Pinner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pinner
High Street
Pinner
Population	31,130 2011 Census
OS grid reference	TQ115895
• Charing Cross	12.2 miles (19.6 km) SE
London borough	Harrow
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PINNER
Postcode district	HA5
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner
London Assembly	Brent and Harrow
List of places UK England London 51°35′36″N 0°23′22″W / 51.5932°N 0.3894°W / 51.5932; -0.3894

Pinner is a suburb in the borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, in the historic county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.

Originally a mediaeval hamlet, the St John Baptist church is 14th century and other parts of the historic village include Tudor buildings. The newer High Street is mainly 18th-century buildings, while Bridge Street has a more urban character and many chain stores.

History

Pinner Village was originally a hamlet, first recorded in 1231 as Pinnora, although the already archaic -ora (meaning 'hill') suggests its origins lie no later than c.900. The name Pinn is shared with the River Pinn, which runs through the village.

The oldest part of the village lies around the fourteenth-century parish church of St. John the Baptist, at the junction of the present day Grange Gardens, The High Street and Church Lane. The earliest surviving private dwelling, East End Farm Cottage, dates from the late fifteenth-century.

The village expanded rapidly between 1923 and 1939 when a series of garden estates, including the architecturally significant Pinnerwood estate conservation area – encouraged by the Metropolitan Railway – grew around its historic core. It was largely from this time onwards that the area (including Hatch End, which forms the northeastern part of Pinner) assumed much of its present-day suburban character. The area is now continuous with neighbouring suburban districts including Rayners Lane and Eastcote.

Pinner contains a large number of homes built in the 1930s Art Deco style, the most grand of which is the Grade II listed Elm Park Court at the junction of West End Lane and Elm Park Road. Pinner has had an annual street fair held in May since 1336, when it was granted by Royal Charter by Edward III; it remains popular today.

Transport

George V Avenue dual carriageway, which cuts through Pinner Park

Rail

Pinner Underground station was opened in 1885 and is on the Metropolitan line in London fare zone 5. In normal off-peak conditions the train takes approximately half an hour to Baker Street Underground station and approximately three-quarters of an hour to Aldgate Underground station.

Hatch End railway station was opened in 1842 and is on the London Overground Watford DC line in London fare zone 6. In normal off-peak conditions it roughly takes three-quarters of an hour to Euston railway station.

Buses

Public Transport in Pinner is governed by Transport for London.

Geography

Neighbouring areas

	Northwood	Pinner Green	Hatch End
	Ruislip		Headstone
		Pinner
	Eastcote	Rayners Lane	North Harrow

Demography

The lake at Pinner Memorial Park

Pinner is both a religiously and culturally mixed area, with the ethnic minority population having grown significantly since the 1970s. Pinner ward nonetheless had the highest concentration of people describing themselves as white in the London Borough of Harrow, at 72 per cent of the population in 2011. In 2013 the Pinner South ward had the next highest proportion of white people in the borough at 69.4 per cent. Various churches, a synagogue and others serve the religious needs of the community.

St John the Baptist Church

Pinner's old parish church, St John the Baptist, Pinner is dedicated to John the Baptist. It was consecrated in 1321, but built on the site of an earlier Christian place of worship. The west tower and south porch date from the 15th century.

Sport and leisure

Pinner has a rugby union team, Pinner and Grammarians RFC, a member club of the Rugby Football Union. It is the most junior team to have supplied a President to the RFU. Pinner also has a cricket team, Pinner Cricket Club, and a youth football club, Pinner United FC. The area also has a golf course, Pinner Golf course.

In addition to numerous restaurants and a number of public houses, Pinner has an amateur theatre group, Pinner Players, who have been performing in the area since 1936 and currently stage productions at Pinner Village Hall off Chapel Lane.

The Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner Memorial Park was opened in 2016 and is dedicated to the work of the cartoonist William Heath Robinson.

Filmography

Pinner features notably in John Betjeman's 1973 film Metro-Land, where it centres on the village fair in the High Street. The BBC sitcom May to December was set in Pinner, and its exterior shots were videotaped in the High Street. During the 1990s the children's TV series of Aquila was filmed in and around Pinner, particularly at the local Cannon Lane School. Chucklevision, the Children's TV series based on the Chuckle Brothers also filmed in Pinner. The film Nowhere Boy had a number of scenes filmed in Pinner, including outside the Queens Head Pub, Pinner High street, and on Woodhall Gate, which stood in for John Lennon's childhood home. Pinner has also been the setting for the BBC sitcom My Hero and the Channel 4 sitcom The Inbetweeners. Filming for the movie The Theory of Everything took place outside the St John the Baptist Church on Pinner High Street.

