Finchley Things to Do Tips by Kap2

College Farm

Its quite suprising to find a farm in suburbia.... and rare breds of cows back in 2006.... though the main activity in the old dairy farm buildings is a pet food, tack and feed shop

Address: Fitzalan Road

Directions: Just off Regents Park Road, just north of the North Circular Road.

The Bothy

The Bothy is a concrete castle structure built in the grounds of Avenue House... it is the first concrete building built in the UK since the Romans , it was built in the 1870s as a walled garden, now used as an arts venue

possible inspiration for CS Lewis's the Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe.... anycase you can watch theatre here over the summer

Restoration is going on as we speak... i'll check it out when i get a chance.

Address: East End Road

Victoria Park

A beautiful park, especially in May with the trees in blossom, tulips and other flowers in bloom

there is a cafe, public toilets, bowls club (the premier outdoor green in London, they spend £7,000 a year cutting and rolling the lawn!), tennis courts and a childrens play area... site of Finchley Carnival....

St Mary's at Finchley

The church itself has an interesting history..... the church's website has more info... including this inscription

Godolphin his race to rest hathe rune
Where grace recordes felycytie
His death is gone his lyff hathe wonne
Eternal perpetuitye
Though William his corppes here dead doethe lye
? ssayeth to him shall never dye

Support the Spike Milligan Statute Fund

A group of Spikes friends and family have combined with The Finchley Society to raise funds for the creation of a bronze statue in Finchley. The aim is to raise ?30,000 and to unveil the statue in April 2006.

The life-size statue will show Spike sitting on a bench and turning as if to speak to an imaginary person sharing the bench with him. Many people, young and old, will come to have their photo taken in this unique setting. Sir Paul McCartney, Michael Parkinson and Joanna Lumley are patrons

If you would like to make a donation please send a cheque payable to "The Spike Milligan Statue Fund" to The Secretary, 17 Abbots Gardens, East Finchley, London N2 OJG.

All donations will be acknowledged.

Address: http://www.finchleysociety.org.uk/

The Naked Lady

This statue was erected to mark the victory of combined British and French forces over the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne between 5 and 12 September 1914.

This statue, was made by Emile Guillaume, official name is La Delivrance, but locals know it as the Naked Lady.

It was unveiled by the former war time prime minister, David Lloyd George in 1927, with a crowd of 8,000 in attendance.

It is located here because Lord Rothermere wanted to see it on his drive to see his mum in Totteridge.

Address: Henlys Corner

Directions: This statue is located north of the A406 North Circular Road just as Finchley Road becomes Regent Park Road. You can take the bus, the 82 links Golders Green to North Finchley (Tally Ho).

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Delivrance

Avenue House and Grounds

The gardens are beatiful place to wander around. The house itself is not amazing, but its setting is perfect and it contains the the 'Inky' Stephens Collection.

Other Contact: http://www.london-northwest.com/

Website: http://www.avenuehouse.org.uk/

Finchley Lobe

I'm not sure if this is a thing to do.... it takes imagination, thinking is a type of doing. In the Ice Age a massive galcier pushed the Thames outhwards to its current course.

This ice was known as the Finchley Lobe an carved the lump of land that Finchley rest upon, imagine a giant river of ice, mountain like and Hampstead as tundra.... global warming?

Further reading:
A History of the County of Middlesex, 1969
Volume I
Edited by J. S. Cockburn & H. P. F. King, K. G. T. Mc Donnell

"Taking the assemblage of deposits as a whole, the sequence of events is tolerably clear. Before the advance of the ice, the Thames, expelled from its Hertfordshire course by the advance of an earlier ice-sheet, flowed through the Finchley depressions from west to east. The second great ice-sheet, which completely covered the country northeast of Middlesex, sent a lobe up the valley, and thus diverted the Thames from this its second course. Small outlying masses of glacial gravel at Dollis Hill and Hanger Hill mark the train of outwash-gravels along the Brent valley which must have been initiated at this time. This signal episode was the second glacial diversion of the Thames from its first course and to it is due the initiation of the Thames valley through London. Few physiographic episodes can have been answerable for human consequences so significant and complex."

Website: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=83

Arts Depot

London's newest arts venue....

It is situated between West Finchley, Finchley Central and Woodside Park tube stations on the Northern Line. West Finchley and Woodside Park are the closest stations, approximately half a mile away.

Finchley Central has the best bus link, approx a 3 minute journey by the 125, 460, 82.

Directions: After you emerge from the Northern Line tunnel at East Finchley, your soon see the residential tower on the horizion to your right.

If you stroll north along Ballards Lane your soon see the same tower again (10 minute once you passed Tesco).

Website: http://www.artsdepot.co.uk/

Harry Beck's Tube Map 1931

You can see a copy of this map at Finchley Central station, where Mr Beck used to begin his journeys to work...

Directions: Harry Beck's original 1931 map is on the southbound platform....

Other Contact: http://www.designertradingcards.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map