St John's Wood
| Saint John's Wood | |
|---|---|
  Saint John's Wood Saint John's Wood shown within Greater London | |
| OS grid reference | TQ265835 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | NW8 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
St John's Wood is a district of northwest London, of which more than 98 percent lies in the City of Westminster and the remainder in Camden. It runs from the northwest side of Regent's Park to Marylebone, to the Edgware Road part of Paddington and to the Swiss Cottage part of Hampstead.[1][2] It is about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross.
Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was from 1238 a wooded farm of St John's Priory, Clerkenwell (the Knights of St John of Jerusalem) before Protestant Edward VI of England sold the farm to noblemen.[2][3] It is an affluent neighbourhood,[4] with the area postcode (NW8) ranked by Forbes magazine as the fifth most expensive in London based on average home prices in 2007.[5] According to a 2014 survey, St John's Wood tenants pay the highest average rent in London, with rents averaging £1,889 per week.[6]
History
The great landholding of St John's Priory (i.e. Clerkenwell Priory) lying nearest London until Protestant monarch Edward VI of England was St John's Wood Farm. This was equivalent to today's area in what was then the north of Marylebone. It had the estate farmed out on agricultural tenancies as a source of produce and income.[7] Edward saw the farm divided and sold to wealthy noblemen.
St John's Wood developed from the early 19th century onwards. One of the first developers was James Burton.[8] It was among the first London suburbs with lower-density villa housing and frequent avenues, but fewer communal garden squares. Most of the villas have since been subdivided and replaced by small apartment blocks or terraces.[9] This pattern of development has made it one of the most expensive areas of London.[10]
St John's Wood is the location of Lord's Cricket Ground, home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), and the original headquarters of cricket. It is also famous for Abbey Road Studios and the street Abbey Road, where The Beatles recorded, notably the Abbey Road album, the cover of which features the band crossing the road.
The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery was formerly based at St John's Wood Barracks. The regiment moved to Woolwich on 6 February 2012; the barracks has been demolished and the site developed as upmarket housing.[11]
The area is also home to St. John's Wood Church Grounds, which contains the only nature reserve in the City of Westminster.
Education
The area has various schools, both state and independent:
- 3 House Club
- Robinsfield Infant School
- Saint Christina's Primary School
- Barrow Hill Junior School
- George Elliot Primary School
- Quintin Kynaston Community Academy
- The American School in London
- Arnold House School
Places of worship
St John's Wood has a range of places of worship.
- Christian
- Abbey Road Baptist Church
- St John's Wood Church (Church of England)
- St Mark's Church, Hamilton Terrace (Church of England)
- The Church of Our Lady (Roman Catholic)
- Jewish
- St John’s Wood United Synagogue
- The Liberal Jewish Synagogue
- The New London Synagogue
- Saatchi Shul
Transport and locales
Neighbouring locations:
- Belsize Park to the north-east
- Hampstead to the north
- Kilburn to the north-west
- Lisson Grove to the south
- Maida Vale to the south-west
- Marylebone to the south
- Primrose Hill to the east
- Regent's Park to the south
- Swiss Cottage to the north
The nearest London Underground stations are St John's Wood and Swiss Cottage on the Jubilee line; Maida Vale, Marylebone and Warwick Avenue on the Bakerloo line; and Baker Street on Bakerloo line, Jubilee line, Hammersmith & City line, Metropolitan line and Circle line.
The nearest London Overground station is South Hampstead.
