| Enfield | |
|---|---|
 The New River Loop in Chase Green Gardens, Enfield | |
  Enfield Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 156,858 (2018) |
| OS grid reference | TQ325965 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ENFIELD |
| Postcode district | EN1, EN2, EN3 |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | N21 |
| Post town | WALTHAM CROSS |
| Postcode district | EN7, EN8 |
| Dialling code | 020 01992 (Bulls Cross,Bullsmoor,Freezywater andEnfield Lock parts) |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°39′08″N00°04′51″W / 51.65222°N 0.08083°W /51.65222; -0.08083 | |
Enfield is a large town innorth London,England, 10.1 miles (16.3 km) north ofCharing Cross. It had a population of 333,587 in 2021. It includes the areas ofBotany Bay,Brimsdown,Bulls Cross,Bullsmoor,Bush Hill Park,Clay Hill,Crews Hill,Enfield Highway,Enfield Lock, Enfield Town,Enfield Wash,Forty Hill,Freezywater,Gordon Hill,Grange Park,Hadley Wood,Ponders End, andWorld's End.
South of theHertfordshire border andM25 motorway, it bordersWaltham Cross to the north,Winchmore Hill andEdmonton to the south,Chingford andWaltham Abbey, across theRiver Lea, to the east and north-east, withCockfosters,Monken Hadley andOakwood to the west.
Historically anancient parish in theEdmonton Hundred ofMiddlesex, it was grantedurban district status in 1894 andmunicipal borough status in 1955. In 1965, it merged with the municipal boroughs ofSouthgate andEdmonton to create theLondon Borough of Enfield, alocal government district ofGreater London, of which Enfield is theadministrative centre.
Enfield Town, amarket town chartered byEdward I in 1303, is the commercial centre of Enfield and the location ofSt Andrew's Enfield, the originalparish church. The area is identified in theLondon Plan as one of 35major centres in Greater London.[1] The east of Enfield, adjacent to the River Lea andLee Navigation, is renowned for its industrial heritage. TheRoyal Small Arms Factory, at Enfield Lock, produced the famousEnfield rifles. TheBrimsdown Industrial Estate is home toheavy industry, warehousing and retail, andWright's Flour Mill, at Ponders End, is Enfield's oldest running industrial building.Forty Hall, on the site of the TudorElsyng Palace, is in the north, withEnfield Chase, the former royal hunting ground, andChase Farm Hospital, in the west. TheNew River runs through Enfield from north to south, with thebypassed New River Loop encircling the town centre, throughEnfield Town Park.
InAnglo-Saxon times, themanor of Enfield was held byAnsgar the Staller (c. 1025 – 1085), a nobleman andstaller to KingEdward the Confessor (r. 1042–1066). The name 'Enfield' most likely came fromOld EnglishĒanafeld or similar, meaning "open land belonging to a man called Ēana". At the time of theDomesday Book in 1086, the manor of Enfield, spelt 'Enfelde', was the property ofGeoffrey de Mandeville, a powerfulNorman granted large estates byWilliam the Conqueror.[2] A priest is recorded in the Domesday Book as holding about 30 acres of land in Enfield, leading some to believe that a priest may have ministered there atSt Andrew's Church in this period, although the earliest written evidence of theparish church in Enfield dates from when the parish of Enfield (dedicated toSt Andrew) and St Andrew's Church were endowed to themonastery ofWalden Abbey in Essex in 1136.[3] In 1303, bycharter of KingEdward I, noblemanHumphrey de Bohun and his heirs were granted a licence to hold a weekly market and two annual fairs, one onSt Andrew's Day and another in September. The village green became a marketplace, making the town of Enfield (also known today as Enfield Town), at the core of the parish, amarket town. The parish was the largest inMiddlesex (if one excludes from the parish ofHarrow on the Hill itsPinner north-west corner, which broke away in 1766); Enfield measured 12,460 acres in 1831, i.e. 19.5 square miles (51 km2).[4]
Proximity to the megalopolis of London saw Enfield "engulfed" by the capital in theinter-war period of the 20th century.[5]
The parish church, located on the north side of the marketplace, is dedicated toSt Andrew. While some masonry from thethirteenth century remains, the nave, north aisle, choir, and tower constructed of random rubble and flint, date from the late fourteenth century. The clerestory was added in the earlysixteenth century, and the south aisle was rebuilt in brick in 1824.[6] Adjacent to the church is the old school building of the Tudor period,Enfield Grammar School, which expanded over the years and became a large comprehensive school in the late 1960s.
