Editing Kenton, London

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox UK place
| country                   = England
| region                    = London
| official_name             = Kenton
| coordinates               = {{coord|51.5878|-0.3086|display=inline,title}}
| os_grid_reference         = TQ175885
| population                = 35,600
| population_ref            = (2015 data, Kenton ward; Kenton East ward; Kenton West ward.)<ref name="data.london.gov.uk">{{Cite web|url=https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas|title=Ward Profiles and Atlas – London Datastore}}</ref>
| london_borough            = Brent
| london_borough3           = Harrow
| post_town                 = HARROW
| postcode_district         = HA3
| postcode_area             = HA
| dial_code                 = 020
| constituency_westminster  = [[Harrow East (UK Parliament constituency)|Harrow East]]
| static_image_name         = Travellers Rest, Kenton, HA3 (5890534036).jpg
| static_image_caption      = The Beefeater Travellers Rest pub, and its adjoined [[Premier Inn]] hotel - the Travellers’ Rest was once the largest public house in the County of [[Middlesex]]<ref name="hidden-london.com"/>
}}
'''Kenton''' is a district in north-west [[London]], England, to the east of [[Harrow, London|Harrow]] and historically in [[Middlesex]]. As with surroundings in Harrow, [[Wembley]] and [[Kingsbury, London|Kingsbury]], the area was a product of [[Metro-land|Metroland]] suburbia of the early 20th century.<ref name="hidden-london.com"/> Both the [[London and North Western Railway]] and [[Metropolitan Railway]] reached the area by the 1920s. The main road through Kenton, the east-west [[Kenton Road]], is a busy and important road that links Harrow to the major [[Edgware Road]].<ref name="hidden-london.com"/> The road now forms the boundary between the [[London borough]]s of [[London Borough of Harrow|Harrow]] and [[London Borough of Brent|Brent]].<ref>Ordnance Survey pre-1920s mapping</ref>

== History ==
[[File:Roscoe L&BR(1839) p069 - Harrow on the Hill.jpg|thumb|left|The London to Birmingham railway, train illustrated near present-day Kenton (1839)]]
[[File:Windermere, North Wembley, HA9 (2468567053).jpg|thumb|left|[[Windermere, South Kenton|The Windermere]] is a public house, located next to [[South Kenton station]]]]
The hamlet was recorded as "Keninton" in 1232. The name derives from the personal name of the Saxon "Coena" and the Old English "tun", a farm – and means "the farm of Coena" and his family who once lived on a site near here. Before the 20th century, the tiny settlement was concentrated around in what was Kenton Lane (the easternmost part of which remains as Old Kenton Lane to the east of Kingsbury station) and is now part of the present-day Woodgrange Avenue and Kenton Road.<ref>Ordnance Survey maps, various, from 19th century to 1930s</ref>

[[Windermere, South Kenton|The Windermere]] is a [[listed building|Grade II listed]] [[public house]] in Windermere Avenue.<ref name=EnglishHeritage>{{NHLE|desc=The Windermere public house|num=1350348|access-date=22 May 2014}}</ref> It is on the [[Campaign for Real Ale]]'s [[National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors]]<ref name=Brandwood>{{cite book|last1=Brandwood|first1=Geoff|title=Britain's best real heritage pubs|date=2013|publisher=CAMRA|location=St. Albans|isbn=9781852493042|page=89}}</ref> and was built in 1938.<ref name=EnglishHeritage /> The Plough public house was Kenton's first, opening in the early 18th century; the current building is not the original. It is now an Indo-Chinese fusion restaurant and bar.

Local Primary Schools include Uxendon Manor on Vista Way and Priestmead Primary School on Hartford Avenue. The local high school is [[Claremont High School (Kenton)|Claremont High School]] on Claremont Avenue off Kenton Road.

[[Kenton station]] was opened by the [[London and North Western Railway]] on 15 June 1912. The [[Metropolitan Railway]]'s Northwick Park and Kenton station (later renamed [[Northwick Park tube station|Northwick Park]]) followed on 28 June 1923.

==Geography==
[[File:Wealdstone Brook in Kenton - geograph.org.uk - 477390.jpg|thumb|The Wealdstone Brook by a footbridge near Shaftesbury Drive]]
From its original location near The Grange, Kenton expanded toward [[Wealdstone]], [[Wembley]] and [[Stanmore]] after the opening of [[Kenton station]] on the [[Watford DC line|Euston to Watford Junction railway]] in 1912 and grew into a [[suburb]] of London from the 1920s.

