Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with artisan dwellings to the north, middle-class houses to the west and the wealthiest
villas overlooking the Heath to the south. As a social engineering experiment it was a
failure - the area has remained a thoroughly middle-class ghetto - but as a blueprint
for suburban estates it has been enormously influential.
The suburb's formal entrance is the striking Arts and Crafts gateway of shops and
flats on Finchley Road. From here, ivy-strewn houses, each with its own garden
encased in privet, yew and beech hedges, fan out eastwards along tree-lined avenues
towards
Central Square
, laid out by Edwin Lutyens in a neo-Georgian style he dubbed
“Wren-aissance”. (Pubs, shops, cinemas and all commercial buildings were, and still
are, excluded from the suburb.) Lutyens also designed the square's twin churches: the
Nonconformist
Free Church
, with an octagonal dome, and the Anglican
St Jude's-on-
the-Hill
with its steeply pitched roof and spire, and unusual 1920s murals. East of
Central Square is the Lutyens-designed
Institute
, with its clock tower, now occupied
by an education centre and school.
Golders Green Crematorium
Hoop Lane • Daily: summer 9am-6pm; winter 4pm •
T
020 8455 2374 •
!
Golders Green
he
Golders Green Crematorium
is
where over three hundred thousand Londoners
have been cremated since 1902. More famous names have been scattered over the
unromantically named Dispersal Area than have been buried at any single London
graveyard: Boris Anrep, Enid Blyton, Seán O'Casey, Charles Rennie Mackintosh,
H.G. Wells, Kathleen Ferrier, Joe Orton, Don Revie, Peter Sellers, Peggy Ashcroft,
Joyce Grenfell, Sid James, Marc Bolan, Keith Moon, Bram Stoker and Prajadhipok,
the former King of Thailand; Neville Chamberlain, Rudyard Kipling, Henry James
and T.S. Eliot were cremated here, but their ashes lie elsewhere. Finding a particular
memorial plaque among the serene red-brick chapels and arcades is no easy task, so it's
best to enquire at the o
ce in the main courtyard. The Ernst George Columbarium is
where you'll find the ashes of Anna Pavlova; Freud and his wife Martha are contained
within one of Freud's favourite Greek red-figure vases in an adjacent room, with their
daughter Anna in her own urn close by.
20
Golders Green Jewish Cemetery
Hoop Lane • Daily except Sat 8.30am-5pm or dusk •
!
Golders Green
he
Jewish Cemetery
was founded in 1895 before the area was built up. The eastern
section, to your right, is for Orthodox Sephardic Jews, whose tombs are traditionally
laid flat with the deceased's feet pointing towards Jerusalem. To the left are the upright
headstones of Reform Jews, including the great cellist Jacqueline du Pré, and Lord
Hore-Belisha, Minister of Transport in the 1930s, who gave his name to “Belisha
beacons” (the yellow flashing globes at zebra crossings for pedestrians).
Hendon: the RAF Museum
Grahame Park Way • Daily 10am-6pm; Grahame-White Factory closed noon-1.30pm • Free •
T
020 8205 2266,
W
rafmuseum.org.uk •
!
Colindale
One of the world's most impressive collections of historic military aircraft is lodged at
the
RAF Museum
,
in the former Hendon Aerodrome. The most obvious place to start is
in the
Historic
Hangars
, dominated by a vast 1920s Southampton reconnaissance flying
boat. Be sure to check out the Hoverfly, the first really effective helicopter, and, of
course, the most famous British plane of all time, the Spitfire. By the exit is a Harrier
jump jet, the world's first vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, labelled with a text
extolling its role in the Falklands War. Those with children should head for the hands-on
Aeronauts
gallery, which teaches the basic principles of flight and airplane construction.
The most chilling section is the adjacent
Bomber Hall
, where you're greeted by a
colossal Lancaster bomber, similar to those used in Operation Chastise, the mission
