My friends who live in Mill Hill need to move home because the husband can't cope with the stairs. But they are loathe to leave Mill Hill. What's the attraction of Mill Hill?
Around the corner is the prestigious Mill Hill School. As you drive or walk past you can see the entrance to the historic school, founded in 1802, in a grade 2 listed building, with a grand columned entrance, and exotic plants.
Famous former pupils of the school included Dennis Thatcher, husband of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir Norman Hartnell, dress designer to the royal family who designed clother for the Queen Mother and HM Queen Elizabeth II's coronation robe, and Sir Richard Dimbleby, TV commentator.
You can hire the school for a wedding, barmitzvah or other occasion.
But if you don't have children at the school, what had and has Mill Hill got to boast about?
What you will see driving into Mill Hill from Central London is the observatory on your left. I was once taken inside it by a boyfriend who wanted to ompress me.
By now you will have passed the church where Sir Stamford Raffles was buried. Not much to see, but I was really thrilled to be there.
Other notable residents of the area were the aptly named racing driver Graham Hill. Much earlier Sir Stamford Raffles left London to established Singapore, and then returned to London. He is buried in a church nearer Hendon.
Mill Hill's High Street is medium length, providing lots of restaurants and a few shops, a supermarket, a station. I have described Hudsons in detail in my previous post.
The motorway is on your doorstep. The RAF (Royal Air Force) museum is along the road at the station end.
Social Life
The U3A, the worldwide University of the Third Age - is the place where you can gather with like-minded retired people, or, as Americans say, Seniors. They teach each other culture in small or huge groups. In Mill Hill the U3A meets in a hall near one of the three churches which group togother (Methodist, Catholic and Anglican). The hall also holds yoga classes, including yoga for those who are seated, in wheelchairs or at desks. Once my friends went to learn Canasta. It was a long session, three or four hours.
The Mill and The Hill
That's indoors. What about the outdoors? I don't now what happened to the mill. I think the remnants of it must be somewhere uphill. Every now and then we drive around looking for it. The hill is across the motorway. If you want old world England, it's just up beyond the school which is on the lower slopes of the green hill, and Garden Centre, the other side of the big roundabout.
Mill Hill is a good place to live, out of London in the green belt, but conveniently close to busy Hendon and bustling Golders Green. Mill Hill has s station so you are near enough to reach central London by train - or by car.
When I was a child, Mill Hill was the impressive area. You talked about Mill Hill when you drove from the Hendon Way north to Edgware, past Mill Hill, but never drove into it. You mentioned that somebody lived in Mill Hill. Really - Mill Hill! Mansions are spread out along the motorway.
However, the big elegant houses near the shops are now falling into disrepair, being sold off by elderly owners. At a local musical, I met a retired music teacher and his wife, also a music teacher. They had a house in Mill Hill which looked modest outside. Inside, the huge living area was lined floor to ceiling with books, surrounding a grand piano. I remember they were trying to fix the gutters, paint the outside, and sell at a reasonable price, for months. Any chance of buying a bargain house?
One side of the road of once elegant houses has come down in value because of the noise from the new motorway behind. I remember when Mill Hill was so smart, I was scared to go to eat in the High Street. The gigantic Good Earth Chinese restaurant is still known to my once affluent retired friends as a place with great food but dauntingly high prices.
Edgware
Edgware is just along the motorway from Mill Hill. Crowded Edgware. Anne Frank's father lived in Edgware. Very few people knew. I didn't know until after he had died. I remember reading Anne Frank's Diary when I lived in Edgware in the nineteen sixties.
I read about how the Frank family lived hidden in Amsterdam. You can read a book written by his step-daughter, Anne's posthumous step-sister, Eva Schloss. It is a paperback. I bought it. I had no idea Anne's father was hidden for the rest of his life in Edgware. (The book by Eva Schloss explained that her mother and Anne Frank's father saw each other regularly when they went to read the Red Cross lists of people who had been traced, both hoping their respective spouses had lived.)
Wikipedia further explains that Eva and Anne and their families had both lived in the same apartment block. (On another family's wedding video, found years later, Anne can be seen briefly, leaning out of a window watching a bride set off for a wedding).
I bought Anne Frank's diary in W H Smith's in Edgware, on my way home from school. I remember reading it late at night, and my mother coming in and finding me in tears. She said, "Why are you upsetting yourself? It happened before you were born. It's not your problem!"
I remember when Mill Hill was one up on declining Egware. My late mother moved from Edgware when the Almond Tree tea shop closed and McDonalds moved in. It was, my mother said, "The beginning of The End!"
Speaking of ends, when you look at the map of London's underground 'tube train' lines, you can see Edgware station at the end of one line, the Northern line, and Mill Hill, and Mill Hill East. Now you know more about them.
Useful Websites
https://www.millhill.org.uk (About the school)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Schloss
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evas-Story-Survivors-Step-Sister-Frank/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_They_Came_for_Me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Hartnell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Hill_School
https://www.visitbritainshop.com Official site. 'Everything you need for your trip to Britain'
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Mill Hill school, listed building, from Wikipedia (creative commons).
