Kenton, London

Kenton is a district in north-west London, England, to the east of Harrow and historically in Middlesex. As with surroundings in Harrow, Wembley and Kingsbury, the area was a product of Metroland suburbia of the early 20th century. 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. The road now forms the boundary between the London boroughs of Harrow and Brent.

History
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.

The Windermere is a Grade II listed public house in Windermere Avenue. It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and was built in 1938. 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 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) followed on 28 June 1923.

Geography
From its original location near The Grange, Kenton expanded toward Wealdstone, Wembley and Stanmore after the opening of Kenton station on the 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. 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 in the vicinity of Woodcock Park identified 140 premises discharging into the Brook.

Housing
The coming of the railways was soon followed by suburban development, most of Kenton being built between the Wars.

The London County Council built the Kenmore Park cottage estate between the wars. There are 654 houses on the 58 acre 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 "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, the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song "Kenton Kev", 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 wards: Kenton East and Kenton West in Harrow, and Kenton in Brent. All together the population was 35,600 as of 2015.

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; like much of Harrow and Wembley, there is a particularly large number of people from Indian descent.

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. 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. Kenton East also has the lowest proportion of bicycle commuters in Greater London, amounting to only 0.2% of the population.

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

Public services
Kenton Library, run by Harrow Council, is located in Kenton Lane. Kenton Ambulance Station is located at the eastern end of Kenton, near 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.

Education
Secondary schools in the area are: St Gregory's Catholic Science College, Claremont High School, and JFS.

Religion
Kenton has several religious institutions. Churches in the area include the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kenton Baptist Church, Kenton Evangelical Church, and Kenton Methodist Church. 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. 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.

There are two Hindu mandirs: Haridham Swaminarayan Temple on Woodcock Hill, and Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple by Kenton Road. Kenton is also home to one of the UK's Derasars on the east side of Kenton Road which serve followers of Jainism. By Woodcock Park is also a United Synagogue. There are no mosques in Kenton itself but the Harrow Central Mosque is quite proximate from some parts.

Buses
The following London Bus routes operate through the area:

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

Notable people

 * Actress Michele Austin, best known as PC Yvonne Hemmingway in ITV's The Bill, attended 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 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 "Psycho" Pearce, football manager and former player, attended Claremont High School in Kenton
 * Actress Pam St. Clement, best known as Pat in BBC soap EastEnders, lived in Kenton
 * Ken Simmons (1929–2002), ornithologist
 * Journalist and broadcaster John Timpson (1928–2005) was born in Kenton
 * Footballer 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