Thursday, 13 June 2019

A distorted view of Mill Hill

I was rather intrigued to read the Wikipedia page for Mill Hill. I can't believe that such a trusted source can fail to sum up my home town quite so spectacularly.

 I've lived in Mill Hill for most of my life (apart from six months in Stockholm in the early 1980's). My family moved to Mill Hill in 1948 and have run businesses here ever since. If I am asked to describe Mill Hill to people I've met when abroad, it is a very hard place to sum up. There are four main parts.  The Wikipedia page gives no real hint of the multiple personality disorder syndrome that afflicts Mill Hill. The truth is that Mill Hill is made of four distinct communities and identities, this is my semi humorous  summary of these areas.
Mill Hill Village -  This is the old part of Mill Hill, based around Angel Pond and just off The Ridgeway. The Ridgeway is one of the oldest roads in Mill Hill. When I was  a child at St Vincents School in the 1960's, the High Street had two shops. Lambs and Cooks. Lambs was also a sub post office. There was a butcher called Vincetts just down the road to boot!. It is rather pretty, being the home to Mill Hill School, which has prevented ugly overdevelopment. There is also a pub at each end of the Ridgeway, The Hammers at one end, a pub that the owners have done everything possible to ruin, but which still somehow manages to sell beer. Back in the 1980's, the Hammers had a Darts team, a football team and was the social hub of the Mill Hill drinking fraternity. Now, the perceived market  seems to be people who want a rather cheap version of gastropub fayre and a steady by unimaginative selection of beers. The decor has been designed by people used to designing hotel lobbies that you wouldn't really want to spend too long in, but are useful for a quick drink before a naughty liaison. Many years ago, the residents of "The Village" formed the Mill Hill Preservation Society. This worthy society dedicates its energies to ensuring that the nice bit of Mill Hill doesn't get ruined by greedy developers. Sadly, they had a major setback when the National Institute for Medical Research was demolished. Now the Village will become the host to 800 odd interlopers in the new Barratts homes. Due to a rather perverse decision by the Mayor of London, this hamlet on a windswept hilltop will not have enough car parking spaces, and the already log jammed Ridgeway will be transformed into the worlds most unpleasant car park. Sadly with the demise of Lambs, Cooks and Vincents, there are no local shops, although I suspect that these days, the new residents will simply order Guacamole Sushi burgers via Deliveroo rather than actually doing shopping and bothering to cook.  I am amazed that the developers actually bothered putting kitchens in. Surely a lifetime subscription to deliveroo would have been better as they could have descoped the kitchens and fitted another 100 flats on the site. A microwave under the bed and a small fridge under the telly would surely do the trick for todays young and single generation. As I walked to the Adam and Eve, I realised that the sad truth is that Mill Hill is in it's death throes as a village. I am sure when Boris becomes Prime Minister, we'll get a cable car from the Ridgeway to the Broadway, to take advantage of the stunning views. It has worked for Docklands, so why not Mill Hill. The Village has it's own bus, the 240. It is worth taking just for the views. The residents of the Village are keen to put the emphasis on "Village" when asked where they live. They pronounce the "H" in hill exquisitely if they are proper Village people. I think that particular Mill Hill will soon disappear.

Mill Hill Broadway - This area of Mill Hill is rather suburban and middle class. It has a very busy and efficient commuter train service. The Broadway sprung up around the two railways stations in the area. One was rather unfortunately closed in 1939, removing a useful link with Edgware and Finchley. Now if you want to get across the Borough, you need a bus. In the early part of the last century, Lawrence Street became "Mill Hill Broadway" which is now a fairly run of the mill (forgive the pun) High Street with a bunch of chain stores such as M&S, WH Smiths, Iceland and Tesco's. The Broadway used to have a plethora of Banks and financial institutions. In the 1980's people would moan at the seemingly weekly opening of new branches of obscure building societies, such as The Chelsea and The Yorkshire. They've all long gone, apart from Barclays, Santandar and The Nationwide.

There are a few independent convenience stores, a load of charity shops, nail bars, hair dressers and a selection of coffee bars, cafe's bistro's and restaurants. If you like microwave meals, drink coffee to excess, get your nails done all of the time and your idea of a great evening's entertainment is to sit in watching the telly noshing on a delivered pizza, it is bliss, as all of these are easily accessible. It is also blessed with a great selection of churches and a thriving Shul.

