Editing Mill Hill (section)

==History==
[[File:1894 Carl Zeiss subsidiary in London (6892932398).jpg|thumb|upright| [[Carl Zeiss AG|Carl Zeiss]] outlet in Mill Hill in 1894]]

The area's name was first recorded as Myllehill in 1547 and appears to mean "hill with a windmill".<ref>{{cite book |last=Mills |first=AD |year=2004 |title=A Dictionary of London Place-names |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=152 |isbn=0-19-860957-4}}</ref> However, the workings of the original Mill are in the building adjacent to [[The Mill Field]].

[[File:Ridgeway, Mill Hill.jpg|thumb|Part of The Ridgeway today]]
Mill Hill Village is the oldest known inhabited part of the district, a ribbon development along a [[medieval]] route called 'The Ridgeway'. It is thought that the name 'Mill Hill' may be derived from a mill on The Ridgeway, built on an area of open ground (now a park) known as [[The Mill Field]]. The village is bounded on the north and the south by [[Green Belt]] land, and its High Street, at 100 yards, is the shortest in London.

The area's proximity to the city made it popular as a country retreat from the 17th century onwards, and large houses and quaint cottages survive. [[William Wilberforce]] (MP, and abolitionist of the slave trade) and Sir [[Stamford Raffles]] (founder of colonial [[Singapore]]) both briefly resided here, the former being the patron of Mill Hill's first church, Saint Paul's. As late as 1960, five shops existed in the Village (Griffin's sub-Post Office, The Blenheim Steps, Cook & Son (sweets and groceries), Hawes Brothers (grocers) and Vincett's (butchers)) but although the buildings survive, they have all since been converted into private houses, as the retail focus in the area shifted to Mill Hill Broadway.

===Military===
[[Inglis Barracks]] at Mill Hill East was home to the [[Middlesex Regiment]] between 1905 and 1966. The 1941 reopening of the railway station, under wartime conditions, was to allow easy access to the barracks.

Situated along Partingdale Lane is Seafield House. Now converted into a private home, it was originally designed and operated as a secret nuclear bunker to house and protect the 'London North Group' emergency regional government between about 1951 and 1985.