Flag of the London Borough of Harrow, in Hatch End, Pinner. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Restaurants and Mrs Beeton Plaque
The plaque to Mrs Beeton is on the exterior wall of Lattakia Restaurant.
Hatch End has many restaurants and a heritage plaque to cookery queen Mrs Beeton.
Trees & Plaques In Hatch End
At least three trees in the street have plaques at the base telling you the type of tree or the donors or both. I had been wondering what an elm tree looks like.
I identified a horse chestnut tree where the Broadway turns into Grimsdyke Road because I saw conkers lying on the pavement (Americans say sidewalk).
I just filled in a survey on transport in my area and it got me thinking. Everything was rated from good to bad. What would I like to see, and what do we already have?
Hurray for Harrow Walking Routes
Informative and entertaining signs about walking routes are at Hatch End station. Another sign about a walking loop is on the corner of the main street, called The Broadway.
Would I trot off along the footpath? Maybe at weekends with the family. I would not walk alone through woods. Maybe public streets and remote paths at junctions should have help points, like railway stations. Yes, this would cost money. Everything costs money.
How about a guided walk every weekend? Who would run it? Council staff, student volunteers?
They could show sites, and plaques including famous people along every high street. Hatch End had Mrs Beeton. Pinner had Nelson's grand-daughter. Pinner also has her grave in the nearby cemetery.
I asked Gemini. do we have guided walks of Harrow or Pinner. Yes.
Yes, there are several guided and self-guided walking options available across Harrow, Pinner, and Hatch End:
Guided & Local Heritage Walks
Pinner Historical Walks:Organised locally (including free regular walking groups associated with The Ramblers and health groups), offering regular ~1-hour walks exploring Pinner's historic High Street, churchyard, and local heritage routes.
Headstone Manor & Museum Heritage Walks:Headstone Manor & Museum periodically hosts guided heritage walks focused on local Harrow history, historic buildings, and surrounding green spaces.
Self-Guided Routes & Trails
Harrow-on-the-Hill Historic Trail: Self-guided walking routes take visitors up the hill around Harrow School, St Mary’s Church, and the old village center.
Harrow Health Walks:Harrow Council runs free, regular led group walks across local parks and open spaces to promote fitness and local exploration.
London Loop & Capital Ring: Major long-distance walking routes run directly through the borough. Section 14 and 15 of the London Loop pass through Hatch End and Pinner, connecting local woodlands, parks, and historic sites.
Go Jauntly App Walks: Walking apps like Go Jauntly feature detailed community-created routes through Hatch End, Pinner Village, and Harrow-on-the-Hill.
Weird and Wonderful Places in Pinner and Harrow
Harrow, Pinner, and Hatch End feature several unusual, quirky, and curious sights. Pinner has the coffin in the sky at the church in Pinner.
In the park is the Heath Robinson museum.
More details:
Eccentric Sights & Architecture
The Triangular Coffin (William Loudon’s Tomb): In the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Pinner sits a stone pyramid structure where the coffin of William Loudon (and his wife) was placed above ground. Local legend holds that he receives a money transfer so long as his body remains above earth, leading to the bizarre "coffin in the sky" design.
The Heath Robinson Museum: Located in Pinner Memorial Park, this museum is dedicated to William Heath Robinson—the famous illustrator known for drawing absurdly over-complicated, whimsical contraptions ("Heath Robinson machines").
The Nazi Diplomat's Mansion (Sans Souci): High up on Pinner Hill, a villa named Sans Souci was constructed in the 1930s for Joachim von Ribbentrop (the German Ambassador to the UK who later became Hitler's Foreign Minister). Built using German materials and architects, local urban legends long rumoured it was designed as a observation point or future command hub.
The Zoroastrian Centre Cinema: In Rayners Lane (Harrow), the Grade II*-listed Zoroastrian Centre is housed in a former 1936 Art Deco cinema (the Safari/Fremont) designed by Frank Ernest Bromige, featuring dramatic, sweeping modernist curves.
Local Quirks & Traditions
Ye Olde Wheelbarrow Race: Every St George's Day, Pinner hosts a unique charity race where teams of two take turns pushing each other in wheelbarrows from pub to pub while drinking beer along the route.
The Royal Charter Pinner Fair: Held every May since 1336 (granted by King Edward III), street vendors and funfairs completely take over Pinner's historic High Street for a single day, fulfilling a nearly 700-year-old medieval charter.
The 50-Metre Ceramic Wall Mural: On the exterior wall of the Hatch End Swimming Pool / Harrow Arts Centre, an expansive ceramic mural created by artist Alan Cox depicts aquatic life and local scenes.
