PUBLIC SERVICES.
The 'fine spring water' of
many wells was noted as a feature of the parish as
a whole in 1717 and of individual houses in the 19th
century. (fn. 63) Wells were supplemented by numerous
ponds and by rainwater tanks. (fn. 64) Public wells included Brownswell, which was used by travellers
across the common and repaired by the feoffees of
the charity estates. (fn. 65) In 1717 the conduit had
recently been mended. (fn. 66) The feoffees also maintained
wells at Church End in 1791, abandoned in 1792
after it had fallen in, and in Nether Street from 1793
until after 1844. (fn. 67) The town well at Whetstone was
ordered to be opened in 1819, whereupon the
encloser brought an action against the parish
officers in 1820. The vestry had to pay damages but
the inhabitants' right to use the well was upheld. (fn. 68)
The Regent's Canal Co. acquired land for a
reservoir at Strawberry Vale in 1811 but the scheme
was abandoned and the site drained c. 1820. (fn. 69) There
were water works in High Road and Hampstead
Lane belonging to the New River Co. in 1859. (fn. 70)
In 1866, when considering the problems of drainage
and sewerage, the vestry declared that it was not
necessary to do anything about the water supply but
by 1871 the East Barnet Water Co. was supplying
cottages at Whetstone. (fn. 71) In the 1880s water was
still drawn from wells, many of which were contaminated by sewage. (fn. 72) By 1890 the East Barnet
Water Co. was the Barnet District Gas & Water
Co., which in 1901 defended itself against the
U.D.C.'s charge that the water-rate was too high by
claiming that deep boring had been necessary. (fn. 73) The
company, called the Barnet District Water Co. in
1955, was absorbed into the Lee Valley Water Co.
in 1960. (fn. 74)
Sewerage, because of large-scale building, presented problems by 1867, when complaints to the
Home Secretary led to an inquiry. (fn. 75) The inspector
stated that he had long been worried by Finchley's
sanitary condition: open pools and streams were
polluted and many houses were being built without
sewers. Cholera provided the necessary stimulus to
spend money, which was borrowed to build sewers
and tanks at Church End, East End, North End,
and Whetstone. By 1868, however, the sewers were
full and other houses needed cesspools, especially in
Whetstone. Privies were made compulsory for all
houses in 1869. In 1870 the Lee Conservancy Board
complained about sewage from Bounds Green brook,
while East Finchley's sewerage flowed through St.
Pancras cemetery, where it was further polluted by
the shallow graves of paupers. A special vestry
meeting vetoed plans to draw up a drainage scheme
for the whole parish, and a committee, unable to
find a panacea 'any more than they have discovered
the Philosophers' stone', decided that the existing
system of six outfalls of sewage in the east was the
cheapest. Finchley blamed Colney Hatch asylum for
continued pollution of Bounds Green brook, open
drains were still a nuisance in 1871, (fn. 76) and typhoid
broke out at Whetstone in 1872. In 1874 Barnet
rural sanitary authority drew Finchley's attention to
the need for comprehensive drainage.
Sewerage was one of the main problems facing the
new local board of health, whose medical officer in
1879 revealed that little had changed since 1867. (fn. 77)
Finchley, after considering plans to co-operate with
Friern Barnet and Edmonton, (fn. 78) acquired over 100 a.
