IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
High Road, LONDON, N20 9HS

A 263 bound for Barnet Hospital stops to collect passengers in Whetstone. The rain is tipping down and damp humanity travelling on board has steamed up all the windows.

This replaced an old row of shops in the 2000s which included an old tailor's shop which had been there for decades.

Damp prospective passengers furl their umbrellas and search for their Oyster cards as the southbound 34 bus pulls in on the High Road, Whetstone. Meanwhile another passenger checks the time that her bus is due on the indicator inside the shelter. Another prospective passenger can be seen beyond, risking life and limb, running across the road - it's not a day to miss your bus! The office block behind is Barnet House.

Rebuilt in 1830, the name suggests that this was once a public house and there is a reference to it existing as the Red Lion by 1521. It was catering for waggoners by 1800 and is recorded as having pleasure grounds until the beginning of the 20th century, (information from British History Online). It was converted into a garage and currently carries out services, tyre changes, exhaust and clutch replacements. It used to supply petrol as well and the location of the pumps is still visible as a slightly raised area on the plinth in front of the shop, (just left of centre).

The Griffin prospers as a gastro pub on Whetstone High Road, once the Great North Road. It was a Coaching Inn originally from the seventeenth century I understand. Diagonally opposite it to the camera's right and out of picture is the soon to be demolished 1960's concrete office block that has become an eyesore. I have also uploaded a photo of that building. That the old building survives and the new one goes under perhaps is the exception to the economic rule of creative destruction as expounded by Joseph Schumpeter to explain the workings of capitalism. In front of the blue car in the photo the horse trough is not original and the 'whetstone' was no such thing. Perhaps it's creative heritage capitalism?

It is thought that this stone may have been used to sharpen knives etc in the past or was used as a mounting block outside the Griffin which was a coaching inn

On High Road N20.

The pub in this picture is the Griffin, which dates from 1928 although there has been an inn on this site in the centre of Whetstone for much longer.

A number of shops and offices in Whetstone are set further back from the A1000 than the surrounding premises. Here, the HSBC bank advertises its presence. The bollards mark the boundary of its property.

Popular Whetstone pub that dates back to 1697, it was catering for waggoners by the early 1800's, (Information from British History Online). Once a Fullers house, it has been an Irish theme pub and is now a Firkin house.