Crews Hill is an elevated and green-buffered former hamlet grown into a small village-size community on the northern outskirts of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

centred north of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

. It forms part of the

London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in Greater London, England. The main communities in the borough are Edmonton, London, Edmonton, Enfield, London, Enfield, Southgate, London, Southgate and Palmers Green. Enfi ...

and economically has many garden centres and plant nurseries. It is the northernmost settlement in the entire county of

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

bordering the M25 and the

Welwyn Hatfield Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district with borough status in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Welwyn Garden City. The borough borders Hertsmere, St Albans, North Hertfordshire, East Hertfordshire, Broxbour ...

district of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

to the north; it was

historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

part of the county of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

Etymology

Named from its association with the ''Crew'' family, mentioned in local records of the mid-18th century.

Transport

Crews Hill is served by Crews Hill railway station with trains to Hertford North,

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

, in the north, and

Moorgate Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, but ...

in the south. Starting in 2021, bus route

456 __NOTOC__ Year 456 ( CDLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avitus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1209 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

connects Crews Hill to the North Middlesex Hospital via

Enfield Chase Enfield Chase is an open space in the London Borough of Enfield, North London. Historically, the name applied to a large common occupying the western part of the ancient parish of Enfield, extending from Monken Hadley in the west to Bulls ...

and

Winchmore Hill Winchmore Hill is a suburb and electoral ward in the London Borough of Enfield, north London, England, in the N postcode area, N21 postal district. The Winchmore Hill conservation area serves as the focal point of the district. Geographically, ...

Demography

Crews Hill is part of the large Chase ward, which also covers

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...

, Clay Hill and

Bulls Cross Bulls Cross is a road and Hamlet (place), hamlet in Enfield, London, Enfield, England, on the outskirts of North London, north London, forming part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Although it now lies within the ceremonial county of Greater Lond ...

. The 2011 census showed that 77% of the ward's population was white (64% British, 11% Other, 2% Irish), 5% was Black African and 3% Black Caribbean.

Places of interest

Nearby, there is Crews Hill Golf Course, which dates from 1916. John White, the

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

and

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

player, was killed by lightning while sheltering under a tree at the golf course on 21 July 1964. On Whitewebbs Lane there is the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport. Further up the road is Whitewebbs Park. In April 2025 a 500-year-old

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

tree was felled by pub chain

Mitchells & Butlers Mitchells & Butlers plc (also referred to as "M&B") runs circa 1,784 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The company's headquarters are in Birmingham, England. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...

, causing much criticism. Crews Hill originally had a large area of glasshouse production, to serve the nearby London market with cut flowers, pot plants and vegetables. As this became less economic, these sites transformed into a number of

garden centre A garden centre (American English spelling; U.S. nursery or garden center) is a retail business that primarily sells plants and related products for Home gardening, domestic gardening. Gardening centers usually revolve around outdoor home imp ...

s and retail nurseries. Describing the horticultural output of Crews Hill, journalist

Ian Jack Ian Grant Jack FRSL (7 February 1945 – 28 October 2022) was a British reporter, writer and editor. He edited the ''Independent on Sunday'', the literary magazine ''Granta'' and wrote regularly for ''The Guardian''. Early life Jack was born ...

wrote: "The greenhouses at Crews Hill ('Britain's horticultural mile') used to supply London with flowers and salads. Then came garden centres. Now there are warehouses filled with flowers, chilled at a permanent 7C, the same temperature that has kept them fresh in the six-hour lorry and rail journey through the tunnel from the auctions in Holland." Turkey Brook flows through Crews Hill.

References

Note

External links

Crews Hill Residents Association

Crews Hill Golf Club from 1916

Crews Hill Guide

Whitewebbs Museum of Transport

Transport in the South East
{{authority control Places in Enfield, London Villages in London Areas of London Districts of the London Borough of Enfield Places formerly in Middlesex