page_title: Colindale
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Colindale / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Colindale Tube Station June 2016
context_page_description: Colindale is an area that forms the north-western part in London. It lies within the London Borough of Barnet, although the western side of Colindale's main shopping street on the A5 falls within the boundaries of Brent. Colindale is an area of suburban character, and in recent years has emerged as a hotspot for new build apartments amid a large regeneration scheme. It is situated about eight miles north west of Charing Cross, to the south of Edgware and east of Queensbury.
context_section_description: Formerly in the borough and ancient parish of Hendon, the area was essentially the dale between Mill Hill and The Burroughs. By the middle of the 20th century, it had come to include that part of the Edgware Road between The Hyde and Burnt Oak.
  The area is named after a 16th-century family of the same name. Until the 20th century, Colindale was without any buildings save for a large house called Colindale Lodge, Colindale Farm and a few cottages. A spelling with two Ls, 'Collindale', has been used, as on this ordnance survey map printed in 1873. All of these properties were on Colindeep Lane which had in the medieval period been an alternative route out of London (via Hampstead, Golders Green and Hendon) to the Edgware Road. By the end of the 16th century it was not often used as a main road and by the middle part of the 19th century was called Ancient Street.
  By the end of the 19th century, cheap land prices made Colindale attractive to developers. Colindale Hospital was opened in 1898 as an asylum for the long-term sick of central London, and in 1907 The Government Lymph Establishment for making vaccines was built. By 1996 the majority of the hospital was closed, and by 2009 was mostly derelict. The site is now a housing development, consisting primarily of apartment blocks. Only the Grade II Listed administration buildings at the centre of the hospital site remain. 
  In 1902, the British Library built a new depository for newspapers and periodicals on Colindale Avenue. Initially, material was merely stored at Colindale and transported into central London for consultation. However, the newspaper library reading room moved to Colindale in 1934.
  Hendon Tram Depot (site now occupied by Merit House, opposite Oriental City) was in 1910 the scene of the first trials in Britain of a trolleybus. This location eventually became Colindale Trolleybus Depot, from which route 645 operated until January 1962, when the depot was closed down and eventually demolished. Land behind the depot was used from 1959 to 1962 by the George Cohen 600 Group for scrapping the vast majority of London's fleet of 1891 trolleybuses.
caption: Colindale Tube Station
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