
The Old Welsh Harp was a famous inn beside the
Edgware Road.
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As a result of an Act of Parliament, the company running the Brent Reservoir acquired more land. An increase in traffic on the Regent’s Canal had meant that more water was required to replace the loss from its locks.
The land was used to increase the height of the dam and the reservoir’s area expanded to 400 acres by 1854. The reservoir works included raising a new embankment to protect from flooding a tavern called the Old Welsh Harp which was situated just north of the Brent Bridge.
The pub may have been already existed as the ’Harp and Horn’ by 1751 but had become the Welsh Harp by 1803. It was also known as the Lower Welsh Harp.
In 1858 the lease of the Old Welsh Harp was taken over by William Warner of Blackbird Farm in Kingsbury. He created a large pleasure gardens behind the pub and obtained the rights to use the reservoir for recreational purposes. For the following 30 years the ’Welsh Harp’ became a very popular leisure destination.
Warner organised fishing and boat hire, ran competitions for swimming. Sports flourished including horse racing, bowls and cricket. Warner built a music hall and restaurant beside the inn.
A station called ’Welsh Harp’ was opened on the Midland Railway in 1870 at Warner’s request. Special trains on bank holidays brought thousands of people from London to fairs in the Welsh Harp’s grounds. Part of Warner’s legacy is the name by which the reservoir is now known.
At the end of the century, Warner died. The popularity of the tavern and its pleasure gardens declined and Welsh Harp station closed in 1903.
The pub was demolished in around 1970 to make way for the southerly extension of the
M1 motorway.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY |
 
Reginald John Gregory Added: 8 Aug 2022 14:07 GMT | Worked in the vicinity of my ancestor’s house, Between the years 1982-1998 (unknown to me at the time) I worked in an office close to the site of my ancestors cottage. I discovered this when researching family history - the cottage was mentioned in the 1871 census for Colindeep Lane/Ancient Street coming up from the Hyde. The family lived in the ares betwen 1805 and 1912.
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Martina Added: 13 Jul 2017 21:22 GMT | Schweppes factory The site is now a car shop and Angels Fancy Dress shop and various bread factories are there.
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Brian Lynch Added: 10 Apr 2022 13:38 GMT | Staples Mattress Factory An architect’s design of the Staples Mattress Factory
An image found on the website of Dalzell’s Beds, in Armagh Northern Ireland.
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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT |
 
Scott Hatton Added: 30 Jan 2023 11:28 GMT | The Beatles on a London rooftop The Beatles’ rooftop concert took place on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building in London. It was their final public performance as a band and was unannounced, attracting a crowd of onlookers. The concert lasted for 42 minutes and included nine songs. The concert is remembered as a seminal moment in the history of rock music and remains one of the most famous rock performances of all time.
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Michael Upham Added: 16 Jan 2023 21:16 GMT | Bala Place, SE16 My grandfather was born at 2 Bala Place.
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Added: 15 Jan 2023 09:49 GMT | The Bombing of Nant Street WW2 My uncle with his young son and baby daughter were killed in the bombing of Nant Street in WW2. His wife had gone to be with her mother whilst the bombing of the area was taking place, and so survived. Cannot imagine how she felt when she returned to see her home flattened and to be told of the death of her husband and children.
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Brian J MacIntyre Added: 8 Jan 2023 17:27 GMT | Malcolm Davey at Raleigh House, Dolphin Square My former partner, actor Malcolm Davey, lived at Raleigh House, Dolphin Square, for many years until his death. He was a wonderful human being and an even better friend. A somewhat underrated actor, but loved by many, including myself. I miss you terribly, Malcolm. Here’s to you and to History, our favourite subject.
Love Always - Brian J MacIntyre
Minnesota, USA
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Robert Burns Added: 5 Jan 2023 17:46 GMT | 1 Abourne Street My mother, and my Aunt and my Aunt’s family lived at number 1 Abourne Street.
