Sitting just to the north of the North Circular Road, this unassuming, predominantly residential North London suburb is a growing commuter hub. A busy but convenient High Road offers local residents a small parade of independent and chain shops, as well as an easy route to the North Circular for those who travel by car. The closest station is West Finchley, which provides Northern line services throughout the city, but there is no shortage of buses that pass directly through the neighbourhood for a shorter commute. The historic Finchley Common remains in part next to the rumbling motorway to the south in the form of Glebelands Local Nature Reserve, a mostly wooded area with idyllic streams and ponds that offers a home to rare flora and numerous breeding birds. The suburban streets are lined with typically Edwardian semis that have always attracted commuting families, and which are becoming increasingly popular with young professionals looking to settle somewhere more affordable than the city further south.

The whole surrounding area was formerly known as North End and was an isolated rural area located within the sprawling Finchley Common. It would have been traversed by those travelling south towards London, leading to the transformation of an existing windmill into an inn in 1722. The common was enclosed in 1816, which allowed the land around it to develop slowly into a sparse suburb. By then, North Finchley had been a junction for a while but was turnpiked in the 1820s to raise funds for the urbanisation. The neighbourhood had ice rinks and cinemas by the outbreak of the First World War, and by 1939, it was known as a commercialised part of town, spurred on by the opening of West Finchley station earlier that decade.

The Great North Finchley Leisure Park is on the site of what was once a famous public lido. Opened in 1931, the lido featured a ceremonial wall built of the finest Staffordshire marble and unveiled by King George VI. The original wall is supposedly still on display behind the counter of the Nando’s in the current leisure park.

While the North Circular Road makes travelling around London very convenient by car, it is also responsible for much of the area’s noise and air pollution that some residents believe is a cause for concern. Also, while tube travel is easy from West Finchley station, its zone 4 location means that travel can get expensive in peak times.

The whole borough of Barnet is currently going through significant regeneration and is in the process of building 30,000 new homes within its boundaries, which will have a direct impact on the neighbourhood. A master plan for the further development of North Finchley town centre is included in this target. Included are ideas to promote the vibrancy of the historic town centre by improving public space, and ensuring the promotion of a safer and secure environment that “all sections of the community can have a sense of unity and pride” over. Slightly north of this postcode, development is underway on the Woodside Park project on Station Approach, which will comprise 86 new flats across two four-storey buildings.