Brent Cross is originally the name of a

crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...

that today forms a major interchange for traffic in the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest London borough ...

, England. Located a mile from the centres of

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

and Golders Green, the area also contains the

Brent Cross Shopping Centre Brent Cross Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in Hendon, north London, owned by Hammerson and Abrdn. Located by the Brent Cross interchange, it opened in 1976 as the UK's first out-of-town shopping centre. Brent Cross attracted 15–1 ...

, a major retail facility which opened in 1976, as well as Brent South Shopping Park opposite of it. The "Brent Cross Flyover" A41 runs to the east of the shopping centre over the

A406 North Circular Road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

, while the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

and A5 Edgware Road are to the west at Staples Corner interchange. In addition, the Northern line (Edgware branch) and

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

rail routes run on viaducts. The

River Brent The River Brent is a river in west and northwest London, England, and a tributary of the River Thames. in length, it rises in the Borough of Barnet and flows in a generally south-west direction before joining the Tideway stretch of the Thame ...

passes through the area, flowing from east to west in a man-made channel. The Shopping Centre falls within the NW4 postcode district; the Brent South Retail Park falls within NW2; and the Brent Cross tube station is within NW11.

History

"Brent Cross" was originally the name of a

in the vicinity of the current Brent Cross Flyover. By 1944, the term was being used to describe addresses north of the

A406 The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

North Circular Road and west of the A41 Hendon Way and after the eponymous shopping centre was built it was also used to describe business addresses south of the North Circular. Previously the area had been known as Renters Farm, a name dating from 1309, and it remained largely farmland until the nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century a sewage works was built there and Hendon Greyhound Stadium stood there from 1935 to 1972. In 1976 the Brent Cross Shopping Centre was opened, the first stand-alone

shopping centre A shopping center ( American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...

to be built in the United Kingdom. In the 1920s and 1930s, two major roads through the area were constructed, the east–west

North Circular Road and the north–south A41 Hendon Way. In 1923 the

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, t ...

(Edgware branch) was extended on a short viaduct over the River Brent. In 1964–1965 the Brent Cross Flyover was built to carry the Hendon Way over the North Circular. During its construction, a fatal accident occurred on 20 June 1964 while erecting a large crane at the site. The crane jib buckled and collapsed onto a coach travelling east on the North Circular Road killing seven passengers on board. A question was raised in Parliament about the accident on 22 June. In the 1970s, the North Circular Road was upgraded with a huge east–west flyover rising from Brent Cross above both the A5 road and the railway line. The M1 motorway was extended south to meet the North Circular Road slip roads below this flyover. That same decade, the shopping centre opened. Brent South Shopping Park, a

retail park A retail park is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom and other European countries. They form a key aspect of European retail geographies, alongside indoor shopping centres, standal ...

, was built in 2004. The park has 10 retail stores including

Dorothy Perkins Dorothy Perkins is an online British women's fashion brand based in the United Kingdom. Formerly a store chain, it sold both its own range of clothes and branded fashion goods until February 2021, when it became part of Boohoo.com, having bee ...

, DFS and

Sports Direct Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading pre ...

Brent Cross Cricklewood development

Brent Cross, Northern Line viaduct over the A406 North Circular Road - geograph

Brent Cross Cricklewood is a planned new town centre development in Hendon and Cricklewood. The development is planned to cost around £4.5 billion to construct and will include 7,500 homes, of offices, four parks, transport improvements and a extension of Brent Cross Shopping Centre. The developers of the scheme are Hammerson and

Abrdn Abrdn plc (stylised as ‘abrdn’, disemvoweling of "Aberdeen"), formerly Standard Life Aberdeen plc, is a United Kingdom-based global investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a ...

. 200 new retail stores are included in the original plan. To counter the disruption of the area by the building works, the developers have offered to 'green up' the bridge over the North Circular and maintain it as a 'living bridge' making a horticultural contribution to the basic scheme. As market for new retail stores changes and demand is expected to decline with the shift to online shopping, BXS is changing its delivery plan and intends to focus on residential development first. Construction was planned to start in 2018 and be completed in 2021-22 but the retail development has currently been put on hold. The London Underground stations nearest to the shopping centre are Brent Cross and

Hendon Central Hendon Central is a London Underground station in North West London on the A41. The station is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line, between Colindale and Brent Cross stations, and is on the boundary between Travelcard Zone 3 and Zone ...

, both on the

. According to the council, both "feel very remote and lack adequate pedestrian links and signage", and the 10 to 15-minute walks are through "a hostile pedestrian environment.". Transport schemes have been proposed involving Brent Cross, as part of, or concurrent to, the Brent Cross Cricklewood development. These include *measures promoted by the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers but the subjects of objections to their planning application, including **a new railway station on the Thameslink line **new bridges over the A406 North Circular, but the removal of another bridge **moving the bus station closer to the A406 North Circular **significant changes to the road network within and around the development.

Gallery

Bx flyover.jpg, The A41 flying over A406 at Brent Cross Brent Cross Holiday Inn.jpg,

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

at Brent Cross Brent Cross Bus Station 2010.jpg, Brent Cross Bus Station

References

External links

Brent Cross Cricklewood developers' websiteFurther information on Brent Cross Shopping Centre
{{Areas of London Road junctions in London Districts of the London Borough of Barnet