Kenton is a place partly in the London Borough of Harrow and partly in the London Borough of 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 Plough public house was Kenton's first, opening in the early 18th century; the current building is not the original.

The main road through the area is Kenton Road.

Kenton station was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 15th June 1912. The Metropolitan Railway's "Northwick Park and Kenton" station (later renamed Northwick Park) followed on 28th June 1923. The coming of the railways was soon followed by suburban development, most of Kenton being built between the Wars.

Apart from the infamous appearance of several of Kenton's streets in one episode of the cult BBC TV series "Fawlty Towers" starring John Cleese¹, the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song "Kenton Kev"², by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band The Magoo Brothers on their album "Beyond Believeable", 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.

references : ¹ http://www.halfvalue.com/wiki.jsp?topic=Fawlty_Towers : ² GEMA work no.: 2142940-001

Notable people

Natives and Residents

• Pam St. Clement (a.k.a. EastEnders' Pat Evans),
• Derrick Evans (Mr Motivator), and
• Sophie Okonedo (actress of "Hotel Rwanda" fame).
• Stuart ("Psycho") Pearce, an England footballer, attended Claremont High School (Kenton) in Kenton, but lived in neighbouring Kingsbury
• Denis Compton lived in Kenton

Others

• Thomas Francis Nash, owned building companies which built many private housing estates in Kenton, Ruislip and other parts of the "Metroland" area of Middlesex from the 1920s onward. Little detail can be found about him after the 1950s. "Nash-built" is a description still in common use by local estate agents.
• Annette McLaughlin, acclaimed stage actress and Michele Austin who played Yvonne Hemmingway in ITV Drama Soap 'The Bill' also attended this school (?Claremont?) around the same time as each other.

Nearby places

• Harrow
• Belmont
• Kingsbury
• Wealdstone
• Stanmore
• Edgware
• Wembley

Transport

• Kenton station
• Northwick Park Underground station
• Preston Road Underground station
• Queensbury tube station
• South Kenton station

References

Ebdon, J (1985). Ebdon's England, David & Charles, ISBN 0-7153-8595-X

Footnotes