Rayners Lane
| Rayners Lane | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Shops on Rayners Lane and Village Way | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ128873 |
| Location: | 51°34’25"N, 0°22’25"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 9,143 (2021) |
| Post town: | Harrow / Pinner |
| Postcode: | HA2 / HA5 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Harrow |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Harrow West |
Rayners Lane is a suburban village in western Middlesex, forming a western part of Harrow. It sits between Pinner and West Harrow,[1] The village is a child of the railway, appearing as part of 'Metro-Land' around a station on the line of the Metropolitan Railway: it takes its name from the station built here, which in turn took its name from the road here called Rayners Lane (formerly also spelt Rayner's Lane) which runs from Marsh Road in Pinner to Eastcote Lane in South Harrow.
History
The first documented use of Rayner as a place-name in Pinner was from 1856 when two fields, Upper Rayners Field and Lower Rayners Field, are mentioned in a conveyance: these fields were named after the Rayner family, who moved from Ruislip to Pinner at the start of the 19th century.[2] It is assumed the Rayners Lane roadway was given that name at some time before the Rayner family left the area in the 1870s.[2] The roadway was often called Bourne Lane, because it crossed several streams, including the Yeading Brook.[2] During the Middle Ages, the then unnamed lane linked Pinner and Roxeth.[3] It was used to transport grain to the mill on Pinner Green.
The Metropolitan Railway was extended to Uxbridge from Harrow on the Hill in 1904, passing across Rayners Lane. A halt was built at Rayners Lane, opening in 1906. Despite this, the area remained rural, with a single farmstead north of the halt.
The area saw wide-ranging development in the 1930s. The developments were part of the Metropolitan Railway's plans to bring customers to its railway by developing the surrounding countryside – an area marketed as Metro-land.[4]
The first development in Rayners Lane was in 1927 when Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Ltd. purchased land north of the station. The development, named 'Harrow Garden Village', was built by E.S. Reid and was laid out on garden suburb principles.[5]
Further developments followed after Tithe Farm south of the Piccadilly Line was sold to T.F. Nash Ltd. in about 1930. This was the widest-scale development in the Pinner area and consisted of cheap, mostly terraced housing.[6] Nash excelled at advertising the estate, and in 1933 he constructed a temporary 35-foot illuminated wooden arch across Alexandra Avenue as part of an advertising promotion.[6]
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Other developers were also active in the area. H.J. Mark was a prolific architect who designed many buildings on the Alexandra Avenue shopping parade. Charles Holden and Reginald Uren redesigned the station which was completed in 1938[7] and served the Metropolitan and Piccadilly tube lines.
About the village
Rayners Lane is in the upper part of the Crane Valley within the basin of the River Crane.[8] The east and west branches of Yeading Brook, the dominant source of the Crane, pass through the surrounding area.[9]
Built atop a railway bridge, Rayners Lane tube station marks the highest point in the area ,and to the north and south run shopping parades. The former Ace Cinema here is an Art Deco building designed by F.E. Bromige that opened in 1936.[10] Notably, it features a stylised elephant's trunk on the entrance canopy.
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Sport and leisure
- Cricket: Harrow Town Cricket Club
- Football:
- Rayners Lane F.C.
- Broadfields United F.C.
- both of which play at the Tithe Farm Sports & Social Club
Harrow Town Sports Club, founded in the 1890s, is at Rayners Lane
There are several open spaces in or near Rayners Lane including Rayners Mead, Newton Park and Roxbourne Park.
Newton Farm Ecology Park is a small area of meadows and woodland located between Alexandra Avenue and Rayners Lane that was converted into a nature reserve in 1990.
In popular culture
"Rural Rayners Lane" is mentioned in John Betjeman's poem The Metropolitan Railway (Baker Street Station Buffet). It was published in his 1954 anthology A Few Late Chrysanthemums and his Collected Poems in 1958.[11]
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Rayners Lane) |
References
- ↑ "Rayners Lane". hidden-london.co.uk. http://www.hidden-london.com/raynerslane.html. Retrieved 2007Landad]]', 07-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Clarke 2004, p.124—125
- ↑ Clarke 2004, p.15—16
- ↑ Clarke 2004, p.175—176
- ↑ Clarke 2004, p.182
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Clarke 2004, p.183
- ↑ National Heritage List 1261430: Rayners Lane Station (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Crane Valley". https://www.cranevalley.org.uk/about/. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
- ↑ "Harrow CF Watercourses". https://www.harrowncf.org/Watercourses_detail.html. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1079729: Ace Cinema (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Betjeman 1958, Collected Poems
- Clarke, Patricia. A. (2004) A History of Pinner. Chichester, West Sussex: Phillimore ISBN 978-1860772870
- Betjeman, John (1958) Collected Poems. London: John Murray, ISBN 978-1444725292