The Ancient Moat at Headstone Manor: Headstone Manor & Museum features the only complete 14th-century water-filled moated manor house remaining in Greater London.
Signs and Symbols Of Harrow
Have a simple cartoon or symbol for every high street. Or a diamond enclosing silhouettes of four famous people or places.
We already have assorted symbols.
The official coats of arms, historic heraldry, and recognized civic symbols represent Harrow and Pinner through key icons:
The Silver Arrow & White Lion:Derived directly from the arms of Harrow School (the arrow referencing historical archery contests held by the school).
The Torch:Represents education, learning, and local schools.
The Quill Pen:Represents literature and famous writers who lived in the borough (such as Isabella Beeton in Hatch End).
The Hill & Clump of Trees:Located at the base of the crest, representing Harrow on the Hill as well as the wooded areas of Wealdstone and Harrow Weald.
The Green Arched Band:Symbolizes the Metropolitan Green Belt surrounding the borough.
The Red Triangle (Pile):Symbolizes the historical Saxon meetings held in the Hundred of Gore.
The Goddess Hygeia & Benedictine Monk (Supporters):Hygeia signifies the area's health record, while the monk represents the historical religious connections of Bentley Priory.
Unofficial & Local Landmarks for Pinner
While Pinner is part of the London Borough of Harrow and shares its official coat of arms, it relies on several distinctive local icons to represent its village identity:
The Triangular Coffin (William Loudon’s Tomb): A recognizable motif for Pinner's historic parish churchyard (St John the Baptist).
Heath Robinson Machine Illustrations: Quirky, over-complicated mechanical drawings inspired by William Heath Robinson, heavily used on signage and branding around Pinner Memorial Park.
The Wheelbarrow: Associated with the annual St George's Day pub race, often appearing on local event flyers and community heraldry.
The Medieval Fair Crest: Banners and street signs along Pinner High Street feature medieval market symbols referencing the 1336 Royal Charter Fair.
Longstay Vehicles, Pavement Parking & Signs
We need more parking for cars.
But we could make space by promptly removing long-stay, untaxed and unattended vehicles which might have been stolen and abandoned. We need signs telling you who to contact in the event of this problem.
Another sign I would like would tell people that parking on pavements in Harrow and Hatch End is not allowed, because it is in some parts of the country. People who are trying to be helpful by clearing the road and parking on the pavement get slapped with fines and aggression from residents. This unexpected penalty is confusing, unkind, stressful and frightens off visitors.
Cleaner Streets
Clean up the pavements and the facias. Copy Japan. Get every schoolchild and student cleaning their own school daily, and litter picking their own street, weeding, planting flowers.
Public Toilets At Stations in Harrow and Singapore
Have toilets at every station in London. Apparently we are working towards that. Singapore has toilets outside almost every station. Google maps shows toilets at stations. But when you arrive, the toilets are out of order, or closed at 9 pm. No good when you are returning at 11 pm.
If you need funding for more toilets, opened longer hours, get businesses to sponsor, and carry ads for businesses around the walls, with a jolly mural on the outside.
Use the waste water.
When stuck, look for toilets in shopping malls, or pubs, or restaurants, or fast food outlets, or libraries, or hospitals, or hotels, or supermarkets, or museums, or department stores, or tennis clubs, or golf clubs, or garden centres, or wineries, or big, civic buildings such as town halls.
Harrow Town Centre
St Ann's Shopping Centre: Accessible public toilet facilities are available on the upper level near the main food court and seating area.
St. George's Shopping Centre: Clean, fully accessible public restrooms and baby changing rooms are located on the upper level near the Vue Cinema entrance.
Harrow-on-the-Hill Station: Toilet facilities (including accessible facilities requiring a RADAR key) are located inside the ticketed station concourse area.
Who has a RADAR key? No use to most of the elderly, including me and my husband.
Pinner & Parks
Pinner Memorial Park: Public toilets (including accessible units) are located next to the park cafe and the West House building.
Pinner Station: Restroom facilities are available inside the station premises for passengers.
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Harrow Souvenirs
Have a Harrow shop with souvenirs of Harrow, where walking tours start. Run a contest for Harrow's five favourite foods
Run a campaign of people of the week. For example, Harrow beekeepers, Harrow honey (which I bought at the Headstone Manor Farm).
Show a tourist bus map, linking Harrow School, Headstone Manor, Heath Robinson Museum. Have statues or murals of famous people, all the people who went to Harrow School, Mrs Beeton. St George's has friezes but so high most people don't notice them.
Run a contest for poems and parodies of quotations about Harrow and display them.
Pinner has a Pinner Fair. Why not a Harrow Fair.
