It has for centuries been a thoroughfare which diverted from the Hampstead to Highgate Road (Spaniard’s Road) at the highest point in north London, beside Jack Straw’s Castle.
Then it ran towards Hendon – long ago the major settlement in this part of Middlesex.
It was called North End Road because it ran past North End – part of Hampstead beside the old Bull and Bush Pub. The name was interchangeable with Golders Green Road.
East of what become the Finchley Road when that road was laid out in the 1830s, North End Road was often called Golders Green Road.
West of that junction, Golders Green Road has similarly been North End Road at times.
A little known fact is that one single road under multiple names runs north from Trafalgar Square and only reaches its conclusion at a T junction in Mill Hill village at a pub called the Rising Sun. (South to north: Charing Cross Road, Tottenham Court Road, Hampstead Road, Camden High Street, Chalk Farm Road, Haverstock Hill, Hampstead High Street, Heath Street, North End Way, North End Road, Golders Green Road, Brent Street, Parson Street, Holders Hill Road, Bittacy Hill, The Ridgeway and Highwood Hill).