Notable residents
Commemorative blue plaques
- Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema OM (1836–1912), painter, at 44 Grove End Road[12]
- Gilbert Bayes (1872–1953), sculptor, at 4 Greville Place[13]
- Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819–1891), civil engineer, at 17 Hamilton Terrace[14]
- Sir Thomas Beecham CH (1879–1961), conductor and impresario, at 31 Grove End Road[15]
- George Frampton (1860–1928), sculptor, at 32 Queen's Grove[16]
- William Powell Frith (1819–1909), painter, at 114 Clifton Hill[17]
- Guy Gibson V.C. (1918–1944), pilot and leader of the Dam Busters, at 32 Aberdeen Place[18]
- Thomas Hood (1799–1845), poet, at 28 Finchley Road[19]
- Thomas Huxley (1825–1895), biologist, at 38 Marlborough Place[20]
- Melanie Klein (1882–1960), psychoanalyst, at 42 Clifton Hill[21]
Past and present residents
- Michael Algar – musician and songwriter
- David Alliance, Baron Alliance – businessman and politician
- A. J. Ayer – philosopher, was born and grew up in the area[22]
- Douglas Bader – distinguished World War II fighter pilot, was born there
- Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium – member of the Belgian royal family
- Chili Bouchier – actress
- Charles Bradlaugh – founder and first president of the National Secular Society lived at 20, Circus Road, house since demolished, now St John's Wood library
- Sir Richard Branson[23] – entrepreneur, founder of Virgin Group
- Sarah Burton – fashion designer
- James Caan – entrepreneur
- Christabel Cockerell – British painter
- Wayne Daniel – Middlesex and West Indian cricketer
- Jill Esmond – actress, first wife of Laurence Olivier
- Vanessa Feltz – broadcaster
- Andy Fletcher – musician (Depeche Mode)
- Leonard N. Fowles – organist/composer
- Lucian Freud – artist
- Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau – member of the Dutch Royal Family (Wellington Hospital)
- Sidney Frank Godley VC – soldier, school caretaker
- Avram Grant – football manager
- Daphne Guinness – socialite
- Tony Hicks – musician
- Stephen Hough – concert pianist
- Eric Idle[24] - actor and comedian known for his roles on Monty Python and author of Spamalot
- Andy Irvine[25] – folk musician
- Kia Joorabchian – businessman
- Nigel Kennedy – violinist
- Imran Khan[23] – cricketer, and Pakistani politician
- Lillie Langtry – actress[9]
- John Lawford – Royal Navy officer
- Damian Lewis – actor
- Sir John Major[23] – former prime minister
- Terry Manning – music producer
- Sir Paul McCartney – musician[26][27]
- Ewan McGregor – actor
- Jonathan Rhys Meyers – actor
- Sir Jonathan Miller – writer, opera director, physiologist and sculptor
- Kate Moss – model[28]
- Elisabeth Murdoch – businesswoman and daughter of Rupert Murdoch[29][30]
- Alex Prior – singer/composer
- Keith Richards – rock musician and songwriter of The Rolling Stones lived on Carlton Hill in the 1960s.[31]
- Mark Ronson – musician, DJ, singer, and record producer
- Georgina Castle Smith – children's writer
- Mel Smith – comedian, actor, film director
- Gregg Sulkin – actor
- Sachin Tendulkar – cricketer
- James Tissot – French painter and illustrator; sold his house at 17 (now 44) Grove End Road to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
- Norman Shanks Kerr – physician
- Jihadi John – British Islamic extremist
- Clarissa Dickson Wright – chef[28]
St John's Wood in literature, music and television
- Count and Countess Fosco live at No. 5 Forest Road, St. John's Wood in Wilkie Collins's 1859 sensation novel The Woman in White.
- Irene Adler lives there (in Briony Lodge on Serpentine Avenue) in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1891 Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia".
- In the first instalment of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, The Man of Property (1906), Young Jolyon lives on fictional Wistaria Avenue with his second wife and family.
- St John's Wood is the home of fictional characters Bingo and Rosie Little in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster short stories and novels, written from the early 1920s onward.
- Referenced in the Rolling Stones song, "Play with Fire", released in 1965.
- The protagonist of J.G. Ballard's novel Millennium People (2003), is a psychologist who lives in St. John's Wood, which he abandons to join a middle-class rebellion.
