Adrodd fel Amhriodol
Testun Gwreiddiol (Anodiad: EPW034472 / 506693)
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The road shown here had existed for hundreds of years, but had only been known as Kingsbury Road since 1900, when Kingsbury Urban District Council was formed. Previous names had been London Lane, Hyde Lane and Kingsbury Lane.
When the UDC first took charge of it, it was a narrow track kept passable by depositing fresh gravel onto the underlying clay each year. It first received a tarmac surface in 1912, after the UDC persuaded Middlesex County Council to adopt it as a "B" road, and pay half the costs of its upkeep.
The road suffered badly during the First World War, because of heavy traffic generated by local aircraft factories and a lack of money or men to look after them. Proposals for improvements to Kingsbury Road were turned down by central government in 1919. When proposals were made by the London General Omnibus Co for a motor omnibus route along the road in December 1920, the Council recorded its opinion that:
‘…insofar as the proposed route affects this District the nature and construction of the roads in question render such service extremely dangerous and very undesirable, and that this Council regrets it must withhold the consent required….’
One of the reasons was that this section of Kingsbury Road, from The Hyde up the hill to the church, was very steep, with high banks and sharp bends. However, by the beginning of 1922 there was government money available for unemployment relief schemes. Kingsbury UDC was able to persuade the County Council to go ahead with widening Kingsbury Road from Edgware Road to Church Lane under one of these schemes, with the road becoming a main "A" road under Middlesex's control on completion of the work in 1923.
The effects of straightening and widening the road can be seen in the aerial photograph, with some of the new banking and old hedgerows clearly visible. Some of the former bends became spare land, and for one piece, outside Holy Innocents’, the County Engineer agreed to the
‘… laying a greensward fronting the Church.’ This grassy area was subsequently handed over to the Church to maintain.
Another result of the improvements was that Kingsbury UDC asked the London General Omnibus Co for better bus services in its area. The company agreed: ‘… to commence a service of ‘buses from Golders Green to Pinner Green passing through Kingsbury Road….’ On 9 February 1927, the 183 route began, which still runs along this stretch of Kingsbury Road today.
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