Bury Street, Enfield
A former hamlet in Lower Edmonton centred on the thoroughfare of that name, which was split in two by the creation of the Great Cambridge Road in the 1920s
Bury Street
From the mid-17th century Bury Street was one of the four constituent wards of Edmonton. The ward took in an extensive area; its main settlement was Winchmore Hill. Bury Hall was a grand Jacobean house, enlarged in 1750, and possessed by just three families during its three-century existence. Its last private owner was William Bowater, the paper-maker. When the hall was auctioned by Harrods in 1914 the particulars of sale stated that its cellar “covers a larger area than the house, and is believed to have been connected with a subterranean passage that linked up the old houses in Bury Street, and connected with the Church.” Despite this boast the property did not meet its £5,500 reserve price.
Bury Hall was demolished to make way for the Great Cambridge Road. Housing began to line Bury Street from the end of the nineteenth century, but much of the vicinity remained covered by nurseries until its interwar development. The street now crosses the railway via a bridge, which replaced a level crossing and its keeper’s cottage. Bury Street West and Little Bury Street, which crosses Salmon’s Brook, retained some delightful eighteenth century cottages until they were knocked down in the 1930s.
One of the few grander survivors is Salisbury House, on Bury Street West. The house was sensitively restored by Enfield council in 1992 and now serves as an arts centre and a meeting place for various societies. The house adjoins Bury Lodge Park. The much larger Jubilee Park, on Galliard Road, has extensive recreational facilities.
