Gladstone Park is my local. I’m afraid that I don’t go there as often as I should, but knowing it is there is an immense comfort and it undoubtedly serves as welcome urban lung for crowded Brent. In this part of a two-part series, I will outline the history of this public institution and its surrounds. In the second (see Gladstone Park, NW10 (Part 2): Summer sites), I will try to show you what it is like now (July 2020).

Much of the following information is taken from the excellent information board found near the pretend ruins of Dollis Hill House.

A brief history

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the park and its surrounds were entirely rural with woods and farmland, with the nearby farms producing hay, for the horses of London, and milk. By 1818, the Finch family owned the 300-acre Dollis Hill Estate, which was one of the largest estates in the area. They built Dollis Hill House (which is towards the top of the hill) on the opposite side of the road from their farmhouse.

At the turn of the century, Willesden Urban District Council acquired (for £51,304) Dollis Hill House and the 96 acres of surrounding land as a park for its rapidly expanding urban population. The park was named in honour of William Gladstone, who had died in 1896 after having used it as his country retreat (see below). The park itself was opened on 25 May 1901.

Dollis Hill House

A major part of the history of Gladstone Park is intimately connected to Dollis Hill House, in the north of teh park, where only a folly now stands to indicate where it was. Some of its early history is referred to in the box above.

In 1909, Dollis Hill House and gardens opened to the public for lunches and teas. Between 1916 and 1923, it was used as a hospital during the WW1, and then as a convalescent home for ex-servicemen. Between 1926 and 1949, there was a café in ground floor of house, including during WW2. In 1949 until 1973, there was a restaurant downstairs and function room upstairs. In fact, it was a popular destination for meals, teas and functions and was considered to be a country location, even as late as the 1960s.

In 1974, Dollis Hill House was Grade 2 listed because of its historical importance and, between 1974 and 1989, was used for catering and training by Kilburn Polytechnic and as a centre for community education. However, in 1989, it was closed because the roof and first floor needed repairs. Brent Council then began to look for future uses. In 1990, locals began campaigning to restore the house and develop it for community use. However, there were two major fires in 1995 and 1996, which badly damaged the house, rendering it derelict. On February 20, 2011, a third fire broke out in the basement of Dollis Hill house; the gate had been forced open, and the fire is believed to have been caused by intruders.

Various proposals were made for redeveloping the house and a proposal to fund such repairs was made by Ken Livingstone (as Mayor of London). This this was cancelled by his successor, Boris Johnson, which effectively killed the house. In April 2011 Brent Council announced that all attempts to save Dollis Hill House had failed, and that they had been given permission by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to demolish the building. In January 2012, Dollis Hill House was entirely demolished, leaving the historic site barren. In mid-2012 Brent council controversially built a folly that followed the floor plan of the house, but which used none of the original house fabric or materials.

The Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill

A dominant feature to the north of the park is the Post Office Research Station, which moved to Dollis Hill in 1921, at first in ex-army huts. The main permanent buildings were opened in 1933 by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (and it relocated to a new centre in Suffolk in November 1975).

The old Dollis Hill site became housing, with the main building converted into a block of luxury flats with much of the rest being affordable housing. However, there is a World War II concrete two-level underground bunker there, which was built in secret in 1939 as an alternative Cabinet War Room underneath a corner of the Dollis Hill site. Its surface building was demolished after the war.

Cricklewood Pumping Station

Cricklewood Pumping Station was built in 1905 to supply water to the suburbs of northwest London. You can see it at the eastern edge of Gladstone Park and it is a locally listed building. In fact, it is a glorious building, remeniscent of the Victorian industrial architecture, despite being early Edwardian. The chimney is now used as a mobile phone mast.4