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Avenue House

Country houses in LondonFinchleyGrade II listed buildings in the London Borough of BarnetGrade II listed houses in LondonHistory of Middlesex
History of the London Borough of BarnetHouses in the London Borough of BarnetMiddlesexMuseums in the London Borough of BarnetUse British English from November 2015
Avenue house finchley
Avenue house finchley

Avenue House (also known as Stephens House) is a large Victorian mansion (Grade II listed) situated on East End Road in Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet. Built in 1859 on land formerly known as Temple Croft Field, it was acquired in 1874 by ink magnate and philanthropist Henry Charles Stephens ("Inky") who later enlarged and improved the house and grounds with advice from well-known landscape gardener Robert Marnock (1800–89). On his death in 1918 Stephens bequeathed the estate in his will to "the Urban District Council of Finchley, subject to the condition that the same shall be open for the use and enjoyment always of the public under such reasonable regulations as may be made by the said Council from time to time for the care and upkeep thereof..." and ownership passed to Finchley Urban District Council; its freehold is now owned by a registered Charity, 'The Avenue House Estate' Charity number 210345, of which the principal trustee is the London Borough of Barnet. The house and ten acres of grounds have been leased to the Avenue House Estate Trust, registered charity 1093908, for a period of 125 years from 2002. It is also home to the Finchley Society and their archive. Since January 2014 the estate and its commercial activities have been promoted as Stephens House and Gardens.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Avenue House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Avenue House
East End Road, London Church End (London Borough of Barnet)

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Wikipedia: Avenue HouseContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.5968 ° E -0.1951 °
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Avenue House

East End Road
N3 3QJ London, Church End (London Borough of Barnet)
England, United Kingdom
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Avenue house finchley
Avenue house finchley
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Avenue House Grounds
Avenue House Grounds

Avenue House Grounds is a ten-acre (four hectares) Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation on East End Road in Church End, Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet. The estate is now known as Stephens House and Gardens. Avenue House is a Grade II listed Victorian villa dating from 1859 on a site previously known as Temple Croft Fields, named after the Knights Templar, who were granted 40 acres there in 1243. From 1312 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, it was owned by the Knights Hospitaller. During the Anglian ice age, around 450,000 years ago, ice pushed further south than at any other time in the past two million years. The area was then in a valley called the "Finchley depression", which allowed a tongue of ice to push south to what is now the area north of the North Circular Road, near the southern extremity of any Pleistocene glaciation.In 1874, the house and estate was acquired by ink magnate and later local MP Henry Stephens (1841–1918), who lived there with his family. He enlarged the house, added a stables building and employed the leading landscape gardener Robert Marnock to design the grounds, which include a walled garden and staff accommodation called The Bothy. Stephens bequeathed the house and grounds to the Finchley Urban District Council, subject to the condition that it was open for the use and enjoyment always of the public under reasonable regulation, in his will when he died in 1918, and is commemorated in a small museum, The Stephens Collection, in Avenue House. The gardens were opened to the public in 1928. They have been set out as a public park, with lawns, trees including fine old evergreens, and shrubberies. There is also an ornamental pond with a fountain and a children's playground.The Bothy was built in the shape of a castle sometime in the late 1870s. It is one of the earliest, if not the first, non-Roman concrete structures in England. It is a Grade II listed building . The Bothy garden is maintained by volunteers and is open to visitors monthly during the summer. The main ecological interest is the birdlife, including great spotted woodpeckers, greenfinches, great tits and robins. Frogs breed in the pond. Over ten years the Finchley Society led by Barbara Warren raised funds - the Spike Milligan Statue Fund - to commission a statue of former local resident Spike Milligan cast in bronze by local sculptor John Somerville and erected by the stables block in the grounds of Avenue House. The statue of Spike sitting on a bench was unveiled on 4 September 2014 at a ceremony attended by a number of local dignitaries and showbusiness celebrities including Roy Hudd, Michael Parkinson, Maureen Lipman, Terry Gilliam, Kathy Lette, Denis Norden and Lynsey de Paul.