Around the corner is the prestigious Mill Hill School. As you drive or walk past you can see the entrance to the historic school, founded in 1802, in a grade 2 listed building, with a grand columned entrance, and exotic plants.
Famous former pupils of the school included Dennis Thatcher, husband of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir Norman Hartnell, dress designer to the royal family who designed clother for the Queen Mother and HM Queen Elizabeth II's coronation robe, and Sir Richard Dimbleby, TV commentator.
You can hire the school for a wedding, barmitzvah or other occasion.
But if you don't have children at the school, what had and has Mill Hill got to boast about?
What you will see driving into Mill Hill from Central London is the observatory on your left. I was once taken inside it by a boyfriend who wanted to ompress me.
University of London observatory.
By now you will have passed the church where Sir Stamford Raffles was buried. Not much to see, but I was really thrilled to be there.
Other notable residents of the area were the aptly named racing driver Graham Hill. Much earlier Sir Stamford Raffles left London to established Singapore, and then returned to London. He is buried in a church nearer Hendon.
Lovely moist beef.
The motorway is on your doorstep. The RAF (Royal Air Force) museum is along the road at the station end.
Social Life
The U3A, the worldwide University of the Third Age - is the place where you can gather with like-minded retired people, or, as Americans say, Seniors. They teach each other culture in small or huge groups. In Mill Hill the U3A meets in a hall near one of the three churches which group togother (Methodist, Catholic and Anglican). The hall also holds yoga classes, including yoga for those who are seated, in wheelchairs or at desks. Once my friends went to learn Canasta. It was a long session, three or four hours.
The Mill and The Hill
That's indoors. What about the outdoors? I don't now what happened to the mill. I think the remnants of it must be somewhere uphill. Every now and then we drive around looking for it. The hill is across the motorway. If you want old world England, it's just up beyond the school which is on the lower slopes of the green hill, and Garden Centre, the other side of the big roundabout.
Mill Hill is a good place to live, out of London in the green belt, but conveniently close to busy Hendon and bustling Golders Green. Mill Hill has s station so you are near enough to reach central London by train - or by car.
When I was a child, Mill Hill was the impressive area. You talked about Mill Hill when you drove from the Hendon Way north to Edgware, past Mill Hill, but never drove into it. You mentioned that somebody lived in Mill Hill. Really - Mill Hill! Mansions are spread out along the motorway.
However, the big elegant houses near the shops are now falling into disrepair, being sold off by elderly owners. At a local musical, I met a retired music teacher and his wife, also a music teacher. They had a house in Mill Hill which looked modest outside. Inside, the huge living area was lined floor to ceiling with books, surrounding a grand piano. I remember they were trying to fix the gutters, paint the outside, and sell at a reasonable price, for months. Any chance of buying a bargain house?
One side of the road of once elegant houses has come down in value because of the noise from the new motorway behind. I remember when Mill Hill was so smart, I was scared to go to eat in the High Street. The gigantic Good Earth Chinese restaurant is still known to my once affluent retired friends as a place with great food but dauntingly high prices.
Edgware
Edgware is just along the motorway from Mill Hill. Crowded Edgware. Anne Frank's father lived in Edgware. Very few people knew. I didn't know until after he had died. I remember reading Anne Frank's Diary when I lived in Edgware in the nineteen sixties.
I read about how the Frank family lived hidden in Amsterdam. You can read a book written by his step-daughter, Anne's posthumous step-sister, Eva Schloss. It is a paperback. I bought it. I had no idea Anne's father was hidden for the rest of his life in Edgware. (The book by Eva Schloss explained that her mother and Anne Frank's father saw each other regularly when they went to read the Red Cross lists of people who had been traced, both hoping their respective spouses had lived.)
Anne Frank's stepsister, Eva Schloss. For more details see Wikipedia.
Wikipedia further explains that Eva and Anne and their families had both lived in the same apartment block. (On another family's wedding video, found years later, Anne can be seen briefly, leaning out of a window watching a bride set off for a wedding).
I bought Anne Frank's diary in W H Smith's in Edgware, on my way home from school. I remember reading it late at night, and my mother coming in and finding me in tears. She said, "Why are you upsetting yourself? It happened before you were born. It's not your problem!"
I remember when Mill Hill was one up on declining Egware. My late mother moved from Edgware when the Almond Tree tea shop closed and McDonalds moved in. It was, my mother said, "The beginning of The End!"
Speaking of ends, when you look at the map of London's underground 'tube train' lines, you can see Edgware station at the end of one line, the Northern line, and Mill Hill, and Mill Hill East. Now you know more about them.
Useful Websites
https://www.millhill.org.uk (About the school)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Schloss
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evas-Story-Survivors-Step-Sister-Frank/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_They_Came_for_Me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Hartnell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Hill_School
https://www.visitbritainshop.com Official site. 'Everything you need for your trip to Britain'
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
1 comment:
The High Street in Mill Hill is NOT of medium length: in fact, it's known to be the shortest in London. It has no shops and no restaurants. I think she meant Mill Hill Broadway, and not High Street at all!
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