farmland, seasonal agricultural work was often all that the poor could find during the warmer months. In the winter there was little or no 14The Old Poor HouseAll the shops shown in this nineteenth century photo have been adapted to of-fices and private homes. The post box and lamp-post were also removed from the centre of the road!
work available and some poorer agricultural work-ers were forced to accept ‘poor relief’ from the par-ish. It is likely that the pauper funeral that so moved Lord Shaftesbury as a Harrow schoolboy started from this place. Across from the white facade of the Old Poor House stands the Castle public house - one of the few remaining in the area today. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were many small pubs in Harrow on the Hill ready to supply the poor with alcoholic oblivion. Today the Castle remains and still s e r v e s a fi n e range of beers and food in a pleasant atmosphere and is worth a visit for refreshment. Previous owners have claimed that Winston Churchill once drank here. Continue around the pub to enter Crown Street… …past the entrance to Waldron Road… 15The Castle Pub
The North Star with its distinctive signage and stable yard was once part of the famous Watford brewing group Benskins. It stands on your left at 13 Crown Street and only closed down in 1957 when it was conver-ted to a private dwelling. Nearby, on both sides of Crown Street you can see a mixture of converted nineteenth-century shops. Further along on your left, there is a private plaque stating that Crown Street was originally Hog Street and was the site of the Crown Inn first licensed in 1785. The main developments between 1759 and 1817 were the extension of Hog Lane, as Middle Road, to the south-west. The expansion of Harrow down the southern slope of Harrow Hill gathered impetus after the passing of the Inclosure Act of 1857 when 16The North Star in 2010 The North Star c1910
landowners were able to take over common land and develop it. Many small, terraced houses were subsequently built fronting Crown Street, West Street, Byron Hill Road, and London Road. Walk to the junction of Crown Street, Middle Road and Byron Hill Road… Here you face the Red House, (see opposite), an English Heritage Grade II listed building, now part of John Lyon School. Divert briefly into Middle Road to view the school buildings on both sides… In 1572, Elizabeth I granted a charter to John Lyon, a local landowner, to found a free grammar school 17John Lyon School early 20th century
on Harrow Hill.! However, over many years Harrow School diverged from its original charter and pur-pose which was to educate 30 local boys.! By the time of Dr Vaughan’s tenure at Harrow School, there was anger and concern that the ori-ginal purpose was not being fulfilled, as Harrow had developed into a boarding school for the wealthy and powerful. This led Vaughan to establish an ‘English Form’ as a ‘semi-detached’ part of Har-row School, based in a draughty shed nearby. By 1876 it had become a day school for local boys and John Lyon School is now one of the most popu-lar schools in the area. As the school expanded the Red House was incor-porated. At the back of this house there is an unre-markable private blue plaque which can be seen by entering the gardens (with permission if necessary). Return to Byron Hill Road and turn right… On your left you will see an old Baptist Chapel building, that has been converted into a suite of stu-dios. Baptists have been meeting in! Harrow! since 1806. The coming of the Metropolitan Railway meant that many people moved from the hill to Greenhill (now the central Harrow area) so!the church decided to move to a new site in!College Road!in 1906. 18
On your right is the entrance to Clonmel Close - turn in here briefly… According to the private plaque on the building shown opposite Matthew Arnold (1822 – 1888) lived here. Arnold was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby School. He had stud-ied at Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1844, following his degree, he returned to Rugby as a teacher of classics. After marrying in 1851, Arnold began work as a government school inspector, a gruelling job involving travel all over Britain and the Continent. Throughout his thirty-five years in this posi-tion he developed a real interest in educa-tion, which fed into both his critical works and his poetry. Follow the video link below: 19Matthew Arnold
Today his essays are more widely known than his poetry. In both he tried to establish the truths of Christianity, despite his own religious doubts. His two eldest sons died here and "To free themselves from the painful associations of Harrow, the family moved to Surrey in 1873 where Arnold lived until his death in 1888. Return to Byron Hill Road and walk up into West Hill… On your left you will pass some attractive old cot-tages with small front gardens. At the end of West Hill the road narrows into a short passage and you enter Roxeth Hill… Turn left up Roxeth Hill to the junction with the High Street and turn right into London Road… (The next section of the walk is quite a long di-version, but is worth it to view the only English Heritage plaque in the area - dedicated to R M Ballantyne.) If you do not want to follow this part of the walk move on to the next instance of this bullet im-age to follow the last part of this walk… Turn right into Mount Park Avenue and then left into Mount Park Road… 20