I remember visitingn my aunt Win Housego, and the Housego family there. If I remember correctly virtually opposite number 1, onthe corner was the Lord Amberley pub.
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Added: 30 Dec 2022 21:41 GMT | Southam Street, W10 do any one remember J&A DEMOLITON at harrow rd kensal green my dad work for them in a aec 6 wheel tipper got a photo of him in it
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Fumblina Added: 26 Dec 2022 18:59 GMT | Detailed history of Red Lion I’m not the author but this blog by Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms has loads of really clear information about the history of the Red Lion which people might appreciate.
Source: ‘Professor Morris’ and the Red Lion, Kilburn
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BG Added: 20 Dec 2022 02:58 GMT | Lancing Street, NW1 LANCING STREET
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Old Welsh Harp The Old Welsh Harp was a famous inn beside the Edgware Road. Staples Corner, NW2 Staples Corner is named after the Staples Mattress Factory - Harold Heal commissioned its design and building of the- which stood here from 1926 until 1986. Dallas Road, NW4 Dallas Road is a road running parallel to the Midland railway and M1.
West Hendon - or New Hendon to the older folk. Or The Hyde to those older folk's grandparents.West Hendon was a settlement within that part of the ancient parish of Hendon known as the Hyde, and is now a part of the London Borough of Barnet.
It was formally known, from 1878–1890, as New Hendon, a small railway development on the Edgware Road. Before the 1830s there were three farms, Upper and Lower Guttershedge (east of the road) and Cockman’s in the Wood (west of the road) and an inn, The Welsh Harp. Between 1835 and 1838, the Brent Reservoir was constructed by damming the Brent and the Silk brooks and flooding much of Cockman’s Farm. The water was used to supply the Grand Union Canal. At its greatest extent, in 1853, it covered 400 acres but was dramatically reduced to 195 acres in the 1890s. Subsequently it has been reduced to 110 acres. It contains enough water to fill 3 million baths and in 1991 was believed to contain 10,000 lb of fish.
The residue of Cockman’s Farm became Woodfield House, home to the Roman Catholic Passioist Fathers (1852 and 1858). The house was demolished in 1940 and the site used by the Borough of Hendon and its successor the London Borough of Barnet as a plant nursery.
Originally The Harp and Horn (c1750s), The Welsh Harp was rebuilt in 1859 and again in 1937, before finally being pulled down in 1970 to make way for the M1. During the 1960s, it was known as The Lakeside Scene and hosted some of the great rock and blues bands of the day, such as the Yardbirds. From 1859 until the end of the century it was run by the Warner brothers, and the reservoir became a centre for all sorts of sporting events such as ice skating, swimming and angling; it was, until 1878, the Kingsbury Race Course and the first mechanical hare in greyhound racing was used there in 1876. By 1850, there was a second public house, the Upper Welsh Harp. At its height in the mid-1880s crowds in excess of 25,000 people could be expected on a Bank Holiday weekend.
Two railway stations were opened, both of the Midland Railway: Hendon (1868), and Welsh Harp (1870). A local builder called Bishop laid the first brick of a new terrace called Neeld Terrace (1881), which heralded the start of New Hendon. Brent Vue was built on land originally owned by the Midland Company. In 1885, the Baptists had a mission hall and their present hall was opened in 1930. By 1886, there were 200 new houses and the Anglican church of St. John’s was built.
In 1896 Schweppes opened a large mineral water factory, and the present Anglican church of St. John’s was established in Algernon Road. With a planned tram line along the West Hendon Broadway due to open in 1904, Welsh Harp station was closed in 1903, and West Hendon became a thriving Edwardian retail district until overshadowed by Golders Green.
During World War II, on 13 February 1941, the Luftwaffe dropped an SC2500 Maximum Heavy Explosive bomb (equivalent to two V2 rockets), killing 80 people and destroying 40 houses in an area west of the Edgware Road. This area was completely redeveloped in the 1960s.
In the neighbourhood...
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