Edgware

Coordinates: 51°37′07″N 0°16′22″W / 51.6185°N 0.2729°W / 51.6185; -0.2729

Edgware (/ˈɛdʒwɛər/) is a district of North London, mainly in the London Borough of Barnet. Edgware is centred 10 miles (16 km) north-northwest of Charing Cross and has its own commercial centre. Edgware has a generally suburban character, typical of the rural-urban fringe. The community benefits from some elevated woodland on a high ridge marking the Hertfordshire border of gravel and sand. Edgware is identified in the London Plan as one of the capital's 35 major centres. In 2011, Edgware had a population of 76,056. Edgware is principally a shopping and residential area and one of the northern termini of the Northern line. It has a bus garage, a shopping centre called the Broadwalk, a library, a hospital—Edgware Community Hospital, and two streams—Edgware Brook and Deans Brook, both tributaries of a small brook known as Silk Stream, which in turn merges with the River Brent at Brent Reservoir.

History

Edgware succeeds to the identity of the ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. Edgware is a Saxon name meaning Ecgi's weir. Ecgi was a Saxon and the weir relates to a pond where Ecgi's people caught fish. Edgware parish formed part of Hendon Rural District from 1894. It was abolished in 1931 and formed part of the Municipal Borough of Hendon until 1965. The Romans made pottery at Brockley Hill, thought by some to be the site of Sulloniacis. Canons Park, to the north-west, was developed as an estate by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and was the site of his great palace Cannons.