![](https://kirby.wa-insight.com/media/pages/area-guides/north-queensbury/ce75205b8a-1690289595/kirby-header-centred-693x693.jpg)
North Queensbury
This neighbourhood is a largely-suburban area in between Edgware town centre to the north, Queensbury to the west, Kingsbury to the south and Burnt Oak to the east. The area is overly residential, with several schools – including the Krishna Avanti Primary School, Canons High School, and Stag Lane Junior School. The houses are mostly from the interwar period, set on straight lanes. Nearby connections include Honeypot Lane to the west, leading to Brent Park, and the A5 to the east, which provides direct access to Paddington in central London. In addition, Queensbury underground station lies to the southwest of the area, and Burnt Oak just east, giving residents the choice of either the Jubilee or Northern lines.
The area, while itself not having many stores or facilities, is close to Edgware town centre, as well as superstores just south in Colindale. This neighbourhood can be seen, therefore, as being a quiet residential place to stay with good schools, and decent connections to amenities just outside the area.
Stag Lane is located in the centre of the neighbourhood, and today is a calm suburban area, with a school located in the middle. However, in the 30s, this was at the forefront of modern aeronautics. The de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School was established here in 1928, and the Stag Lane Aerodrome was located in what are today blocks of flats along Mollison Way. De Haviland manufactured many famous aircraft here, including varieties of the ‘Moth’. Manufacturing of engineers and propellers existed at Stag Lane up to the Second World War. Increased suburbanisation and development, even before the war, however, forced the company to find a less congested area, and by 1969, the site was sold to Brixton Estate, and is today housing.
Canons High School, previously known as Downer Grammar School, had produced a couple of famous alumni, most notably, perhaps, the guitarist and singer Long John Baldry, who studied there for secondary and who says that the people he met there led him to be interested in blues and jazz guitar. He would often practise in nearby Canon’s Park, and later discovered the skiffle and folk scene in Soho. He would go on to feature in many bands, moving form jazzy blues to middle-of-the-road pop. He moved geographically too, from London to Toronto to Vancouver. His last album was Remembering Leadbelly in 2002, who Baldry said, ‘touched me as a kid and they still talk to me all these years later’. He died on 21 July 2005.
The Krishna Avanti Primary School is Britain’s first state-funded Hindu school, catering to the large Hindu community in the area. It opened in 2008, nearby in Little Stanmore and moved to its present grounds at William Ellis Playing Fields in 2009. The Queen visited the school for her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The school is managed by Avanti Schools Trust, which aims to promote a holistic lifestyle through a vegetarian diet, yoga, meditation, and as a built environment which fosters environmental concern. Their schools draw on the teachings of Krishna Chaitanya, while aiming to teach a robust conventional curriculum to its students.
Unlike its northerly neighbour, this neighbourhood does not have a proliferation of green spaces, with the area being overwhelmingly built-up. The area has no real centre, with straight roads and long blocks making up most of the neighbourhood and no commercial district. However, the area does have both excellent road and public transportation links (both the Jubilee and Northern lines), with rapid access to central London. Furthermore, the area is centred on its many schools, which makes the area’s community more family-oriented.
Development is typically steady in this suburban corner of London as the area is yet to become a major target for developers. The largest ongoing development is located slightly to the west of this neighbourhood, sitting between 79-83 Kenton Road. Named Viceroys Court, this scheme will comprise 39 flats, many of which will be available through the help-to-buy scheme. There have also been several plans to expand the schools in the area, including Stag Lane Infant and Junior Schools, expanding them by an extra form. In addition, the areas just outside of the neighbourhood: Colindale and Burnt Oak, have become prime areas for redevelopment recently, with superb connections to central London.