Swiss Cottage
| Swiss Cottage | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Lancaster Road, Swiss Cottage | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ266842 |
| Location: | 51°32’33"N, 0°10’24"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | NW3, NW6, NW8 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Camden |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Hampstead and Kilburn |
Swiss Cottage is a generally prosperous district of Middlesex deep within the metropolitan conurbation, some three miles north of the middle of Westminster and just north of St John's Wood. The extent of Swiss Cottage is undefined and undefinable, but generally is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road, where Swiss Cottage tube station is found and the pub which gave the station its name and thence the area, now named "Ye Olde Swiss Cottage".
The area is named after an inn called The Swiss Tavern that was built in 1804 in the style of a Swiss chalet and on the site of a former tollgate keeper's cottage. The inn was later renamed Swiss Cottage.[1]
History
The Swiss tavern was built in 1804. The district formed part of the ancient parish of Hampstead. It developed following the Finchley Road Act 1826, which authorised construction of Finchley New Road and Avenue Road; The Swiss Tavern stood at the junction of the roads.[2] The neighbourhood around Finchley Road and Avenue Road was redeveloped in 1937 and 1938 with the opening of an Odeon cinema and the Regency Lodge flats. After Second World War, local authority housing was constructed by the London County Council in the area.[2] On 20 March 2014, a planning application was submitted for a 24-storey tower to be built next to Swiss Cottage tube station.[3]
About Swiss Cottage
The neighbourhoods adjoining Swiss Cottage, and contiguous with it, include Hampstead Village to the northeast, Chalk Farm and Camden Town to the southeast, Belsize Park to the east, St John's Wood to the south and West Hampstead to the west. Regent's Park is about a mile away.
It is bounded by five conservation areas, named Belsize, Elsworthy, Fitzjohns-Netherhall, South Hampstead, St John's Wood (Camden) and St John's Wood (Westminster).
Transport
The area is served by Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road tube stations on the Jubilee Line of the London Underground and is a local hub for buses. Swiss Cottage station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in 1868 and the current station dates from 1939.[4] South Hampstead railway station and Finchley Road & Frognal railway station on London Overground are also nearby.
Culture
Local amenities include an Odeon Cinema, Sir Basil Spence's Grade II-listed Swiss Cottage Central Library and the Hampstead Theatre.
Swiss Cottage is the location of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama that occasionally performs at the [Embassy Theatre. Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre reopened in early 2006 after redevelopment; it now has two swimming pools, a gym and a climbing wall.
Many of the area's cityscapes and London street scenes, particularly of Swiss Cottage, Adamson Road, Eton Avenue and Belsize Park were represented by the Camden Town Group painter Robert Bevan and his wife, the Polish painter Stanisława de Karłowska. They lived at 14 Adamson Road.
Outside links
References
- ↑ Mills, A.D. (2001). Dictionary of London Place Names. Oxford. pp. 222–223.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 'Hampstead: St John's Wood', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989), pp. 60-63.
- ↑ http://www.camdennewjournal.com/letters/2014/mar/letters-tower-block-views…
- ↑ Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground. Douglas Rose.