page_title: Hendon
section_title: Brent Street area
hierarchical_section_title: Hendon / History / Brent Street area
caption_attribution_description: Sentinel Shopping Centre, Hendon, Sentinel Square London, Greater London NW4 2ER North London
context_page_description: Hendon is a London urban area in the Borough of Barnet, 7 miles northwest of Charing Cross, between the A41, A406 and the M1 motorway. Hendon was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and has been part of Greater London since 1965. It used to be the home for the London Aerodrome which later became RAF Hendon. From 1972 the site of the RAF station was gradually handed over to the RAF Museum London. Hendon had a population of 52,972 in 2011 which includes the West Hendon and Colindale wards.
context_section_description: Brent Street was part of a northern route out of London, and at the Quadrant a seven-mile stone – the last piece of physical evidence for the road – is set into a wall. Much of the original small hamlet in Brent Street, which had been there since at least 1613, burned down in a fire in 1861. 
  Brent Street had a parish pump, which was in disrepair in 1818 owing to the numerous thirsty travellers using the road, and from 1796 there was a cage for criminals (removed in 1883), which stood at the junction of Brent Street and Bell Lane and is now commemorated by a blue plaque. By the 1850s there were at least 13 shops in Brent Street.
  Congregationalists built a chapel (1855) and a school in New Brent Street (1856), which later moved and became Bell Lane Board School (1901). Tenby House is the last of three large properties that were built between Finchley Lane and Victoria Road. The Victoria Estate was developed around Victoria and Stratford Roads in the 1870s and 1880s. The cricketer and footballer Denis Compton was brought up here and lived in 47 Alexandra Road, attending Bell Lane Primary School.New Brent Street was the address of the local police office in 1855 (a later station, next to the Post Office at the corner of Brampton Grove and dating from 1884, was demolished in 2002). Christ Church was opened in October 1881 as a chapel of ease for St. Mary's, becoming a parish church in 1923.
  During the 20th century, a number of small factories were established in the area. The largest was Tilley Lamps Ltd (1915 to 1961), which employed around 300 people and manufactured pressure paraffin lamps (rather charmingly called Aladdin lamps in the 1930s). In December 1969, planning permission was granted for the development of a new shopping precinct on Brent Street to be called Sentinel Square, at a cost of £1.5 million, and within a year the old Rose and Crown pub, the Classic Cinema (once called the Gala), and a number of shops had been replaced with a collection of modernist shops and a Tesco supermarket. The Odeon at the Quadrant was opened in 1939 at what had been Cook's Corner in Parson Street. It was pulled down in 1979 and the site redeveloped for housing.
  Salisbury Plain is a piece of wasteland in front of The Load of Hay (a pub demolished in 2004), where animals destined for Smithfield were penned overnight. The pub had been a favourite of Peter Mandelson in his youth. There is a small collection of 18th-century houses along Shirehall Lane, two with fire plaques. Penfold House in Brent Street (not far from the site of The Load of Hay) is said to have been built in 1713. It is believed it had been a lodge for drovers bringing cattle up to London, and it was known as Albert Cottage until 1923.
  Near to Brent Green was Goodyers House (demolished in 1934), named after an important Hendon family. Where Goodyers House was is now a cul-de-sac called Goodyers Gardens with about 10 or 11 houses. Number 11 was the main house when Goodyers House was still standing. Hendon Park was laid out on Step Fields, part of the Goodyers House estate, and was opened as Queen's Park in 1903. In July 1940, there was a particularly large propaganda rally held in Hendon Park – "Rout the Rumour", the first of its kind in England. Hendon House was home to John Norden, the renowned 16th-century cartographer, but was demolished and replaced with Hendon School. Famous alumni include Peter Mandelson, Rabbi Lionel Blue, and author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
  A little further down the road is a small gothic complex called the Alma White Centre. In 1893 the Rev W.H. Seddon, Hon Secretary of the Church Army, purchased Fosters, in Brent Street, with the intention of building "a Rescue Home (for fallen women), with a Chapel attached". The site became St Saviour's Homes in 1897, caring for "feeble minded" women. In 1926 it was taken over by the Pillar of Fire Society as a bible college, school and chapel. This site has now been redeveloped as 'The Pillar' boutique hotel and function suites.
caption: Sentinel Shopping Centre, Brent Street
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