Continue past St Dominic’s College and follow this road until you come to a large Victorian villa on your left named Duneaves… The only English Heritage plaque on this walk marks the home of the Victorian writer Robert Michael Ballantyne born in Edinburgh in 1825. He was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At 16 he went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Returning to Scotland in 1847, his first book was published the following year, ‘Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America’. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business to become a full-time author, beginning the series of adventure stor-ies for the young with which his name is always as-sociated. The Coral Island is his most famous book in which fifteen-year-old Ralph, mischievous young Peterkin and clever, brave Jack are shipwrecked on a coral reef with only a telescope and a broken pocketknife between them. At first the island seems a paradise, with its plentiful foods and wealth of natural won-ders. But then a party of cannibals arrives and after that a pirate ship… and so on. This story has never been out of print since it was first published in 1857. 21R. M. Ballantyne
Return to London Road via Mount Park Road and Mount Park Avenue… …resume the walk here… Turn left along London Road and enter Harrow on the Hill via the same road to your right… On your right you’ll see the old Toll Gate Cottage, a Grade II listed seventeenth-century timber-framed two-storey cottage with dormer windows. It was converted in 1864 from a stables and coach-house and was then known as Park Cottage. In the nineteenth century turnpike trusts were set up legally with toll gates barring the roads. Previously roads that existed were kept by statute labour with everybody being liable. Toll Gate Cottage owes its name entirely to the fact that the last toll-keeper’s daughter happened to live here. Continue walking towards the Green… On your right you’ll see a building adorned with two cornucopia above a popular restaurant. This building dates from 1912 when it opened as a dance hall and variety theatre. Later it became ‘The Elite’ - a small cinema with a screen arranged in the existing stage and a noisy projection room upstairs. 22The old Toll Gate house
In November 1931 it was re-named ‘The Cosy’. The stage was demolished and a n e w p r o s c e n i u m arch, screen and drapes were added to the rear wall allow-ing for a more mod-ern back projection. Finally in 1937 at the time of th e Coron atio n of Kin g George VI it became ‘The Carleton’, before closing in 1939 when larger cinemas opened downhill in Harrow. It remained derelict until after the end of the second world war before being gutted and re-fitted as the first in a series of restaurants. Walk a little further past these restaurants… This area around the small Green was the site of several Council buildings as you can see from two Harrow Heritage plaques. The one on the wall of ‘West View’ states that it was…’Built in 1868 as the first Board Room, Office and Surveyor’s house of the Harrow Local Board of Health (forerunner of Harrow Council)’. The other Harrow Heritage plaque is across the road above what is now an estate agent’s office. 23
This was the old Fire Station. You’ll notice that, in the picture below, the old chimney stack carrying the fire warning alarm bell has disappeared! The King’s Head former public house and hotel is believed to date from the late 18th century on the site of King Henry VIII's hunting lodge. It survived until about 2001 before being converted into flats. 24King’s Head Hotel 1960s
The carved words "King's Head Hotel" can still be picked out in the white rendered stonework. Just past the Green turn left down Waldron Road… At the junction with Crown Street turn left and cross over… You are now following a medieval route known as the ‘Old Vil-lage Way’ that ran down the hill’s western flank away from the High Street to meet the flatter land below. Look out for the small passageway leading down a set of steps, then turn right along Victoria Ter-race to West Street… Bear left and cross the road towards the Mission Hall building shown below… This listed building was designed by ‘the noted architect E.S.Prior, and closely re-sembles his now-demolished house of 1884, Manor Lodge, in terms of style and material. Built to serve St Mary's church as a parish mission room, it shows Prior's unusual blend of historical influences and idiosyncratic 25E.S. PriorThe High Street 19th c
novelty. Prior, an Old Harrovian, had studied in Norman Shaw's office and was an important figure in the emer-ging Arts and Crafts movement. This is also a relatively early architectural use of terracotta.and dated 1884.’ One of the earliest properties within the village - the Old Pye House or Pie Poudre Court still survives. The re-mains of this building! now stand in a yard at the rear of 75/77 West Street. This former courthouse derived its name from ‘pied poudres’, which is French for dusty feet, a name likely to reflect the area’s market town roots. (The Mission Hall has been sensitively restored by its current owner and the Pye House has been stabilised and protected from further damage with a view to full restoration.) Take the small signposted pas-sageway to ’The Hill and Harrow’ and walk over Church Fields… This open space is leased by Harrow Council from John Lyon’s Charity and is a haven for wildlife and a much-loved park for local residents and visitors. The Council maintain the land and is encouraging the growth of wild flowers and plants. 26The Pye House in the early 1920s taken from the rear of No. 75 West Street
However this lovely green area is still privately owned, and in the past a section was sold off to fund a development of Harrow School so it is not inviolate! As you walk down the hill the path leads into an alleyway with St Anselm’s Primary School and a Church on your right… Our Lady and St Thomas of Canterbury is a Grade II listed Roman Catholic Church built in 1894 in a 14th-century style. The architect was Arthur Young, and he also designed nearby St Domenic’s in 1878. Cross over Roxburgh Road and into another alleyway which leads back into the Grove Open Space… Walk down to London Road and the Station, where this walk ends, is facing you. 27
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