Arnos Grove
Arnos Grove
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Arnos Grove

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Arnos Grove

Arnos Grove (/ˈɑːrnɒs ˈɡrv/) is an area of north London, England, within the London Borough of Enfield. It is centred 7.5 miles (12 km) north of Charing Cross. It is adjacent to New Southgate. The natural grove, larger than today, was for many centuries the largest woodland in the chapelry of Southgate in the parish of Edmonton. It became inter-related with Arnos Park when its owner was permitted to enclose much of its area through the widespread legal practice of inclosure of the common land to create the former park, the heart of which is now public parkland.

It is close to its borough's borders with two others: Barnet and Haringey. The area is centred 1km north of the North Circular Road.

The modern area of Arnos Grove is centred on the western end of Bowes Road. The estate from which it gets its name centred on what is now Morton Crescent. The road that runs from Morton Crescent eastward (to Southgate) is also called Arnos Grove.

The area's name derives from that of an estate called Arnoldes Grove or Arno's Grove, i.e. 'grove or copse of the Arnold family'. The Arnolds were local landowners who are mentioned in documents dating from the 14th century.

Arnos Grove was, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, owned by the Nuns of Clerkenwell. It was known as Armholt Wood in the 14th century, and later as Arnolds. A Tudor manor house was erected on the site, but was demolished in 1719 – presumably by James Colebrook, who bought the estate in the same year and built a mansion called Arnolds in Cannon Hill, Southgate. Locals called the estate Arno's and the next owner, Sir William Mayne (later Lord Newhaven), renamed the house and estate Arnos Grove, which is now pronounced as though it never had an apostrophe.

On 19 September 1932 Arnos Grove Underground station was opened, as part of the extension of the London Underground Piccadilly line to Cockfosters. In the years that followed Arnos Grove changed from a rural area to being fully developed – the part of the estate to the north of Arnos Park was, for example, built up by 1939. The main public facilities at Arnos Grove were built in the 1930s. These include Arnos Pool and Bowes Road Library, both of which underwent major refurbishment in the mid-2000s, like Arnos Grove tube station. The library and swimming pool, along with Arnos Park, the extensive facilities at Arnos Grove station (such as Ash House, the seven sidings, and three tracks through the station with four platforms) and the proximity of Arnos Grove to the North Circular, which had been built in 1929, made Arnos Grove a desirable area to live in.

The southward expansion of Arnos Grove, which was initiated by the bias of facilities to the south of the original estate, was aided by the destruction of parts of New Southgate during World War II. There is now an almost continuous line of shops between Arnos Grove and New Southgate, via Betstyle Circus, making the areas closely linked.

Until the building of its tube station Arnos Grove was largely undeveloped and rural. As its name suggests it was not a manor, parish or district in its own right. Edmonton which included all parts of Southgate was one of five parishes of Edmonton Hundred, one of five hundreds in Middlesex. The heart of the hundred became the London Borough of Enfield.

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