Avenue House Grounds, Finchley, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:  

A late 19th century villa garden developed by the ink manufacturer Henry Stephens with advice from Robert Marnock in the 1870s and early 1880s, which was opened to the public in 1900 on a regular basis, and subsequently in 1928 became a public park.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Avenue House Grounds, a site of about 5 hectares partly surrounded by housing, is situated in the parish of Finchley, a North London suburb. The southern boundary is formed by East End Road, and the northern boundary is formed by The Avenue. The Avenue is a public road, closed off to vehicles, which runs between Manor View to the east and Regent's Park Road to the west. It has been a public road since at least the 19th century, and remained so during the time Henry Stephens lived at Avenue House. It was formerly incorporated into the layout of the grounds, running through the former paddock, now the Sports Ground, situated to the east, and along the northern part of the garden to the west.

The site has mid to late 20th century functional railings on all sides. The late 19th century boundary railings were removed during the Second World War, as were the dwarf railings within the grounds, except for those surrounding the pond.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage

The Garden, 36 (23 November 1889), pp 490(1 [Marnock's obituary, written by William Robinson]

R Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists (1977), p 420

P Musgrove, Avenue House, Finchley (1989)

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4 North (1994), p 123

Assessment report on Avenue House, (English Heritage 1995) [held in EH Historian's file BAR 24]

Avenue House Heritage Lottery Bid: Historic Landscape Survey and Restoration Plan for London Borough of Barnet, (Chris Blandford Associates 1998)

Maps

Finchley Tithe map, 1841 (TA/FIN), (LMA)

OS 25'' to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1863

2nd edition revised 1894-1896

3rd edition revised 1912

1936 edition

Henry Stephens' correspondence (1870s-1882), describes the works carried out at Avenue House (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

Description written: June 1999

Amended: July 1999

Edited: January 2001