The South Kenton area is distinct from Kenton, being almost contiguous with [[North Wembley]] and [[Preston, London|Preston]].<ref name="hidden-london.com">{{Cite web|url=https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/kenton/|title=Kenton - Hidden London}}</ref> It is entirely within Brent.

Most of the district is part of the HA3 postcode, but the southern part is in HA9 and [[Northwick Park]] is in HA1.

===Waterways===
The Wealdstone Brook is the only visible waterway within the area. It has two branches, one originating in Wealdstone and the other in Stanmore; these combine underground near the junction of Kenton Lane and Kenton Road. The Western (Wealdstone) branch is in culvert as far as the south side of the Kenton Recreation Ground; the Eastern (Stanmore) branch is mostly in culvert from near the source on Clamp Hill to where it combines with the Western branch. It functions mainly as a land drain devoid of wildlife until it reaches Woodcock Park and was previously heavily polluted by run-off water and illicit connections from adjacent houses; a 2013 Thames Water project<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/woodcock-park-clean-up-as-sewage-finally-sorted-in-wealdstone-3802528|title = Kenton community transforms Woodcock Park's once boggy sewage-filled Wealdstone Brook|date = 16 October 2018}}</ref> in the vicinity of Woodcock Park identified 140 premises discharging into the Brook.

{{Geographic Location
|state=expanded
|width=auto
|title     = '''Neighbouring areas of Kenton'''
|Northwest = [[Wealdstone]]
|North     = [[Belmont, Harrow|Belmont]]
|Northeast = [[Queensbury, London|Queensbury]]
|West      = [[Harrow, London|Harrow]]
|Centre    = Kenton
|East      = [[Kingsbury, London|Kingsbury]]
|Southwest = ''[[Northwick Park]]'', [[Harrow on the Hill]]
|South     = [[North Wembley]]
|Southeast = [[Preston, London|Preston]]
}}

==Housing==
[[File:South Kenton, Nathans Road - geograph.org.uk - 1736582.jpg|thumb|left|Nathans Road, a street near South Kenton station]]
The coming of the railways was soon followed by suburban development, most of Kenton being built between the Wars.
{{LCC cottage estates}}
The [[London County Council]] built the Kenmore Park [[London County Council cottage estate|cottage estate]] between the wars. There are 654 houses on the {{convert|58|acre|ha}} site, a housing density of 11.3 per acre (28/ha).

Thomas Francis Nash owned building companies which from the 1920s onward built numerous private [[housing estates]] in Kenton, [[Ruislip]] and other parts of the "[[Metro-land|Metroland]]" area of [[Middlesex]]. F. & C. Costin was another local building company that built much of Kenton between the wars. Local [[estate agents]] still use the term "Nash-built" or "Costin-built" to describe properties built by them in Kenton.

==Culture and media==
Apart from the infamous appearance of several of Kenton's streets in the "[[Gourmet Night]]" episode of the BBC-TV comedy series ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' starring John Cleese,<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/torquay-the-horrible-truth-1116255.html Torquay: the horrible truth], ''[[The Independent]]'', 27 August 1999</ref> the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song "Kenton Kev",<ref>GEMA work no.: 2142940-001</ref> by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band [[The Magoo Brothers]] on their album "Beyond Believable", released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988. The song refers to the "pleasant valley" high suburban boredom factor then prevalent in the area, and cites local characters and places, some fairly well known. It is said that "Kenton Kev" refers in fact to Kevin Jones, the US-based property magnate, who was actually born in Kenton. The song was written by [[Paul Bonin]], Philip Ulysses Sanders and Melanie Hickford, all of whom grew up and lived in the area.

==Demography==
Kenton is represented by three [[electoral ward]]s: Kenton East and Kenton West in Harrow, and Kenton in Brent. All together the population was 35,600 as of 2015.<ref name="data.london.gov.uk"/>

Kenton has a high degree of its population belonging to ethnic minorities, over 70% in all three wards and higher than the Harrow and Brent averages;<ref name="data.london.gov.uk"/> like much of Harrow and [[Wembley]], there is a particularly large number of people from [[Indian people|Indian]] descent.<ref name="hidden-london.com"/>

The Kenton ward in Brent has a female life expectancy of 91.6 years, which is the third-highest in Greater London. The male expectancy was 83.3 years.<ref name="data.london.gov.uk"/> The crime rate of Kenton East ward in Harrow was 33.5 in 2014/15, which was one of the lowest out of all wards in Greater London.<ref name="data.london.gov.uk"/> Kenton East also has the lowest proportion of bicycle commuters in Greater London, amounting to only 0.2% of the population.<ref name="data.london.gov.uk"/>

==Governance==
Kenton is part of both the [[Harrow East (UK Parliament constituency)|Harrow East]] parliamentary constituency, most recently represented by [[Bob Blackman]] ([[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]), and the [[Brent North (UK Parliament constituency)|Brent North]] constituency which is represented by [[Barry Gardiner]] ([[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]).

