Colney Hatch, Barnet
A recently transformed residential locality situated south of Friern Barnet, formerly famous for its enormous mental hospital
Princess Park Manor, as it is now called
Colney (nowadays pronounced ‘coney’) Hatch was a hamlet in 1409 and the hatch may have been a gate providing access to Hollick Wood.
In 1831 Colney Hatch had 33 inhabited houses but the hamlet was soon to be overwhelmed when it was chosen as the site for the new Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum. Built in 1851 in the style of an Italian monastery, Colney Hatch asylum had its own gasworks, shoemakers, brewery, bakery and farm and became the best-known institution of its kind in the London area – so much so that throughout Middlesex and beyond its name became synonymous with mental illness. It was the largest mental hospital in Europe and at one time housed 3,000 patients. The planned construction of the neighbouring Great Northern Railway line was one reason for the choice of the site and Colney Hatch station was opened specifically to serve the asylum.
The old village expanded as a provider of goods and services for the asylum’s staff but the larger settlement that grew up to the east was named New Southgate out of a desire to avoid the negative connotations of Colney Hatch. The station’s name was later changed for the same reason and the asylum itself was renamed Friern Hospital in 1937. It closed in 1993 and a flock of developers descended on the site, now renamed Princess Park Manor. The main building has been converted into hundreds of luxury flats and many more big detached houses have been built in the grounds.
The Colney Hatch name is still little-used to define the neighbourhood; estate agents and some residents have been pushing the designation ‘Friern Village’ instead.
‘Colney Hatch’ was cockney rhyming slang for a match.
