Finchley and Golders Green
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 16933 (39.7%)
Conservative: 16902 (39.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 7123 (16.7%)
Other: 1670 (3.9%)
Majority: 31 (0.1%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 16746 (38.8%)
Labour: 17487 (40.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 7282 (16.9%)
Green: 1136 (2.6%)
UKIP: 453 (1%)
Other: 110 (0.3%)
Majority: 741 (1.7%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 16489 (37.8%)
Labour: 20205 (46.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 5266 (12.1%)
UKIP: 330 (0.8%)
Green: 1385 (3.2%)
Majority: 3716 (8.5%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 19991 (39.7%)
Labour: 23180 (46.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 5670 (11.3%)
Referendum: 684 (1.4%)
Other: 781 (1.6%)
Majority: 3189 (6.3%)
Boundary changes: Relatively minor. Gains part of Woodhouse ward from Chipping Barnet, small parts of Golders Green, Finchley Church End and Garden Suburb wards from Hendon, while losing most of Coppetts ward to Chipping Barnet.
Profile: Covers Finchley, Golders Green, Childs Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb. A well-to-do residential seat with a large Jewish population. Was represented by Margaret Thatcher and considered a safe Conservative seat prior Rudi Vis` unexpected victory in 1997. In Rallings and Thrasher`s notional figures Finchley & Golders Green has a notional Conservative majority, meaning that the mainstream media will treat it as a Tory held seat in terms of whether it is a Gain or a Hold on election night
Current MP: Rudi Vis(Labour) born 1941, the Netherlands. A former economics lecturer, Vis is strongly pro-European and to the left of the Labour party. Opposed to foundation hospitals, the war in Iraq and top-up fees. He will stand down at the next election (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: Mike Freer (Conservative) born 1960, Manchester. Educated at Chadderton Grammar School and Stirling University. Works as an area manager for Barclays Bank. Barnet councillor since 2000 and currently Leader of Barnet council. Contested Harrow West in 2005.
Alison Moore (Labour) Educated at University of London. Barnet councillor and leader of the Labour group on Barnet council.
Laura Edge (Liberal Democrat) Housing solicitor. Haringey councillor.
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 106378
Male: 47.3%
Female: 52.7%
Under 18: 21%
Over 60: 19%
Born outside UK: 35.9%
White: 74.2%
Black: 5.2%
Asian: 12.3%
Mixed: 3.2%
Other: 5.1%
Christian: 40%
Hindu: 6.8%
Jewish: 19.6%
Muslim: 6%
Full time students: 7.3%
Graduates 16-74: 44.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 15.8%
Owner-Occupied: 63.1%
Social Housing: 11.9% (Council: 7.2%, Housing Ass.: 4.7%)
Privately Rented: 21.6%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 6.4%
“The part of Woodside Park which were always in Middlesex would have been in Finchley since 1918 and in Hornsey before that (from 1885).”
Sorry to be a pedant, but actually the bit of Woodside Park within Middlesex was, bizarrely enough, within Hendon MB. That was despite it having far more in common with Finchley (including an N12 postcode) than Hendon. The Dollis Brook formed the boundary between Finchley MB and Hendon MB.
You needn’t ever apologise to me for being a pedant in these matters. It appears we may both be a bit right and a bit wrong in fact.
I have a London street atlas from around 1930 which contains some maps in the back of parliamentary boundaries, borough boundaries etc. It appears from this that there is a salient where the Finchley MB went to the west of Dollis Brook and this does appear to cover the Woodside Park area. Of course Woodside Park station and the area around it is to the east of Dollis Brook anyway. I’m not sure whether this boundary was subsequently tidied up so that in later periods perhaps this area was within Hendon. It certainly does appear though that despite being within Finchl;ey MB it was contained within the Hendon parliamentary constituency on the 1918 boundaries. Again I could not be sure about subsequent arrangements except that since 1974 the whole area has been in Chipping Barnet
Pete, you are in fact right about a Finchley MB salient, but all that covered was (logically enough) the Finchley Golf Club. If you look at the below map on Wikipedia, you will see that the area to the North of this salient was clearly in Hendon MB for LG purposes.
Basically, Woodside Park Garden Village between the Golf Coruse, Folly Brook and Dollis Brook (i.e. the original Garden Village) was in Hendon MB, and the “newer” bit t North of Folly Brook within Barnet UDC (and Herts County). Of course, Woodside Park tube is to the East of the Dollis Brook (and was indeed consequently in Finchley MB) , though this area was not part of the original Garden Village.
In effect today’s “Woodside Park” was split three ways between 3 Boroughs and 2 Counties, although all was postally “London N.”
Sorry, map here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hendon1961.svg
There were apparently plans to develop the land further West along Lullington Garth in the 1930s which would have connected Woodside Park to Mill Hill (perhaps making it a better “fit” with Hendon). But the outbreak of war and the establishment of the Green Belt put paid to this.
Sorry map here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hendon1961.svg
Thanks for clearing that up. My map is not altogether clear and there is a salient above the salient which is presumably the Woodside Park garden village you speak of.
We can be sure at least that the chapter of Harry Porter’s book which covers Woodside Park will be comprehensive enough!
Talking of salients in this area, I wonder if you know the answer to another question I have regarding the boundaries of the old Hendon borough. The western boundary was (and still is for Barnet) the A5 (Edgware Road) except for an area around West Hendon and Brent reservoir which is to the west of that thoroughfare. I think I have mentioned this and IIRC Tangent suggested that this was always the old parish boundary, but did not know the reason why the parish boundary breached this ‘natural’ boundary (not natural, obviously, but Watling Street – the Roman Road – had been there before any parishes came into being). As it happens I have a good deal of family connections to this part of the Hendon/Wembley borderlands and a particular interest as a consequence.
I believe I stated elsewhere that I am not writing a book…
It would be nice if someone did write a book covering the period 1918-83.
It would need to be in several seperate volumes i suspect. Henry Pellings book covers the period 1885 to 1910 when there were eight general elections but the boundaries were never changed during that period. Something similar would logically cover the period 1918-45 inclusive when there were also eight general elections and when the boundaries also remained unchanged expcept for a few areas in 1945.
Another volume could cover the period 1950-1970 inclusive and another 1974-1992 but in each of those case there would be two seperate sets of boundaries to consider with boundary reviews having come into force in 1955 and in 1983.
I would very much like a book of notional results for the 1979 boundaries to everything since, and pre 1974.
But I don’t really think I’ll get one, apart from requests to Pete which are very useful.
(such as he gave us the results of several Hertfordshire seats on 1979 boundaries).