epw018761 ENGLAND (1927). The playing field of Harrow County School for Boys, Harrow, 1927

Hamilton & Co Brush Works

This footbridge seems a little superfluous with the Kenton Road bridge being so close. It may have been built at the time that the railway was constructed in order to honour an ancient right of way. The width of the bridge is far greater than what would be required by pedestrians. It leads to Kenton Road from what would have been Sheepcote Farm, which, by this time, was long redundant as a working farm. The area had been given over for use as the Hill (later Northwick Park) golf course. The width of the bridge suggests it was an accommodation bridge, intended primarily for the movement of cattle to and from farm pasture land that would once also have existed on the north side of the railway and as a continuation of a route to Woodcock Hill Farm. I imagine that the bridge would have been swept away at the time the Met Railway was quadrupled, an expensive replacement no longer being required, as Sheepcote Farm was no longer operating. A remaining brick abutment from the old bridge can still be seen in the embankment on the south side of the railway, near to what is now The Westminster University campus. There was once also, a vestigial blind alleyway between properties on the north side into Kenton Road.

Site of Harrow College of Technology (later University of Westminster). This, as much of the land developed as housing in the area, was part of Sheepcote Farm on the estate of George Rushout, 3rd Baron Northwick. When Rushout's widow died in 1912, the estate along with the primary seat in Gloucestershire, was inherited by her grandson, Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill. He it was who was responsible for disposing of the lands in Harrow. Prior to the building of Harrow Technical College, temporary buildings were built here during WW2 for the storage of Admiralty records. After the war, the redundant buildings were used by the Inland Revenue and as a temporary Royal Mail sorting office, probably when the new postal sorting office and post office in College Road were being built in the early '60s.

These houses in Northwick Park Road were acquired over time and conjoined to form the Monksdene Hotel. It once incorporated a members-only drinking club (The Guinea Club), at a time when licensing hours in pubs were far more restrictive.

What were once quite substantial school playing fields, with handsome pavilion have now been reduced to a few hard courts, a car park and school buildings.

Thurlby Court. A large private house, in the grounds of which was built a large (and quite ugly) block of flats during the 30s. The original house was incorporated into the development and still exists in the grounds of what is now known as Thurlby Close.

Kenton Road

Sheepcote Road

School buildings

Watford Road