at Strawberry Vale (fn. 79) and built a complete system to
serve 2,355 a. of the most populous part of the
parish, with high- and low-level sewers discharging
into works built at Summers Lane in 1885. (fn. 80) Later
improvements included bacteriological treatment of
the sewage from 1897 and works to deal with surface
water draining into the near-by brooks in 1903. (fn. 81)
Sewage was rerouted to Deepham, Edmonton, in
1963, the Summers Lane works being demolished. (fn. 82)
A refuse destructor was built near the sewage farm
in 1928 and demolished in 1965. (fn. 83)
Hospital provision had been foreshadowed by the
addition of two rooms to the workhouse in 1805. (fn. 84)
In 1831, expecting cholera, the vestry set up a committee which issued instructions for cleanliness and
took the opportunity to warn that in cases of insobriety the disease was 'most peculiarly fatal'. (fn. 85)
The outbreak was less severe than had been feared. (fn. 86)
Poor sanitary conditions, especially in Whetstone
and East End, made diseases like typhoid common
throughout the 19th century, (fn. 87) although in 1880
Finchley was said to have less tuberculosis than
most areas. (fn. 88)
During a smallpox epidemic in 1881 St. Pancras
put up temporary tents on its land in Finchley in
spite of opposition from the local board, which sent
its own smallpox victims to Barnet union workhouse or to Highgate. (fn. 89) In 1889 the board built its
own hospital for infectious diseases, unsuitably
sited near the sewage farm in Summers Lane. (fn. 90) It
accommodated 24 in 1913 but was superseded by
Coppetts Wood hospital in Hornsey, with whose
council Finchley and Wood Green agreed to share
costs in 1922. (fn. 91)
Finchley cottage hospital, built mostly by subscription on a site at Fallow Corner given by
Ebenezer Homan, (fn. 92) opened with 18 beds in 1908
and was renamed Finchley Memorial hospital and
extended to 46 beds in 1922. A private wing was
opened in 1933 and there were 124 beds by 1977. (fn. 93)
A convalescent home belonging to the National
Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System,
Bloomsbury, had opened in East End Road in 1870
and had 16 female patients by 1881. It moved to the
Bishop's Avenue in 1895, where it had 36 beds in
1931 and 25 in 1961. A rehabilitation building was
opened in 1967. (fn. 94)
Woodside Home for incurable and infirm women
moved in 1888 from Great Ormond Street to Whetstone, where H. Lloyd Baxendale gave it a house
and grounds. (fn. 95) It had 44 patients in 1891 (fn. 96) and 54
beds in 1931 but closed between 1937 and 1941. (fn. 97)
The Grange, a private lunatic asylum, had opened
by 1901, when it had seven inmates and twice as
many staff. (fn. 98) St. Elizabeth's, a female geriatric
hospital, opened in 1953 in Friern Watch, Ebenezer
Homan's home on the Friern Barnet border at
Whetstone, and had 40 beds by 1975. (fn. 99)
A cage on the waste near the church, with stocks
near by, was to be built in 1784 on the magistrates'
recommendation. (fn. 1) In 1801 the parish contributed
towards Highgate cage (fn. 2) but in 1806 a bricklayer was
to repair a cage which presumably stood in Finchley. (fn. 3)
In 1812 Finchley and Friern Barnet failed to agree
on a joint plan to build a cage aginst the toll-house at
Whetstone. (fn. 4) In 1815 the vestry asserted that a place
of confinement was absolutely necessary and again
planned cages at Whetstone and near the stocks at
Church End, suggesting that the earlier cage was no
longer in use. There was still no agreement with
Friern Barnet but a brick cage was built at Church
End close to the Queen's Head. (fn. 5) Pupils of the
National school had to pass the cage and in 1860
the prisoners' behaviour led the vestry to demand
its closure, but the Metropolitan Police insisted on
keeping it: 143 persons had been confined there
during the last five years. (fn. 6) The cage was eventually
removed in 1880. (fn. 7)
Three police forces operated in the mid 19th
century: the parish constable, (fn. 8) the Metropolitan
Police, and the Bow Street horse patrol. (fn. 9) The patrol,
revived in 1805 to safeguard the turnpike roads out
of London, (fn. 10) was first recorded in Finchley in 1818.
By 1828 its third division operated as far as Whetstone and in 1836 four constables worked from
Finchley and two from Whetstone. There was still
a Bow Street horse patrol station on the Great North
Road in 1851, with four men. There were then
eleven other policemen, presumably from the
metropolitan force, in the parish. (fn. 11) From 1840
Finchley was included in the Metropolitan Police
District. (fn. 12) A police station was built at Whetstone,
on the east side of the main road, in 1851 and was
inadequate in 1911, when a new site was bought in
Friern Barnet Lane. It was only in 1948, however,
that the adjoining premises at the corner of High
Road and Friern Barnet Lane were bought and in
1960 that the new station opened there and the old
one closed. (fn. 13) In 1865 the vestry requested more
police (fn. 14) and in 1873 a police station was opened in
Church End, in a rented house. Wentworth Lodge
in Ballards Lane was bought in 1886 and a station
was opened on the site in 1889, closed in 1965, and
rebuilt shortly afterwards.
A fire-engine had to be brought from Highgate in
1813 but by 1824 Finchley had its own, (fn. 15) which the
churchwardens were responsible for repairing in
1845 and 1849. (fn. 16) A volunteer fire brigade was
formed c. 1870; (fn. 17) composed mainly of traders, it
kept a hose and cart in a shed opposite Woodhouse
Road and later at the Queen's Head hotel in East
End Road. A fire station opened in 1888 in a shop in
Hendon Lane and later in adjoining shops. (fn. 18) In 1890
the brigade consisted of twelve men and five auxiliaries. (fn. 19) The local board had a fire committee by 1889
but decided against a new station on grounds of
expense. (fn. 20) The new U.D.C. took over the voluntary
brigade and in 1899 formed a professional force, (fn. 21)
which in 1904 acquired one of the first motorpowered fire-engines. (fn. 22) A sub-station for North
Finchley opened in 1890 at Tally Ho Corner, moved
in 1902 to Torrington Park, and closed in 1930.
