Avenue House – An Oasis of Nature in a Busy London Area

Avenue House was originally a Grade II listed Victorian mansion that was the property of the Bishop of London. In 1243, it was handed over to the Knights Templars and it was owned by the Knights Hospitallers from 1312. In 1540, King Henry VIII took over the estates and thereafter it changed hands several times till 1732 when it was taken over by Thomas Allen. In 1859, a villa was built on the site by Rev. Edward Cooper, a member of the original Allen family. Later on, it became known as Avenue House. The villa was bought by Henry Charles Stephens, the son of the inventor of blue-black ink, in 1874. Avenue House was finally given to the people of Finchley when he died in 1918. It was officially opened to the public about ten years after Stephen’s death. Ever since then it has housed several clubs and societies. It is also an important venue for local community meetings and other events. The building still retains its original character although it had to be extensively refurbished after a fire in 1989. It is now extensively used for holding conferences, business functions or family gatherings such as weddings.

Avenue House, also known as Stephens House, is located on East End Road in Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet and the nearest station is Finchley Central. The house along with ten acres of land has been leased to the Avenue House Estate Trust, which is a registered society, for 125 years from 2002. It also houses the Finchley Society and its archive. The estate and its commercial activities have been promoted as Stephens House and Gardens since January 2014.

The stables consist of a number of courtyard buildings that have been built in a Gothic Revival style and a stable range with tower located on the north, a two storey coachman’s house which is the Lodge, located opposite the tower and a coach house on the east. The dovecote attached to the stables has a design that is similar to the tower of Christ’s College Hendon Lane. Yellow bricks were used for the construction of the buildings and they had stone dressings and slate roofs except on the back of the Coach House where there is a reinforced concrete retaining wall that matches well with the Bothy wall construction.

Different types of accommodation in Kensington are available for visitors so that they can be located close to Avenue House.

 

The Bothy, or the Kitchen Garden, as it was known at that time, has a site and setting that goes well with the overall landscape design. The landscape tradition is amply maintained due to the castellated walls and the location of the Bothy that match its romantic landscape tradition. The design also ensured that it could be viewed from the drive and also from the upper floors of the house.

The Bothy comprises of a garden, ancillary buildings to the eastern end and a large rectangular enclosure. The buildings are separated from the garden by a high concrete wall and there is a central two storey core building due to which courtyards are created on either side to north and south. Single storey outbuildings that have been built into face inwards from the north and south walls.  The idea behind the Bothy was to make the whole estate self-sufficient by providing glasshouses, fish ponds and forcing pits inside the garden. Provisions have also been made for storage (for seed, food, tools and machinery), a dairy, an abattoir, room for farriers, and housing for the main estate workers inside the premises. A mixed landscape is provided by the Gardens that include a unique arboretum, a rockery, a bog garden, large park areas to play in and wooded areas to walk. The gardens are a welcome green oasis in the midst of suburban London.

The Bothy garden presently looks quite different to what it was previously. There are three main areas in it now with a lawned area having come up where the glass houses stood. Plants have now filled up the aquatic tank and the other area is a wild garden that is full of unusual plants and there is a formal garden with box edging and pergola draped in Roses.

The Bothy Garden is open only on Friday morning from 10 am to 1 pm when volunteers can be seen working to keep the garden in order. It also opens on Open Sunday each month from February to October from 1pm to 5pm.

Staying in Park Grand London Kensington is ideal for visitors who wish to visit the Avenue House conveniently. 

You can find a variety of wildlife within the gardens and buildings.  Specific species are housed in some exclusive protected areas. It is possible to see a variety of birdlife depending on the season and the time of the day, including woodpeckers, sparrow hawks, herons, moorhens and tawny owls. You can also get evidence of the presence of bank voles, stag beetles and foxes on the grounds. Butterflies and other flying insects are also attracted by the flora of the gardens. A pipistrelle bat might also be noticed at dusk.

As per the original garden design, the focus was on trees and hard landscape with integrated water features. Over the years, there has been gradual evolution of the gardens and today they include seasonal planting in a variety of beds.

A grand rockery with an integral waterfall once featured prominently in the garden but all that remains today is a fenced area adjacent to the lower green. The authorities are currently planning to develop the rockery with specialised planting and a reinstated waterfall so that it attains its previous glory. 

In 2004, a playground was opened in the estate for children under the age of ten. A safety surface was fitted in the playground and all equipment was replaced. The safety surface areas were chosen to include those places where children with disabilities would use. Plans are afoot to enlarge the playground so that older children can also use it.