Woodhouse and the Rough Lots (Finchley N12)

The Woodhouse area of Finchley began with three houses called the Woodhouses sometime before 1655, which had become one house by the mid 18th century. It was home to the well-known plasterer Thomas Collins. In 1925 it became Woodhouse Grammar School.

Summers Lane existed from at least the 18th century as a short cut across the Finchley Common from the High Road to Friern Barnet. Below it and to the east is a small pocket of woodland called Coppetts Wood. Summers Place used to be called Dunger Place after Henry Dunger, owner of the Flower Pot brewery (1830s - 1870s). Where Compton School is today was Finchley sewage farm (1885 - 1961). Only the manager's cottage now remains. There was also a small isolation hospital (1882 - 1922) with 18 beds.

The Glebe land is the official name for an area locally known as the Rough Lots. The many ditches and slopes come from John Lawford's brick works (1879 - 1907). Where Summers Lane meets the High Road there was gun battery used in World War One as a defence against early German air raids, and for many years after the land was called the gun field. After the war the people of Finchley celebrated with bonfires on the Rough Lots. Finchley football club (now Wingate and Finchley F.C.), was founded in 1874, and moved to Summers Lane in 1932.

The Finchley Open Air Pool was opened by Finchley Borough Council in September 1931. The main pool was heated until World War Two. In 1948 the pool was used for the Olympic Games men's water polo. In 1938 the War Office built a drill hall at the bottom of the hill for the 61 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regt RA, better known locally as the T.A. centre. The open-air pool was closed in 1992 and replaced by the present complex in May 1996. The T.A. centre was demolished in 2004.