Hampstead Garden Suburb

The Hampstead Garden Suburb, founded by Henrietta Barnett in 1907, brought changes to Temple Fortune east of the Finchley Road. The land was purchased from Eton College, who had held it since the 1480s as part of Wyldes Farm. The suburb was designed and laid out by notable architects such as Raymond Unwin, with green spaces and lots of trees. Big Wood and Little Wood, however, are rare survivors from much earlier times.

The design of many of the houses in the Hampstead Garden Suburb reflect a rural rather than an urban setting, and were co-ordinated to produce a uniform atmosphere. Central Square St Jude's Church, designed by Edwin Lutyens, boasts a 178-foot spire that is visible for miles around.

The northern part of the Hampstead Garden Suburb is on what was Park Farm East Finchley. Lord George Sanger, who owned a circus, used the land for his collection of exotic animals, including elephants, during the 1900s. In the 1930s the suburb was extended into East Finchley, and now stretches as far east as the Bishops Avenue.

The Hampstead Garden Suburb was an attempt at creating a utopian suburb supposed to cater for all classes of people and all income groups. However, it quickly developed into an upper middle-class residential area.