The Ancient Lanes of East Finchley

By Hugh Petrie (February 2003)

Reproduced by kind permission of London Borough of Barnet

I gave this as a talk at East Finchley Library in December and was asked to write it down. Sorry no Roman roads; but with all their straight utility, they lack the charm of East Finchley’s old lanes. In John Rocque’s survey of the County of Middlesex (1754), much is recognisable. East End Road, Long Lane, Fortis Green, Church Lane, and even King Street. I believe that the first two were part of an older pre-1700s route north, but what follows is considered speculation.

East End Road (or Manor Road,) was a communication between the manor house (c1240), and the Barnet Road (at Muswell Hill). A new route (c1300s), cut through the Bishop of London’s Hornsey Park, at Highgate, forded Mutton Brook, and turned eastward. Wheeled vehicles would have had difficulty traversing the side of East Finchley’s ridge, so they went up the old path behind Holy Trinity old school. The Causeway was possibly used by travellers on horse and foot.

The Walks

Following the ridge round, the Bishop’s Road (so named in the 1500s) forked away from East End Road, at Stanley Road, passed the door of the Five Bells (c1750), and joined Long Lane (Ferrous Lane c1430s) near New Oak Lane. Waste land either side of these broad lanes created Hunts Green (c1430s). By the 1480s the wood as far east as the walks had been cleared, and small holdings established around Hunts Green. When the woods were further cleared during the 16th century, and Finchley Wood became a Common, travellers were provided with a short cut around the edge of these estates, along what we call The Walks. At the junction of Church Lane and The Walks, was a bull field, which gave its name to the lane which led to Hunts Green, only becoming Church Lane in the 1880s.