The Barnet Eye Advent Calendar - 11th December

Today we have a guest window for our charity, more of that later, but for our treat, we take a train down to Cricklewood. 

Back in March 2020, I attended Cricklewood station for the unveiling of the amazing mural commemorating the aviation history of the area. I interviewed the artist who brought this wonderful mural to life and reviewed the original designs. Sadly, this story was swamped by the pandemic which exploded as this was being put together.  The mural commemorates the Handley Page aircraft factory and airfield, which was based in Cricklewood. It seems remarkable that the first scheduled air service between London and Paris went from Cricklewood.  Here is a map showing the site of the Handley Page operation courtesy of www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Cricklewood

A nice photo of the area was posted by the rather wonderful @time_NW twitter account

John Laing's Golders Green Estate under construction in 1930. The land was the former Cricklewood Aerodrome of Handley Page, the aircraft makers, whose factory buildings can be seen at the base of the image.

Aerofilms image owned by Historic England. pic.twitter.com/HQBYhFjTVO

— NW London TimeMachine (@time_nw) March 14, 2022

Here is the film of the opening.

And as an extra bonus, here is a film of a 1923 flight from Cricklewood to Paris!

For our charity, our great friend Dr Julia Hines has nominated Art Against Knives as her good cause for todays window.

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This is a brilliant charity leading the fight in our community,  educating young people that there are better things in life than violence and carrying knives.

Do you have a local gem and a local good cause that you'd like to see in a window? Why not drop us an email and let us know. The Barnet Eye is dedicating the Advent period to building community in our locality, so why not help by giving us your nominations? This has proven to be enormously popular this year, so why not add your window?