• If you have diverted to view R. M. Ballantyne's blue plaque resume the walk here and ...

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• ...turn left along London Road to enter Harrow on the Hill via the High Street….  ///atomic.panel.class

 

On your right you’ll see the old Toll Gate Cottage that can be dated to around the 17th century, although its name relates to the 19th century when turnpike trusts with toll gates barring the roads were set up. It appears that Toll Gate Cottage owes its name entirely to the fact that the last tollkeeper’s daughter happened to live there.

 

• Continue walking towards The Green….  ///evenly.remove.stream

 

On your right you’ll see a building adorned with two cornucopia above a restaurant bar.   

 

This building dates from 1912 when it opened as a dance hall and variety theatre. Later it became ‘The Elite’ - a small cinema with a screen arranged in the existing stage and a noisy projection room upstairs.  In November 1931 it was re-named ‘The Cosy’. The stage was demolished and updated and a new proscenium arch, screen and drapes were added to the rear wall allowing for back projection. Finally in 1937 at the time of the Coronation of King George VI it became ‘The Carleton’, before closing in 1939 when larger cinemas opened downhill in Harrow. It remained derelict until after the end of the second world war before being gutted and re-fitted as the first in a series of restaurants.

 

• Walk a little further past these restaurants…

 

This area around the Green was the site of several Council buildings as you can see from two Harrow Heritage plaques. The one on the wall of ‘West View’ states that it was…’Built in 1868 as the first Board Room, Office and Surveyor’s house of the Harrow Local Board of Health (forerunner of Harrow Council)’. The other Harrow Heritage plaque is across the road above what is now an estate agent’s office. This was the old Fire Station. You’ll notice that, in the pictures above, the old chimney stack carrying the fire warning alarm bell has disappeared!

 

The King’s Head former public house and hotel is believed to date from the late 18th century on the site of King Henry VIII's hunting lodge. It survived until about 2001 before being converted into flats…The carved words "King's Head Hotel" are just visible in the white rendered stonework of the parapet wall of the section of the building to the right.