The Hale - History

History

The Hale was a rural area until well into the 20th century, with only the Green Man pub and the Railway Tavern (still in existence today) on opposite corners, as well as farms at Upper Hale and Lower Hale. The Green Man pub was somewhat famous in the 19th century, including for sports such as boxing. The pub was totally rebuilt as it is today in the late 1920s, but eventually had its name changed in the late 1980s and has since become a Harvester Inn.

At the turn of the 20th century, The Hale was a popular place for day-trippers from Central London who frequented the two public houses. The area changed quickly with rapid development in the late 1920s and early 1930s, particularly triggered by the arrival of the Northern Line to Edgware station in 1924, and the consequent introduction of omnibus services from that station to The Hale and Mill Hill. The farms at Upper Hale and Lower Hale were sold and developed for residential housing, such as the Hale Estate (based around the east side of Selvage Lane, Sunbury Avenue, Sunbury Gardens and Maxwelton Avenue) in the late 1920s. Thus, since the early 1930s The Hale has been a suburban area generally characterised by private detached and semi-detached houses.

The most notable buildings in The Hale are John Keble church, a Grade II listed modernist-style building which was completed in 1936 and named after the English churchman, and Maxwelton House - recently discovered during renovations to be one of the oldest buildings in the larger Edgware and Mill Hill area - which is now a school building on Hale Lane. In 1932, the John Grooms Crippleage was opened just south of the A41 Edgware Way near Stoneyfields Lane; this was closed in the 1980s and replaced by modern private housing.