Эджвер: пригород Лондона с древней историей

Suburban town in Borough of Barnet, London

Edgware ('/ɛ//dʒ//w//ɛər///) is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with some parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred 9.5 mile (15 km) north northwest of Charing Cross and has its own commercial centre. Edgware has a generally suburban character, typical of the rural urban fringe. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex directly east of the ancient Watling Street, and gives its name to the present day Edgware Road that runs from central London towards the town. The community benefits from some elevated woodland on a high ridge marking the Hertfordshire border of gravel and sand. Edgware is principally a shopping and residential area, identified in the London Plan as one of the capital's 35 major centres, and one of the northern termini of the Northern line. It has a bus garage, a shopping centre called the Broadwalk Centre, a library, a community hospital—Edgware Community Hospital, and two streams—Edgware Brook and Deans Brook, both tributaries of a small brook known as Silk Stream, which in turn merges with the River Brent at Brent Reservoir. As of 2011, the town had a population of 58,619.

Edgware is an Old English place name meaning Ecgi's weir. Ecgi is a Saxon name and the weir relates to a pond where his people would catch fish. A legal record of 1422 mentions "Eggeswer", in Middlesex, which, being in Latin, may have been written deliberately using an older form of the spelling. By 1489, and the beginning of the Tudor period those writing the name added the "d" and it was Edggeware.

Edgware was a large ancient parish of in the county of Middlesex. The town of Edgware extended into the parish of Little Stanmore. During the early 1930s the rural district was abolished with Edgware becoming part of the Hendon Urban District in 1932 and Little Stanmore becoming part of Harrow Urban District in 1934.

The Romans made pottery at Brockley Hill, thought by some to be the site of Sulloniacis. Canons Park, to the north west, was developed as an estate by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and was the site of his great palace Cannons. The manor does not appear in the Domesday survey so is likely to have been created later. The manorial centre has, since at least 1216, been James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos erected a palace at Cannons Park around 1713 for £250,000 (250000.0 in 1713 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years) and was by far the wealthiest resident in its pre 20th century history. The ancient parish served by St Margaret's church was larger than the manor and included parts of Elstree in the north, but not land south of Deans Brook and Edgware Brook, or Little Stanmore parish west of the Edgware Road marking a traditional longest boundary of Edgware. The area of Edgware was little altered and was in the 1930s
Edgware Road follows the same line as the ancient Watling Street, an important Roman Road, and used in the medieval period by pilgrims. The Road was improved by the Edgware Kilburn turnpike trust in 1711, and a number of the local inns functioned as a stop for coaches. By 1867 a railway line had been built between Edgware and Finsbury Park and a station was built. By the 17th century Edgware had a small market selling cattle driven from other parts of England and fattened and sold locally. Local trades included butchers, tailors, colliers (charcoal sellers) and brewers. The market was held every week but petered out in 1790s. Edgware was associated with the highwayman Dick Turpin the infamous scene of his worst incident, which happened on 4 February 1735, when five gang members, including Turpin, broke into a farmhouse owned by Joseph Lawrence, called Earlsbury Farm. Lawrence was at least 70 (so considered fairly old) and yet Turpin et al. beat him with their pistols and tortured him by setting him on a fire whilst naked, before announcing that they would amputate his legs. While this was going on, the leader of the gang took a servant girl upstairs and raped her.

Industry played a minor role in the economy of Edgware. There was a cattle and pleasure fair from 1760s to 1860s with horse racing between 1834 and 1855. Edgware had few residents for its size but saw some prosperous commerce: in 1870, for instance, there were six insurance agents in the village. The opening of the Great Northern Railway branch in 1867, however, seems to have had little effect on the expansion of the village, and plans to extend the railway met with strong local opposition. A Bill to establish a line from Watford to Edgware, brought before Parliament in 1896 and 1897, was opposed by residents, and it was said that the real harm of the railways was the opening up of building sites 'which are quickly covered with architectural atrocities'. In this time the parish had begun to display a tendency to split into an opulent north and a workaday south, separated by an agricultural buffer zone. By 1896 several large houses had been built in the Elstree area or along the Elstree—Barnet road, while the old village gained the post office, the infants' school, the station, and the Railway Hotel. The southern part of the parish was unable to repel the tide of suburban development, but the threatened distinction was to a large extent averted by the quality of buildings between the two world wars. Post war development has been restricted by the Metropolitan Green Belt, sparing urban sprawl into the Scratch Wood and Deacons Hill areas apart from the M1 motorway. By this time the population was more than 17,000. In 1990, the Mall Shopping Centre, originally called the Broadwalk Shopping Centre, replaced the former Edgware Town station pulled down in 1961. Following a review in 1994, Edgware General Hospital was controversially closed by the Conservative government of John Major in April 1997 despite public opposition. After the Labour Party election victory the closure was upheld, leading to further outcry from the public. Eventually a review and lengthy consultations took place with local campaigners and authorities, which resulted in the building of a community hospital. Some of the General Hospital site was demolished and Edgware Community Hospital, which cost £38 million, opened in its place in February 2005. In the mid 2010s, many new apartments have been built on Green Lane.

Edgware town centre lies about above sea level. Much of Edgware is steep, particularly around Edgwarebury Park (a Site of Nature Conservation Interest) and the Broadfields Estate. The Edgwarebury Brook, Deans Brook and Edgware Brook all flow in the area, all tributaries of the River Brent. Notable open spaces are Edgwarebury Park, Stoneyfields Park and Watling Park. The A41 road (Watford Bypass) runs through Edgware as well as the M1 motorway. Edgware is a post town within the HA postcode area. The post town includes the areas of Burnt Oak, The Hale, Edgwarebury, Canons Park, and parts of Queensbury. Some eastern streets are in the NW postcode area.

Argonaut Games once had its head office in Edgware. They were in Argonaut House, now known as Cavendish House. The computer game Worms was designed there with Nigel Brownjohn as the lead graphic designer and contracts came from Nintendo. Green Shield Stamps was also headquartered in Edgware until its closure in 1991. It occupied Premier House which was owned by the charity Erinastar Ltd under its then Trustee, Mr David Reichmann (Property Developer), who commenced its development in 2014 into 121 residential flats, now subject to dispute by current residents over the Grenfell type of cladding used in the development. Premier House residential is known as Premier Place. Dick Turpin's Halt The famous highwayman used to hold up unsuspecting travellers at the intersection of Whitchurch Lane (B461) into Station Road (A5100) across the Edgware Road (A5) in Edgware. An antique shop called Dick Turpin's Halt was there in the 1960s and the black and white timbered shop is still there.

Local news in Edgware is provided by the weekly printed or online boroughwide Times series.

Fifteen day London Buses serve Edgware, along with three night services, three school services, and two non TfL routes operated by Uno.

Edgware Cricket Club, based at Canons Park, play Saturday and Sunday League cricket during the summer months. Edgware Town F. C. is a football club that represents Edgware, but they are currently based in Kingsbury.