This neighbourhood area contains Edgware’s town centre to its east, and hence encompasses the centre of the entire Edgware area. True to Edgware’s character, the area is defined by high-quality semi-detached houses (from interwar style to mock-Tudor) along winding streets, with considerable backyards, as well as larger estates and new build flats. To the west of the area lies the North London Collegiate School, with extensive grounds. Canons Park lies just outside this area, contributing to the open feel. Stonegrove marks the quasi-boundary between the greener west and the more built up east, which includes the high street. Edgware town centre is lively, with old churches alongside many restaurants, pubs, gyms, and large superstores, which include Sainsbury’s and the Broadwalk Centre, and of course one of the two Northern line terminus stations. As is expected for one of London’s 35 major centres as designated in the 2021 London Plan, the area is bustling and vibrant and likely to see major investment and population growth over the coming decades.

Edgware’s name derives from “Ecgi’s weir”, first recorded in an Anglo-Saxon charter around 975. A weir was a sort of constructed fishing pool, used to trap fish or irrigate fields. Ecgi probably built his weir along what is today Edgware Brook. Residents can go down to the two pools and imagine how the Anglo-Saxon’s once trapped fish there today. The town centre is also not lacking in history – medieval pilgrims from London to St. Albans were said to stop at Edgware to rest and pray at St. Margaret’s, which was in existence since at least 1375. Edgware would once again become a transport hub in the 1700s, when it was an important coaching halt. Several inns were established during this period. As per other parts of London, the railways came to the area in the 1800s, but unlike other parts, the lack of the need for coaches meant that many tradesmen left and the area would revert to agriculture again, until the interwar period.

The North London Collegiate School was founded in 1850 and is a top independent day school for girls aged 4-18. It has produced many notable alumni, from Rachel Weisz, a film and theatre actress, to Rosalind Franklin, a chemist and x-ray crystallographer who made huge contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Rosalind Franklin was born to a Jewish family (Edgware has a strong Jewish community to this day), and crucially discovered the impact of DNA on biology and genetic information. She sadly passed away at the young age of 38.

During the 1900s the Charles Wright Ltd metal factory moved to Edgware from Clerkenwell, likely because work was too noisy for the increasingly crowded city centre. The factory was famous for producing World War I medals (35,000 a day), as well as number plates – the design template of which is still used as a reference for the ‘K-type’ plate today.

The Edgware area is calm and quiet, with good schools and large green spaces. However, the Stonegrove and Spur Road Estates have not benefited from this environment, and suffer from shoddy post-war construction. However, there has been an initiative to regenerate the area by the local council in recent years.

The Stonegrove Estate regeneration has recently delivered 999 mixed tenure homes with reduced rent for residents, while improving the infrastructure, educational, and community facilities. These include children’s play facilities, open spaces, and the re-provision of school and sports facilities at the London Academy. The Stonegrove Community Trust was established to spearhead this regeneration effort.

Development interest in Edgware has increased greatly in recent years and it has been designated part of the Edgware Growth Area. Network Homes are working on a new scheme in the area, Edgware Parade, a brand new development of Shared Ownership apartments on Station Road. The homes will be a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments and the project is enaring completion. The development will have four blocks ranging from four to 17 storeys in height. New green spaces will be created for children to play and a place for people to meet and interact. Fairview’s Edgwarebury Manor, a mix of one and two-bed apartments and two, three and four-bed terraced houses, and Shanly Homes’ Hillgrove House, a scheme of 20 one and two-bedroom apartments, are other examples of recent development in the area. Property developer Ballymore and Transport for London are also working to deliver a reimagined town centre on Station Road in Edgware, near Edgware Tube Station, that will introduce new housing and bus station improvements. The 7.5 acre Broadwalk Shopping Centre, owned now by Ballymore, has been stated to be the focal point of the regeneration scheme.