A sixteenth century manor house, known since the eighteenth century as Enfield Palace, is remembered in the name of the Palace Gardens Shopping Centre (and the hothouses on the site were once truly notable; see below). It was used as a private school from around 1670 until the late nineteenth century. The last remains of it were demolished in 1928 to make way for an extension to Pearson's department store, though a panelled room with an elaborate plaster ceiling and a stone fireplace survive, relocated to a house in Gentleman's Row, a street of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century houses near the town centre.[7]
In 1303, King Edward I granted a charter to Humphrey de Bohun and his wife to hold a weekly market in Enfield each Monday, and James I granted another in 1617, to a charitable trust, for a Saturday market.[8] The market was still prosperous in the early eighteenth century, but fell into decline soon afterwards. There were sporadic attempts to revive it: an unsuccessful one of 1778 is recorded,[9] and in 1826 a stone Gothic market cross was erected to replace the octagonal wooden market house, demolished sixteen years earlier. In 1858 J. Tuff wrote of the market: "several attempts have been made to revive it, the last of which, about twenty years ago, also proved a failure, It has again fallen into desuetude and will probably never be revived".[10]
However, the trading resumed in the 1870s. In 1904 a new wooden structure was built to replace the stone cross, by now decayed. The market is still in existence, administered by the Old Enfield Charitable trust.[11]
The charter of 1303 also gave the right to hold two annual fairs, one on St Andrew's Day and the other in September.[12] The latter was suppressed in 1869 at the request of local tradesmen, clergy and other prominent citizens, having become, according to the local historian Pete Eyre, "a source of immorality and disorder, and a growing nuisance to the inhabitants".[13]
TheNew River, built to supply water toLondon fromHertfordshire, runs immediately behind the town centre through theTown Park, which is the last remaining public open-space ofEnfield Old Park. The Enfield Loop of the New River also passes through the playing fields of Enfield Grammar School, and this is the only stretch of the loop without a public footpath on at least one side of it.
Enfield was the location of some of the earliest successfulhothouses, developed by DrRobert Uvedale (1642–1722), headmaster both ofEnfield Grammar School and of the Palace School. He was a Cambridge scholar and renowned horticulturalist; George Simonds Boulger writes of Uvedale in theDictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 58:
As a horticulturist Uvedale earned a reputation for his skill in cultivating exotics, being one of the earliest possessors of hothouses in England. In anAccount of Several Gardens Near London written by J. Gibson in 1691 (Archæologia, 1794, xii. 188), the writer says: "Dr. Uvedale of Enfield is a great lover of plants, and, having an extraordinary art in managing them, is become master of the greatest and choicest collection of exotic greens that is perhaps anywhere in this land. His greens take up six or seven houses or roomsteads. His orange-trees and largest myrtles fill up his biggest house, and ... those more nice and curious plants that need closer keeping are in warmer rooms, and some of them stoved when he thinks fit. His flowers are choice, his stock numerous, and his culture of them very methodical and curious."
The poetJohn Keats (1795-1821) attended progressive Clarke's School in Enfield, where he began a translation of theAeneid. The school's building later becameEnfield Town railway station, but was demolished in 1872. The current building was erected in the 1960s. In 1840 the first section of theNorthern and Eastern Railway had been opened fromStratford toBroxbourne. The branch line from Water Lane to Enfield Town station was opened in 1849.
The White House in Silver Street – now a doctors' surgery – was the home ofJoseph Whitaker, publisher and founder ofWhitaker's Almanack; he lived there from 1820 until his death in 1895.[14]
Enfield Town had the world's first cash machine orautomatic teller machine, invented byJohn Shepherd-Barron. It was installed at the local branch ofBarclays Bank on 27 June 1967 and was opened by actor and Enfield residentReg Varney.[15]
Enfield Town houses theCivic Centre, the headquarters of the Borough administration, where Council and committee meetings are also held.