- Appears in two books by Howard Jacobson, as the setting for his 2004 book The Making of Henry, followed in his 2010 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Finkler Question as the planned location for the Museum of Anglo-Jewish Culture.
- Violet Hill, a street and area off Abbey Road with Violet Hill Gardens and Violet Hill Hospital, is the source of the name in Coldplay's 2008 song "Violet Hill".
- Due to the conveniently close location to Elstree Studios, (just over 10 miles), St John's Wood was used extensively for location shooting for many of the ITC adventure shows of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Saint (TV series), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders! and Return of the Saint.
References
- ↑ "Camden Council: St John's Wood (East and West) conservation area appraisal and management strategy at 1.1 measures "3.83 hectares" otherwise the area is in Westminster and at 5.3 "Eyre's estate" [approximately equal in size] measured 500 acres". Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- 1 2 "Westminster Council: St John's Wood Conservation Area Appraisal: 3.6 Sale of land in St John's Wood by the Crown began in the early 18th century. Henry Samuel Eyre acquired the largest portion in 1732: a 500 acre estate that stretched roughly from what is now Rossmore Road to Swiss Cottage, bounded by Hamilton Terrace to the west and Avenue Road to the east" (PDF). Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ↑ The St John's Wood Society. St John's Wood History Archived 28 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine.. Retrieved 24 January 2011
- ↑ Sherwood, Bob (7 April 2010). "Affluent enclave sitting on political front line". Financial Times.
- ↑ "In Pictures: London's Most Expensive Postcodes". Forbes.
- ↑ Prudence Ivey (20 November 2014). "St John's Wood tenants pay the highest rent in London - Hampstead & Highgate Property". Hamhigh.co.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ↑ Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Vol. 3 "JOHN'S WOOD (ST.)", p.1067, 1870-72, John Marius Wilson https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee03wils#page/1066/mode/2up
- ↑ "Celebrating the birth in July 1761 of James Burton, the founder of St Leonards-on-Sea and builder-developer in Bloomsbury". Victoria County History. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- 1 2 Elrington, C R (Editor); Baker, T F T; Bolton, Diane K; Croot, Patricia E C, "A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, p.60–63" British-History.ac.uk, 1989. Retrieved 24 January 2011
- ↑ "U.K.'s Most Expensive Postcodes". Forbes. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ↑ Ross Lydall (6 February 2012). "Final salute: St John's Wood bids farewell to the King's Troop after two centuries – UK – News". Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ↑ Plaque detail at English Heritage
- ↑ Plaque detail
- ↑ Plaque detail
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- ↑ Plaque detail
- ↑ Anthony Quinton. "ALFRED JULES AYER". Ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- 1 2 3 "St. John's Wood". Cwhr.co.uk.
- ↑ Prudence Ivey (10 November 2014). "For sale: Monty Python star Eric Idle's St John's Wood house - Hampstead & Highgate Property". Hamhigh.co.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ↑ O'Toole, Leagues (2006). The Humours of Planxty. Ireland: Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-83796-9.
- ↑ Fusion Advertising & Design. "Area Guide to St John's Wood – Property guide to St John's Wood from". ludlowthompson.com. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ↑ Mendoza, Nadia; Eriksen, Alanah (10 October 2011). "Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell wedding: Kate Moss and Ronnie Wood last to leave". Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- 1 2 Siobhan Mcfadyen (3 June 2011). "Inside the home Kate Moss can't sell: What's putting buyers off – the flooding? Location? Or is it the jungle-themed living room?". Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ↑ Jonathan Prynn (15 October 2014). "Rupert Murdoch's daughter buys home in St John's Wood for £38.5m after split from husband Matthew Freud". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ↑ Duell, Mark (15 October 2014). "Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth buys home after split with Matthew Freud". Daily Mail. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ↑ Detailed in Richards' 2010 autobiography, "Life"
External links
- History of St John's Wood
- Map of St John's Wood and the surrounding districts
- stjohnswoodhighstreet.co.uk & stjohnswoodhighstreet.com (advertising & marketing)
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