Fallow Corner
The area of Fallow Corner was recorded in 1429, probably Cobley’s Farm (so called by the 17th century). By the 18th century there was a small hamlet of houses and the access roads from these to the main road formed the distinct Bow Road we see today.
Between 1806 and 1827 the clown Joseph Grimaldi lived here. It was whilst “ghost writing” Grimaldi’s memoirs that Charles Dickens probably first stayed at the farm during 1836 and 1837. Later, in 1843, he returned and wrote portions of Martin Chuzzlewit, conceiving the character of 'Sairey' Gamp whilst out walking in Finchley. The Farm’s fields were realised for building, as the Etchingham Park Estate, between 1878 and 1920, the farm itself disappearing in 1905.
Two institutions occupied the fields within the bow of Bow Lane.
- Finchley Cottage Hospital opened with 18 beds in 1908 and was renamed the Finchley Memorial Hospital in 1922. The original hospital was paid for out of subscriptions and the later extensions raised to form a memorial for the Finchley dead of World War I.
- Finchley County School was opened in 1903. Dame Evelyn Turner (1910-1993), on whose life the television series Tenko was partially based, went to school here. The building was demolished in 2004.
Read more about this topic: History Of North Finchley
Famous quotes containing the words fallow and/or corner:
“The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“If you corner me, you are going to hear some unwelcome truths.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)