==Public services==
[[File:Kenton Library, Harrow, Middlesex - geograph.org.uk - 193880.jpg|thumb|Kenton Library (1955)]]
Kenton Library, run by Harrow Council, is located in Kenton Lane. Kenton Ambulance Station is located at the eastern end of Kenton, near [[Kingsbury, London|Kingsbury]] Circle. [[Northwick Park Hospital]] is located very close by Kenton.

===Parks and sports===
There are three large open spaces in or near Kenton: Woodcock Park, Kenton Recreation Ground, and [[Northwick Park]] directly to the west in the northern part of Wembley.

The Kenton Sports Club and its ground is located on Kenton Lane which consists of cricket, tennis and table tennis.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/KentonLawnTennisClub|title=Kenton Lawn Tennis Club|website=Kenton Lawn Tennis Club}}</ref>

===Education===
Secondary schools in the area are: St Gregory's Catholic Science College, Claremont High School, and [[JFS (school)|JFS]].

===Religion===
[[File:Kenton Methodist Church - geograph.org.uk - 99152.jpg|thumb|Kenton Methodist Church]]
[[File:St Mary, Kenton Road, Harrow - Tower - geograph.org.uk - 1692451.jpg|thumb|Tower of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, on Kenton Road]]
Kenton has several religious institutions. Churches in the area include the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stmaryskenton.org/|title=Home|first=Brian|last=Beddowes}}</ref> Kenton [[Baptist]] Church,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kentonbaptist.com/|title=MARCH 2023 WELCOME|website=kentonbaptist}}</ref> Kenton [[Evangelical]] Church,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kentonevangelicalchurch.org/index.html|title = Kenton Evangelical Church}}</ref> and Kenton [[Methodist]] Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.kentonmethodist.org.uk/ |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=www.kentonmethodist.org.uk}}</ref> Further east on Kenton Road are the All Saints [[Roman Catholic]] Church, and the St Panteleimon [[Greek Orthodox]] Church, the latter being one of the capital's few Greek Orthodox churches outside North London.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.st-panteleimon.org/| title = Home - St Panteleimon London}}</ref> The building of St Panteleimon's dates back to 1932. It was originally built as a mission church for St Mary's, used by the Orthodox community from 1989, and acquired fully in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.st-panteleimon.org/about/|title=The Parish History|access-date=30 March 2020|archive-date=30 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330014100/http://www.st-panteleimon.org/about/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

There are two Hindu mandirs: Haridham Swaminarayan Temple on Woodcock Hill, and [[Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London (Harrow)|Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple]] by Kenton Road. Kenton is also home to one of the UK's [[Derasar]]s on the east side of Kenton Road which serve followers of [[Jainism]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://mahavirfoundation.com/| title = Jain Derasar {{!}} Kenton {{!}} London – Mahavir Foundation}}</ref> By Woodcock Park is also a [[United Synagogue]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.kentonsynagogue.org/| title = Kenton United Synagogue - The Shul in the Park}}</ref> There are no mosques in Kenton itself but the [[Harrow Central Mosque]] is quite proximate from some parts.

==Transport==
[[File:Kenton Lane at Night - geograph.org.uk - 2249843.jpg|thumb|250px|Bus H18 in Kenton Lane]]

===Buses===
The following [[London Buses|London Bus]] routes operate through the area:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| style="width:10%;"| '''Route'''
| style="width:30%;"| '''Start'''
| style="width:30%;"| '''End'''
| style="width:20%;"| '''Operator'''
|-
|114
|[[Mill Hill|Mill Hill Broadway]]
|[[Ruislip]] 
|[[London Sovereign]]
|-
|[[London Buses route 183|183]]
|[[Golders Green]]
|[[Pinner]]
|London Sovereign
|-
|223
|[[Harrow, London|Harrow]]
|[[Wembley]]
|[[London United Busways|London United]]
|-
|H9/H10 ''Circular''
|[[Northwick Park Hospital]] ''H9: anticlockwise''
|Northwick Park Hospital ''H10: clockwise''
|London Sovereign
|- 
|H18/H19  ''Circular''
|Harrow ''H18: anticlockwise''
|Harrow ''H19: clockwise''
|London Sovereign
|}

