North End was the site of an Anglo-Saxon boundary points: Sandgate.
A wood called Wildwood, part of Eton College’s Wyldes estate in Hendon, probably originally extended across to the northern slopes of Hampstead Heath and by 1632 it marked the parish boundary.
Until around 1730 the ancient route across the heath to Hendon took a sharp westward turn, before turning north again. Its twists were presumably imposed by obstacles, probably dense woodland, at the location marked as Wildwood Corner around 1672.
About 1730 a cutting was made through the heath west of the old route, creating the modern North End Way (formerly Road), a more direct route to Hendon.
The area was the home of William Pitt the Elder in 1766–67. Wylde’s Farm has played host to William Blake and the ubiquitous Dickens. Some of its lands were bought in 1905 to become the Heath Extension. From 1906 to 1940 the farmhouse belonged to Raymond Unwin, architect of Hampstead Garden Suburb. In 1912 the dancer Anna Pavlova bought Ivy House, and lived here until she died in 1931.
North End was to have had the deepest tube station in London – at the Bull and Bush – but residents’ objections prevented it from ever opening. In the 1950s the partially built lower level was converted into an underground control centre for ‘floodgates’ on the deep tubes around central London. In case these gates should ever need to be used in a war situation the control room is allegedly ‘blast-protected’ – even against sustained nuclear attack.
Recent years have seen a growing number of modern properties in North End – to the distress of some residents who want to preserve its semi-rural charm.