Tree Walks
Make a tree walk. Label all the trees, like Kew Gardens, name of plant, fruit, leaves, height. This is done in Singapore. A whole riverside walk by Gardens by the bay is free entertainment. Not just the names of trees. Myths, medicinal uses, all kinds of instructive and entertaining facts.
If needed, get sponsors from local businesses or schools. Students can do the research. A small part of this is done near Headstone Manor. At one time trees in Hatch End high street has little notices at the base of a planted trees, placed their by the sponsor.
Roundabouts have sponsors.
Meeting Points
Every park and major event should have a meeting point with a statue, clock and chairs. Maybe a pond with fish and ornamental plants.
Parking Places
More parking spaces so you can stop briefly to buy a pint of milk, a gift of flowers, a sandwich, whatever. Not enough parking near Tesco in Hatch End. More signs at bus stop of when the next bus is expected in Hatch End would make it more attractive to walk to the bus stop, rather than taking a car.
Restaurants should display signs telling you car parks and bus routes. People want to drive because loud music from restaurants and people on the pavements (in Hatch End late at night) can be frightening for safety, danger of drunks, pickpockets, people colliding with you.
We need late night buses to Harrow. Many people want to use cars and park because friends have had phones stolen from motorbike phone snatchers at bus stops.
Traffic Management Schemes
Yellow junctions are helpful.
Banned turns are a nuisance and make you drive around polluting the air and causing stress.
School Streets
What are school streets? Parents are banned from parking and pick up near schools? Or parents are allowed and others are banned?
Are school streets good? I am not sure. What will parents and schools do? Parents want to collect children to prevent the risk of bullying, fights, stabbing after school. Will the cars block different streets?
Will schools stagger class finish times? Run a school bus?
What will householders do? Will they benefit? What about deliveries, mail, parcels?
One Hour Free Parking - Insufficient time
One hour is not enough. You cannot shop, queue, and have a coffee in the supermarket or nearby. You cannot eat a meal in a restaurant or cafe in an hour. You need ten minutes to walk in and find a table, ten minutes to place an order, ten minutes to wait for service, ten minutes to eat a sandwich, ten minutes for coffee, ten minutes to pay, ten minutes to walk back. Stressful. Or get fined and never do it again. Will I really meet a friend for lunch for just an hour, when one of us could be ten minutes late delayed by traffic or work?
On Pavement Parking - Warning Signs Needed
Cleanliness
More attention to both cleanliness and litter. Do streetview of Japan.
Pavements should be cleaned. Shopfronts which are unsightly should be repainted. We should run brighten up Harrow weeks four times a year with sponsors from paint companies, DIY companies, renovation companies. Employ the unemployed to clean the streets.
Useful Websites About Harrow, Pinner, and Hatch End
Hatch End is a sub-division of Pinner. Hatch End's high street, the Uxbridge Road, is a just along from Pinner. Pinner had the historic black and white buildings including a couple of ancient pubs, connections with Heath Robinson, whose museum is in the Park opposite Pinner Metropolitan line station.
Hatch End station is on the Watford to Euston line. The high street has art deco buildings and its association go back to Mrs Beeton whose famous cookery book taught us all to write recipes starting with the ingredients and then listing the actions to take.
Hatch End is a hotbed of restaurants, especially Italian restaurants, started by 'Mr Fellini'.
Bandaa is urdu for servant or beloved.
Restaurants in Hatch End (alphabetically)
B & K - Jewish style
Casa Mia
On the right below.
Chingon Cocina Mexicana (Mexican Restaurant) second from left.
Dona Theresa on the left.
Coriander - Indian
Lattakia Lebanese Restaurant
Izgara Restaurant
Laboratorio (Italian) Restaurant, Hatch End
Sakonis (Vegetarian Indian) Restaurant
Sakonis, far left.
Sea Pebbles (Take away and restaurant) - fish and chips and more,
Minori restaurant and pizzeria
The Steak Restaurant (far right of photo below)
Closed Down:
Fellini; Serato;
From Hatch End station you can follow a walking route.
About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
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Problems
Who invented the British Bakewell Tart?
What's the Difference between a Bakewell Tart and a Bakewell Pudding?
Who invented the Pavlova?
Who said, "let them eat cake"?
Who invented fish and chips?
Pizza?
Chop Suey?
Answers
The Bakewell tart was supposedly invented in Bakewell. However, if you go back through the printed editions of cookery books, a similar recipe appeared in Mrs Beeton's recipe book before the opening of the shop in Bakewell on the site of the inn where the cook make it popular. You'll have to check the dates, if you are bothered.
