The Strawberry Vale Estate is a

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

East Finchley East Finchley is an area in North London, immediately north of Hampstead Heath. Like neighbouring Muswell Hill, it straddles the London Boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey, with most of East F ...

in the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in north London, England. Forming part of Outer London, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It is the ...

, built in the 1980s alongside the

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

History

The area was originally called Brownswell. In the 17th century it was a small settlement with an inn, The Green Man, which was demolished in the 1990s. The Estate community centre is named the Green Man centre.Red Lion Hill and Strawberry Vale (finchley N2).
London Borough of Barnet. Retrieved 3 October 2016. Until the 1960s the area was used as a farm which is remembered in Old Farm Road and had a house known as Strawberry Vale House. The Strawberry Vale Brook ran through the area. By the 1970s the house had been demolished and

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps show a riding school. At one time, Evan Evans, a horse breeder of international reputation, ran his business from there. Stable Walk, Brook Walk and Nursery Road on the modern estate all refer to the area's history. The estate was built in the 1980s and transferred to the

Peabody Trust The Peabody Trust was founded in 1862 as the Peabody Donation Fund and now brands itself simply as Peabody.

in 1998 under the Estate Renewal Challenge Fund Programme. It was the first estate to be acquired by Peabody under the programme. The estate is a mix of

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

and privately owned housing. A three-year works programme began shortly after transfer and was completed in 2002. The properties are a mixture of general needs and owner leasehold.

Strawberry Vale area

Adjacent to the housing estate, bordering the

, is the

grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

house Hawthorne Dene, built by James Frost in 1826 and known for its innovative construction methods. It was listed in 1962 following a campaign by the comedian

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British India, where he spent his ...

. The social reformer

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3December 183813August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer and founder of the National Trust. Her main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteent ...

spent part of her childhood in the 1850s at nearby Brownswell Cottages and a garden at the Green Man Community Centre is named the Octavia Hill Community Garden.

British and Colonial Films British and Colonial Films was a British company making predominantly silent films in London between 1908 and 1924. It was also known by the abbreviation B & C. The British and Colonial Kinematograph Company was formed in 1908 by Albert Henry ("B ...

had studios at Newstead House from 1911 until around 1916 where they produced films such as '' Robin Hood Outlawed'' and others in the '' Lieutenant Daring'' series.

References

External links

* * Finchley Housing estates in the London Borough of Barnet {{London-geo-stub