With New Southgate to its south and Botany Bay to its north, this neighbourhood area falls mainly into the leafy north London suburb of Oakwood. The area is split through the middle into the grasslands of Trent Park and residential streets, and the houses are a combination of typically suburban Edwardian semi-detached and large post war estates, which are more unusual for this part of town. The second-most northern Piccadilly line tube station, Oakwood, located right in the centre of the area, may seem awfully far from the centre of London, but can take you to Leicester Square in about 25 minutes. There is little in the way of a highstreet or conveniences but New Southgate, Cockfosters, and East Barnet are a bit livelier and only a short walk or bus ride away. The huge Trent Park provides a great deal of green space, and the nearby schools and distance from the busy centre of London make this area perfect for families.

Oakwood was originally the southernmost part of the woodland known as Enfield Chase and named after the nearby Oakwood Park, which itself was named after Oak Lodge, built by Samuel Sugden in 1870. The lodge was demolished in 1920 and the 64 acres of grounds were purchased by Southgate council, which began to slowly develop the rural land into the town of Oakwood. The area remained mostly unpopulated until the Piccadilly line was extended to Cockfosters via Oakwood in 1933 and kicked off its suburbanisation with the building of Oakwood school in the same year. The majority of house building began in the 1940s and after the Second World War, a number of shops were added in the 1950s, bringing a largely- Mediterranean population to the area who were fleeing the Ottoman Empire. Little has changed since, and the sleepy suburb remains quaint and friendly, currently avoiding the encroaching urbanisation of London.

While the sleepy suburb of Oakwood has remained reasonably untroubled by famous occupants, the magnificent Trent Park has had some rather well-known owners. One such celebrity was Philip Sassoon, cousin of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who entertained many a notable friend in the grounds, including Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin.

The booking hall of Oakwood Underground Station was once home to a plaque claiming that the station stood at ‘the highest point in Europe in a direct line west of the Ural Mountains of Russia.’ There is little known as to the reasons why the station bore this plaque, but it essentially means that it lies 300ft above sea level.

Trent Park, which occupies almost half of the land in the neighbourhood, was used during the Second World War as a centre to extract information from captured German soldiers, particularly Luftwaffe pilots. It was later used as a prisoner-of-war camp for German generals and high ranking officers, and known as the ‘Cockfosters Cage’. Prisoners were treated hospitably and allowed to take regular walks around the grounds, and they were even provided with a daily whisky ration.

When speaking to one family of local residents, they all mentioned how quiet and uninspiring the suburb was. However, the number of good schools and surprisingly convenient transport links make this a fantastic place for a family to live.

Not long ago, 50 acres of the huge Trent Park was sold off to housing developers Berkeley for £30 million, however the council and campaigners have been fighting to prevent this significant part of British history being turned into flats. Luckily the Trent Park Trust has successfully managed to transform much of the site into a museum to celebrate its history as a relatively unacknowledged centre of espionage. The recently opened attraction is said to have prevented London being destroyed by a Nazi nuclear attack, and now brings in site-seers to the area. South of the park, work is underway on the New Avenue development in Cowper Gardens. Set to be completed in multiple phases until 2025 the scheme will include 451 new homes, 140 of which will be affordable.