===Tube/trains===
Stations in the area are:
* [[Kenton station|Kenton Station]] ([[Bakerloo line]] & [[Watford DC Line]])
* [[South Kenton station|South Kenton Station]] (Bakerloo line & Watford DC Line)
* [[Northwick Park station|Northwick Park Station]] ([[Metropolitan line]])

==Notable people==
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2012}}
* Actress [[Michele Austin]], best known as PC [[Yvonne Hemmingway]] in [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s ''[[The Bill]]'', attended [[Claremont High School (Kenton)|Claremont High School]] in Kenton
* Baroness [[Shami Chakrabarti]], the human rights lawyer, was born in Kenton
* Cricketer [[Denis Compton]] (1918–1997) lived in Kenton
* TV exercise instructor [[Derrick Evans (fitness instructor)|Mr Motivator (Derrick Evans)]] lived in Kenton
* [[Mary Millington]] (1945–1979), 1970s [[sex symbol]], was born in Kenton
* Actress [[Sophie Okonedo]] lived in Kenton
* [[Stuart Pearce|Stuart "Psycho" Pearce]], football manager and former player, attended [[Claremont High School (Kenton)|Claremont High School]] in Kenton<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/news/5893162.Claremont_High_s_cup_glory_for_first_time_since_Stuart_Pearce/|title=Claremont High's Cup Glory|access-date=29 March 2016|date =31 March 2010|work=Harrow Times|author=Jack Royston}}</ref>
* Actress [[Pam St. Clement]], best known as [[Pat Butcher|Pat]] in [[BBC]] soap ''[[EastEnders]]'', lived in Kenton
* [[Ken Simmons]] (1929–2002), ornithologist<ref>{{cite journal|last=Prytherch|first=Robin|year=2002|title=Kenneth Edwin Laurence Ryder Simmons, 1929-2002|journal=[[Ibis (journal)|Ibis]]|volume=144|issue=4|pages=711–712|doi=10.1046/j.1474-919x.2002.00115_1.x|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* Journalist and broadcaster [[John Timpson]] (1928–2005) was born in Kenton<ref name="Barker">{{cite news |last1=Barker |first1=Dennis |title=John Timpson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/21/bbc.radio |work=The Guardian |date=21 November 2005}}</ref>
* Footballer [[Darren Ward (footballer born 1978)|Darren Ward]] was born in Kenton
* Actress [[Mary Wimbush]] (1924–2005), best known as Julia Pargetter in [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[The Archers]]'', was born in Kenton

==Gallery==
<gallery>
St Mary, Kenton Road, Harrow - geograph.org.uk - 1692448.jpg|Front entrance to St Mary Church
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kenton - geograph.org.uk - 99150.jpg|Front entrance to St Mary Church
Hindu Temple, Kenton, Harrow - geograph.org.uk - 98989.jpg|Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan, Hindu mandir
Kenton, Lindsay Drive - geograph.org.uk - 477340.jpg|Lindsay Drive in Kenton
South Kenton, Abbott's Drive - geograph.org.uk - 1736587.jpg|Abbott's Drive in South Kenton
Kenton, Kenton Road - geograph.org.uk - 1780026.jpg|Kenton Road, near Kenton Park Parade, in 1955; the spire of [[St Mary's Church, Harrow on the Hill|St Mary's Church]] on Harrow Hill is visible in the background
</gallery>

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
*[[John Ebdon|Ebdon, John]] (1985) ''Ebdon's England'' David & Charles. {{ISBN|0-7153-8595-X}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131020120823/http://kentonrec.com/ Kenton Recreation Ground] – Kenton Recreation Ground featuring The Old Bowls Cafe

{{LB Harrow}}
{{LB Brent}}
{{Capital Ring Walking Route | locale=South Kenton | back=[[Greenford]] | forward= [[Hendon Park]] | A=9 | B=10 }}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Kenton, London| ]]
[[Category:Areas of London]]
[[Category:Districts of the London Borough of Harrow]]
[[Category:Districts of the London Borough of Brent]]
[[Category:Places formerly in Middlesex]]
[[Category:District centres of London]]