Cricklewood Broadway, NW2

In 1868, Childs Hill and Cricklewood station, later renamed Cricklewood, opened its doors to the public. The following year, Mr H. Finch laid out several streets behind the Crown Inn, including Yew, Ash, and Elm Groves. In the summer of 1881, the Midland Railway Company moved its locomotive works from Kentish Town to the new “Brent Sidings,” and by October of that year, new accommodation for its workers, now known as Railway Cottages, was announced.

By 1884, the station had become the terminus for the Midland Railway suburban services. The population grew significantly enough to warrant a new church, and in 1891, St Peter’s replaced a tin chapel. The parish church on Cricklewood Lane was demolished and rebuilt in the 1970s, only to be closed in 2004. Services for Anglicans were then held in the Carey Hall on Claremont Road but discontinued in December 2015.

The London General Omnibus Company started providing services to Regent Street from the Crown in 1883, and in 1899, it opened a bus garage which as completely rebuilt in 2010. By the 1890s, houses and shops had been built along part of Cricklewood Lane, and by 1900, Cricklewood Broadway – named this in 1868 – had become a retail area, replacing the Victorian villas. The Queens Hall Cinema, later the Gaumont, replaced Rock Hall House, and was itself demolished in 1960.





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