 These are the hub of the local community. They have some excellent facilities, which as an organiser of the Mill Hill Music Festival, I am extremely pleased to have on my doorstep. We also have one of the countries leading music studios on our doorstep (with Mill Hill Music Complex - I suppose I have to get a plug in for my own business). There is a thriving private members club at one end, with 600 members (although many locals are unaware of its existence) and at the other end is our pub, The Bridge. A small bar, which is a key part of our local community for those who enjoy a swift half of shandy on the way home from work. T

The restaurants do what they say on the tin, you probably wouldn't go out of your way to visit any of them, but if you live in Mill Hill they are fine. That is apart from the Good Earth which is excellent and is regularly crammed full with all sorts of North London celebrities, such as Vanessa Feltz. It is a bit pricey but delicious. There is a small paved area next to Boots, which has grandly been dubbed "The Town Square" by some, the "pocket park" by others and a name I won't share by the local youths seeking excitement and thrills. It holds the occasional market and even has live music from time to time (weather permitting). It's main use is for teenagers to gather and look rather bored, waiting for the rain to drive them home. It perfectly sums up Mill Hill Broadway. The social climbers from the Broadway area pronounce their "H''s properly, for the rest of us it's "Mill 'ill"which is a single word

When I was a kid, I used to hear all of these songs about Broadway and be rather puzzled. I rather like the place I've lived all my life, but try as hard as we can, it resists being very exciting. Perhaps that is  a good thing.

Mill Hill East - In the local pecking order, Mill Hill East is viewed by those up the hill as the poor cousin, although in the 1920's Mill Hill East Station was actually Mill Hill. The next stop was "Mill Hill The Hale".  There was a huge army barracks, housing the Royal Engineers, known as the Inglis Barracks. The squaddies would drink at The Royal Engineer pub (sadly now flats). As the army wound down its operation, the pub became the "railway engineer", I suspect to deter the IRA bombers, who attacked the Barracks in the 1980's.  There was also a huge Gasworks in the area, until the advent of natural gas, this was produced by coal brought in on the railway. The Gasworks is now a Waitrose and a Virgin Gym. Mill Hill East was the proper working class part of Mill Hill. There was much council housing, my parents originally lived in these on Wise Lane, when first moving to the area. Pronounced "Mleast" by true locals, the centre of life was The Mill Pub on Holders Hill Roundabout. The roundabout had some incredible shops, and has maintained some very good ones. It still has an excellent butchers, fruiterers. It lost its excellent bike shop, but gained a superb fishmongers. It also has an excellent chippy in the Salcombe Gardens parade. Like Mill Hill Broadway, residents of Mill Hill East can easily walk to the shops for teabags and a pint of Milk. It has a decent Cafe on Holders Hill Roundabout and there is still a small pub called The Red Filly.

 The border between Mill Hill Broadway and Mill Hill East is somewhere on Pursley Road, I've not quite worked out where yet.
Millbrook Park - This is a huge development on the site of the old Inglis Barracks. It has the feel of a huge gated community. There are no shops, but some very nice houses and flats. Most people in the other parts of Mill Hill never visit Millbrook Park. In fact Barnet Council have plans to remove it from Mill Hill completely. Although it doesn't feel like Mill Hill and doesn't look like Mill Hill, it's nearest station is Mill Hill East and if it's hoicked off into Finchley, then it will feel even more like a strange colony than it currently does. It has been designed to be almost invisible from the 240 and 221 buses that pass by, as if they are bit ashamed of the estate. When you are in a proper estate such as Burnt Oak, there are bus stops outside people's doors. You know where you are. In Millbrook Park, the residents are safely hidden behind rows of trees. Last year, I had the pleasure of canvassing around Millbrook Park. The people were very friendly, although they had a completely different set of problems to those of everyone else in Mill Hill. The Council has not adopted their road and promised doctors surgery never arrived.

Of course there is a fifth bit of Mill Hill, a bit that it seems most residents have no idea about. That bit is the greenspace. There is a lot of it in Mill Hill. We are blessed with some lovely parks, open spaces and even a nature reserve at Darlands Lake. Whilst the four areas above are to some degree undergoing a massive transformation, the Green belt is at risk as never before. The edges are being nibbled away by all manner of schemes. The sad thing is that without the Green Belt, Mill Hill will just be yet another soulless, homogeneous suburb with no personality at all.

1 comment:

  1. Jenny Lambropoulos (was Massey)19 November 2019 at 09:52

    Very much changed in parts to the Mill Hill I grew up in, sadly. but still love it when I visit. xx

    ReplyDelete

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