Mrs Beeton lived in Hatch End, a short wide street called The Broadway, on the Uxbridge Road, going towards Uxbridge, near Hatch End station, in Pinner (which has another station called Pinner station) in North West London. Unfortunately Mrs Beeton's house no longer stands. (The area was bombed in WWII, as you can see from photos in the archives of the Heath Robinson museum in Pinner.
Mrs Beeton was the young wife of a publisher and at his request compiled a book of Household management and a recipe book. Both were best sellers. Unfortunately she died young, after childbirth. Her book is still in print and a heritage plaque is on a restaurant in the high street, going from the railway station, cross the road on the crossing, and the the restaurant is the last one at the other end of the shops - only a few minutes walk.
Mrs Beeton took some of her recipes from a book by Eliza Acton. If you read Eliza Acton's book, she claims to have compiled a recipe based on the dish she was served by a Jewish house wife in London's East End.
Fish and chips is also reputed to be based on food served by Jews who were in the East End of London, where they lived because that is where they got off the boats from Europe. (In the days before plane travel.)
Whilst this is amusing, recipes transform and improve. The origin of French Tarte Tatin, supposedly served by two sisters, after the dimmest or most accident prone one turned an apple dessert upside down with the pastry underneath and apples on top, a tart, instead of the pie with apples underneath and a pastry topping, a pudding.
Tart Tatin is nicely alliterative. Bakewell tart is a great name, sounding like bake well.
The French introduced controls over use of the name of areas of origin to protect the reputation of their wines. Champagne must come from the area of Champagne. A drink produced elsewhere is called Champagne method. What starts as a dispute between two people two shops, two restaurants, or two large companies, or two countries, moves to a registered trade mark and a court case over infringement. We are increasingly finding places of origin being registered, sometimes after after a dispute and judgement, so that you cannot call something a Cornish (pasty or otherwise) if it doesn't come from Cornwall, or Scotch (such as whisky) if it doesn't come from Scotland.
The origins of Pizza are claimed to be from both Italy and the USA. Chop Suey, a Chinese dish, from the USA. What often happens is that a dish or product is taken by traders or immigrants from one country to another. Ingredients change. Cooking methods change. The original name may stay or be changed. The person whose name is attached to the product may not be the first inventor or creator, but the person with the most marketing push or the alliterative name. For example, Singer Sewing machines. (From a Mr Singer of the Singer family in the USA, on Singer Island in Florida, but Singer also had a home in England. Singer and sewing machine are neatly alliterative. His big push was to mass produce industrial sewing machines small enough to be convenient and cheap enough for every home to have one, bought not outright but on credit with a small weekly payment known as hire purchase.)
I have wandered away from names of popular foods to the names of popular sewing machines. I shall now return to the subject of food and the origins of quotations. First Pavlova, then quotations.
Pavlova
Both Australia and New Zealand claim Pavlova as a national dish. In Perth, Australia, a hotel has a plaque claiming that Pavlova was invented in their hotel. The story goes something like this. The ballet dancer Pavlova did a very successful tour of Australia. The owner of a hotel asked the chef to increase tea time business by making a special centrepiece cake or dessert to go with the tea or coffee.
He made a large meringue and (in my version of the story it sank in the middle so he disguised it) enhanced it with strawberries in the middle. The fruit makes it less cloying, so you can eat more of the meringue, which is basically sugar and egg white. The colour contrast is also appealing.
I could not find any place in New Zealand where they claim to have invented the dish. Meringue can be made soft and mixed up with fruit as in Eton Mess, or solid enough not to sink under the fruit. A New Zealand recipe book or a magazine with a reader's letter giving the recipe pre-dated the visit of Pavlova to Australia.
It seems to me that like Tarte Tatin, Pavlova was the name which caught on. One person makes a dish. Another makes a second equally popular or more popular variation. The dish is named after the cook or chef who makes the dish popular, or a popular personality or the person or patron for whom the dish is made.
A name of a double saucepan, with the item being cooked kept cooler above a basin of boiling water is a Bain Marie in French, Mary's basin or bath of water.
Why would you care?
1 You just wonder.
2 You are fussy about accuracy.
3 To write a researched recipe book.
4 Or to set a quiz.
5 Or to make a bet as to who is right in a pub or cafe. The loser has to buy a round of Bakewell tarts!
This is the story, if I remember rightly. but I rarely remember rightly. Hardly anybody does. A story does not stay the same five minutes later, never mind after a century. You can prove this with a game of Chinese whispers.
If you have any business or social reasons for wanting to establish the origins of Bakewell tart or pudding, you had better check the current situation. If you want to try Bakewell tart, or Bakewell pudding, you can go to Bakewell to compare. But if you just want an almond slice, or almond cake, you can find them all over England, and in recipes books and the internet all around the world.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on Bakewell tart and other foods and restaurants in England and around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.
