Stretching from the North Circular Road up into East Barnet, this neighbourhood area is a quiet, mostly residential suburb of north London that is mainly made up of Arnos Grove and New Southgate. Housing generally consists of semi-detached Edwardian and interwar properties, with a number of uninspiring post-war council and ex-council buildings situated on wide leafy streets. Despite its distance from central London, there are plenty of convenient transport links into the city inside the neighbourhood, such as Arnos Grove which provides Piccadilly Line services and New Southgate, which runs Thameslink and Great Northern trains across the country. The area’s suburban location also means that green space is in no short supply, with Brunswick Park, Arnos Park, New Southgate Cemetery, and New Southgate Recreation Ground all within the neighbourhood boundaries, some of which offer sports facilities to local clubs and the numerous nearby schools. Despite its London neighbourhood, the local high street gives the area a village feel, providing a mix of independent shops and convenient chains, and the countryside-style pubs, restaurants, and cafes mean that there are plenty of meeting places for this diverse community. Far north of the City of London, and owned by the Nuns of Clerkenwell, the land that the area sits within would have been almost entirely rural for much of its life.

Arnos Grove was known as Armholt Wood in the 14th century but changed hands following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the mid-16th century when a large Tudor manor was erected. After changing hands a number of times, the manor was bought by City banker James Colebrook, who demolished the house, replacing it with a mansion called Arnold’s (later shortened to Arno’s) in 1719, which later passed to Sir William Mayne, who renamed the estate Arnos Grove. Little changed in the area until the introduction of the Great Northern Railway in 1850, for which New Southgate station was built, but its remote location outside of London kept it rural enough for the building of the large Great Northern Cemetery (now New Southgate Cemetery) in 1861, which was served by a direct train line from King’s Cross. The opening of Arnos Grove Underground station in 1932 as part of the Piccadilly line extension transformed the area from being rural to fully developed, with the building of estates to house the growing population, many of which remain today.

While never actually a resident of the area in the truest sense, Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957) is one local who will never leave. Despite having very little connection to the area, the Persian leader of the Bahá’í Faith is buried in New Southgate Cemetery, as he unexpectedly died of Asian Flu whilst travelling to Britain on the 4th November 1957. As Bahá’í custom dictates that one’s burial cannot be further than one hour’s journey from the place of death, New Southgate was selected as his final resting place, and he is commemorated with a grand statue topped with a golden eagle.

Jerome K. Jerome, the famed author of Three Men In a Boat, published in 1889, was cited in the 1871 census as living at 7 Springfield Villas. The villas have long since been demolished, but the site of the house is believed to be what is now the entrance gate to Garfield School on Springfield Road.

The largest brick viaduct ever built for the London Underground is located in the area. Utilising over 3 million bricks, the massive Arnos Park Viaduct was constructed in 1932, in order to allow the Piccadilly line extension to pass through the Pymmes Brook Valley. The stunning piece of engineering consists of over 30 huge arches all of which are meticulously aligned.

The area’s affinity with the Piccadilly line isn’t surprising given that it only developed after the line was extended through the area, so it’s rather apt that its tube station be an architectural masterpiece. One of a series of Art Deco stations designed by Charles Holden, the Grade-II* listed building is inspired by the Stockholm City Library, and has received great praise by a number of architects and critics alike.

Residents complain that the area is very quiet due to its distance from central London, and there are no real places to shop that are within a reasonable walking distance. Yet when chatting to one local resident, they mentioned that the great travel links into town mean that this isn’t much of a problem. It also means you can escape the hustle and bustle of the city while remaining just close enough to access it when you want to.

This typically sleepy neighbourhood area has recently seen a number of significant changes with a couple of developments completed to accommodate the number of Londoners being priced out of the city centre. The Montmorency Park project was the largest of these, providing 517 new private sale houses and apartments priced from £350,000 upwards. Barnet council’s development pipeline indicates that similar developments will continue in the future. Looking further forward, nearby New Southgate will also be greatly affected by the introduction of Crossrail 2 which is planned to pass through the station. Yet despite £1.8 billion being invested in the project in 2020 it is unclear when the project will materialise as plans have been underconsideration in different forms since the 1970s.