Another for East End opened in 1895 near the Baldfaced Stag, moved to Church Lane and then to
Chapel Street, and closed in 1931. Whetstone was
served by a sub-station opened near the police
station in 1896 and closed c. 1933. (fn. 23) In 1935 a
combined fire and ambulance station opened at the
junction of Long Lane and the North Circular Road,
superseding the Church End station and the recently
closed sub-stations. (fn. 24)
The Hornsey Gas Co. opened negotiations to
light Finchley in 1861 but by 1863 decided that the
hamlets were too scattered and withdrew in favour
of the Southgate Gas Co. (fn. 25) The latter, as the Southgate and Colney Hatch Gas Light and Coke Co.,
tion, notified its intention to enter the parish in 1866,
as did the East Barnet Gas and Water Co. (fn. 26) Meanwhile the Finchley Gas Co. had retired in 1863 in
favour of the North Middlesex Gas Co., founded in
1862 to supply Finchley, Hendon, and Mill Hill. (fn. 27)
The company began work in Hendon and in 1870
was permitted by the vestry to enter Finchley. (fn. 28)
By 1879 the Southgate, the East Barnet, and the
North Middlesex Gas companies had laid mains
in Finchley, although none had gas-works there. (fn. 29)
Street lighting was introduced in 1883. (fn. 30) The Southgate company was absorbed into the Tottenham and
Edmonton Gas Light and Coke Co. in 1938 and on
nationalization in 1948 became part of the Eastern
Gas Board, which supplied northern Finchley in
1973. The other two companies in 1948 became part
of the North Thames Gas Board, which in 1973
supplied the rest of the area. (fn. 31)
The West Middlesex Electric Lighting Co.
unsuccessfully proposed to supply Finchley in
1882. (fn. 32) Finchley Electric Light Co., incorporated in
1900, installed a small gas-engine generating station
near Mountfield Road but soon clashed with the
U.D.C., which in 1897 began considering whether
it should provide electricity itself. By 1899 the
U.D.C. obtained a provisional order under the
Electric Lighting Act of 1882 and in 1901 it started
to cut the Finchley Electric Light Co.'s cables.
Cutting was forbidden after litigation but in 1902
the U.D.C. drew up a scheme and in 1903 it opened
a generating station, from which 130 houses were
supplied by 1904. Some street lamps were then
converted from gas to electricity and in 1905 the
Finchley Electric Light Co. was bought by the
U.D.C. (fn. 33) By 1955 control had passed to the Eastern
Electricity Board. (fn. 34)
A voluntary public library opened at Seymour
Terrace in High Street, North Finchley, in 1896. (fn. 35)
Ratepayers pressed for libraries from 1912 but it
was not until 1933 that the first municipal library
opened at Avenue House. A second opened in
Ravensdale Avenue, North Finchley, in 1936 and
a third in High Road, East Finchley, in 1938. (fn. 36) The
library at Avenue House closed in 1939 and thereafter used temporary premises in Regent's Park
Road and Hendon Lane. (fn. 37) A new library for Church
End was opened in Hendon Lane in 1964. (fn. 38)
Victoria park (18 a.) was opened in 1902 to
commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. (fn. 39)
It was still Finchley's only public pleasure ground
in 1912, when Middlesex C.C. offered to meet
a quarter of the cost of acquiring another 43 a. (fn. 40)
In 1914 the U.D.C. finally bought Brook and
Wyatts farms, 62 a. adjoining Dollis brook in
Whetstone, and in 1915 it bought another 13 a.,
Cherry Tree wood on the Hornsey boundary, from
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 41) The bequest of
Avenue House by H. C. Stephens in 1918 included
10 a. of landscaped gardens. (fn. 42) In 1930 the U.D.C.
drew up a town-planning scheme for Hampstead
Garden Suburb which included Lyttelton playing
fields (23 a.), Big (18 a.) and Little woods, and a
walk alongside Mutton brook; (fn. 43) land was also being
acquired along Dollis brook to create Brookside
Walk. By 1932, after the acquisition of c. 90 a. of
glebeland, once part of Finchley common, Finchley
had some 412 a. of open space. (fn. 44) The glebeland,
part of which was sold to the army in 1938, comprised 46 a. in 1955. (fn. 45)
Slipper and swimming baths were opened at
Squires Lane in 1915. An open-air swimming pool
was opened as part of a sports ground on the former
glebeland in High Road, north of the junction with
the North Circular Road, in 1931. (fn. 46)