Literature

Edward Lear makes reference to Pinner in More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc:

"There was an old person of Pinner,
As thin as a lath, if not thinner;
They dressed him in white,
And roll'd him up tight,
That elastic old person of Pinner."

Notable people

Sir Elton John was born and grew up in Pinner

• Ronnie Barker and David Suchet were both one-time owners of 17th-century Elmdene in Church Lane.
• Samuel and Isabella Beeton lived on the Woodridings estate between 1856 and 1862, during which time Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was published.
• Derek Bell, motor racing driver, was born in Pinner.
• Rhodes Boyson lived in Pinner.
• Leslie Bricusse, best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, was born in Pinner.
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote Eugene Aram at Pinner Wood House in 1832.
• Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in the village in 1884.
• Daniel Dancer, the famed miser, was born in Pinner, then a rural area in the county of Middlesex, in 1716.
• Charlie Dore, singer, was born here.
• Jo Durden-Smith was born here in 1941.
• Daniel Finkelstein was a Pinner resident and created Baron Finkelstein of Pinner, in 2013.
• W. S. Gilbert, though he did not live in Pinner, was a magistrate there from 1893 onwards.
• Martin Gould, professional snooker player.
• Mehdi Hasan, journalist currently affiliated with NBC, was born and grew up in Pinner.
• Tony Hatch, composer of the Petula Clark hit "Downtown" and many other television themes, including the Neighbours theme, was born here.
• Bob Holness, the former host of quiz show Blockbusters, lived here.
• Peter Jacobs, Olympic fencer, was born here in 1938.
• Elton John, singer and songwriter grew up in Pinner Green and was educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School and Pinner County Grammar School.
• Norman Kember is a longtime resident of the town.
• Brian Lane (1917–1942) grew up in the village.
• Lee Latchford-Evans, singer, dancer, stage actor, personal trainer, and one of the five singers of the British pop group Steps, lives and works in Pinner.
• Simon LeBon, vocalist of post-punk rock band Duran Duran, grew up locally and attended the Pinner County Grammar School.
• Liza Lehmann, composer, lived at 'Nascot', Waxwell Lane, Pinner for several years after her marriage to Herbert Bedford in 1894.
• Caroline Alice Lejeune, film critic, lived here with her husband Edward Roffe Thompson, a journalist.
• Jane March grew up here before moving to the United States. Earlier in her career, March was referred to in the press as "The Sinner From Pinner".
• Agnes Marshall, whom most credit with the invention of edible ice cream cones, had a country home there and died there in 1905.
• Patrick Moore, the television presenter and astronomer, was born in Pinner in 1923, before moving with his parents to Bognor Regis when he was six months old.
• Horatia Nelson, daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, lived in Pinner from 1860 until her death in 1881.
• Lucy Porter, leading stand-up comedian, actress and writer lives in Pinner.
• Henry James Pye (poet laureate) retired to East End House in 1811.
• Joseph Raphson, mathematician, probably baptised at Pinner church.
• Heath Robinson, cartoonist, illustrator and artist, lived in Moss Lane, Pinner between 1913 and 1918. The Heath Robinson Museum is in Pinner Memorial Park.
• Michael Rosen, poet and children's author, lived in Pinner from the time he was born in 1946, until 1962.
• Chris Roycroft-Davis is a resident.
• Chris Stark, internationally renowned BBC Radio presenter grew up in and around Pinner.
• David "Screaming Lord" Sutch, who lived in nearby South Harrow, is buried in Pinner New Cemetery.
• Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon lived with his family in the house called Elton, Elm Park Road, and went to St John's prep school before boarding at Westminster School.
• Molly Weir, best known for her role as the long-running character Hazel the McWitch in the BBC TV series Rentaghost, lived in Pinner until her death in 2004.
• Bruce Welch, guitarist in The Shadows, lived in Pinner.
• Maude Valerie White, composer, lived in Love Lane, Pinner during the 1890s.

Images for kids

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  Street sign

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  Farmland near Pinner

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  Crowds at Pinner Fair, 1988

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  High Street

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  Estate agent at the corner of High Street

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  Pinner Police Station, Waxwell Lane

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  Tooke's Folly at Pinner Hill Farm, c. 1862