IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hill Close, LONDON, NW2 6RE

This is outside the door of St Mary's and St Andrew's Church, where you get an idea of how relatively high up this area is. Only 75 - 80 metres, but considerably higher than a lot of London.

A Roman Catholic church on Dollis Hill Lane.

The Church of St Mary and St Andrew with the church house next door.

Located on Dollis Hill Lane, approximately 200yds from the one time Post Office Research Station. In 1939 work started on an alternative cabinet war room within the grounds of the research station called Paddock. There was no accommodation on site, so it was proposed that 60 flats in Neville's court would be used for housing war cabinet senior staff and secretaries. After the start of the London Blitz on 7th September 1940, Churchill visited the site and approved plans to knock two of the flats into one to form a double flat for himself and his secretaries. One week later the Office of Works requisitioned the whole of Neville's Court for the Government. information from Subterranea Britannica - see http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/p/paddock/index.shtml for the full story of Paddock.

Located on Dollis Hill Lane. The church was built in 1933 and a side chapel was added by 1978. In August 1982 Fr Maloney procured for the parish the bell, specially cast for the Papal Mass at Coventry, and installed it in the small tower at the front of the church - visible on the left side of the entrance door. A fuller history can be found at http://www.stmaryandstandrew.co.uk/history.html..

Dollis Hill House was built in 1824 by Joseph Finch, the last surviving member of the Company of Moneyers and their Apprentices. It replaced a smaller residence, and what is now Gladstone Park was originally the grounds and gardens of this mansion. The park's name came from the time when the Earl of Aberdeen lived here, and when, between 1882 and 1896, the Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone, was a frequent guest. The house, which still survives, although badly damaged by fire, is surprisingly small for such a large park. In the walled garden here is a sundial with a pedestal formed by an 18th century baluster from old Kew Bridge. In 1898 a movement began to buy the park and open it to the public. However, this met local opposition, partly because of the expense, but also because the area was not built up at the time and it was felt that a public park was unnecessary. A newspaper of the time depicted Dollis Hill Lane as a "delightfully rural approach to the house, winding its way through the greenest of fields, with hedges and blackberry bushes either side". Fortunately there were people of vision around who could see that Dollis Hill would not stay like this, and the park was eventually purchased despite the objections. Gladstone Park was formally opened to the public in 1901 by the Earl of Aberdeen, who had been the host when Gladstone came here to relax in the then rural surroundings. The purchase price paid by Willesden District Council was £50,000. Gladstone Park is Willesden's largest formal park and most of it lies on the south-facing slope of Dollis Hill, giving fine views. This is at the top of the hill alongside Dollis Hill Lane looking towards Cricklewood.