Early history
16th, 17th and 18th centuries
The beginnings of public transport
Harlesden grows
Late 19th century
Industry
20th century
Jamaican community
21st century Harlesden
Self-guided walks
Harlesden is in south Brent, south of Willesden, northwest of Kensal Green and southeast of Stonebridge.
Early history
Harlesden, originally ‘Herewulf’s Tun’ (‘Herewulf’s Farmstead’), began as a Saxon settlement on an elevated and well-watered woodland clearing. Recent archaeological excavations have found little evidence of the Saxon hamlet, although an unidentified piece of pottery may date back to the 5th or 6th centuries AD.
A charter mentioning Harlesden that supposedly dates from 939 is generally regarded as spurious, but Harlesden is mentioned on a list of sailors on a ship in around 1000.
In the Domesday Book in 1086 (which recorded a survey of land in England and Wales), Harlesden (‘Hervlvestvne’) is listed as a manor that ‘was in the lordship of the Canons of St Paul’s before 1066 and still is’. 22 villagers and 100 pigs were recorded. By 1215, the size of the manor had declined and its other main asset, the lordship of the hamlet of Harlesden, had lapsed by the 16th century.
The 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
For 100 years from 1438, a brick and tile factory thrived in Harlesden. In the 16th century, the village of Harlesden had at least seven houses along a green that bordered Harrow Road. One of the houses was the main farmhouse of the estate that All Souls’ College, Oxford, owned by 1474.
Although in the parish of Willesden, Harlesden had a separate identity from quite early on. By 1720, 23 local people were rich enough to pay rates (taxes).
In the 17th century, the Anchor & Cable pub in Harlesden issued trade tokens (used like money, they were widely made and used in response to the lack of low value coins produced officially).
By the mid-18th century, the village had two pubs (then called inns), the Crown (perhaps a renamed Anchor & Cable) and the Green Man. At this time, there were a number of farmhouses set in orchards around the green and more farms to the northwest. A network of roads led to places like Acton and Willesden Green.
When the open fields were enclosed in 1823, there were some 30 houses, several of them described as ‘desirable’. Enclosure was the official act of parliament that enabled farmers to fence off their farms, and seize previously common land in villages.
The beginnings of public transport
By 1834, a number of cottages, built by tradesmen and occupied by the less economically fortunate, were built around the green. By 1839, the London-Harrow coach passed through Harlesden every day. The village had a blacksmith, a grocer, a shoemaker and a new pub, the Royal Oak (still there today). By 1855, a bus service from the Royal Oak pub to London was up and running. In spite of this, major development only came with the railways.
In 1837, the London & Birmingham Railway (which became the London & North Western Railway [L&NWR] in 1846) was built to the south of the village.
In 1841, there was a short-lived station called Willesden on Acton Lane. There was a story that this station was built so that Captain Huish, manager of the line, could travel into London, but this has been proven false. Willesden Junction Station replaced the station in 1866.
In 1861, the Hampstead Junction Railway also opened a short-lived station called Kensal Green & Harlesden, half a mile west of the present day Kensal Green Station.
Harlesden grows
From 1869, the United Land Company bought estates in Harlesden. Cheap houses could be built in Harlesden as, being in Willesden parish, it was not subject to London’s strict planning regulations.
However, this could also cause difficulties. Harlesden ratepayers had to put pressure on Willesden vestry, a largely rural body used to relying on open drains for sanitation, to provide the town with a sewer. Sewers finally arrived in Harlesden in 1871.
By 1876, one writer claimed that Harlesden had been ‘utterly spoiled’. This was not then true, but in the following decades, developers bought up farmland. Some developers built quality housing intended for commuters, others built terraced cottages. In Harley Road, the L&NWR built houses for its own workforce.
Between 1881 and 1891, the number of houses in the new All Souls’ parish quadrupled. The area went from having 399 houses (for 2,390 people), to 1,666 houses (for 9,929 people) ten years later.
By 1894, there was no true open countryside between Harlesden, Church End and Stonebridge Park, although there were still dairy farms in the area.
In 1900, All Souls’ College built Wrottesley Road and began leasing land to builders of middle-class housing. In about 1904, this estate was hit by a slump in house building, and building had stopped completely by 1910. This led the college to allow the building of cheaper houses. Despite this, by 1920, house building was continuous between Harlesden and Kensal Green.
Watch this video showing how Harlesden has changed over time.
Late 19th century
The turn of the century was Harlesden’s heyday. The population was mainly middle class and had a strong sense of civic pride.
The town had nine churches and chapels, including the impressive Anglican All Souls’ (1879). There was a Catholic convent in Crown Hill Road from 1886, with an associated Catholic girls’ school from 1888. Catholics from Wembley came to Harlesden to worship during this period.
The famous Jubilee Clock dates from 1888. Originally planned in 1886, it was decided to use it to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887. In fact, it was not erected until 1888, but the inscription misleadingly says that it dates from the Jubilee the year before. It was renovated in 1997.
In 1895, the Council turned land near Roundwood House into a park, and it was described as ‘26 of the loveliest acres [a]round London’. The High Street was rebuilt in the Edwardian period and the Willesden Hippodrome, a large music hall, opened in 1907. Several cinemas also opened in Harlesden in this period.
In 1888, Harlesden became the first area in northwest London to have horse-drawn trams. By 1890, there was a horse-drawn bus every five minutes from Paddington to Harlesden and one every 12 minutes from Harlesden to Charing Cross. In 1907, electric trams came to Harlesden, improving an already excellent public transport system.
In 1912, the L&NWR built a new electrified train line, opening Harlesden Station near the site of the old Willesden Station. In 1917, electric trains to Watford began running on this line.