Neighbourhoods and villages of Enfield include:Botany Bay,Brimsdown,Bulls Cross,Bullsmoor,Bush Hill Park,Clay Hill,Crews Hill,Enfield Highway,Enfield Lock,Enfield Wash,Forty Hill,Freezywater,Gordon Hill,Grange Park,Ponders End, andWorld's End. The official estimate of Enfield's population is 156,858 as of 2018, counted from 10electoral wards that make up Enfield.[16]
In the 2011 census, the Town ward (covering areas north from the Southbury Road) was 82% white (68% British, 10% Other, 3% Irish). The largest non-white group, Black African, claimed 3%. The District is also covered by the Chase, Highlands, Grange, Southbury, Lock, Highway, Turkey Street and Bush Hill Park wards. Of these, the Lock ward had the highest minority proportion, 45.1% of its population.[17]
Highlands ward had the highest male and female life expectancies from 2009 to 2013, 82.5 and 87.2 years respectively. The lowest was 76.7 years in Enfield Lock, and 81.4 years in Chase, respectively.[18]
Enfield Lock is the only ward where most houses were rented, 50.1%. At the opposite end, in Bush Hill Park 78.5% of houses were owned by the household.[19]
| Ward | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments[20][21] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bush Hill Park | 5.0% | 32.6% | 34.3% | 28.0% |
| Chase | 9.2% | 19.8% | 33.4% | 37.1% |
| Enfield Highway | 4.5% | 22.0% | 38.8% | 34.6% |
| Enfield Lock | 6.8% | 20.4% | 32.6% | 40.2% |
| Grange | 15.5% | 32.6% | 13.5% | 38.4% |
| Highlands | 14.5% | 34.0% | 13.4% | 38.0% |
| Southbury | 3.3% | 14.1% | 43.4% | 39.2% |
| Town | 2.7% | 29.2% | 36.6% | 31.5% |
| Turkey Street | 4.3% | 26.6% | 36.1% | 33.1% |
The town is home to twoassociation football teams:Enfield Football Club, formed in 1893, reformed in 2007, and currently based atBishop's Stortford; andEnfield Town Football Club, a breakaway club of Enfield F.C. formed in 2001 and currently based at Enfield'sQueen Elizabeth II Stadium.
Enfield Town L.F.C. is Enfield Town's women's football club, also based at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium.
North Enfield Cricket Club was formed in 1886, and has been based at Clay Hill since 1945.[22]
Enfield Town is 10.1 miles (16.3 km) north ofCharing Cross—the centre point of London—and is about 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west ofCheshunt, 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east ofPotters Bar, and 5 miles (8.0 km) east ofBarnet.
At the centre of Enfield Town isEnfield Town railway station, one of three northern termini of theLea Valley lines toLiverpool Street in theCity of London, with services operated byLondon Overground. On theEnfield Town branch line between Enfield Town andEdmonton Green isBush Hill Park.
TheSouthbury Loop separates from the Enfield Town branch line between Bush Hill Park and Edmonton Green stations, towardsCheshunt. The loop runs throughSouthbury andTurkey Street stations in Enfield, at which London Overground services between Liverpool Street and Cheshunt call.
TheWest Anglia Main Line, also one of the Lea Valley lines, runs throughPonders End,Brimsdown andEnfield Lock stations. Services are operated byGreater Anglia to Liverpool Street,Stratford,Hertford East andBishop's Stortford.
Enfield Chase railway station on Windmill Hill, west of the town centre, is on theHertford Loop line, with services toMoorgate,Hertford North,Watton-at-Stone andStevenage operated byThameslink. Also on this line areCrews Hill,Gordon Hill andGrange Park.
London Buses routes121,191,192,217,231,279,299,307,313,317,329,349,377,456,629,W8,W9,W10, night routesN29 andN279, and non-London routes 610, 611 and 629 serve Enfield.
Enfield and its clock tower are important locations in the 2016 young adult novelTimekeeper by Tara Sim.
TheEnfield poltergeist (a claim of allegedpoltergeist activity inBrimsdown,Enfield, between 1977 and 1979), was dramatised in the 2016 horror filmThe Conjuring 2. The story also attracted press coverage in British newspapers, and has been mentioned in books, andtelevision and radio documentaries.
Continued expansion in the years between the first and second world wars engulfed the small towns of outer Middlesex such as Enfield and Hounslow; south of the River Thames, Kingston, Croydon and Bromley were also caught up in the spread of London.
Media related toEnfield, London at Wikimedia CommonsNeighbouring towns, villages and places. | |
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