London Borough of Harrow

Harrow within Middlesex in 1961

Harrow Urban District was formed in 1934 as an urban district of Middlesex by the Middlesex Review Order 1934, as a merger of the former area of Harrow on the Hill Urban District, Hendon Rural District and Wealdstone Urban District. The local authority was Harrow Urban District Council.

The urban district gained the status of municipal borough on 4 May 1954 and the urban district council became Harrow Borough Council. The 50th anniversary of the incorporation as a borough was celebrated in April 2004, which included a visit by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1965 the municipal borough was abolished and its former area was transferred to Greater London from Middlesex under the London Government Act 1963 to form the London Borough of Harrow. It is the only London borough to replicate exactly the unchanged boundaries of a single former district. This was probably because its population was large enough. According to the 1961 census it had a population of 209,080, making it the largest local government district in Middlesex.

The first and only contemporary artist-led gallery in Harrow was set up in 2010 by the Usurp Art Collective. The space is called the Usurp Art Gallery & Studios and is based in West Harrow, a bohemian part of Harrow. Usurp Art provides professional support to artists and runs the only public artists studios in the borough. It is a flagship project for Arts Council England.[9][10][11][12]

Major employers included Kodak,[13] the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Ladbrokes, which formerly has its headquarters in Harrow.[14]

Crime figures are generally lower compared to the Greater London average; the borough had 2,618 notifiable offences in April 2009, compared with an average of 2,204 across London's boroughs.[15] Between the annual year of June 2017 to June 2018, Harrow was ranked 28th out of the 32 London boroughs in terms of number of criminal offences,[16] and recording just one murder in the period.[17] The Pinner South ward was recorded as having the lowest crime rate out of all wards of Greater London in 2014/15.[18]

The London Borough of Harrow has one League 2 football club: Barnet F.C., who moved to The Hive Stadium from the neighbouring London Borough of Barnet in 2013; and three non-League clubs: Wealdstone FC who play at The Vale, Harrow Borough F.C. who play at Earlsmead Stadium and Rayners Lane F.C. who play at the Tithe Farm Social Club. Five of the 30 cricket clubs which play in the Middlesex County Cricket League are based in the London Borough of Harrow: Harrow, Harrow St Mary's, Harrow Town, Kenton and Stanmore. Hatch End Cricket Club previously played at Shaftesbury playing fields in Hatch End but following an arson attack on their clubhouse and a subsequent failure to raise enough funds to build a new one, the club moved to Elstree in 2011.

Harrow also had a professional rugby league team when London Broncos played at The Hive Stadium in 2014 and 2015. The club relocated to Ealing from 2016 onwards.

A map showing the wards of Harrow since 2002

Harrow is divided into 21 wards, each represented by three councillors on Harrow London Borough Council. After the most recent council elections, the borough is controlled by the Labour party. The number of councillors are as follows: Labour 35, Conservative 28.[19]

The borough is often perceived as having a good educational record, and features many state-funded primary and secondary schools as well as a handful of large tertiary colleges. For a long time the secondary schools of Harrow did not feature integrated sixth-form education, with all school leavers having to join the large tertiary colleges such as Harrow College, Stanmore College or St Dominic's Sixth Form College. There have been critics of the tertiary colleges, with many arguing the standard of education does not continue the standard set by the Borough's secondary schools. Indeed, Harrow suffers a significant number of pupils leaving the Borough for their tertiary education. However, as of 2005-2006 session, select Harrow secondary schools introduced sixth forms in the hope to retain more of the pupils and to provide them an alternative to the large tertiary colleges. From September 2010, the primary sector was modified to enable transfer to secondary education at age 11 in line with other London Boroughs.[20]

The Borough has a Music Service which provides instrumental tuition for 15% of all Harrow state sector pupils (the national figure is 8% of all state pupils receiving instrumental tuition) and a range of ensemble opportunities for pupils.[21]

The independent schools of the Borough are dominated by the presence of Harrow School and John Lyon School for boys and North London Collegiate School which consistently rank as among the best schools in the country. Notable independent primary schools include Orley Farm School and Reddiford School, both of which are co-educational.

There are also a number of voluntary aided schools in the Borough. These include: Salvatorian College (Roman Catholic, Boys), Sacred Heart Language College (Roman Catholic, Girls) and Moriah Jewish Day School (Jewish, Co-ed).

There are two special needs high schools; Kingsley High School (Co-ed) and Shaftesbury High School (Co-ed).

Other state secondary schools in the London Borough of Harrow are: Whitefriars High School (Co-ed); Bentley Wood High School (Girls); Canons High School (Co-ed); Harrow High School (Co-ed); Hatch End High School (Co-ed); Nower Hill High School (Co-ed); Park High School (Co-ed); Rooks Heath College(Co-ed); Whitmore High School (Co-ed). Mountview High School in Wealdstone - a comprehensive school formed out of Whitefriars Secondary Modern in the early 1970s - closed in 1986 with the site being partially redeveloped into industrial units. The catchment area was dispersed between Nower Hill and Hatch End Schools.

Middle schools include Whitchurch Middle School.

GCSE examination performance

• The table on shows the percentage of students gaining five A* to C grades, including English and Maths, for state schools in the London Borough of Harrow
• The rightmost column shows the percentage of students gaining five A* to C grades, in five core subjects - maths, English, two science qualifications, a foreign language and either history or geography.
• Source: Department for Education[22]

All of Harrow's pupils have the chance to be elected onto the Harrow Youth Parliament. This is a group of around 50 young people in the Borough who come together to work on projects that benefit other young people. They are also the official youth voice for the Council and are in constant communication with the Council on all youth matters.

The London Borough of Harrow was historically in the heart of an area known as "Metro-land" and therefore is very well served by the London Underground compared with other boroughs in Outer London. It is located near the northwestern extremity of the modern-day network, with 4 lines serving the area. The Bakerloo and Jubilee lines terminate in the borough, at Harrow and Stanmore respectively. Meanwhile, the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines pass through the southern edge of the borough on shared track before both terminating at Uxbridge. The Northern line terminates just outside Harrow at Edgware tube station in the London Borough of Barnet.

The London Overground also serves the borough, sharing track with the Bakerloo line between Queens Park and Harrow & Wealdstone before it continues beyond the latter station to eventually terminate at Watford Junction.

The numerous National Rail, London Overground and London Underground stations in the borough are:

• Canons Park
• Harrow & Wealdstone
• Harrow-on-the-Hill
• Hatch End
• Headstone Lane
• North Harrow
• Pinner
• Rayners Lane
• South Harrow
• Stanmore
• Sudbury Hill
• Sudbury Hill Harrow
• West Harrow

In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 27.5% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 5.9%; bus, minibus or coach, 5.9%; train, 4.5%; on foot, 4.3%; work mainly at or from home, 3.5%; passenger in a car or van, 1.6%.[23]

Harrow is twinned with:

• Douai, France

• Harrow parks and open spaces

• Harrow Council
• Harrow Borough F.C.
• Metros Running Club (Harrow road running club)
• Old Salvatorians (unofficial)
• Harrow Times