Arnos Grove - History

History

Arnos Grove was recorded as Arnold(e)s Grove in 1551 and it seems that the name should be associated with the 14th century family of Margery Arnold who lived in the area. The Grove itself runs to the north of the nearby Arnos Park.

Until the 1930s Arnos Grove was largely undeveloped and rural, and not considered to be an area in its own right. Instead, it was considered to be part of Southgate, although in the late 19th century the area of Colney Hatch (which later became known as New Southgate) started nearby.

Arnos Grove was, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, owned by the Nuns of Clerkenwell. It was known as Armholt Wood in the 14th century, and later as Arnolds. A Tudor manor was erected on the site, but was knocked down in 1719 - presumably by James Colebrook, who bought the estate in the same year and built a mansion called Arnolds in Cannon Hill, Southgate. Locals called the estate Arno’s and the next owner, Sir William Mayne (later Lord Newhaven), renamed the house and estate Arnos Grove, which is now pronounced as though it never had an apostrophe.

The estate was owned from 1777 to 1918 by Walkers of the Taylor Walker brewing family (including the Walkers of Southgate), who bought the nearby Minchenden estate to increase the area of Arnos Grove to over 300 acres (1.2 km2). The New River loop ran through the Arnos Grove Estate until the nineteenth century. The estate was then purchased from the last of the Walker brothers by Lord Inverforth who sold the southernmost 44 acres (180,000 m2) to the Southgate Urban District Council, which created Arnos Park in 1928, and property developers.

The Arnos Grove mansion was also sold in 1928 to the North Metropolitan Electricity Supply Company. The mansion was subsequently enlarged and encased in red brick - it is now an upmarket residential care home called Southgate Beaumont.

On 19 September 1932 Arnos Grove tube station was opened, as part of the expansion of the London Underground Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters. In the years that followed Arnos Grove went from a rural area to being fully developed - the part of the estate to the north of Arnos Park was, for example, built up by 1939. The main public facilities at Arnos Grove were built in the 1930s. These facilities include Arnos Pool and Bowes Road Library - both of which underwent major refurbishment in the mid-2000s, like Arnos Grove tube station. The library and swimming pool, along with Arnos Park, the wealth of facilities at Arnos Grove tube station (such as Ash House, the six sidings, and three tracks through the station with four platforms) and the proximity of Arnos Grove to the North Circular, which had been built in 1929, made Arnos Grove a desirable area to live in.

The southward expansion of Arnos Grove, which was initiated by the bias of facilities to the south of the original estate, was aided by the destruction of parts of New Southgate during World War II. There is now an almost continuous line of shops between Arnos Grove and New Southgate, via Bestyle Circus, making the areas closely linked. Today, seven bus routes (six day - the 34, 184, 232, 251, 298 and 382 - and one night - the N91) link Arnos Grove and New Southgate stations. Both areas have been helped by the redevelopment of the nearby Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum into Princess Park Manor, an 'exclusive residential development' containing 'luxury apartments' and a health and fitness complex, where several celebrities live.

Today Arnos Grove is still growing, with local and regional shop brands opening new premises regularly along the Arnos Grove stretch of Bowes Road including a Sainsbury's Local that opened in 2010 where, until the mid-2000s, the local Post Office had been.