About

Woodside Park is a suburban residential development in the London Borough of Barnet, in postal district N12.

It is very varied in character. The area to the east of the tube station consists predominantly of large Victorian and Edwardian houses, many of which have been converted into flats. The north-western part of the area, which can also be regarded as the part of Totteridge in N12 rather than N20, is sometimes called Woodside Park Garden Suburb and consists of semi-detached or detached 3 to 4 bedroom houses built in the 1950s. It includes the Woodside Park Club. The eastern boundary of the Garden Suburb is the Dollis Brook and the southern boundary is the Folly Brook. To the south of this Suburb is an area of 1920s and 1930s houses, where many of the roads are named after places in Sussex, such as Sussex Ring and Cissbury Ring.

There is a small amount of commercial activity around the mini roundabout at Chanctonbury Way, which was originally the main shopping area for Woodside Park, providing basic services such as a post office, a butcher and an ironmonger. Since the creation of North Finchley shopping parade, many of the original shops have closed down and have been replaced by specialised businesses such as IT and catering.

Finchley N12 Woodside Park and Woodside

Woodside House, again possibly a medieval property but certainly known by 1699.  By the 1800s it was called Woodside farm. In April 1872 the station opened, and shortly afterwards, in June, 45 acres of the Woodside estate was sold as “Torrington Park”, part of the Woodside Estate, were advertised for sale in The Times.  In 1877 a man called Henry Holden inherited the land, and it was he who developed what we know as Woodside Park. Holden built an assembly room, Woodside Hall, in 1885 which was converted in to Woodside Park Synagogue in 1950. Holden Road is named after Henry Holden. Spike Milligan, the comedian, lived in Holden Road, as did the young Emma Bunton.

On the other side of the railway line, and on the western side of the Dollis brook, and south of Folly Brook, the Woodside Park Garden Suburb was built between 1929 and 1939. The original builder was FJC Ingram. By 1936 The Leyland Construction Company, were also selling houses south of the Folly brook. Both these builders knew that there were plans to electrify the railway and connect it to the tube railway. The brookside walk was established by Finchley Council during the 1920s, with the last sections purchased in 1931. North of Folly Brook, Woodside Park Club (1934) was established to serve residence of the Garden Estate.

Further Reading…A History of Woodside Park Garden Suburb

By the door of a certain house in Cissbury Ring North there is a plaque which reads “On this spot, in 1832, nothing happened”, and this encapsulates the history of what is now the Woodside Park Garden Suburb until well into the 20th century. Activity in the surrounding area had also been very limited because of its poor soil and – until the construction of the Great North Road – its remoteness from main roads. But although the clay soil was too heavy for most types of cultivation, it came to be used in the eighteenth century to grow hay, the market for which was increasing with London’s growing horse population. Later, as London grew in population and prosperity, new roads were built and suburbs were created from its outlying villages. But it was not until well after the coming of the railway that there were any substantial developments in the vicinity of Woodside Park…Read more [PDF 700KB]

Local Map

Words from the community…

The dream of a community that cares and supports each other has been a dream of mine for many years. I have to admit that I wasn’t very involved before now and after the bad winter we had last year I realised a few of my neighbours were stranded. (I was temporarily stranded after my skidding accident on 21/12/2009.. many of us couldn’t even get home by public or private transport and were forced to walk home). We like most, are close to our immediate neighbours but because of our busy schedules haven’t been able to find out how others coped. As a GP I was fully aware of my patients who were stranded and often moved by their stories of neighbours who helped to support them in an emergency. What better reason to foster community spirit, security, awareness for those that may need support and passing on to the young that community cares and counts
Adwoa Dufu